Steven Olsen

Steven grew up in the college town of Springfield, Missouri where he met his best friend and writing partner, Jess. Some people think that Steven spends his time assisting atheist groups, talking about how awesome Portland, Oregon is, playing Super Mario Brothers with his wife, Nola, and spending far too much money at Powell’s Books. Those people are correct.

Jess Whitson

Jess was born in San Bernadino, California and has lived in Springfield, Missouri for all of his adult life. Because of his early indoctrination into Missouri culture, he is constantly showing people stuff. And he knows how to fashion any hunk of limestone into any implement imaginable or even concievable. He lives with his wife in some kind of karst dwelling like most people in the Ozarks. Jess got a Philosophy B.A. which means he can be a philosophical counselor. Since most people don’t like philosophers giving advice, he instead decided to write the best book ever—Unbelievable History with his pal Steven.

About CSDP

We began writing together in 1998. Our first creative endeavors took us to writing short stories and a monthly newsletter called “The Weekly News” which was kind of like The Onion in form, but not in style. While our early work isn’t good enough to share with everyone, it served as great practice for turning those weird phoenician symbols into sentences that cause laughter. In 2009 we launched Carl Sagan’s Dance Party as a venue for sharing our writing and getting into the habit of writing regularly. Shortly after the launch, we began work on our first book, Unbelievable History, which was published in 2011. We have also been working on converting several of our other writing projects into books, which may take a while.

Much of our writing is inspired by the collision between science and pseudoscience, pop culture, politics and religion. Steven’s influences are Douglas Adams, Pokey the Penguin, Jack Handey, and John Swartzwelder. Jess is inspired a priori and needs no influencers tainting his perception of the Platonic Form of Humor.

About our site design

Yeah, I saw you checking out our sweet-lookin’ site. Don’t be jealous. Katie Hartman made this. She is the brilliant mind behind sites such as Reason Rally, Skepticon, and this amazeballs billboard in Springfield, Missouri: