Freethought Radio

Freethought Radio interviews Mikey Weinstein, the retired Air Force attorney who has formed the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to fight high-ranking evangelism in the military. The show covers recent exposes his group has uncovered, including the filming of a video for the Christian Embassy at the Pentagon, "soul saving" by a ministry group in a Pentagon commons, and halting a Pentagon plan...

Freethought Radio features veteran investigative reporter Michael Reynolds, author of "Abstinence Gluttons," The Nation Magazine, June 2007. The show also features some timely news updates and commentary. (MP3, 49 min, 22.4 MB)

Freethought Radio features southern secular activist Ed Buckner, Ph. D., talking about how to combat the myth that America is a Christian nation. Ed has a chapter in the new book, "Everything You Knew About God Is Wrong." The show also features some timely news updates and commentary. (MP3, 51 min, 23.5 MB)

Dan and Annie Laurie Gaylor interview Bill Lobdell, whose page-one article for the Los Angeles Times in July announced he is retiring from the Los Angeles Times religion page because his beat turned him into an atheist. The show also covers developments exposing the Christianization of the U.S. military, and advance word on a major legal victory for the Freedom From Religion Foundation. (MP3, 53 m...

Freethought Radio features an interview with Prof. Brad J. Bushman, of the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, about his studies linking religious belief and scriptural reading with violence. The show reports on the related attack this week upon atheist author Taslima Nasrin by Muslim lawmakers in Hyperabad, India. The show, airing on the birthdate of Robert G. Ingersoll, takes...

Guest is August Brunsman, whose Secular Student Alliance works with 80 campus affiliates and provides support and ideas to freethinking students around the country. The show debuts a new song by lyricist and atheist Yip Harburg ("Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "It's Only a Paper Moon"), music by Dan Barker, who set to music a number of Yip's clever rhymes from "Rhymes for the Irreverent" (FFRF, 2006...

Emily Lyons, the Birmingham, Ala., nurse who was nearly murdered by "Army of God" antiabortion terrorist/bomber Eric Rudolph, talks about her experience, religious terrorism and ongoing assaults against abortion rights in Alabama and around the nation in a memorable interview. The program also analyzes candidate responses on state/church issues popping up on Monday's CNN-YouTube debate. A cameo ap...

Brian Flemming, director of "The God Who Wasn't There" documentary (2005) is interviewed. The broadcast also airs clips of Christian fanatics disrupting the first-ever Hindu prayer to open the U.S. Senate last week, discusses the unconstitutional chaplaincies in Congress, and covers the largest-ever settlement to victims of priestly sexual abuse, by the Los Angeles Archdiocese, among other news up...

Freethought Radio features an interview all the way from Iceland, with Hope Knutsson, president of the Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association, about the remarkable lack of fundamentalists in Iceland! News includes an update on the cover-up of priestly crimes against children by the Roman Catholic Church, including a brief excerpt of a moving documentary on church culpability by the BBC. Phonecalls...

Everybody's favorite Eagle Scout, Darrell Lambert, talks about what it was like to be kicked out of Boy Scouts of America for being an atheist. The show includes more coverage of the fallout from the Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation Supreme Court ruling, a quick response to Bush's stem-cell veto and a look at how Mitt Romney prays and why on earth that is part of his campaign PR! The secul...

Midwest topical folksinger, feminist and freethinker Kristin Lems ("Days of the Theocracy") is the featured guest. The show includes a post-mortem of the Supreme Court's ruling in Hein v. the Freedom From Religion Foundation . Tune in to hear what other media, including the Jon Stewart Show, are saying. In homage to July 4, the secular underpinnings of the Declaratin of Independence is briefly dis...

Barbara G. Walker, author of "The Skeptical Feminist" and the landmark "Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets", talks about what turned her into a skeptic and nonbeliever. The show includes updates on the Foundation's newest faith-based challenges, including a federal lawsuit filed this week, and a "Pagan Pulpit" freethought sermon on the trinity by Dan Barker, a former minister. The show is h...

Veteran freethought activist Catherine Fahringer, a pithy interview, talks about being an atheist activist in Texas, her rejection of the "Big Spook in the Sky," and some recent Texas state/church violations. Tune in to hear how Charles Colson is defaming atheists these days with an except of his speech before the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as a segment from the Jon Stewart Show about Bu...

