According to the Hadith, it is not permissible to initiate the greeting of salaam to a Christian or Jew. However, a Muslim should reply if a non Muslim initiates. How then can this not be religious? Regardless, I agree that this alone is not proselytizing.
I believe that this issue is a controversial one amongst Islamic scholars. But regardless of the specifics of the issue, if it's prohibited by any faith to use a particular greeting to non-members of this faith, then using that greeting in a public forum that's addressed to many non-members of the faith (e.g. a podcast intro) is by definition not an act of that faith. As a Jew, I'm prohibited from eating pork, though as a non-observant Jew I do it anyway. By your logic, if I eat a ham sandwich in public, I'm committing a religious act.
The fact that I haven't been on this forum before should be irrelevant to this discussion. I've been listening for a few years, and I feel that religious talk has become more prevalent lately. I don't see how that's weird.
Topics come and go for many reasons. I didn't check how common religious themes are lately, so you may be right about them being more common. But religious observations and hoidays have been marked for years.
Personal viewpoints? Well, that's the root of the problem. If one cannot separate oneself from ones religion one should not hold office or lead secular functions. In my opinion, of course. I realize this is a strange thing to consider if you're e.g. American.
I'm not American, and have never been. And I'm actually a strong advocate of the separation of religion and state. But Escape Artists is a private podcast, so that's irrelevant.
I realize my example was extreme, but I feel the same principle applies. One could even argue that organized religions are inherently bigotous. But forget bigotry for now. How about flat earthers? My point is why should irrational infalsifiable beliefs be respected and tolerated as if they were valid?
I'm not going to get into a debate on whether religious beliefs are falsifiable. And I'm not in charge of Escape Artists' policies. But if one of our hosts was a Flat Earther, and those beliefs informed their reaction to a story, I wouldn't expect them to be silent about it. To give an actual example - Alasdair has, in different times, expressed a belief in the possibility of ghosts in his Pseudopod outros. I don't agree with his metaphysics. I do, on the other hand, find listening to his comments interesting and valuable even if I don't share his beliefs.
Despite what you write about me, I honestly don't mind what people believe in private. What is said in public is a different matter entirely. Especially when given credence in the name of tolerance. That's when it becomes close to proselytizing for me.
I don't know what to suggest here - you could stop listening, or you could listen and accept that you won't like everything you hear. I don't think anyone on the EA staff agrees with your viewpoint of what's acceptable and what's not, so I wouldn't expect anything to change on our side.