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How to Humanist asks life’s questions big and small with the help of brilliant humans along the way.
AD:
This is Fish Stark, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association. I'm getting married this summer, and we could not be more excited, but weddings can be a lot. On top of dealing with caterers and photographers, it just feels challenging to plan a ceremony that both honors our humanist beliefs and my fiancee's Jewish culture and traditions.
There is no script for something like that. That's why my fiancee and I are getting help from a humanist celebrant, our friend Greg Epstein, who also happened to be the first-ever guest on this podcast. If you're preparing to celebrate your own love story but you're not excited about a traditional religious celebration, you should consider working with a humanist celebrant like Greg.
The Humanist Society can connect you with professional humanist celebrants who are excited to help you and your partner craft a ceremony that reflects your unique story, background, and values. Humanist celebrants are frequently sought out for interfaith, intercultural, and same-sex marriages, but they are available to everyone, and they can legally perform marriages in all 50 states.
If you wanna explore what it means to invite a humanist celebrant into your wedding, visit thehumanistsociety.org. We've got people who can help.
SHAY:
It's How to Humanist Day, and it's your host, Shay Leonia. If this is your first time listening to this podcast, shame on you. First of all, fix that. But also, I'm typically recording from back home in Philadelphia, and today I'm coming to you live from Seattle, which is my first time ever coming to Seattle.
I've wanted to come to Seattle for my entire life because I'm just such a huge Frasier, coffee, grunge rock, and Sleepless in Seattle fan. It just didn't really make sense that I've never been here, but now I can officially cross this off the list. I got to see all of the touristy things. Space Needle, the gum wall I went to today.
I gotta say, that's still pretty gross. I can understand how it's a must-see, but it was still vomit-inducing all the while. But yeah, I'm really grateful for today's guest on the podcast because her name is Faith Litchfield, and not long ago, someone who has been listening to the podcast reached out and told me that they are feeling like they can't really find the sense of magic that they had when they were a believer, when they were a theist, and they were just wondering if there are ways to still feel that magic as a humanist, as somebody who's secular.
And I was just so fortunate to come upon Faith Litchfield, who I've been following for such a long time on TikTok, just for how whimsical she is and how naturally it comes to her. It just made perfect sense to bring her on.
So I just wanted to tell you briefly about Faith. She is a content creator and storyteller. Through her videos, she explores play, whimsy, and having a love for people. I really hope that you fall in love with Faith as much as I'm in love with her. And if you are so intrigued, she's actually gonna be speaking at our conference this year. Stay tuned for more information on that, but for now, if you'd like to dive in and learn more, you can visit conference.americanhumanist.org.
Enjoy the episode.
SHAY:
Okay, where are you? 'Cause I know you moved, but you mentioned Eagles, so I was like...
FAITH:
I've never lived in Philly. I live in Oregon now. I moved here in December.
I grew up all over the place, South Carolina, Ohio and stuff. I am a huge Eagles fan because I'm just loyal. And I decided, I was like, "I need a new hobby," and so I picked up football in 2023. And I was with a friend at Buffalo Wild Wings, and we said, "What team should we be loyal to? Who should we go for?"
This was at the tail end of 2023, and the Eagles were having a really good season, and then all of a sudden they just stopped having a good season. And she was like, "The Eagles or the 49ers." And I was like, "I don't want my team color to be red. I'm not wearing red. That's not gonna work for me." And so I did Eagles, and now I'm like... I could tell you about the players. I sit there, watch it. I watch the draft, the whole thing. But it just was 'cause that one waitress was like, "You should do Eagles." And so I said, "Okay."
SHAY:
Wait, so do you speak sports or no? 'Cause I don't speak sports. But I know well enough to not step a foot outside my house and not say that I'm an Eagles fan.
FAITH:
Not as well as I'd like to, but I'm getting there. There's a lot to it. Would I go into a sports bar and be like, "Guys, they should've called that"? I'm not gonna do that.
I made a huge presentation to get my other best friend into football, so now she does Eagles here in Oregon. I made a 40-minute presentation being like, "These are the rules of the game. Understand with me. This is what I've learned."
