July 18 – 20, 2025 (Friday – Sunday)
The Chattanoogan Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton
1201 Broad Street
Chattanooga, TN 37402
This tentative schedule is subject to minor changes.
FRIDAY, JULY 18
4:00 PM Registration opens / Dinner on your own
» Chattanoogan Ballroom Foyer
6:00 Light hors d’oeuvres, petite desserts (Cash Bar: Wine, beer, soft drinks. Use ticket for
1 free drink)
7:00 Opening remarks
Eddie Tabash, CFI Board Chair, Introduced by Robyn Blumner, CFI President and CEO
Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF Co-President
Laughs with Leighann
Leighann Lord, Comedian and Emcee
Jazz standards circa 1925
Tahira Clayton, Vocalist
Pianist Dan Barker, FFRF Co-President
(Conference attendees invited to wear 1920s-era costumes, if interested)
SATURDAY, JULY 19
Breakfast on your own
7:45 AM Coffee and tea / Breakfast on your own
8:00 Registration re-opens
» Foyer
9:10 Welcome
Leighann Lord, Emcee
9:15 Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy
Katherine Stewart, Author, “Money, Lies and God”
10:00 The Harlem Renaissance and African American Secularism
Professor Chris Cameron, Author, “Black Freethinkers”
10:30 Evolution for Educators
Bertha Vazquez, CFI Director of Education
11:00 The Story of Scopes / Clarence Darrow Award
Professor Ed Larson, Author, “Summer for the Gods”
11:45 Book signings for morning speakers
» Foyer
Lunch on your own
1:30 PM A Trial of the Century
Brenda Wineapple, Author, “Keeping the Faith”
2:15 150 Years of Christian Fundamentalism’s Assault on Science Education—a Legal History
Richard Katskee, Director, Duke’s Appellate Litigation Clinic
2:45 Coffee, tea, soft drinks break
» Foyer
3:00 A Conversation with Judge John Jones III /
Defender of the Constitution Award
With Robyn Blumner, Q&A
4:00 Book signing for Richard Dawkins,
John McWhorter, Brenda Wineapple
» Foyer
5:30 Cash Bar
» Foyer
6:00 Saturday Night Dinner
8:00 Audio play: “The Dover Panda Trial”
Written by actor and playwright John de Lancie and Kristen Tregar
Performed by John de Lancie and cast
SUNDAY, JULY 20
8:00 AM Coffee and tea / Breakfast on your own
» Foyer
9:00 Richard Dawkins Award — John McWhorter
Presented by Dawkins, followed by conversation
Sponsored by CFI
10:00 Gather at buses
» Lobby (Broad Street entrance)
10:15 Buses depart hotel
11:00 Buses arrive at Rhea CountyCourthouse, Dayton
Box lunch, water provided
11:30 Brief outdoor addresses
Dan Barker, Robyn Blumner, Richard Dawkins,
Brenda Wineapple, Zenos Frudakis
Noonish Tour courthouse, museum and
local attractions
Groups of 50 or fewer tour the courthouse and
museum (times assigned)
2:00 PM Bus departs Dayton
3:00 Arrive at Chattanoogan Hotel
