Freethought Radio & Podcast
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2008 Freethought Radio Archives |
2008 Podcast Archives
- July 19, 2008 - Guest: Webster Cook, student senator and non-eater of communion wafers and Sarah Braasch, FFRF Legal Intern
- The inside story about the young Orlando student whom Catholics have accused of committing a "hate crime" for not eating a communion wafer! And listen to Sarah Braasch talk about how some public-funded senior centers are imposing prayer on senior citizens and why that is illegal.
- July 13, 2008 - Guest: David Mills
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Author: Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism
Freethought Radio will discuss "atheist in a foxhole" Jeremy Hall's federal lawsuit against the military, charging that it is promoting Christianity and has discriminated against his rights as a nonbeliever, as covered by CNN this week with Anderson Cooper. Journalist and science writer David Mills, the author of the popular book, "Atheist Universe," will be interviewed about what's wrong with fundamentalism. The show will also highlight contributions by the many famous freethinkers born in July.
- July 5, 2008 - Guest: Nica Lalli
- Freethought Radio will analyze Barack Obama's controversial decision to rename and expand Bush's "faith-based initiative," using clips from his announcement this week. It will also interview southern activist Pat Cleveland, who is in the midst of the annual 4th of July bash in the heart of the bible belt sponsored every year by the activist Alabama Freethought Association. Author Nica Lalli will be interviewed about her memoir about growing up as and embracing being a "nothing" when it comes to religion.
- June 28, 2008 - Guest: Jim McCollum
- Jim McCollum, who at age 10 became the center of a huge legal battle against religious instruction in the public schools, will talk about the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, McCollum v. Board of Education, keeping schools free of indoctrination. The show will also pay homage to several other anniversaries of significant Supreme court decisions affirming separation between church and state. Listen for cameos of famed litigants Roy Torcaso, Ed Schempp and Vashti McCollum.
- June 21, 2008 - Guests: Elissa Wall and Sarah Braasch
- Elissa Wall, author of "Stolen Innocence," will talk about being married against her will at age 14 to an adult in her polygamous Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints community in Utah. Wall was the key witness in the criminal trial which convicted FLDS patriarch Warren Jeffs of being an accomplice to rape. The show will also feature Sarah Braasch, FFRF's legal intern, who will talk about her research into unlawful Christian prayers opening the Wisconsin State Assembly. Her interview will include sound bites of a legislator casting the "Evil One" out of the chambers!
- June 14, 2008 - Guests: Michael Shermer and Mike Smith
- Michael Shermer, one of America's leading skeptics, will be interviewed, along with Denver FFRF activist Mike Smith, about the "Imagine No Religion" billboard he helped get posted for two months this summer in Denver.
- June 6, 2008 - Guest: Jeff Sharlett
- 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.
- May 31, 2008 - Guests: Bestselling author Prof. Daniel C. Dennett and Prof. Eric Barnes
- 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.
- May 24, 2008 - Guest: Geneticist Sean Carroll
- 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."
- May 17, 2008 - Guests: The Amazing James Randi & Dad Complainant in FFRF's Newest Religion-in-School Court Challenge
- 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 exposer of hoax, the atheist and author, James Randi!
- May 10, 2008 - Guest: Richard Sloan
- 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.
- May 3, 2008 - Guests: Eugenie Scott, director, National Center for Science Education: Exposing "Expelled", & "Atheist in Foxhole" Litigant Jeremy Hall: Military Harassment Continues
- 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.
- April 26, 2008 - Guest: John Allen Paulos
- 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.
- April 19, 2008 - Guest: Matthew LaClair, High School State/Church Activist
- 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 America. Photo by Brent Nicastro.
- April 12, 2008 - Special Guest: Scott Dikkers, editor of The Onion
- 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.
- April 5, 2008 - When Prayer Fails: Child Homicide via Prayer
- 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 prosperity preachers, and a recording of Tom Lehrer, born April 8, singing his classic "Vatican Rag."
- March 29, 2008 - Guest: Author Susan Jacoby
- 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.
- March 22, 2008 - Guest: Harvard Prof. Steven Pinker
- 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.
- March 15, 2008 - Being Good Without God
- 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.
- March 8, 2008 - Special Guest: Richard Dawkins
- Freethought Radio devotes its entire program to an interview with evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, author of the bestselling blockbuster, The God Delusion.
- March 1, 2008 - Religiously Unaffiliated Grow to 16%!
- 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.
- February 23, 2008 - Saudis Plan to Execute Illiterate Woman as "Witch"
- Freethought Radio will report on a state/church violation involving a city with a mission to "strive to serve God," will play a fun TV interview of Julia Sweeney ("Letting Go of God") and will interview 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 will celebrate the birthdate and achievements of freethinker W.E.B. DuBois, cofounder of the NAACP, and play an ode to the coming of spring and peace, "One Sweet Morning," by lyricist E.Y. Harburg, author of "Rhymes for the Irreverent".
- February 16, 2008 - War of the Billboards
- 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 for some other surprises.
- February 9, 2008 - Special Guest: Matthew Chapman, Darwin's Great-Great Grandson
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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.
- February 2, 2008 - Champion of the First Amendment
- 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 freethinkers born the first week in February. Note longtime listeners: This is a fresh interview with Ellery Schempp.
- January 26, 2008 - The Atheist Lyricist Who Put the Rainbow in the Wizard of Oz
- 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 also features a "Theocracy Alert" update.
- January 19, 2008 - Special guest: Katha Pollitt
- 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.
- January 12, 2008 - Atheists in the Pulpit: Ministers Who Lose Their Faith
- 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 Alert" looks at mischief-making Congressional resolutions. Photos by Brent Nicastro.
- January 5, 2008 - State/Church Litigation and the people behind it
- 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!