An actual protest outside Liberty Mutual’s Boston headquarters gives Rabbi Dave a chance to explain his grudge against the emu. It also gives him and Friar Rod an unlikely opening for a serious conversation about infant baptism. Former Irish president Mary McAleese argues that baptism places religious obligations on a child too young to consent. Dave brings a Chabad Jewish perspective on covenant and religious upbringing, while Rod explains what baptism means in Orthodox Christianity. Their discussion turns on how far a church’s authority should extend when a child grows up and chooses a different path.

The two also weigh Gavin Newsom’s plan to commute California’s death sentences, asking what mercy demands of a governor and how victims’ families figure in that decision. Then it’s on to traces of blood chemistry in a dinosaur fossil and the inevitable Jurassic Park detour. AI-made Star Wars shorts, music videos, and a kung fu cat give Dave and Rod a chance to ask how much of what makes a video worth watching still comes down to the person making it.

Six years of What The Frock?, and Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod are celebrating by arguing about whether alligators or coconut crabs would make a worse final encounter. Amelia Earhart probably deserves a more dignified discussion, but she’s landed in this one.

The anniversary episode wanders from the Earhart mystery and a disturbing church accident into AI girlfriends, copyright battles, and the outrage surrounding Shane Gillis’s Saturday Night Live comedy. Beneath the sarcasm is a serious question: what happens to free expression when offending someone becomes grounds for demanding silence?

Dave and Rod also take on Senator Elissa Slotkin’s remarks about Trump administration accountability and the boundary between prosecuting wrongdoing and intimidating political opponents. Along the way, faith, football, and Papa Zimm’s Honey provide opportunities for questionable transitions and increasingly sticky situations.

Join Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod for an anniversary helping of irreverent humor, political skepticism, and an argument about crabs that neither man intends to lose.

#WhatTheFrock #RabbiDave #FriarRod #ComedyPodcast #FreeSpeech #AmeliaEarhart #ShaneGillis

The world ends November 13, 2026. At least, that's what a mathematical prediction from 1960 has everyone talking about. Which raises an important question: Why do we keep listening to people who are spectacularly wrong?

This week on What The Frock?, Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod take on the curious relationship between confidence, competence, faith, and the remarkable human ability to believe almost anything, provided the person telling us sounds sufficiently authoritative.

From self-proclaimed AI experts who recognize people who don't exist to a Washington pastor accused of a $13 million fraud scheme, the conversation turns toward an uncomfortable question: When does faith become an excuse to stop thinking?

Then there's the money. Millions in taxpayer dollars flowing through religious charities, refugee resettlement programs, and social services. Where does compassion end and institutional self-interest begin? Drawing on his own experiences operating a homeless shelter, Rabbi Dave challenges some deeply held assumptions about charity, government funding, and accountability.

Along the way, there's Wisconsin honey, questionable predictions, theological disagreements, and a timely reminder about why you should never, ever taunt a tiger.

It's religion, politics, skepticism, and the occasional complete abandonment of good judgment.

Two men of faith. Plenty of opinions. Absolutely no guarantee of agreement.

Join Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod for another irreverent edition of What The Frock?

Visit WhatTheFrock.org and join the conversation.

#WhatTheFrock #RabbiDave #FriarRod #ReligionAndPolitics #FaithAndReason #ReligiousHumor #PoliticalCommentary #Podcast

Why are Americans so quick to believe the worst about people they dislike? When did disagreement become an ideological purity test? And when does justice cross the line into public spectacle?

On this episode of What The Frock?, Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod explore the increasingly dangerous intersection of political tribalism, misinformation, religious morality, and the human need to find someone to blame.

The conversation begins with a viral but false allegation involving Bernie Sanders and a supposed $15 million Chinese bank account. From there, the discussion moves to the controversial Cornell Seven allegations, the rush to judgment on social media, and a remarkable example of political polarization invading an online birdwatching community.

Then the conversation turns considerably darker.

Should the execution of convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan be livestreamed? Can someone support capital punishment while opposing public executions? Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod examine the difference between justice and spectacle, drawing on Jewish law, Christian theology, the history of executions, and the enduring question of human dignity.

Finally, a fascinating historical discovery involving sheeppox, medieval religious manuscripts, and accusations of witchcraft reveals how easily fear and ignorance can turn into persecution. The parallels to modern political outrage are difficult to ignore.

Along the way, there's a neighborhood fence fire, a discussion of the attempted execution of Christa Pike, and a celebration of six years of What The Frock?

In this episode:

• Bernie Sanders, Nick Shirley, and the spread of political misinformation

• The Cornell Seven controversy and social media's rush to judgment

• Confirmation bias, political tribalism, and ideological purity tests

• Nidal Hasan, the death penalty, and the ethics of livestreaming executions

• Jewish and Christian perspectives on capital punishment and human dignity

• Medieval witch hunts, sheeppox, and the surprising history preserved in ancient manuscripts

• Six years of Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod asking uncomfortable questions

At the heart of this episode is a deceptively simple proposition: Sometimes the most intellectually honest thing we can say is, "I don't know."

Join Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod for an irreverent, occasionally uncomfortable conversation about politics, religion, history, and the growing difficulty of disagreeing without condemning one another.

What The Frock? Where faith meets skepticism, history meets current events, and no sacred cow is entirely safe.

#WhatTheFrock #RabbiDave #FriarRod #FakeNews #PoliticalPolarization #ConfirmationBias #DeathPenalty #NidalHasan #WitchHunts #ReligiousDiscussion #CurrentEvents #History

What happens when the people building artificial intelligence start asking religious leaders whether their creation might actually be conscious?

Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod dive into Anthropic’s conversations with rabbis, priests, theologians, and the Vatican over the possibility that an advanced AI such as Claude could possess consciousness, experience suffering, or deserve moral consideration. But that opens a much larger question: intelligence can be manufactured, but can a soul? And if we ever decide that an AI truly is conscious, can we still own it, order it to work, duplicate it, and switch it off whenever we please?

From there, the conversation turns to another question of morality: how long should something stupid you said as a teenager follow you? The firing of Portland broadcaster Braden Bell over teenage social-media posts leads Dave and Rod into cancel culture, forgiveness, maturity, and the curious flexibility of corporate “zero tolerance” when the person involved happens to be valuable enough.

And because this is What The Frock, eventually theology, artificial intelligence, HAL 9000, NBA morality, copyright algorithms, teenage stupidity, and human dignity somehow lead to the ultimate test of mankind’s physical and spiritual endurance: running 31 miles while stopping at ten Taco Bells.

One Rabbi. One Friar. Zero chance the conversation stays on topic.

#WhatTheFrock #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #ClaudeAI #Anthropic #AISoul #Consciousness #ReligionAndAI #CancelCulture #FreeSpeech #PortlandTrailBlazers #RabbiDave #FriarRod

Who holds the people with authority accountable?

That question runs through this week’s What the Frock?, as Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod wander into the increasingly blurry territory where authority, influence, money, ideology, and responsibility collide.

It begins in the pulpit. When a priest declares that God is transgender and suggests that the resurrected Jesus may have “transitioned,” is that legitimate theological interpretation, or has doctrine become whatever the person standing behind the microphone says it is? More importantly, when religious authority makes extraordinary claims, who inside the institution is supposed to challenge them?

From there, the same question moves into the world of media and commentary. Candace Owens has spent months raising explosive questions surrounding Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA, and the people around them. But what happens when “I’m just asking questions” runs into the legal discovery process, where questions can suddenly require evidence and both sides get to ask them?

Then comes artificial intelligence, where accountability becomes even harder to locate. Is access to powerful AI becoming a question of economic inequality? Should government regulate it? Can the companies building it be trusted to regulate themselves? And when billions of dollars, enormous computing resources, political influence, and government regulation begin intersecting, perhaps the oldest advice remains the most useful:

Follow the money.