I just make sounds when other people are making sounds, and I try to match the sounds that they're making.
SHAY:
Yeah, like an audio chameleon.
FAITH:
Oh. Exactly. Exactly.
SHAY:
Oh my gosh. Faith, you're here.
FAITH:
I'm here. In technology world, yeah.
SHAY:
In technology world. Holy shit. I've been... No, seriously, you have no idea. You're magical. Are you familiar with humanism?
FAITH:
I couldn't write the book on it, you know what I mean? But from different concepts I've heard and like, different deep dives in it, I'm like, "Oh, yeah." And in my mind I'm like, "I didn't know that was a word for it."
SHAY:
Totally cool. You're not alone, people are learning along the way.
So what is interesting to me about you in particular and your content is that everything that you post is so deeply humanist sounding. There was this one video that you had put out that made me sob. It would've been very embarrassing if I wasn't alone. But I was just sobbing because I have those moments all the time thinking about all of the magic around the world. And you just went on one of your beautiful rants, and you were talking about how the magic is us, and it doesn't have to come from this supernatural place. It is us. And I was like, "It is us. Ah."
And so I have spoken to some humanists who have been listening to this podcast, and there is a lot of sparkly, magical stuff that happens in Christianity. And I know that you have a background in Christianity. And it's almost like somebody turns off the light of that magic when suddenly they can no longer believe in Santa Claus, and the Jesus, and the God, and all of that kind of stuff, and they decide to be secular. And suddenly all of the imagination goes out the window, and we're like, "Hey, we didn't say to do all of that."
But suddenly their filter and their new lens shifts, and they stop seeing magic anywhere. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to bring you on today, because you are so magical.
FAITH:
I never think about that, but like that's so, so true about walking away from Christianity or from spirituality in general. I feel like I've been around the block with different spirituality, and I've done the new agey, and I was raised Christian.
And so I feel like there's such a drive in people to find an excuse to believe in magic, to find an excuse to believe that things are special and things are sparkly. And it's like, I understand the need for it, 'cause I think I would pass out if everything was gray. But at the same time, it does not have to come from something you have to have faith in. It can come from something that's really tangible.
But I think that we've reduced it down to like, the only things that can be special are things that are inherently supernatural, or are things that cannot be explained. I'm like, "That's not true. That's not true at all."
SHAY:
So what are some magical things that have happened to you today so far, or even this week?
FAITH:
This week I've been moving into a new apartment, and I hate moving. But I think that there's so much special, like I love being alive kind of stuff in it. Like I'm putting the pictures in what seems like a completely arbitrary order, but I'm like, no, there is a magic order for the pictures to go in. You know what I mean? This is the order, and oh, now it looks perfect.
Or like people lived here before, people made memories in this apartment that I'll never know about. And to me that's so special.
I went to the Dutch Bros., which does the coffee, but they make the little Red Bull things, and they put the syrups in the Red Bull. But they're so nice. And whenever I'm like, having a bad day, they always give me the straw that is pink. I'm like, "I love you guys." There's just those little tiny things in the day-to-day where I'm just like, "Aw, this is special." You know what I mean?
SHAY:
Yes. Oh my gosh.
Okay. So I wasn't even planning on asking this question, but we might as well. So listeners, follow along. So every Tuesday I watch my niece for about an hour, and she's this major fashionista. She's only eight years old, but she's always been a major fashionista. She's my best friend's kid. And I recently put her onto the app Indyx, where you digitize your entire wardrobe. And I taught her that she can put together outfits. And so of course free stylist labor, but she's been putting together outfits for me that are actually really good.
And so when she discovered this last week, she decided that this week she would show up to make more outfits for me, but she wore a very classy little tutu pink frilly dress just to sit and style the outfits. That was magical for me.
I went and joined a new gym, and I asked if they could refill my water, and they said, "Would you like some ice?" And I said, "Sure." And the ice that they put in it was crushed ice.
FAITH:
Oh, love. Yeah.
SHAY:
I know. That's bendy straw level.
So yeah, you're right. It's all around us.
