Freethought Radio

We announce FFRF's Chicago billboard saying "Keep Freedom Alive: Stop Project 2025." After reporting state/church complaints and victories in Texas, Missouri, Florida, and Arkansas, we announce FFRF Action Fund's "Secularist of the Week." Then, we take a time machine back to 2006, our first year of broadcast, to hear our first interview with philosopher Daniel C. Dennett , the year of release of h...

After reporting on efforts to keep state and church separate in Tennessee, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Florida, we get acquainted with FFRF's new multimedia producer Leo Costello . Then, South Carolina humanist and atheist debater Herb Silverman , founder and president emeritus of the Secular Coalition for America, tells us "How to talk to Christians."

After reporting on state/church news around the country, FFRF's Senior Counsel Sam Grover  tells us about the FFRF court victory against the Texas governor that took nine years to finalize! We hear the song "Because" by Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir. Then, we speak with "Reverend Billy" ( William Talen ), the "pastor" of the secular Earth Church in New York City who uses performance a...

We describe our legal efforts to gain information about the attempt by the Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Education to put the bible into every classroom, and similar attempts in Tennessee to inject religion into government. We hear Rupert Brooke's poem "Heaven" (from the point of view of a fish) set to music by Dan Barker. Then we talk with Cara Fitzpatrick , author of the new book, The Death...

Project 2025 and "divine intervention" are discussed, as well as state/church complaints and victories in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Illinois, New Jersey and Tennessee. FFRF Anne Nicol Gaylor Legal Fellow Sammi Lawrence joins us to talk about our legal victory allowing a nonreligious after-school group to meet on campus alongside the religious Good News Club in Memphis, Tenn. Then, we talk with evolutio...

Christian nationalist rhetoric is heating up, especially regarding the assassination attempt of Donald Trump. We report on a state/church victory in Tennessee and state/church complaints in New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, Kentucky and Indiana. After hearing a hilarious take on the bible by comedian Robin Williams, we speak with Cait West , author of the new book RIFT: A Memoir of Breaking Away from C...

We report on FFRF's efforts to keep Christian nationalists in check around the country. Honoring the anniversary of the birth of the anti-fascist singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie, we hear the funk/soul version of "This Land is Your Land" performed by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Then, FFRF's Legal Director Patrick Elliott describes our lawsuit challenging the Louisiana law requiring the posting...

The Christian nationalist "Project 2025" and the Ten Commandments are the focus of this week's show. We hear Dan Barker's song "We, The People," challenging the notion that we are "one nation, under God." Then, sociologist  Samuel L. Perry , author of The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy , describes the clear and present danger of mixing religion...

We announce state/church victories and complaints in Louisiana, Idaho, North Carolina, Texas and Mississippi. FFRF Senior Counsel Sam Grover tells us about the lawsuit FFRF has filed this week with a coalition challenging Louisiana's new law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. Then, Tony-nominated Broadway producer, director and theater owner Eric Krebs t...

We announce plans to sue the state of Louisiana over their new law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. We hear Congressman Jared Huffman and comedian John Oliver describe the Christian nationalist dangers of Project 2025. Then historian  Bryan Mark Rigg  tells us about the religious nationalism undergirding the atrocities of the Japanese military (30 mill...

We celebrate the 96th birthday of the Broadway composer Charles Strouse, a lifelong atheist, by hearing the protest song he wrote for the musical "Golden Boy," "No More," sung by Sammy Davis Jr. We also reprise part of our 2009 interview with Strouse. Then we speak with Professor Anthony B. Pinn about his new book, The Black Practice of Disbelief: An Introduction to the Principles, History, and Co...

A judge ruled that our lawsuit challenging an Oklahoma religious charter school can continue. FFRF Director of Communications Amitabh Pal tells us about the national election results in India, which have weakened the threat of Hindu nationalism. Then we speak with novelist Amy Sohn about her book on Anthony Comstock, The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age .

