- Tech
-
-
Tech
The gadgets, platforms, and software that make your digital life possible. if it bleeps, clicks or blinks, you’ll find it here.
-
Categories
-
-
Latest
- Report: YouTube will no longer run ads on anti-vax channels Saturday 2:54 PM
- Microsoft employees want to cancel a $479 million contract with the U.S. military Saturday 1:14 PM
- Elon Musk finally hosts PewDiePie’s meme review Friday 6:27 PM
- Report: Facebook collects app data on users’ body weight, menstrual cycles Friday 3:38 PM
- Nobody likes Spotify’s new update Friday 2:34 PM
-
-
-
- Internet Culture
-
-
Internet Culture
There’s a community for everyone online.
-
Categories
-
-
Latest
- ‘Isabelle Facts’ was a wholesome queer meme account—until harassers showed up Saturday 8:28 AM
- Elon Musk finally hosts PewDiePie’s meme review Friday 6:27 PM
- Viral graphic shows the moment Apple became the top brand Friday 12:27 PM
- This ‘buff bunny vs. small bunny’ meme is here for when you’re feeling inferior Friday 10:53 AM
- Ocasio-Cortez slams trolls who come at her with ‘weak’ memes Friday 10:52 AM
-
-
-
- Streaming
-
-
Streaming
You’ve cut the cord—now what?
-
Categories
-
-
Latest
- Instagram has mixed feelings about Mindy Kaling supporting Aziz Ansari Saturday 5:02 PM
- How to stream Brandon Rios vs. Humberto Soto for free Saturday 6:00 AM
- ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ heads to ‘Bly Manor’ for next installment Saturday 5:45 AM
- How to stream James DeGale vs. Chris Eubank Jr. for free Saturday 5:30 AM
- How to stream UFC Fight Night 145 in Prague for free Saturday 5:00 AM
-
-
-
- IRL
-
-
IRL
Where your off- and online identities collide.
-
Categories
-
-
Latest
- Report: YouTube will no longer run ads on anti-vax channels Saturday 2:54 PM
- Student assaulted on campus while tabling for right-wing group Friday 1:56 PM
- This elementary school made students play ‘runaway slave’ Friday 11:20 AM
- Feds say college student operated drug business through gaming app Thursday 4:36 PM
- Disturbing Snapchat video shows 17-year-old throwing dog on trampoline Thursday 12:16 PM
-
-
-
- Social
-
-
Social
If it happens online, it’s here.
-
Categories
-
-
Latest
- Instagram has mixed feelings about Mindy Kaling supporting Aziz Ansari Saturday 5:02 PM
- Donald Trump keeps pushing his unsubstantiated voter fraud claims Saturday 4:09 PM
- Report: YouTube will no longer run ads on anti-vax channels Saturday 2:54 PM
- Microsoft employees want to cancel a $479 million contract with the U.S. military Saturday 1:14 PM
- Queso recipe gets launched to space Saturday 10:09 AM
-
-
-
- Bazaar
-
-
Bazaar
The Bazaar specializes in the stuff you don’t actually need…but you really, really want.
-
Categories
-
-
Latest
- Allow your wallet to be your spirit guide during this rad anime sale Tuesday 10:43 AM
- 14 artsy cartoon mugs that’ll help make your days more creative Monday 12:15 PM
- Get your nerd on with ThinkGeek’s Funko Pop B2G1 sale Monday 3:00 AM
- Play all your NES games in high def with the Hyperkin RetroN HD Tuesday 8:39 AM
- The Introvert Activity Book is perfect for those who find solace in alone time Monday 11:30 AM
-
-
-
- More
- Search
See all Editor's Picks →
See all Popular →
Represented by Complex Media, Inc. for advertising sales.
Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions Ethics
Latest
- Instagram has mixed feelings about Mindy Kaling supporting Aziz Ansari Saturday 5:02 PM
- Donald Trump keeps pushing his unsubstantiated voter fraud claims Saturday 4:09 PM
- Report: YouTube will no longer run ads on anti-vax channels Saturday 2:54 PM
- Microsoft employees want to cancel a $479 million contract with the U.S. military Saturday 1:14 PM
- Queso recipe gets launched to space Saturday 10:09 AM
- ‘Isabelle Facts’ was a wholesome queer meme account—until harassers showed up Saturday 8:28 AM
- 2016 election stories the ‘Newsroom’ reboot will cover Saturday 6:30 AM
- How to stream Brandon Rios vs. Humberto Soto for free Saturday 6:00 AM
- ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ heads to ‘Bly Manor’ for next installment Saturday 5:45 AM
- How to stream James DeGale vs. Chris Eubank Jr. for free Saturday 5:30 AM
- How to stream UFC Fight Night 145 in Prague for free Saturday 5:00 AM
- R. Kelly charged in Chicago with multiple counts of sex abuse Friday 7:51 PM
- Elon Musk finally hosts PewDiePie’s meme review Friday 6:27 PM
- Netflix throws ‘Umbrella Academy’-themed wedding for fans Friday 4:54 PM
- Report: Facebook collects app data on users’ body weight, menstrual cycles Friday 3:38 PM
‘Drunk Ex-Pastors’ will change the way you think about booze and God