FAITH:
Oh, 100%. And it's just a matter of acknowledging it and looking for it. 'Cause once you start noticing it, it's easier to pick up on those things. But it's so easy to drown yourself out in monotony and be like, "Okay, my niece is coming over." It's so easy to just not even pay attention. Take a second, and be like, "This is crazy." Get curious about it.
And if somebody listening is thinking, "I have nothing I can think of," I want them to think, 'cause this is gonna be true for everyone across the board, I'm a huge genealogy nerd. Think of all of the people in your lineage that had to like each other enough to schtup and find survival enough to create you, for you to get here in this moment. Whatever it is that you're doing, I don't care if you're scratching your balls on the couch, you're here because all of those people.
SHAY:
Millions and millions and millions of people. Wow. That's nuts.
Wait, so are you into puzzles or anything, or not so much?
FAITH:
Like puzzles, like jigsaw, like on a table, put them together?
SHAY:
Yeah. Yeah, or like Tetris or anything.
FAITH:
No, I'm really bad at puzzles. Oh, I respect puzzle people so much. If I go to your house and I see a puzzle on the table, I'm like, "Wow, smarter than me, I'll tell you that."
SHAY:
But also, though, what you can do that I could never, you are so in touch with just endless ideas that stem from... it seems like you're very much in touch with your inner child in a very non-boring way. Not in a woo, like, "How is your inner child feel?" kind of way.
FAITH:
I think that is something that I've been really intentional about in my adult life. And I hate the inner child in the woo way. I think that it got really weird really quickly. But I'm like, the thought behind it is just that all of those versions of me are still alive in me because I'm still the same person.
And I write letters to my future self a lot. I record videos all the time. Like whenever I'm going through it, I'll record it, and then I upload it to my Google Drive or YouTube unlisted so that I'll go back when I'm in a better place. Sometimes it's a year, sometimes it's three years. And so that has always been this kind of comfort to me and this idea of, I know that if nobody gets it, that she does, and that one day she's gonna be looking back on this video.
And so that relationship with the more adult versions of me, right? Like I think the youngest one I have a video of is like 16, which is a really sweet one to look back on. I'm like, "You have no idea." She's going, "Do you major in theater?" I'm like, "Girl, you drop out."
But that lends itself to, take it a step further, and I'm like, I'm a big believer in talking to yourself. I had a terrible weekend in Seattle recently,
[SHAY interjects: Funny story. When Faith brought that up, I actually don't even think I knew I was gonna be in Seattle at the time, so coinkidink.]
FAITH:
And so a lot of getting myself through it was sitting there talking to yourself like a toddler. I'm like, I would be humiliated if anybody saw that go down, but you're sitting there like, "Those are some big feelings that you're having. I don't know if we should be driving right now. How about we pull off, and we can collect our thoughts. We can take some big, deep breaths."
A very long way around Robin Hood's barn to say, all of those things together I feel like make it so much easier to have those ideas and be really in touch with that side of yourself, because you're extending so much compassion and energy there.
SHAY:
How did you learn that though? Did you just always have a knack for this?
FAITH:
Kinda. I think part of it was taking people's advice of like, the first person that needs to be kind to you is you, and then me taking that on at 110% extreme that nobody meant, by accident, being like, "That's what they said to do."
And also just like I took the concept of re-parenting myself really seriously, being like, "Okay, these are the things that need to change in the way that I react to things, or the way that my nervous system or whatever is reacting to stuff." And I take that really seriously where I'm like, "Okay, my brain is saying that the response to this is, you're stupid, don't do this, you're freaking out over nothing."
And it's like, okay, a kind of trick that I've learned is to verbalize it, externalize it, the counter of that, which is like, "They're having some big feelings. You're doing okay. You're doing great." Merging into traffic, it's like, "You're doing great. Good job, baby. You're doing awesome." I hate merging.
You know what I mean? Because it is actively then combating the anxious thought. Because it's outside of you.
And I feel like I'm rabbit trailing myself down where I'm way in the deep end now, but knowing that I needed to fix certain thought processes, and now it's just like a way of life for me.
SHAY:
Humanists, to be clear, are not about dogging religion. That's not what we're about. But for the sake of this conversation, do you find that approach differed when you were a Christian believer versus now?
