The Freedom From Religion Foundation interviews for its TV show this Sunday a thinker who says we have no free will — and that this is a good thing.
Robert Sapolsky, a professor of biology, neurological sciences and neurosurgery at Stanford University and a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, has received FFRF’s “Emperor Has No Clothes Award” for his public dissent from religion and is an honorary FFRF director. His many books include A Primate’s Memoir, Monkeyluv, The Trouble With Testosterone and Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. Sapolsky’s 2017 book Behave was a New York Times bestseller and was named Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. His latest book, released in October by Penguin Press, is called Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will.
“I was raised quite religious in a fairly orthodox setting,” Sapolsky tells “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Somewhere when I was about 14, I had a very epiphanal night where I decided not only was there no free will and no purpose to anything, but sort of God went by the side at that point as well and has not been back. And I have since then not been capable of a shred of religiosity or spirituality about anything.”
If you don’t live in the quarter-plus viewership of the nation where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the interview on FFRF’s YouTube channel. New shows go up every Thursday.
“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, WFTC-29, Sundays at 7:30 a.m.
- New York City, WPIX-IND (Ch. 11), Sundays at 10 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), Sunday 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.
A word to our Phoenix viewers: Due to a sudden and unannounced change in stations and ownership, the program will no longer be available in the city. Look for other changes in the New Year. The show next Sunday will be a Winter Solstice special.
You can catch interviews from past seasons here, including recent ones with Gloria Steinem, Ron Reagan, “Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead, author John Irving, actor John “Q” de Lancie and award-winning columnist Katha Pollitt. Past interviews include Julia Sweeney and Reps. Jared Huffman, Jamie Raskin, Hank Johnson and Eleanor Holmes Norton, among many other notable authors, activists, musicians, actors and freethinkers.
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 — your antidote to religion on Sunday morning!
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