I have always really liked the way Penn presents himself in these types of formats and I think he has a (temporary) rationalizing effect on people like Beck. I have heard from regular Beck watchers that this was really good but just haven't taken the time to watch it myself yet. I know Penn has received some criticism for going on Beck's shows but I think it is immensely positive when the traditional Beck watcher is exposed to someone like Penn who comes across as very reasonable, very friendly and a lot less combative than many of the public atheist figures. I'm not saying that combative atheist figures don't have their place, just that Penn's soft, humble approach can appeal to a lot of people who have a generally negative stereotype of atheists. 

   I agree with the vast majority of Penn's Libertarian views.  Even Beck made some good points.  Thanks for posting.

It's a trick. Glenn Beck is still the same douche bag he has always been. He's either being a chameleon for the sake of Penn's visit or he is absorbing that no one really likes his "doomsday prophecies" and his ratings are in the toilet.

Penn is almost always awesome. Love listening to him talk about serious stuff in a very calm and logical fashion.

If I had to guess, I would say that Beck is not on Fox anymore, so he is trying to pander to a non-Fox crowd. IOW, the tea party people and all the fox viewers did not want him on their station, so in order to stay afloat, he has to put up a new front in the hope of retaining a different viewer following.

I don't think it will probably work, because Glenn has already fucked himself with viewers.

For instance, I posted this on my Facebook wall, certain friends commented with the same remark : " Sorry, but I can not stand to watch Glenn Beck."

At this point, I think that Glenn could claim to have made a complete turnaround and it would not work.

For instance, he semi-defended gay rights in this video. Something tells me that the gay community is just not going to accept Beck that easily.

Beck poked all kinds of horrible fun at Atheists on his show, when he was on Fox, I would like to ask him, what made you decide that Atheists are ok ?

No, he hasn't changed much, he still is doing his "end of the world" schtick. I have listened to Beck since before he got his show on Headline News and before he started his "end of the world" shit. His position on gay marriage has always been "I don't care" which is a position that he has gotten a lot of criticism from his listeners. I also don't think he was ever as against atheists as you seem to believe. Yes he pokes fun at them, but he makes fun of everyone including himself (usually himself first). Every once and awhile he will turn on the reverb and have a god/satan conversation and they are funny as hell. I actually really enjoyed listening to his show until he got on Fox and that is when he really started the end of the world shit and I couldn't stand listening anymore because it was too hysterical. But for the most part I think the clips you see on the internet are highly selective and don't give you a good flavor of the show.

More than once I listened to talk radio for a few hours and get home hop on the internet and there is some hubbub over what so and so said on the radio. Reading about it I am left scratching my head going "did they listen to the same show I did?" Not that they don't say ridiculous stuff sometimes, but MediaMatters for example specializes in pulling quotes and making them sound more radical and hateful. You can tell when Rush's ratings are low for example because he will say something off hand that he knows will get the media to report on him, free advertising. For awhile he even advertised in advance that he was going to say something off the wall for the media.