FAITH:
Oh, yeah. And I think that it has to differ because you're accountable to something else in Christianity. You know what I mean? Because then it's, I'm not making the rules for me. The externalized version of those thoughts becomes prayer, and it's like, what do I do? How do I do this?
And I'm like someone that I feel really hardwired for obedience. It's really hard to get out of that frame of mind. In order to be good, I must be obedient. I must be in submission to a higher power. And so I think that's like how that's helped bridge the gap for me.
Because in Christianity it was so focused on, okay, let me pray about this, like that kind of pray without ceasing mentality. And also just that constant need of, "Please, Lord, just tell me if I'm doing it right. Please just tell me if I'm doing okay. Please just tell me if I'm doing it wrong." Where there's that constant need for reassurance from something that, at least for me and what I believe now, is never gonna talk back to you. You know what I mean?
SHAY:
So when did you start moving away from that?
FAITH:
I yo-yoed for a long time. I'm a preacher's daughter, and so that creates a really interesting dynamic with religion. And I was in and out of it all the while growing up. I went way, way, way far when I was like 18 to 22. Wound up in some hairy spiritual situations, and then in order to get out of that, I went back to the church at 22, and then left at 24.
So I'm like a year out of it on, like, the round two, is what my best friend calls it. She goes, "Your second round in Christianity." I did it for two years this past time, and when I did it this time I got deep in it. I was in college. I went back to college to be a children's minister. I was deep in it. And I left in June of 2025.
SHAY:
Oh, you mean like a year now?
FAITH:
Yeah.
SHAY:
Oh. Oh.
So it's been a weird year.
FAITH:
Huh. So...
SHAY:
Oh, this is interesting. You're the first person that I've spoken to where it's this fresh.
FAITH:
Really?
SHAY:
Yeah. And I'm very interested, while it's so fresh, to hear from you about what that's like to be so in it. I don't know how to word this. I imagine that the compulsion, or the urge, is still there, the question of "Am I making the right decision?" I don't know. I don't wanna put words in your mouth.
FAITH:
I think once I walked away, I feel like everything got sped up really quickly because there was that whole thing in September where people were like, "The rapture is happening." And that was like a huge thing. And I knew biblically, if I wanted to get Christian with it, that wasn't a biblical concept. You can't know the day, biblically speaking.
But the amount of people that it put the fast-forward button on, processing the, "Okay, do you believe in this or not?" And "Are you okay with it if you're wrong?" Because I was thinking about that all the time. Because up until that point I had also had this paralyzing fear of being like, "I know I don't wanna be Christian anymore. I know that if I'm wrong, I still feel good about the decision to not be. Like, I don't want anything to do with this." But I'm also terrified I'm gonna wake up and everybody's gonna be raptured tomorrow.
I was working at a church, and so every time people were late to work and I was the first one there, I was like, "Oh my God, they're all gone."
And so I had called my friend, freaking out, and she had lived in Oregon. I was living in Buffalo, New York at the time. And she goes, "Nobody that matters to you in the sense of, nobody that's an integral part of your support system, is getting raptured, first of all. So I'm still gonna be here. Everybody's still gonna be here. It's gonna be okay, so we can figure that out."
And she goes, "Okay, let's make a rapture plan." She doesn't believe in that at all. But she's sitting there going with me, and she's like, "Okay. We will meet up in Nebraska because that's about halfway. So let's look at some places in Nebraska that we can go if the rapture happens and we don't have cell service." I wrote out all the directions and stuff. That wasn't happening. But it was that kind of support, and that was the kind of support I had never gotten from anybody in the church.
And that whole situation made it incredibly easy for me to go, "Okay. I don't believe in the rapture, but if I did, I'm good with the decisions that I made."
I was sitting there the day that the rapture was supposed to happen, and I was like, "Okay, nobody would be dying. They're all going to where they wanna be. I'm probably gonna get a sick car out of this. Everybody's keys are gonna be everywhere."
SHAY:
Oh, gosh. Wow. So is your dad okay with you leaving, or?
FAITH:
I don't think that he fully processed it. I didn't say anything for a long time 'cause I was working in a church, and I was also working for my dad as his secretary. And I knew it was just gonna be an issue that I didn't wanna handle.