From theology to conspiracy theories to artificial intelligence, Dave and Rod ask what happens when everybody wants authority, but nobody particularly wants to answer for how they use it.

It’s What the Frock? One rabbi. One friar. Absolutely no supervision.

#WhatTheFrock #Accountability #CandaceOwens #TurningPointUSA #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #Theology #Religion #FreeSpeech #Media #RabbiDave #FriarRod

After Ole Miss defeats LSU, quarterback Trinidad Chamblisscredits prayer, preparation, and God’s will for the victory. Rabbi Dave has heard enough. If God chose the winner, what does that say about the losing team? Why does God receive public credit after victories but rarely appear in the losing locker room?

That postgame interview launches Rabbi Dave and Friar Rodinto a larger argument about the way human beings claim divine authority for their own ambitions. From football fields to European battlefields, victors have always been tempted to declare that God stood with them. Faith in God’s will is one thing. Claiming to know that a touchdown, election, or warexpresses that will is something far more dangerous.

The conversation then turns to another modern article offaith: the approaching artificial-intelligence apocalypse. Bernie Sanders calls AI more dangerous than nuclear weapons, while frightened students avoid learning the technology that will shape their careers. Dave and Rod consider whether the panic is justified, whether regulation will protect the public or merely entrench the largest technology companies, and why anyone who genuinely fears AI should first learn how it works.

Finally, Britain proposes state-directed “pre-bunking” programs, approved news sources, and official databases of supposedly false narratives. Who decides what counts as misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, or merely dissent? Once government claims the authority to determine truth in advance, Orwell’s Ministry of Truth stops looking likesatire.It is a conversation about faith, fear, power, football, andthe persistent human desire to place God’s signature on our own conclusions.Along the way there is Caribbean cricket, Lane Kiffin, artificial ludicrous intelligence, Monty Python, and the forgotten birthday that arrived twelve days early.

#WhatTheFrock #GodsWill #FaithAndSports#ArtificialIntelligence #FreeSpeech #Misinformation #RabbiDave #FriarRod

Artificial intelligence may eventually destroy humanity,although at the moment it still struggles with fingers, factual citations, and the occasional straightforward instruction. That has not discouraged a growing class of researchers, former researchers, professional alarm-ringers, and extremely online prophets from warning that the machines could become smarter than their creators sometime next year. Conveniently, next year is always close enough to frighten investors but far enough away to avoid an immediate audit.

Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod consider the latest prediction fromformer Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who believes that self-improving AI could escape meaningful human control. The concern is serious, even if the evidence remains less cooperative than the headlines. Today’s systems canrecognize patterns, exploit poorly designed safeguards, and produce nonsense with remarkable confidence. In fairness, humanity pioneered that last capability centuries ago.

The deeper question is not whether a computer can think likea person. It is whether people will surrender judgment to systems they barely understand. That becomes especially uncomfortable when the discussion moves from research laboratories to courtrooms. After the Lindsay Clancy mistrial,the public treatment of a holdout juror raises troubling questions about racial assumptions, media conduct, jury intimidation, and whether anyone will willingly serve again once journalists begin examining jurors as though they were congressional nominees. An AI jury is proposed, because apparently the solution to distrusting human judgment is placing our liberty in the hands of software written by humans.

Nature, meanwhile, has developed its own weapons program. Anewly documented Amazonian spider builds a spring-loaded silk ballista capable of launching ants at roughly 140 times the force of gravity. The spiders are advancing, the computers are plotting, and Chef Boyardee remains humanity’s final line of defense. Fortunately, Dave has stockpiled the lasagna. This maynot save civilization, but civilization has made worse preparations.

#WhatTheFrock #ArtificialIntelligence #AIDoom #Anthropic#JacobCoxon #JurySystem #MediaBias #FreeSpeech #BallistaSpider #ChefBoyardee#RabbiDave #FriarRod #Podcast #DryHumor