Freethought Radio

Guest: Matthew Chapman, Author, Filmmaker & Darwin's Great-great Grandson & Updates on FFRF's "Praise Darwin" Billboard In honor of Charles Darwin's bicentennial birthday this past week, the hosts will interview Darwin's great-great grandson Matthew Chapman, author of Forty Days and Forty Nights, and Trials of the Monkey. Also featured: Susan Hofer singing the jazz love song and ode to science, "I...

Announcing FFRF's New Darwin  Billboard Campaign In honor of Charles Darwin's bicentennial birthday on Feb. 12, the hosts will interview reporter Lauri Lebo, author of The Devil in Dover: An Insider's Story of Dogma v. Darwin in Small-town America. Lauri covered the Dover "intelligent design" trial for the York Dispatch. The hosts will also talk about the Foundation's new Darwin billboard campaign...

Topic: Religion Rules in Manitowoc County, Wis., & Why He Is Standing Up to It Also: FFRF's New Bus Sign Campaign Unveiled! The hosts unveil FFRF's new bus sign campaign, debuting in February in Madison, Wis.,(and going around the nation as funds permit), including memorable quotations by freethinkers, including Richard Dawkins. Interviewed will be Foundation member Paul T. Rappel, who will talk a...

Topics include Inaugural Religion Lively commentary and clips from the Presidential Inauguration, from the freethought point of view, and an update on the Newdow inaugural prayer lawsuit, will precede an interview with Jason Torpy, president of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.

Topic: State/Church Separation Activism The broadcast will include guest Ed Hensley, one of 10 plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed to challenge a Kentucky law requiring the state Department of Homeland Security to stress "dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth." Also interviewed will be the Foundation's new staff attorney, Rebecca Kratz, who will report on...

Topics: Stem-Cell Research: The Future, and Update on Inaugural Prayer Challenge The featured guest will be filmmaker Jessica Gerstle, whose movie, "The Accidental Advocate," chronicles the moving quest of her surgeon father, Claude Gerstle, who was recently paralyzed, to seek answers on stem-cell research and what is holding it up.  Jessica will address the complex barriers to full stem-cell rese...

A lively wrap-up of 2008, with audio clips of funny or infuriating moments by would-be theocrats of 2008, will be followed by an interview of state/church watchdog Mike Newdow about the new federal challenge of inaugural prayers. A brief remembrance of freethinkers who died in 2008, and the song "Dear God," by XTC, will also be featured.

The hosts will discuss what's wrong with prayer at the Inauguration, and with Rev. Rick Warren in particular to lead that invocation. For a relaxing end of the year show, they will play some irreverent theatrical clips on religion, including one comedic jibe at homophobic religion, and end the show with a nod to infidel Robert Burns and his famous Aulde Lang Syne.

Topic: What's an atheist doing conducting The Messiah? Distinguished chorale and orchestral conductor David Randolph, an atheist and the oldest person, at nearly 94, to conduct at Carnegie Hall, will be the guest, talking about how music has no religion, among other topics. The co-hosts will play an excerpt from The Stephen Colbert Show's coverage of FFRF's Washington Capitol Winter Solstice displ...

Comedian and actress Julia Sweeney talks about the long-awaited recent release of her brilliant one-woman show, "Letting Go of God," as a movie, and the hosts play clips from lots of national TV coverage of FFRF's solstice display at the Washington State Capitol in covering that ongoing saga!

Topic: The Winter Solstice - The Reason for the Season Dan and Annie Laurie will announce various Winter Solstice initiatives of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, air news clips about FFRF Winter Solstice Displays at State Capitols and its new "Reason's Greetings" billboards (including Bill O'Reilly ranting against them), and play a little tongue in cheek seasonal music. They will also intervi...

Featured guest is Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, who allegations of unreported Mormon activity to help pass Prop 8, banning same-sex marriage in California, are being investigated by the Fair Political Practices Commission, which oversees state campaign finance laws. Also interviewed will be Southern California FFRF member Mark Monninger, to discuss the uproar over FFRF's "Imag...

