Freethought Radio

This week we hear reaction to FFRF's provocative "Quit The Church: Put Women's Rights Over Bishop's Wrongs" billboard. We talk about (yet) more governmental prayer violations, then we interview Ron Williams, the Australian singer/songwriter and father of six who challenged state-paid chaplains in public schools, and this month won a victorious decision from the High Court.

We're storming the bishops' bastille. Attorney Andrew Seidel exposes the bishops' phony claim that the contraception mandate is religious persecution. We unveil FFRF's impressive TV ad campaign with Julia Sweeney.

Honoring "June-teenth" this week, we talk about FFRF's recent Nativity Scene victory in Santa Monica, California, and we listen to the new TV-Web ad that former Catholic Julia Sweeney made for FFRF fighting the Catholic Bishops' assault on birth control. Our guest for the 2nd half of the show is Eleanor Smeal, former director of NOW, and current director of the Feminist Majority.

Hear the new radio ad that Julia Sweeney recorded for FFRF. This week we talk about FFRF's retort to the Catholic Bishops' assault on women's healthcare, and about yet more illegal governmental prayer. Then we interview private detective Sam Brower, author of Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints.

Tis the season . . . for graduation prayer violations. This week we talk with Max Nielson, the South Carolina high-school senior who complained about student-led prayer at his graduation on May 30, which led to FFRF's most recent lawsuit.

It's Memorial Day weekend, and the livin' is easy. Relax with us as we listen to some freethought music, new and old. On the second half of the show, we talk with Teresa MacBain, the Methodist minister who recently made national news (with stories on CNN and NPR) when she came out publicly as an atheist. Teresa is now Acting Director of The Clergy Project.

Victory! This week we celebrate with FFRF's main litigation attorney Rich Bolton, talking about our recent victory from the Colorado appeals court declaring the governor's Colorado Day of Prayer proclamations unconstitutional. We also cover FFRF's complaint about Gideon bibles in a Texas elementary school, as well as discuss Franklin Graham and Mitt Romney's statements about gay marriage.

Jeff Shott, the 17-year-old Tennessee student who dressed up as Jesus on "Fictional Character Day" at his high school, tells us the whole story. FFRF attorney Patrick Elliott brings us up-to-date on the religious legal shenanigans with our lawsuit challenging the Ten Commandments in a Virginia High School, and we celebrate Mother's Day with a tribute to The Women's Medical Fund, founded by FFRF fo...

Is the Freedom From Religion Foundation "roaming the country" looking for state/church violations? FFRF's lead staff attorney Rebecca Markert assures us it is the other way around, as she discusses the many complaints that come into the legal office. We also hear about Freethought in Australia, Philadelphia and North Carolina, legal complaints in Rhode Island and Tennessee, listen to Annie Laurie...

Dan and Annie Laurie report on their visit to the Global Atheist Conference in Melbourne, Australia, and Dan talks about his visit to the first atheist conference in the Philippines. Lots of U.S. state/church news to report, then an interview with Saloma Furlong about her book,  Why I Left The Amish,  followed by Australian songwriter Shelley Segal singing "Saved," from her new CD:  An Atheist Alb...

This week we talk with Paul Heffron, a former minister who is now part of the Freethought Band, and listen to some of their lively irreverent music. We also talk with Debbie Weisman, whose family were plaintiffs in the 1992 landmark  Lee v. Weisman  victory before the U.S. Supreme court that stopped clergy-led prayer at high-school graduations when she was a student at a Rhode Island high school.

We devote this entire show to the life and work of the freethinking songwriter Frank Loesser, who wrote Guys and Dolls, "Heart and Soul," How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, "Baby, It's Cold Outside," "What Are You Doing New Years," and many other songs. We talk with his daughter Susan Loesser, who wrote a memoir about her father called A Most Remarkable Fella: Frank Loesser and the...

During this Easter weekend, we discuss why the resurrection story is false. We play a tribute to the irreverent atheist songwriter Yip Harburg (born April 8, 1896) and then talk with Tara Ayres, artistic director of the Stage Q production of the docu-musical This Beautiful City, about gays, fundamentalists and atheists in Colorado Springs.

This week we announce FFRF's newest federal lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania's "2012 Year of the Bible." We play FFRF's new national TV ad featuring JFK, which ran on CBS and will also air on NBC and MSNBC. Then we discuss atheism around the world with Tanya Smith, president of Atheist Alliance International.

Since there is no radio show this week, Dan Barker put together a collection of freethought music. Enjoy this discussion of irreverent tunes!

Nothing is as divisive as church in government. We talk with Mitch Kahle, who stopped Senate prayers in Hawaii. Mitch has just won a major lawsuit defending his rights.

Honoring International Women's Day, we talk with two women who have made a difference: one in high school and one in her 80s. (Note: Barbara Ehrenreich was announced, but was unable to join us due to a scheduling conflict.) Krystal Myers is the Tennessee high-schooler whose article on atheism was censored by her high-school newspaper, and Anne Nicol Gaylor is the founder of the Freedom From Religi...

Is the separation of church and state "absolute," as JFK said, or does it make you want to vomit (as Rick Santorum said)? This week we talk about FFRF's challenge of Alabama school board prayers, and then interview Jim McCollum, whose family's landmark 1948 Supreme Court victory is the bedrock of modern law regarding religion in the schools. We also hear the song "I Don't Believe in Fairies" by at...

Jessica’s victory, Santorum’s intolerance, Green Bay prayers, Annie Laurie’s open letter encouraging liberal Catholics to exit “en mass,” and an interview with Katherine Stewart, author of the eye-opening investigative book  The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children .

What  don't  we talk about on this week's show? God at the Grammys, atheism at the Golden Globes, Jon Stewart and the "attack on religion," prayers at county board meetings, Ten Commandments in City Hall. We also talk with Canadian professor Christopher DiCarlo, author of  How To Become a Really Good Pain In The Ass:  A Critical Thinker's Guide to Asking the Right Questions

This week we look at religion in politics, applaud Bill Maher and boo Denzel Washington for their comments on atheism, congratulate "The Book of Mormon" musical, and talk with First Amendment champion Ellery Schempp about how his 1963 Supreme Court victory over religion in high school compares with Jessica Ahlquist's current fight in Rhode Island.

"Everything's Coming Up Roses." This week we talk with the intrepid freethinking Connecticut florist (of Glimpse of Gaia) who delivered flowers to the victorious teenage Rhode Island atheist litigant Jessica Ahlquist after nobody in Rhode Island would do it. We also celebrate a victory 30+ years in the making, and announce the filing of FFRF's newest lawsuit challenging the Jesus Statue on federal...

This week we'll celebrate Roe v. Wade with journalist Sunsara Taylor. Then, we'll interview Jessica Ahlquist, the besieged 16 year old litigant in a Rhode Island school prayer lawsuit. Her harassment is an object lesson in why religion does not belong in our public schools.

To celebrate a court victory, you'll hear teenager atheist and champion of the first amendment Jessica Ahlquist, who was defamed by her legislator as an "evil little thing." Then we'll talk with the author George Levine about joy of secularism. Tune in for an uplifting show celebrating secularity.

Dan and Annie Laurie are back from one vacation, learn why they have been invited to some place a LOT warmer.  This week we'll talk with a fifth generation minister who saw the light is now a nonbeliever. John Compere's book is called  Towards the Light: A fifth generation minister's journey from religion to nonbelief .