The co-creator of possibly the most acclaimed TV series of all time is the guest on the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “Freethought Matters” show this Sunday.
Ann Druyan is an award-winning writer, producer, director and science educator. You perhaps know her as the co-writer with her late husband, Carl Sagan, of the 1980s Emmy and Peabody-winning TV series, “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.” It’s the most watched PBS series in history. Together, they wrote six New York Times-bestselling books, including Comet, Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors, Demon-Haunted World, Billions and Billions and The Varieties of Scientific Experience. She poignantly talks about how she and Sagan faced his death without religion.
Druyan, who might be described as “an evangelist for science,” gives a riveting interview about the vital need for respect for science during the pandemic and in the midst of climate change. The show will play a teaser of the latest “Cosmos” installment, “Cosmos: Possible Worlds,” which premiered on the National Geographic channel and is now airing on Fox. As founder and CEO of Cosmos Studios, she’s also produced the acclaimed “Cosmic Journey” and “Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey,” for which she’s won the Peabody, Producers Guild and Emmy awards.
If you don’t live in the 27 percent of the country’s markets where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the Druyan interview on FFRF’s YouTube channel.
“I think xenophobia is a very serious element of our demons,” she explains Demon-Haunted World (co-written with Sagan) to “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Then there’s superstition, which is clearly false pattern recognition, letting our fears, our projections, our own self-hatred (which has been inculcated into us by various traditions) — all of this sickness that we have perpetuated out of a sense of duty to our ancestors and to those who came before us. There is so much evolutionary baggage and cultural baggage: misogyny, fear of women, hatred of women, all of these things. These are the issues that we have to come to grips with now that we understand them, now that they’ve been demystified.”
This is the fall season’s 15th episode of “Freethought Matters,” airing in 12 cities on Sunday, Dec. 13.
Upcoming shows will include a Solstice musical festival and interviews with two courageous individuals who’ve recently taken and won state/church lawsuits with FFRF.
“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.
Previous guests this season include: pundit Eleanor Clift, whose interview you can watch here, Professor Khyati Joshi, an expert on Christian privilege, actor and FFRF After-Life Member John de Lancie of “Star Trek” “Q” fame, atheists and jazz artists Addison Frei and Tahira Clayton providing a double musical treat, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Linda Greenhouse, the country’s leading analyst of the U.S. Supreme Court, and legislative stalwart and feminist and civil rights pioneer U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton. One of the most eminent public intellectuals in the world, Professor Steven Pinker, was interviewed a few episodes ago talking about his new course on rationality. Legendary TV host, actor and singer John Davidson was the guest on last week’s episode.
Watch previous seasons here, including 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!
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational charity, is the nation’s largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics), and has been working since 1978 to keep religion and government separate.
