Freethought Radio

After the horrible Supreme Court decision upholding an abortion ban, we say "DO mess with Texas." We honor the memory of actor Ed Asner and hear folksinger Kristin Lems perform her classic cautionary song "Days of the Theocracy." Then we listen to a retrospective of Freethought Matters TV guests, including Ron Reagan, John Davidson, Cecile Richards, Ann Druyan, Julia Sweeney, Daniel C. Dennett, two members of Congress, and others.

Covid, Afghanistan and court reform are among this week's topics. We hear from the winners of FFRF's "First in the Family" Freethought Tuition Relief for students of color (selected by Black Skeptics Los Angeles). Then FFRF's Director of Communication Amit Pal joins as we talk with Professor Benjamin Cowan about his new book Moral Majorities across the Americas: Brazil, the United States. and the Creation of the Religious Right.

We begin by criticizing anti-science resistance to vaccinations and masking. After reporting an FFRF state/church victory in Florida, stopping a high-school baseball coach from praying with students, we hear the 1986 rock song "Dear God" by atheist Andy Partridge. Then we speak with Professor and author Juan Cole of the University of Michigan, an expert on the Middle East and South Asia, about what is happening with the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

We are still fighting religious resistance to vaccinations. FFRF attorney Liz Cavell tells us about FFRF's new "Prayer Walk Report" describing how some public schools are unconstitutionally inviting or allowing "prayer warriors" to invade the campus. Then former African imam Mohamed Cisse tells us why he left Islam and is now a board member of the secular Clergy Project.

Masks, vaccinations and religion. After reporting FFRF legal complaints and victories, we celebrate the birthdate of 19th-century freethinker Robert G. Ingersoll by listening to his voice on an early 1890s Edison cylinder and hearing the song "The Time To Be Happy Is Now," which is based on Ingersoll's creed. Then we speak with former minister Candace Gorham, a licensed mental health counselor, about her new book Death, Dying, and Disbelief.

We discuss the Christian nationalism behind the Jan. 6 insurrection and call for increased vaccination. After reporting state/church news and hearing the song "Just Say NO To Religion," we speak with Lon Ostrander, a former Wesleyan minister who is now president of The Clergy Project, which helps ministers and priests who no longer believe to leave the pulpit.

After listening to state/church news and decrying the religious anti-vaxxers, we hear Shelley Segal's song "I Don't Believe in Fairies" from her "Atheist Album." Then we talk with cognitive psychologist, linguist and author Steven Pinker (FFRF's Honorary Chair) about his book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Humanism, Science, and Progress.

Proselytizing deputies, anti-abortion lawmakers, sexual predators, praying judges — FFRF is fighting them. After hearing irreverent humor from the comedians Robin Williams and Phyllis Diller, we talk with Robert P. Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute, about the organization's new unprecedented county-by-county "2020 Census on Religion in America" showing that while religion is shrinking, the nonreligious percentage is holding steady.

This week, we report state/church victories in Colorado and Pennsylvania. After hearing poems by feminist, activist and atheist Sherry Matulis— "Religion's Child" and "Benediction," set to music by Dan Barker— we talk with Pakistani-American Muhammad Syed, co-founder and president of Ex Muslims of North America (EXMNA), about the new and unique "Apostate Report" that surveyed hundreds of former Muslims who have left Islam.

We honor Independence Day by celebrating our independence from religion. After hearing the optimistic song "There's a Good Time Coming" by Stephen Foster (born July 4, 1826), we talk with reporter and author Sarah Posner about her book, Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump.