Author: "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power," Jeff Sharlet, contributor to Harper's and Rolling Stones, will be interviewed about his new book exposing a religious-right cult with tentacles reaching into Congress. Freethinkers Almanac will celebrate several musical composers and the hosts will discuss the biblical roots of the polygamy scandal involving the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints.
Author of the bestselling "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon," Prof. Daniel C. Dennett of Tufts University, will be interviewed. State/church activist Prof. Eric Barnes will also be interviewed about why he complained about ownership of a lighted cross by the Village of Holmen, Wis., and what has since transpired. Freethought Radio will update the continuing saga of pastors embarrassing the presidential candidates they have endorsed, in this case John McCain.
Freethought Radio interviewed leading geneticist and the lively science educator, Prof. Sean Carroll, author of The Making of the Fittest, about the evidence for evolution being found at the DNA level, and the ongoing controversy over creationism. China's devastating earthquake and Myanmar's cataclysmic cyclone were addressed in Dan's Pagan Pulpit, which discussed the age-old theological "problem of evil."
Freethought Radio will discuss the Freedom From Religion Foundation's newest legal challenge over school subsidy of the Child Evangelism Fellowship in a Wisconsin school, and will talk with the dad who originally lodged the complaint. (He is not being identified to protect his children.) Sound clips from John McCain and his pastor supporter relating to their views against state/church separation will be featured. And the show will conclude with an interview of internationally-known magician and ...
This weekend's show will feature an interview with Richard Sloan about timely issues involving the dangers of religion and prayer being prescribed as "medicine." Freethinkers Almanac will look at the nonreligious views of Irving Berlin and Katharine Hepburn, and the hosts will talk about a freethinking visit to New York City and Los Angeles.
Freethought Radio talks with Eugenie Scott about the rightwing antievolution film "Exposed." Hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor also speak with Jeremy Hall, who will be receiving FFRF's "Atheist in Foxhole" award.
Freethought Radio talks with Temple University professor John Allen Paulos, author of the bestseller "Innumeracy," about his new and amusing book debunking belief in a god, "Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up." The show also dissects what's wrong with a National Day of Prayer.
18-year-old high school senior Matthew LaClair, who received the Thomas Jefferson Student Activist Award last year from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, talks about his latest headline-grabbing complaint about religion in public schools, this one involving a biased text used nationwide. The hosts go after CNN-TV for the media imposition of a religious test for public office, imposed on Democratic candidates in a April 13 "faith forum," and object to public financing of the pope's visit to A...
In addition to speaking with the intrepid editor in chief of the irreverent Onion weekly newspaper, this weekend's show will thoroughly dissect what's wrong with the Ten Commandments (listen for cameos from The Ten Commandments), in response to a Senate resolution pending to declare the first weekend in May "Ten Commandments" weekend.
The unnecessary, tragic deaths of two children last month whose respective parents let them die of preventable diseases in the name of faith will be discussed with Shawn Francis Peters, author of When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children and the Law. Dan Barker's "Pagan Pulpit" exposes the biblical admonitions to rely on faith to heal. Also featured: clips from "Fitna," the controversial Internet movie about Islam by Dutch parliament member Geert Wilders, an update on a Congressional probe of p...
Journalist and freethinker Susan Jacoby, author of the new book, The Age of American Unreason, who also wrote Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, is interviewed on this weekend's show.
Evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker, the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard, is the featured guest, discussing both his nontheistic views, and his concerns about the current administration's attacks against science in order to placate the religious right. "Theocracy Alert" discusses the Rev. Wright-Rev. Hagee fallout on the presidential campaigns. The hosts discuss the problem with Easter, and also pay tribute to nonbeliever Arthur C. Clarke, who died this week.
Freethought Radio's Theocracy Alert discusses the unseemly mix of religion and politics in presidential actions and the presidential race. The former reverend Dan Barker's Pagan Pulpit examines the biblical role in sanctifying torture here on earth, and Dan, with co-host Annie Laurie Gaylor, in a segment on "being good without god," addresses the tired old myth that nonbelievers are immoral. The rejection of dogma by Albert Einstein is featured in Freethinkers Almanac.
Freethought Radio devotes its entire program to an interview with evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, author of the bestselling blockbuster, The God Delusion.
Freethought Radio discusses exciting new statistics from a major study released this week showing that the nonreligious are the 4th largest sector by religious (or nonreligious) identification in the United States today. Guest is Greg Smith, Pew Forum on Religion. The show also examines the role that women freethinkers have played in making women's history, in honor of women's history month.
Freethought Radio reports on a state/church violation involving a city with a mission to "strive to serve God," plays a fun TV interview of Julia Sweeney ("Letting Go of God") and interviews Christoph Wilcke, a researcher with Human Rights Watch about its campaign to save the life of a Saudi Arabian woman who has been convicted of a nonexistent crime: witchcraft. The show also celebrates the birthdate and achievements of freethinker W.E.B. DuBois, cofounder of the NAACP, and play an ode to the c...
A "war of the billboards" brewing in rural Pennsylvania over the Foundation's "Imagine No Religion" billboard will be discussed, and a religious billboard defaming atheists as "hating America" will be debunked. The special guest is a local atheist from the area who hosted the billboard to counter the ubiquitous religion on the roadside in Chambersburg, Penn. Host Dan Barker will talk about the "anti-Carnival" in Brazil he took part in, as an invited guest representing American freethought. Tune ...
In honor of Darwin's birthday (Feb. 12), Freethought Radio interviews film director, screenwriter and author Matthew Chapman, the great-great grandson of Charles Darwin. Chapman's book, "Forty Days and Forty Nights," is a personal report on the Dover "intellligent design" trial, and "Trial of a Monkey: An Accidental Memoir" recounts his pilgrimage to Dayton, Tenn., home of the Scopes trial.
After dissecting Pres. Bush's call upon Congress this week to make the "faith-based initiative" permanent, Freethought Radio speaks with Ellery Schempp, whose protest as a 16-year-old high school student yielded an enduring Supreme Court decision in 1963 barring bible devotionals from public schools. Ellery, a distinguished retired scientist, remains a passionate advocate of the separation between church and state. Freethought Radio's Freethinker's Almanac also takes a quick look at illustrious ...
A relaxing Freethought Radio looks at the irreverency and artistry of one of America's most revered songwriters, the atheist Yip Harburg ("Somewhere Over the Rainbow"). Retired scientist and engaging unbeliever Ernie Harburg talks about his own rejection of religion, the progressive Yip Harburg Foundation, and his father's "Rhymes for the Irreverent." Tantalizing clips of many of Yip's famous songs airs during this new interview, and Ernie reads some of his father's freethought poems. The show a...
The Nation's "Subject to Debate" columnist, author, poet, feminist and atheist Katha Pollitt, returns to Freethought Radio to talk about her latest book, "Learning to Drive," the cultural politics of abortion on this pre-Roe v. Wade anniversary show, and her views on the state of freethought and religion in politics. The show also features a new Freethinkers Almanac and Theocracy Alert.
Psychology Today's feature, "An Atheist in the Pulpit" (Jan/Feb 08), about ministers who lose their faith, inspired this week's show. Radio cohost Dan Barker, a former fundamentalist minister, as well as Freedom From Religion Foundation member Tom Reed, a former Roman Catholic priest, talk about their loss of faith stories. Both men are featured in the Psychology Today article. Tune in to hear Dan Barker's first-ever media interview as a "baby atheist," on the Oprah Winfrey Show! "Theocracy Aler...
Freethought Radio looks at end-of-the-year threats to women by Islamists, talks with Taku Ronsman, a plaintiff in the Freedom From Religion Foundation's newest lawsuit against a city-displayed creche in Green Bay, Wis., and consults Anne Wiseman, chief legal director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, over CREW's recent federal court victory forcing the White House to release visitor logs on leaders of the religious right. Tune in for that, and much more!
This week's show offers a respite from seasonal state/church conflicts and religious intrusions in politics. Relax as the hosts feature secular songwriters and freethought music!
Tis the season . . . for state/church violations and this week's program briefly updates seasonal violations, including an interview with a brave county board supervisor, Robert SinKlair of Sauk County, Wis., who is opposing the nativity scene at his county courthouse. An NBC camera crew filmed the segments dealing with the "real reason of the season" and seasonal state/church violations for a (brief) segment on the Dec. 20 NBC Evening Nightly News. A few cuts from the recording ran. Spurred by ...
This week's radio show parses Mitt Romney's "faith in America" speech, reports on seasonal state/church entanglements, and features interviews with two recent victors in the legal battle to keep church and state separate. Guest Ray Ideus talks about his victory this week over religion at the Spokane police department. Kay Staley talks about her major victory at the Supreme Court level, removing a monument to the bible from government steps in Houston. Listen in, get acquainted with freethinkers ...
Just in time for the exciting debut this weekend of The Golden Compass film, the children's movie spectacular of the season, is Freethought Radio's interview with the fascinating Philip Pullman, the British children's novelist and nonbeliever who wrote the book the headline-making movie is based on. The program also reviews some timely developments, good and bad, for freethought and the separation of church and state.
This week's show features an interview with the irrepressible litigant Michael Newdow, whose latest challenges of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, and of the motto "In God We Trust," will be argued before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The show also debuts teasers of Mike's funny "solstice" rewrites of traditional Christmas carols, from his new "Solstice Classic" CD. Also appearing is the equally irrepressible Ernie Chambers, state senator from Nebraska, talking about his sligh...
This week's show features a deferred interview with SPC Jeremy Hall, who was threatened with "fragging" (a "friendly fire" murder) after suing the Pentagon for religious discrimination. Hall sued after he was threatened with military retaliation for organizing a freethought meeting at his base in Iraqi. "Theocracy Alert" looks at timely violations, and the birthdate of nontheist composer Scott Joplin is commemorated.
This week's show is a freethought potpouri! Nation columnist Katha Pollitt reads her recent column, "Onward, Secular Soldiers!" Columnist Stephanie Salter talks about a humorous new website set up to record hypocrisy by drivers with "In God We Trust" license plates in Indiana. Dan and Annie Laurie discuss the upcoming "Golden Compass" movie, starring Nicole Kidman, based on the first book in atheist children's author Philip Pullman's trilogy. And as a bonus, they play "loving messages" left by C...
