The pandemic is not stopping the Freedom From Religion Foundation from producing a lively fall season of its TV show, “Freethought Matters,” which resumes airing in 12 cities this Sunday, Sept. 6. The season’s first show, with the distinguished journalist and pundit Eleanor Clift, is already available to view via YouTube.
Tune in to find out what it was like for Eleanor Clift to fight for a word on “The McLaughlin Group,” on which she was a well-known panelist. Clift discusses her own “Cinderella story” as a professional writer coming from an era when women journalists started as secretaries, then becoming Newsweek’s White House correspondent. The show focuses on Clift’s book, Founding Sisters and the 19th Amendment, recounting the exciting and controversial history of the suffrage movement, in honor of the recent centennial of the anniversary of the adoption of that amendment.
Clift has appeared as herself in several movies, including “Dave,” “Independence Day, “Murder at 1600,” and the CBS show “Murphy Brown.” She is the author or co-author of several books and has previously spoken at two conventions of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Her late husband, Tom Brazaitis, also a well-known journalist, was an atheist and enthusiastic member of FFRF.
Upcoming guests and topics include the imperiled Constitution with Supreme Court expert Linda Greenhouse, who covered the court for 30 years for the New York Times, and the rise of Christian Nationalism, with authors Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry, authors of Taking America Back for God. The second episode of the season features professor Khyati Y. Joshi talking about her new book, White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America.
Freethought Matters will soon interview the distinguished D.C. delegate, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a member of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, and ’60s and ’70s pop star, movie and TV actor and singer John Davidson, today a nonbeliever.
For a change of pace, upcoming musical guests will include the talented and nonbelieving jazz couple: pianist Addison Frei and vocalist Tahira Clayton. Irreverent troubadour/songwriter Roy Zimmerman and freethinking songwriter and singer Shelly Segal will also be interviewed.
“Freethought Matters” airs in:
- Chicago, WPWR-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 9 a.m.
- Denver, KWGN-CW (Ch. 2), Sundays at 7 a.m.
- Houston, KUBE-IND (Ch. 57), 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.
- Minneapolis, KSTC-IND (Ch. 45), Sundays at 9:30 a.m.
- New York City, WPIX-IND (Ch. 11), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
- Phoenix, KASW-CW (Ch. 61, or 6 or 1006 for HD), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
- Portland, Ore., KRCW-CW (Ch. 32), Sundays at 9 a.m. Comcast channel 703 for High Def, or Channel 3.
- Sacramento, KQCA-MY (Ch. 58), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
- Seattle, KONG-IND (Ch. 16 or Ch. 106 on Comcast). Sundays at 8 a.m.
- Washington, D.C., WDCW-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 8 a.m.
“You can turn on the TV and be preached at 24/7, especially on Sunday mornings. We want to provide sympathetic programming for the ‘unmassed masses,’ and offer an alternative, so that religious programming does not win by default,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president and co-host.The intent is to introduce communities to leading freethought or secular authors, thinkers and activists in a nonthreatening and positive way, adds FFRF co-president and co-host Dan Barker.
Watch previous seasons here, including recent interviews with Ron Reagan, Julia Sweeney and Ed Asner, as well as U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman and Jamie Raskin, co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus.
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!
Photo: Eleanor Clift, pictured at an FFRF function in Washington, D.C., in 2004. Photo by Brent Nicastro.