Freethought Radio & Podcast

This week we announce a Triumphant Trifecta of legal victories, ending high-school proselytizing in West Virginia, eliminating a religious test for public office in New Jersey, and stopping $1.5 million of South Carolina state funds from going to a religious school. Then we hear Jen Castle, the national director of abortion services for Planned Parenthood, deliver an impassioned speech in acceptance of FFRF’s “Freedom From Religious Fundamentalism” award.

Guest host FFRF Communications Director Amitabh Pal first recounts the state/church watchdog’s achievements over the past few days — and the resulting media coverage. Then, he talks with University of Turin Professor Marzia Casolari about her groundbreaking book, In the Shadow of the Swastika, spotlighting the influence of Italian fascism and Nazism on the Hindu nationalist movement currently governing India. And interspersed throughout the show is the music of freethinker Aaron Copland, whose birth anniversary we are observing this week.

FFRF Legal Director Rebecca Markert and FFRF Attorney Liz Cavell fill in as guest hosts this week. They discuss the alarming election of a Christian nationalism devotee to the speaker of the House of Representatives. FFRF Senior Counsel Patrick Elliott joins to share an exciting update in one of FFRF’s lawsuits on behalf of West Virginia public school students.

For a special themed show, FFRF Co-Presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker discuss the harm of belief in heaven and hell. Songs include “Heaven” by Rupert Brooke, “Pack Up Your Sins (and Go to the Devil in Hades)” by Irving Berlin, “Declaration of the Free” by Robert Ingersoll, “Preacher & the Slave” by Joe Hill, “Spooky Mormon Hell” from The Book of Mormon, “This World” by Malvina Reynolds, “Reincarnation” by Wallace D. McRae, “Joy To The World” by Godless Gospel and “None of the Above” by Dan Barker.

Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Education Ryan Walters is going after FFRF for complaining about that state’s creation of a “public” religious charter school. FFRF Legal Fellow Sammi Lawrence tells us about the new amicus brief we filed in favor of Southwest Airlines enforcing its policy against religious harassment. Then we hear from three eloquent 18-year-old college students who read their winning essays at FFRF’s annual convention: Luci Green, Michelle Liao and Skylar Blumenauer.

FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor energetically demolish the Ten Commandments, both as moral guides and as an influence on U.S. law. After hearing the Philip Appleman poem “Noah,” read by Phil and his wife Marjorie, we listen to Dan’s song “Lucifer’s Lament,” about how Satan gets none of the credit for God’s destructive punishments.

FFRF Legal Fellow Sammi Lawrence describes FFRF’s newest lawsuit challenging a religious test for public office in New Jersey. FFRF’s Equal Justice Works Fellow Kat Grant recounts the Wisconsin Capitol testimony in opposition to a religiously motivated bill that would prohibit gender-affirming care for minors. Then we speak with Washington Post contributing columnist Kate Cohen about her new book We Of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending To Believe (And Maybe You Should Too).

Find out why Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are dissing the Freedom From Religion Foundation. After hearing FFRF Co-President Dan Barker’s song “The Battle of Church and State,” we talk with the distinguished scholar Steven K. Green about his book Separating Church and State: A History.

We report four state-church victories this week: Minnesota, Oklahoma and two in California. We also report on the advocacy group FFRF Action Fund, working to keep religion out of politics and law. Then we speak with Robert P. Jones, president and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), about his powerful new book The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: And the Path to a Shared American Future.