Freethought Radio

We take a light-hearted look at the freethinking credentials of actress/comedian Maya Rudolph, whose birthday is next week. Co-host Annie Laurie Gaylor gives a first-hand account of attending the State Department's Ministerial on Religious Liberty last week, where seculars were an endangered species. FFRF Director of Communications Amit Pal, who co-hosts in Dan Barker's absence, fills us in on FFRF's latest breaking news. Then we interview the remarkable Aline Pham, 17, winner of FFRF's annual essay competition for high school seniors, who tells us why she relies on herself, not a god. Andrew L. Seidel, director of strategic response, then explores the sinister nature of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's new Commission on Unalienable Rights.

We mourn the death of former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, and celebrate the anniversary of the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention which led to woman's suffrage. Freethinkers of color are encouraged to "come out of the closet." After hearing some of Dan Barker's early Christian songs that he wrote for children, we talk with Marian Wiggins, former Senior Editor for Gospel Light, a publisher of Christian Sunday School and Vacation Bible School curricula, who used to work with Dan and who has also left the faith and is now a freethinker.

The Texas "JESUS" sign finally comes down. Coach-led prayer is stopped in Pennsylvania and Georgia. We talk with Shiv Shah, one of the winners of FFRF's High-School Essay contest. Then we are joined by FFRF Legal Director Rebecca Markert as we interview David Williamson, the lead plaintiff in the victorious federal appeals court decision handed down this week declaring that the Brevard County, Florida, Commissioners violated the U.S. Constitution by barring nontheistic invocations.

We celebrate the 4th of July by honoring the radical Declaration, our secular Constitution, the freethinking founders such as Thomas Paine, and the feminist Frances Wright. We hear the Stephen Foster (born July 4, 1826) song "Some Folks Do." Then we speak with the award-winning jazz pianist Addison Frei about his life as a freethinking composer and performer, and his albums (such as Future Speak) that not only entertain but advocate for reason, science, and equality.

FFRF attorneys sent more than a thousand letters to public school districts warning of the dangers of bible classes. We complain about an Appleton, Wisconsin, school board member who is a pastor who is flagrantly mixing religion and government. We talk with FFRF lead attorney Rebecca Markert about the disappointing decision by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing a large Christian cross to remain on public land. Then we interview, by phone from London, journalist and author Catherine Nixey, about her book The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World.

Bad news for state/church separation: the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Bladensburg cross to be constitutional, and intolerant right-wing ideologue Tony Perkins (president of the Christian Family Research Council) has ironically been appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. FFRF's full-page ad in the New York Times challenges the Christian-nationalist attack on reproductive rights. After hearing Ta Nehisi Coates' reasoned plea for reparations, we talk with author and screenwriter (Bill & Ted movies) Chris Matheson about his video "God's Art Museum" and about his upcoming book, The Buddha's Story.

We challenge a Tennessee sheriff deputy who preaches that America should follow the biblical law that homosexuals should be "put to death," and a Tennessee District Attorney who uses his religious beliefs to deny equal treatment to the LGBTQ community. Then we speak with the founder and president of Rationalist International, Sanal Edamaruku, who had to flee India to Finland after being accused by the Catholic Church of blasphemy because he exposed a purported miracle of a weeping Jesus statue in Mumbai as nothing more than a leaking water pipe. Sanal tells us about the Rationalist conference in Cambridge, UK, July 27-28.

Demons on airplanes. Democrats deleting God. Courtroom prayer by judges. Bible classes in public schools. We talk about all of this, and more, plus Icelandic and other international humanists on today's show. After FFRF attorney Sam Grover describes our newest lawsuit, challenging a proselytizing judge in Texas, we talk with Mark Dann, FFRF's new Director of Governmental Affairs, a full-time DC lobbyist, about how to raise the national profile of freethinkers and the Freedom From Religion Foundation in order to promote secular legislation that honors the separation of state and church.

What does the bible really say about abortion? Annie Laurie Gaylor and FFRF attorney Liz Cavell answer that question. Then, on the first anniversary of the successful May 2018 referendum to overturn Ireland's constitutional ban on abortion, we talk on the phone from Dublin with feminist and LGBTQ activist, professor Ailbhe Smyth, one of the main organizers of Together For Yes, which successfully campaigned to repeal the Eighth Amendment.

This week we talk about the religious-right assault on abortion rights, and what we can do about it. After hearing a hilarious "Practicing Atheist" monologue by Irish comedian Dave Allen, we talk on the phone from Mumbai, India, with Irfan Engineer, Director of the Centre for the Study of Society and Secularism, about the disappointing results of this month's national election in India, voting Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi back into power.