Browse By Date
Year:
Month:
Lisa Miller (Treu) joins us this “Easter” weekend (on Black Sabbath) to talk about the movie The Life of Brian and to introduce the irreverent song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” We celebrate spring and bemoan war/terrorism by listening to Yip Harburg’s evocative peace song “One Sweet Morning.” Then we talk, on his birthday, with evolutionary biologist and prolific author Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, The God Delusion) about his autobiographical book, Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science.
We welcome the spring with some light music by freethinking songwriter Yip Harburg (who wrote “Over The Rainbow”) and country singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks (“God Isn’t Real”). After FFRF staff attorney Sam Grover updates us on some state/church victories in southern states, we announce a new drawing for the Yip Harburg book Rhymes For The Irreverent. Then we talk with author, historian, and cultural critic Susan Jacoby about her new book, Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion.
FFRF’s JFK ad is airing on Colbert’s Late Show this month. After talking with law student Seth Wrinkle about the amicus brief he drafted for FFRF about a 40-foot Maryland cross, we listen to Univision’s Jorge Ramos explain why he rejected his Mexican Catholic faith and is now an agnostic. Then we interview agnostic bible scholar Bart Ehrman about his new book, Jesus Before The Gospels: How the earliest Christians remembered, changed, and invented their stories of the savior.
Sticker shock! We announce a new federal lawsuit challenging a Brewster County (Texas) sheriff affixing Christian cross stickers on police vehicles. After hearing John Oliver’s hilarious take on the Supreme Court abortion case in Whole Woman’s Health Care, we talk with Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Linda Greenhouse, who covered the Supreme Court for 40 years for the New York Times, discussing that case and the implications of a Scalia-less court.
FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel tells us about our exciting new federal court victory stopping school-board prayer in California. We announce FFRF’s newest lawsuit challenging Texas Governor Gregg Abbot’s censorship of our “Bill of Rights” nativity display. After hearing Lena Horne sing the irreverent Yip Harburg song, “Ain’t It The Truth?”, we talk with Australian author Meg Wallace about hew new book, Freedom From Religion: Rethinking Article 18, suggesting how the U.N. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” can be improved to strengthen secular government.
After reporting an FFRF victory removing the Ten Commandments from a Mississippi county courthouse, we announce FFRF’s new “I’m Secular and I Vote!” campaign to impress candidates with the concerns of the fast-growing demographic of nonbelieving voters. We honor the life of freethinking civil-rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois, founder of the NAACP. Then we talk with Armin Navabi, a former Muslim from Iran, founder of Atheist Republic and author of the book Why There Is No God: Simple Responses to 20 Common Arguments for the Existence of God.
FFRF staff attorney Sam Grover updates us on our amended complaint adding more plaintiffs to our lawsuit (filed along with the ACLU) challenging the live nativity scene performed by Concord High School in Elkhart, Indiana, and the accompanying harassment and death threats. Then Abigail Cantor, an award-winning national water management expert (as well as musician) tells us about the science behind what needs to be done in Flint, Michigan (and other cities) to improve water quality.
This week we celebrate the birthday of Charles Darwin and the 90th birthday poet Philip Appleman (a Darwin scholar). Annie Laurie interviews Dan about his best-selling new book, GOD: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction (Foreword by Richard Dawkins). Then Dr. Abby Hafer champions Darwin’s ideas by discussing her delightful new book, The Not-So-Intelligent Designer: Why Evolution Explains the Human Body and Intelligent Design Does Not.
Iowa atheist Justin Scott tells us about his experience interviewing political candidates in the Iowa caucuses about their views on the separation of state and church. After hearing Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders respond to Justin, we talk with Jane Donnelly by phone from Dublin, who just testified before the U.N. on behalf of Atheist Ireland and ‘teachdontpreach.ie’ about the problem of Catholic control of public schools in the Republic of Ireland.
