The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s guest this week is constantly striving to protect the interests of secular Americans.
Steven Emmert is the executive director of the Secular Coalition for America, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C., that works to preserve the equal rights of nonreligious Americans. (FFRF is one of the 20 groups that is part of the coalition.) Emmert has been on the staff of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, the YWCA and Us helping Us, serving Black gay men. Emmert has advocated for health access and equity in eight state capitols, as well as on Capitol Hill.
“We have a speaker of the House now who identifies as a Christian nationalist, and their worldview, if you will, revolves completely around their religion,” Emmert explains to “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. “They feel that what should govern our country is those values, and our country was not set up to be that way at all. In fact, it was created to be just the opposite of that.”
If you don’t live in any of the marquee towns where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the interview on FFRF’s YouTube channel. New shows go up every Thursday.
“Freethought Matters” now airs in:
- Chicago, WPWR-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 9 a.m.
- Los Angeles, KCOP-MY (Ch. 13), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
- Madison, Wis., WISC-TV (Ch. 3), Sundays at 11 p.m.
- New York City, WPIX-IND (Ch. 11), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
- San Francisco, KTVU/KICU-IND (on broadcast Ch. 36 and Cable 6), Sundays at 10 a.m.
- Washington, D.C., WDCW-CW (Ch. 50 or Ch. 23 or Ch. 3), Sundays at 8 a.m.
(To view details on channel variations depending on your provider, click here.)
Upcoming shows include an interview with legendary paleontologist Donald C. Johanson, the discoverer of “Lucy,” and an episode that spotlights a recent debate Dan Barker and Phil Zuckerman had with religionists at Oxford. You can catch interviews from previous seasons here, including with Gloria Steinem, Ron Reagan, “Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead, author John Irving, actor John “Q” de Lancie and award-winning columnist Katha Pollitt. Past interviews also include Julia Sweeney and Reps. Jared Huffman, Jamie Raskin, Hank Johnson and Eleanor Holmes Norton, among many other notable authors, activists, musicians, actors and freethinkers.
Please tune in to “Freethought Matters” . . . because freethought matters.
P.S. Please tune in or record according to the times given above regardless of what is listed in your TV guide (it may be listed simply as “paid programming” or even be misidentified). To set up an automatic weekly recording, try taping manually by time or channel. And spread the word to freethinking friends, family or colleagues about a TV show, finally, that is dedicated to providing programming for freethinkers — your antidote to religion on Sunday morning!