A theocrat and a secularist duke it out in Louisiana. We ask whether Justice Samuel Alito should recuse himself. We report state/church complaints in Minnesota, California, Tennessee and Virginia. FFRF Legal Fellow  Hirsh Joshi tells us how his letter to a Missouri school district successfully stopped prayers at graduation. Then we talk with neurology Professor Susan R. Barry about her new book, D...

We call on Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to resign, after revelations that political and Christian nationalist flags have flown outside his homes. Deputy Legal Director Liz Cavell prognosticates over SCOTUS's upcoming mifepristone decision and Social Works Fellow Kat Grant discusses the religious war against the LGBTQAI-plus community from a personal and professional perspective.

Today's guest, philosophy Professor Patrick J. Hurley , discusses his insightful new book, Religion, Power and Illusion: A Genealogy of Religious Belief . And FFRF Legal Fellow Hirsh Joshi talks about how an FFRF complaint caused a Minnesota jail to repaint — and hopefully repent — over a massive Ten Commandments display.

After reporting on state/church separation in Alabama, Florida and Arizona, and on blasphemy, book banning and abortion, we hear the optimistic song "Workin' on a World" by Iris DeMent. Then, we speak with NPR Correspondent Sarah McCammon about her new book The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church.

Guest host Amitabh Pal , FFRF Communications Director, begins by talking about the various ways the Freedom From Religion Foundation is making waves: at Capitol Hill receptions, during major conferences and in the media. Then, the show has an interview with Indian activist  Shabnam Hashmi  discussing possibly the most important election in the history of the world's largest secular democracy. Joha...

FFRF attorney Sam Grover joins us to describe our newest amicus ("friend of the court") brief over an Arizona school board member who refuses to stop pushing her religion at board meetings. We announce FFRF's "Godless Gospel" musical show to be performed in Manhattan June 24 and 25 (and hear a sneak preview). Then, we speak with  Adam Neiblum , author of the book Rise of the Nones: The Importance...

"Christian nationalists are truly in la-la land," says Annie Laurie Gaylor. We cover state/church news in Tennessee, Arizona, Maine, Wisconsin and Louisiana. To honor Earth Day (April 22), after hearing satiric songwriter Roy Zimmerman perform his climate-change song "We Are The Worst," well-known Wisconsin TV meteorologist  Bob Lindmeier tells us that "climate change is serious and solvable."

We talk about Charlie Chaplin, the "Lucy" fossil, the eclipse, and state/church issues in Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, Arizona, Utah, Louisiana and Uganda. Then, we speak with journalism Professor Diane Winston about her new book Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan's Evangelical Vision .

We talk about the eclipse, an intersex atheist, and a freethinking songwriter. We report on state/church complaints and victories. Then, we speak with Danielle Nagle , director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Museum in upper New York state dedicated to the 19th-century feminist, abolitionist, author of the 1893 book Woman, Church and State, and advocate for secular government.

Abortion is in the news this week. FFRF attorneys analyze oral arguments in the mifepristone (abortion pill) case before the Supreme Court that was taken by religious-right groups. Then, we speak with U.K. journalist Siân Norris about her book Bodies Under Siege: How the Far-Right Attack on Reproductive Rights Went Global .

FFRF Senior Counsel Patrick Elliott tells us about FFRF's newest federal lawsuit challenging religious discrimination against the Satanic Temple's desire to host afterschool club meetings for children in Memphis, Tenn. Then, FFRF Director of Governmental Affairs Mark Dann and Senior Policy Counsel Ryan Jayne describe how the FFRF Action Fund (a 501(c)(4) nonprofit) is working to keep religion out...

Many FFRF victories and legal complaints to talk about this week. Since today is "Pi Day," and π is irrational, we hear the irreverent Joe Hill song about the irrational belief of "pie in the sky" called "The Preacher and the Slave." Then we speak with Steven Emmert , Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America, working to "protect the equal rights of nonreligious Americans."

After we report on state/church violations and victories in Illinois, California, Kentucky, Alabama, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, FFRF's Senior Policy Counsel  Ryan Jayne  tells us "everything you need to know about public school chaplain bills" that are being introduced in many states. Then, we speak with Wisconsin state Sen.  Kelda Roys , an openly atheistic public official who is working to improve ...