Guest Brenda Wineapple explains the Scopes Monkey Trial — and why it still matters today. Wineapple is an award-winning author whose latest book, “Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation,” looks back on what is known as the trial of a century. Wineapple has been a Guggenheim Fellow, has received three National Endowment Fellowships, and writes regularly for publications such as the New York Review of Books.
“You had one of the leading criminal and labor lawyers in the United States, Clarence Darrow, who volunteered to defend a man named John Scopes who had broken the law [against teaching evolution],” Wineapple sets the scene up for “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor and for the program audience. “His opponent was a three-time presidential candidate in the Democratic Party. So it had all the ingredients for a kind of phenomenal event that I thought could only happen in America.”
Wineapple will be speaking at the Scopes Trial Centennial next July in Chattanooga, Tenn., that FFRF and Center for Inquiry are co-sponsoring to commemorate the trial and the current controversies over evolution. Look for more details soon!
“Freethought Matters” now airs in:
- Chicago, WPWR-CW (Ch. 50), 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.
- New York City, WPIX-IND (Ch. 11), Sundays at 10 a.m.
- San Francisco, KTVU/KICU-IND (on broadcast Ch. 36 and Cable 6), Sundays at 10 a.m.
- Washington, D.C., WDCW-CW (Ch. 50 or Ch. 23 or Ch. 3), Sundays at 8 a.m.
If you don’t live in any of the marquee towns where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the interview on FFRF’s YouTube channel. New shows go up every Thursday.
Upcoming guests include New York Times columnist Charles Blow, Tia Levings, author of “A Well-Trained Wife,” Matthew D. Taylor, author of “The Violent Take It By Force” and Josh Cowen, author of “The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers.” You can catch interviews from earlier this fall, including with Rep. Jared Huffman, and from previous seasons here, including with Gloria Steinem, Ron Reagan, author John Irving, actor John “Q” de Lancie and award-winning columnist Katha Pollitt.
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!