Guest Michelle Goldberg, lively Salon.com journalist and author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, returns for an encoure interview to talk about the new creation museum and the status of the religious right assault against secularism in America today. The show includes a clip of Bill O'Reilly attacking "secular progressives," and an indepth analysis of the CNN-TV presidential "...

Guest Hector Avalos, who went from Mexican child evangelist to an atheist and leading bible scholar, talks about his book, Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence, as well as his academic activism at Iowa State University to counter creationism and a sports chaplaincy. For fun, a clip of Bill Maher as "meteroevangelist" plays. A dividend: an excerpt of Kingdom Coming author Michelle Gold...

Special guest: atheist Janeane Garofalo, actress, comedian and former host of Majority Report in Air America. Also covered are some current state/church issues, Bill Maher's obit for Jerry Falwell, and an "Ask an Atheist" segment, as well as a little irreverent music. Hosts of the lively weekly program are Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. (...

Guest Dale McGowan speaks on secular parenting. The show also includes lively clips of Christopher Hitchens interviews and debates, a retrospective on the fundamentalist career of the late Jerry Falwell, the broadcast debut of Dan Barker's jazz ballad, "It's Only Natural" (dedicated to Richard Dawkins and sung by jazz singer Susan Hofer), and a celebration of the life of Lorraine Hansberry, includ...

Guest Sonia Johnson talks about how her activism for the Equal Rights Amendment got her excommunicated from the Mormon Church and turned her into a nonbeliever and a feminist activist. The lively show also features news clips by Marie Tillman and Bill Maher, as well as Katharine Hepburn (born on May 12) speaking in her own words about her disbelief. The weekly show is hosted by Dan Barker and Anni...

Guest Ellory Schempp discusses how his complaints as a 16-year-old about devotional bible reading and prayer in his Pennsylvania public school turned into the landmark 1963 Supreme Court decision, Schempp v. Abington , ending such practices in the United States. The interview includes audio clips of his father, the late Ed Schempp, reminiscing about the lawsuit. The show includes a look at what's...

Freethought Radio's guest is Rob Boston of Americans United, discussing current state/church conflicts and myths, litigation and his books. "Eavesdrop" on what the Religious Right is saying about atheists and FFRF! Freethinkers Almanac pays homage to influential freethinkers, including Ulysses S. Grant and Mary Wollstonecraft. Freethought Radio is co-hosted by Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. (...

Tune in to hear Pulitizer Prize-winning journalist and author Edward Humes discuss his new book, "Monkey Girl," on Freethought Radio. The book chronicles the saga of the creationist trial in Dover, Penn., resulting in the recent landmark federal decision against "intelligent design" instruction in public schools. The show also includes discussion of timely state/church topics, including this week'...

David Randolph, famous conductor of the St. Cecilia Chorus (a secular, non-profit group), talks about his life and his nontheistic views. At age 92, Randolph has become the oldest person to conduct at Carnegie Hall, where he has performed for many decades, and where he will conduct Mendelssohnn and Orff next month. (MP3, 48 min, 22 MB)

Secular lobbyist Lori Lipman Brown, director of the Secular Coalition of America, is interviewed about current issues and bills before Congress and how seculars can make a difference. Updates on FFRF lawsuits and the faith-based initiative are offered. Philip Appleman's song, "Fleas," a literary parody of Joyce Kilmer's "Trees," is performed by Dan Barker. Dan's Pagan Pulpit issues an "Easter Chal...

Rita Swan , founder of Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, grants a powerful interview about losing a baby to Christian Science anti-medicine tenets, and her subsequent activism to repeal religious exemptions in laws governing healthcare for children. Dan Barker's Pagan Pulpit addresses the biblical defamation of atheists as "fools." Song: "Sunday Morning Blues." Freethinkers Almanac looks at e...

Most of this show is devoted to the timely topic of Roman Catholic crimes against children. Special guest is Joe McGee , a Colorado freethinker who will talk about what it has been like, after nearly 50 years, to go public with crimes committed against him as a child by his family's priest. The show also includes a relevant poem, "Exegesis," read by Philip Appleman, music and a Pagan Pulpit, "The...