Douglas Krueger, author of What is Atheism? Also, Illegal religious displays are discussed with one Ohio member.

Author of Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity John W. Loftus, a seminary-trained minister in the Restoration Movement of Churches, will talk about why, after earning a Master of Divinity degree and other theological degrees, he realized he could no longer believe in biblical claims. The hosts will also discuss the Freedom From Religion Foundation's newest lawsuit, filed...

Topics: Post-Election: State of the Supreme Court & Judiciary & Postmortems on Religious referenda Nan Aron, expert head of the judicial watchdog, Alliance for Justice, will be this week's guest, to talk about what Nov. 4 will mean for the judiciary. Dan & Annie Laurie will comment on the Nov. 4 fate of religious-right sponsored referenda.

Topic: Prop 8 & the Religious War Against Gay Rights The show will be devoted to an expose of the religious backing of Proposition 8, to deny same-sex marriage to California residents via a Nov. 4 ballot initiative. Listen for clips of religious ads, and of religious leaders inveighing against gay marriage. FFRF Lifetime Member and Gay Atheist founder Dick Hewetson will be interviewed about Propos...

Topic: 50 Reasons Not to Believe in a God Guy P. Harrison, author of the new book, "50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God," will gently debunk some of those reasons. The latest twists in the epidemic of religion in politics and church politicking will be discussed. As an antidote to all that religion, the hosts will air the 2008 "Moment of Bedlam" from FFRF's annual national NonPrayer Brea...

Topic: Society Without God Prof. Phil Zuckerman talks about his hot-off-the-press book, Society Without God, which refutes the myth that religion is necessary for happy citizens and moral societies. Zuckerman, an FFRF member, cites statistical evidence showing the "happiness index" tends to be much higher in godless societies, and offers Scandinavia as a prime example. The broadcast also looks at...

Annie Laurie and Dan talk to author Larry Beinhart about his new book Salvation Boulevard. Plus, details of ffrf's new "Day of Prayer" lawsuit.

This week's show will preview Bill Maher's irreverent film on religion, "Religulous," and play audios of the infamous "witchcraft" prayer by Gov. Sarah Palin's Kenyan minister-friend and her response. For a change of pace, "Women Without Superstition" will be showcased in an interview featuring Annie Laurie Gaylor, as editor of the first anthology of women freethinkers.

Journalist and Newsweek contributing editor Eleanor Clift will join Freethought Radio to talk about her new book, "Two Weeks of Life." The book is part memoir, tracing the last days of her husband, Tom Brazaitis, who died of cancer in 2005. Mr. Brazaitis, a well-known journalist, was a longtime FFRF member and, as Ms. Clift writes, "an unwavering atheist." She parallels Tom's last two weeks, with...

Feminist icon and atheist Robin Morgan will be interviewed about the 40th anniversary of the first Miss America pageant protest, which Robin organized in 1968, among other free-ranging topics. Ms. Morgan is Ms. Magazine's former editor, now consulting editor and author of the classic "Sisterhood is Powerful," as well as "Fighting Words: A Toolkit for Combating the Religious Right." Religion seepin...

Dan Barker will change hats from interviewer to interviewee to talk about his new book, "Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists" (Sept. 2008, Ulysses Press). And Freethought Radio will be joined by a member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Phoenix who helped FFRF place five billboards saying "Imagine No Religion" to talk about both the censorship en...

Topic: Abortion and the Religious Right This week's Freethought Radio will interview the campaign manager of the organization working against Measure 11, a nationally-watched referendum to ban abortion which will be on South Dakota's Nov. 4 ballot. The show will also cover more religion in politics at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, and analyze the Assembly of God beliefs of Mc...

Freethought Radio interviews Denver attorney Robert R. Tiernan about why religion should stay out of politics. Bob, who has taken many lawsuits on behalf of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and is a lifelong Democrat, got a lot of media attention for protesting the interfaith worship service at the Democratic National Convention. FFRF co-president Dan Barker's new book, Godless , is announced,...