Growing Up Fundie, Ep. 163: Dr. Anderson Thomson Interviews Me (A Multi-Part Series)

In the fall of 2025, my friend and multi-time podcast guest, psychiatrist Dr. Anderson Thomson, proposed an idea for my podcast: He wanted to interview ME.

In his words, I’d spent nearly 200 episodes interviewing guests about their experiences with religious and political deconstruction, but I had never really shared my own personal story. 

So, on January 1st, 2026, we met in-person for the first time, and sat for nearly six hours in a reverse-interview. 

Welcome to part 1 of the multi-part series with Dr. Andy Thomson takes the wheel during his podcast-interviewer debut. 

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J. Anderson Thomson Jr. is an American psychiatrist and writer. He is a Trustee of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and board member of the Center for Inquiry. 

He is staff psychiatrist for Counseling and Psychological Services at the University of Virginia Student Health Center. 

Thomson acquired his B.A. from Duke University in 1970, he acquired his M.D. from the University of Virginia in 1974, and he did his adult psychiatry training at the University of Virginia from 1974 to 1977.

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