And then eventually it came out 'cause I was living in New York with them, and things were hitting a head. They were getting to a point where I was like, "I gotta go." And then it was more like a, the response was like a, "Your journey with God looks different. This is a bump in the road." And it was never taken as like, she's not Christian anymore. It was just like, she's having a season of doubt.
Which I'm like, "That's fine. It doesn't matter what you think about that."
SHAY:
Yeah. So is there anything since you've left that you're wishing you could find more of? Are you feeling like you're missing community or that you're missing the magic component, et cetera?
FAITH:
I do think that I miss the church component sometimes. I think that having somewhere to be on a Sunday morning is definitely hard sometimes, where it's like it was also somewhere to be and nobody's looking at you. You know what I mean? Because it's like everybody's faced forward.
And I loved the worship music. I loved it. And there's things that replace that now where I'm like, sometimes I'm like, "Okay, songs with this chord progression," I'm like, "Okay this is kinda worshipy."
And I think that's what keeps so many people so tied up in religion. I miss having something to obey. You know what I mean? I am not a leader. I am not an alpha type. I don't wanna be in charge. I never have.
Well, that's not true. When I was like eight, I was like, "I'm gonna run a dance studio." But it was a lot easier to have to be under so many people for me, because it was like, "Okay, I'm obeying God. I'm obeying my parents. I'm obeying my pastor. I'm obeying my small group leader." Everybody and their mother is telling me what to do.
And I was in a cult for four years, and that really hardwires your brain. So I had left and gone straight into Christianity, and so I was desperate for that leadership and that obedience. And as an adult that's out of it now, it's just, "Okay, it's just me, dog." Like it's just me.
SHAY:
A cult for four years?
FAITH:
Yeah. It was very small and it was occultic and new agey and weird. But I think about it now and I'm like, okay, these are like the stepping stones that brought me to Christianity type two, which brought me to Oregon. You know what I mean? Where I can see the building blocks, and it's like that's the worst thing that ever happened to me, and it has still brought me life and it has still brought me goodness in the life that I lead in some sort of domino effect kind of way.
SHAY:
Wow. You're incredible.
FAITH:
Thanks.
SHAY:
No, just hearing your backstory, and especially the obey piece, because to think about...
[SHAY interjects: It was at this point during the show where I ran into a technical difficulty, and so I apologize in advance for the audio throughout the rest of the episode. It's not gonna be as crispy clear, but it will be intelligible.]
SHAY:
So many people look to your page for advice and guidance on how to live their day-to-day better. So to hear that you too are also seeking that guidance on how to live your day-to-day is something else.
FAITH:
Yeah.
I put that in a journal entry recently, very recently. The only woo-woo thing I have clung onto is I do the astrology thing. I used to be really good at it, and I'm not as good at it now. I stepped off the gas for it 'cause I was Christian when I went back. But I used to do the whole thing, the drawing the charts by hand and running the transits and doing the maps.
SHAY:
Wow.
FAITH:
And so I still do that. And so I know a decent amount of stuff, and so a lot of times I have friends that'll text me and be like, "Semi-sextile, what does that mean?" Or what rules Scorpio, what does this placement mean? And sometimes it's like at one point I had a mentor in that, and I don't anymore. And so it's one of those things where it's wow, I miss having the place to ask the questions instead of being the one to Google.
But at the same time, I feel like I've spent so long in my adult life falling into obedience and being pushed into obedience, that's where I feel natural. And then life tends to flip it on its head, and I tend to be in positions of being the guide, being the teacher in my personal life. And I guess with my job and with my, I hate that word, platform. That tends to be where I end up falling.
And I think it's just so interesting in that way.
SHAY:
Are you feeling any resentment towards it, or feeling like you're being pushed towards it in a way?
FAITH:
I love it.
SHAY:
That you're like, "Oh, I guess I'm meant to do this."
FAITH:
I do love it. I think that it's a lot easier for me to play teacher than to play leader. Those are very different roles to me. Where it's like I can show you how to do anything I know how to do. You know what I mean? I'm like the share whatever knowledge that we all have. That's how the cavemen survived. But a leader, I'm like, "I'm not telling you what to do, though." Miss me with that. I can't.
