Wired.com presents the Geeks Guide to the Galaxy. And here is your host, David Barr

Kurtly.

Hello, and welcome to episode 361 of Geeks Guide to the Galaxy.

Our guest today is Penny Lane, director of the new documentary Hail Satan, about the Satanic Temple.

The Satanic Temple, founded in 2013, is a religious community and activist group that seeks to uphold separation of church and state,

and it's argued for years that if state and local governments are going to promote Christianity

by placing Ten Commandments monuments on public property,

the First Amendment requires that they also be willing to place the satanic temple's goat-headed

Baphomet statue nearby. At this point, multiple governments have chosen to remove their

Ten Commandments monuments rather

than accept the Baphomet Statue. The film follows characters such as Lucian Grieves,

the temple spokesperson, and Jek's Blackmore, who for years headed up the Detroit chapter,

as the satanic temple grows from a handful of pranksters into a global movement with over

50,000 members. The satanic temple does not believe in a literal Satan or in anything supernatural,

but they draw inspiration from the idea of Satan as a mythical figure who rebels against

tyrannical authority, and through their seven tenets they preach values such as freedom, empathy,

justice, scientific understanding, and bodily autonomy.

The New York Times writes that Hail Satan is hilarious and a must-see.

And now here's our interview with Penny Lane.

All right, so we're here with Penny Lane.

Welcome to the show.

Hello, thanks for having me.

...