Two best friends tackle the universe for your listening pleasure.
A couple times a week in the Pacific Northwest, a Web developer and a used car salesman sit down with drinks and talk about God. These are Christian Kingery and Jason Stellman, best friends of 25 years, hosts of a podcast called Drunk Ex-Pastors.
Their conversations, occurring with that casual rhythm that comes after so many years of easy friendship, are permeated with religious content that serves as a springboard into other topics, from the polarizing and political to the hilariously irreverent. After all, these guys have been friends since high school. For a podcast with the word “pastors” in the title, there are a lot of dick jokes.

Drunk Ex-Pastors
Stellman, now a practicing Catholic, and Kingery, now agnostic, come from a religious fellowship called Calvary Chapel, a church born out of the Jesus movement in the 1960s. The church is effectively nondenominational, with over a thousand assemblies around the world. “As far as megachurches go, they’re one of the better ones,” Stellman told the Daily Dot. “They emphasize good things, and it’s not about money and all that. They’re also very insular, closed off, and unaware of the rest of the Christian church around them.”
Kingery and Stellman both spent time in Hungary spreading the Christian message, but in his 14 years since leaving Hungary, Stellman said, he got “grumpy, and really into theological fights, proving people wrong. That’s a very negative expression of Christianity. My beliefs only felt legitimate if there was a mortal enemy crusading against them.”
“Our conversations were so much better back then,” said Kingery.

Stellman and Kingery.
Christian Kingery
Stellman’s conversion to Catholicism sent some ripples throughout his religious community. “In the small little world of conservative protestantism, my transition into the Catholic church caused upheaval,” he said. “To this day, two and a half years later, there are websites where they bash me and mock me.” This notoriety almost certainly helped build the initial audience for the pair’s podcast.
Kingery’s arrival at agnosticism was hardly as high-profile. “My environment was very focused on thinking about God all the time, memorizing scripture, it was my whole life up until 2000 or so. In 2000, I was a pastor in Hungary and my life went that way even more so. When I moved back to the States was when I realized life didn’t have to be like that.” Kingery’s loss of faith was “a gradual thing. Now I see Christianity as another religion, maybe one of the better ones, but not necessarily the one.”
This kind of casual and upfront honesty is par for the course when it comes to the friends’ podcast. They create the safest of conversational spaces and use it to dissect all order of topics while a growing audience listens in. A conversation that starts with the asinine death of Eric Garner might end with the Big Bang, but only after taking a trip through transubstantiation, the belief the bread and the wine used in religious communion is in actual reality the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It’s tremendous.
“You know, the more people we have listening, the more people will disagree with us.”
“But we’ll also have more people agreeing with us.”
In their real lives away from the podcast, Kingery is a Web developer at an accounting firm and Stellman is a used car salesman, a job he came to after being let go from a software company. “I realized I needed to find something steady. A good friend of ours had been a salesman, he liked it and made good money, so I picked his brain. Eventually I drove to the dealership and got the job,” he said. “It doesn’t pay the bills at all.”
“But it’s great fodder for the podcast,” said Kingery.
Stellman and Kingery hope to eventually find a way to do the podcast on a full-time basis. While they share the occasional moan and groan about their day jobs, it’s clear that their hearts are truly in creating deep, meaningful content to be shared with others over the Internet. “We both have so many ideas that would require much more time,” Stellman said. “We’re already selling shotglasses. We’d love to do a coffee-table-style book of stupid quotes from us. We’re experimenting with doing two podcasts a week. If we can’t find a way to monetize responsibly, then we suck as marketers.”
Kingery jumped in: “If we can’t do it responsibly, we’ll do it irresponsibly.”

Kingery and Stellman.
Christian Kingery
Until such a time as the podcast can earn enough money for the pair to support themselves, they seem perfectly happy to continue surfing an epistemological wave with any and all podcast listeners who want to join in. And that audience is growing, much to the pair’s nervous delight.
“You know, the more people we have listening, the more people will disagree with us,” said Kingery.
“But we’ll also have more people agreeing with us,” said Stellman.
Illustration via Drunk Ex-Pastors

Dylan Love
Dylan Love is an editorial consultant and journalist whose reporting interests include emergent technology, digital media, and Russian language and culture. He is a former staff writer for the Daily Dot, and his work has been published by Business Insider, International Business Times, Men's Journal, and the Next Web.