But sometimes it's never like a resentment of what I'm doing on that end. Sometimes it's just a very soft kind of longing of, oh, no one is that for me right now. And that's not to say that no one ever will be. But I think that I'm at a point in my life right now where I don't think that I could healthfully have someone calling the shots without making them in charge. Without really explaining. So it's okay.
SHAY:
You know what's really interesting about hearing you saying that, and not to sound like I'm feeling sorry for myself in any way, because I also know that I'm not the only one with this experience. But I'm an orphan, and I've been an orphan for a very long time. What you're going through is something that is very natural for me. It's been like my natural setting. I can't get the answers, and I haven't been able to get the answers for a very long time. But I also know that still has left me susceptible to someone who will be like, "Hey, this is how you do things." I'm always very susceptible to being like, "Oh, okay," and not trusting my gut because I just naturally think that they're gonna know more than I am.
But yeah, that's interesting.
FAITH:
How does that present for you in like, the idea of seeking that out, but like, are you aware of being in charge in that way? Or is it just like, "I just do what I wanna do"? Or is there like, a discipline to it for you?
SHAY:
It depends on the situation, I guess. If I wanna eat cookies for breakfast, I'll eat cookies for breakfast. But also if somebody is selling a course that says that it's gonna change my life, I also have to really talk through my mind. Because I very much am the kind of person that's like, "Wait, but they said that these four gold shillings are gonna grow me a beanstalk," I'm very much that person that will at least sign up for the newsletter. And oh, I hate that about me.
FAITH:
It's so prevalent these days. Everybody has a course that's gonna tell you how to live your life, or tell you how to be better, or tell you how to be more likable.
SHAY:
And I think that if maybe you had like magic answers, they wouldn't cost $40 a month.
FAITH:
$47 a month.
SHAY:
$47.
So what I was gonna ask you is, have you considered going to like a Unitarian Universalist Church?
FAITH:
I think that the idea of God is a really bad one for me. You know what I mean? I've never met a Universalist I didn't like. They are the kindest people. But I think it is just so easy for me to turn that into a crutch, and to turn that into kind of a conduit to escape control over my own life. That can get really dangerous very quickly.
SHAY:
Yeah. I totally feel you on that.
So I don't know which ones that you've researched, though I've only been to one so I do not claim to be an expert. But it was the reverend was Kevin Jagoe and so it was very much just ambiguous. No mention of God. All of the hymns, none of them mention God. It's all just about each other, and it's very much open doors to whatever you believe or if you don't believe.
There's also something called Sunday Assembly that my executive director told me about that I have yet to explore, but that's been mentioned a few times to me before too, and I feel like we should probably explore that on the podcast as well.
But if you do find a hankering, it's so interesting hearing you talk about it as like an alcoholic going to a bar. But yeah, if you do get an itch for that, those might be two options. What you're describing, that's worth shopping around for.
FAITH:
That's really interesting.
SHAY:
Yeah. Give it a shot. I don't know.
We'll see. But this is gonna sound so corny, but I wanna ask, not "What's next for Faith Litchfield?" but no, but seriously, like you've built this awesome platform on TikTok, and you are also an incredible musician. You're amazing, and I'm just curious like what are you up to?
FAITH:
I just moved, and so I was just talking to my best friend about this literally yesterday, being like, okay, like I have not thought about the fact that I need to make a video that is more than just like talking about something random at a camera this week 'cause I'm like, "I need to clean things."
SHAY:
No, but I love your random musings at the camera. They are the best. Oh my gosh. What was the one... There was one that I saw today that I was dying, the personality potion one?
FAITH:
Oh. My best friend texted me in all caps. She said, "I knew about this game. Why didn't you tell me it was called Personality Potion?"
I have some ideas for this summer. I really wanna focus on the concept of special days and making days special.
I've made this jar, and I've put themes on Popsicle sticks. And the idea of the game is I have to pull a theme, and the next day has to be themed. You know what I mean? And so it's okay, the theme is year in a day, and so it's you better Valentine's Day breakfast, Easter by brunch, Fourth of July afternoon, Christmas night. Trying to find a way to, if I'm needing a special day, to make that day special by theming it.
