Watch the episode teaser here.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “Freethought Matters” show this Sunday interviews an author of a poignant family spy memoir and a previous work on a Rockefeller-financed missionary invasion of the Amazon.
Charlotte Dennett is a former reporter in the Middle East, an investigative journalist and an attorney. Her new book, which is very personal, is The Crash of Flight 3084: A Lost Spy, A Daughter’s Quest, and the Deadly Politics of the Great Game for Oil. It has a foreword by her brother, the famous freethinking philosopher Daniel C. Dennett III, who has also been on “Freethought Matters.” The book is about the mysterious death of their father, Daniel C. Dennett Jr., an American spy in the Middle East who was killed in an as yet unexplained plane crash in Ethiopia in 1947. Her previous books include The People v. Bush and Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil, co-written with her husband, Gerard Colby.
“The leaders of the governments needed somebody out there in the hinterlands to protect the oil crews and the ranchers and so on,” Dennett tells “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor about Thy Will Be Done. “So they accepted having these evangelical missionaries come into the land as linguists who promised to teach the indigenous tribes to read and write in their own language. And then knowing their own language, they would then learn Spanish or Portuguese, which would better integrate them into the society.”
The episode will be airing in over a dozen cities on Sunday, Oct. 17. If you don’t live in the quarter-plus of the nation where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the interview on the “Freethought Matters” playlist on FFRF’s YouTube channel. New shows go up every Thursday. You can also receive notifications when we post new episodes of “Freethought Matters” by subscribing to FFRF’s YouTube channel.
Coming shows this season include interviews with renowned intellectual Professor Steven Pinker on his new book, Rationality, and Secular Coalition for America Executive Director Debbie Allen.
“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, KIAH-CW (Ch. 39), Sundays at 11 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.
- San Francisco, KICU-IND (Ch. 36), Sundays at 10 a.m.
- Seattle, KONG-IND (Ch. 16 or Ch. 106 on Comcast). Sundays at 8 a.m.
- Washington, D.C., WDCW-CW (Ch. 50 or Ch. 23 or Ch. 3), Sundays at 8 a.m.
The show launched its fall season in early September with clips from the best past interviews on the program. Subsequently, it featured an interview with famed evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. The program focused on a landmark Supreme Court case against religious indoctrination in public schools, and two weeks ago it offered answers on how nonreligious people should deal with death. Recently, the interview was with FFRF Honorary Director Katha Pollitt, one of the nation’s foremost writers, freethinkers, atheists and feminists.
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!
