I grew up listening to National Public Radio. With that awakened an early love for the modern, progressive, thoughtful existence that Democrats dream and preach about. My old man, more than any, instilled a handful of progressive ideals into my young soul—respect, tolerance, and civic engagement. Driving me to school—slurping his fair trade coffee from a reusable Alcoholics Anonymous mug that rested perfectly on the dashboard of our Subaru—he'd fine-tune the dial to the soft-sounding voices of NPR commentators such as Neil Conan, Robin Young, and Robert Siegel.

If NPR and TED Talks are church for the progressive mind, then I was raised in church.

God sounds like Neil Conan, right?

I loved NPR's Neil Conan the most. His voice sounded like God; or, at least, what I imagined God might sound like at that time in my life. I've heard that people raised in fundamentalist churches have a hard time shaking the image of an angry, disapproving God.

I've never had to shake that image. For me, God was ...