And I put ones in there that I know I'll regret putting in there, 'cause I got sick of writing themes. And so it's bunnies. I'm like, "Girl, you're gonna hate yourself if you pull that." But that's my idea for the summer, and so I've been working on that and getting ready to put that together and figuring out how I wanna format that video-wise.
SHAY:
I just wanna live in your brain. Like, you make life so fun.
FAITH:
That's the goal, I think. It's literally just, I think that things can be fun all of the time. Big believer in that. Even when things suck and are so bad, I think that's funny sometimes. And also I can make it fun. Anything can be a game. Anything can be themed. Anything can be play pretend.
I went to the car wash the other day. Oh my God, so I got to play spaceship. Oh my God, it was so good. My best friend was in the car. I never have guests in the spaceship. But everything can be funner than it is.
SHAY:
Wait, hold on. No, you left a cliffhanger. Tell me spaceship. What is the...
FAITH:
So when I start my car, I have an iPhone shortcut, and you can do this too. But I have a shortcut in there that plays like spaceship startup music, launching thrusters. You know what I mean? And I force myself to play a minute of spaceship. I have to act with it. And so it's like I'm finally pulling out of my driveway, I'm like, "All right, do I have clearance to back up? Okay, I'm sensing some interference in the belt." Ten out of ten, you've gotta get on that.
I've been thinking about switching it up to a cowboy thing for the summer, but we'll see. But in the car wash, oh my God, the I love the... Oh my God, in another world I'm building car washes. That's my job. That's where my skills would be best used. But that's so fun. Everybody should be doing that.
SHAY:
I'm like, I'm tearing up right now.
FAITH:
Over the car wash?
SHAY:
Yes.
FAITH:
Aw.
SHAY:
No, I'm tearing up at the thought of how shit the world is, and just thinking that somewhere in the world you're doing that and having so much fun. I'm born and raised in Jersey, the land of road rage. And I'm proud of it. But just to think that in all the days that we have to rush to wherever it is we think we have to rush to, that you're taking the time to do this. It's so beautiful.
FAITH:
Thank you.
I swear to God you will find a game to play. There's always games. Always games, always play pretend. My voicemail right now, if you call me and I miss it, it is, "I'm sorry, I'm on a safari right now," and then there's like safari ambiance, and then you hear a lion roar, and I go, "Oh, no." And then I play freestyle jazz funk fusion music and I go, "No, the lions, they love the jazz freestyle funk music. Okay, leave a message."
[SHAY interjects: Like, there aren't rules. You can do whatever you want.]
FAITH:
Sometimes State Farm is calling me being like, "Hey, just so you know, your payment's coming out in three days." And I'm like, I know that they heard that. And sometimes they go, "I love your voicemail."
SHAY:
Oh my God.
FAITH:
The people at Staples always love my voicemail. They always call.
SHAY:
Oh. Faith, I'm gonna finish this as how I started it. You're fucking magical. Thank you. Oh, don't ever change. Keep getting better, but don't ever change.
What can we do to support you?
FAITH:
Honestly, I'm faithisntcool on TikTok. I'm faithisntsocool on Instagram because they stole my username. Someone just had it first. It's rightfully whoever that is. I will not usurp.
But then if you wanna support me, go to the car wash and play Spaceship. Play Cowboys, big one. Genuinely I think the biggest thing in the world is if you play pretend today, you're gonna wanna play pretend tomorrow. And then it's gonna be less weird when I'm doing it. So there you go.
SHAY:
Thank you again to Faith for joining us on How to Humanist. Again, she's gonna be speaking at our conference along with some other fascinating people, some very important voices in the movement. So if you are interested in learning more about our virtual conference that's happening this year, September 19th, please go to conference.americanhumanist.org, and please definitely follow Faith. I will put her information in the show notes.
If you are enjoying this podcast, please leave a review, share with a friend, because we are continuing to try to grow this podcast, and we can't do it without your support. So I think that we've covered it all. Thank you for listening. Hope you enjoyed.