A. Logan Craft is Chairman of the Board of Premise Media Corporation and an Executive Producer. He was in commodity-based businesses before moving into the field of venture capital and media, and is the creator, producer, and on-air host of a previously-aired regional television program, Church and State with Logan Craft: Exploring Religion and Politics. The program featured a wide variety of prominent politicians, activists, and religious leaders. Mr. Craft also co-produced and co-hosted commercial outdoor television programs. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a business degree in Marketing, he also holds two Masters Degrees. Apart from his involvement in media, he is active in civic, charitable, and religious activities.

Andrew McDiarmid: You've been involved in the past in work that explores religion and politics in society. What was the inspiration for a film like Expelled and why was it a good fit for you and for Premise Media?

Logan Craft: The original inspiration was with my two partners, and they brought the idea to me. Together the three of us pursued the project and then formed Premise Media together. Then we made our first production, Expelled. It was a good fit for me personally because I had been a host, producer, and creator of a talk show based out of Santa Fe that covered controversial issues that intersected religion and politics, as well as faith and public policy. The evolutionary debate is simply one of the top ten issues. Some say it may be the number one intersection issue between religion and politics.

AM: How did Ben Stein get involved in the project, and what do you think he brings to Expelled?

LC: Well I think he brings a number of things to it. The way Ben got involved was through John Sullivan, who acted as one of our producers. His idea was that we needed somebody who was a recognized public thinker who was not a Christian, and who was old enough to have some gravitas but who was also funny! We needed somebody who could carry the day on the issue that basically arouses very strident reactions from people on both sides of the argument. Ben was a neutral figure, Jewish, and a skeptic himself. He engaged very readily and said he wanted to take it on. Another reason he engaged was because of the link between social Darwinism and the Eugenics movement and Holocaust.

AM: It became something very personal for him, then.

LC: Very personal. Interestingly enough, of all the propositions the film makes, the link between social Darwinism, the Eugenics movement, and the Holocaust is the most historically verifiable position that the film takes. The critics actually hold that part of it as the most implausible when actually it is just the opposite.

AM: I think it was so harshly criticized because it was so close to the truth.

LC: I think you're exactly right, Andrew. It was close to the truth and it made a lot of people uncomfortable.

AM: At the time of this interview, Expelled is the highest grossing documentary of 2008 and the twelfth highest-grossing documentary of all time. What do you think is the reason for the film's success?

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