Orlando-based actress and community activist Randa Black won the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s Nothing Fails Like Prayer Award last year for her excellent secular invocations before several Florida governmental bodies. Black worked for Nickelodeon Studios for eight years as a game show host in the live show “Game Lab,” portrayed an FBI agent in “The Cape,” a drama series, and has starred in “Unsolved Mysteries” and several episodes of different TV shows. She has also appeared in hundreds of national and regional commercials.
“Right before I gave it, there was a group of men on the side and they were all huddled together like I was going to say ‘666!’ over and over and over again,” Black recounts in a lively interview with “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor her experience of presenting a secular invocation to a Florida city council. “The reaction was that they were nervous. But then they don’t have invocations anymore. They don’t want to give anybody a voice now.”
If you don’t live in the quarter-plus of the nation where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already watch the interview 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.
Upcoming guests on the show include two authors discussing white Christian nationalism — Katherine Stewart (The Power Worshippers) and Sam Perry (The Flag and the Cross) — plus Washington Post columnist and outspoken atheist Kate Cohen. This fall season already contains must-see interviews with Texas iconoclast Jim Hightower (who will be receiving FFRF’s Clarence Darrow award at its October convention), leading constitutional abortion rights expert Professor Geoffrey Stone and Professor Anthea Butler, an incisive commentator on white Christian nationalism.
“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 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.
You can catch interviews from past seasons here, including with Gloria Steinem, Ron Reagan and Julia Sweeney and Reps. Jared Huffman, Jamie Raskin, Hank Johnson, Jerry McNerney and Eleanor Holmes Norton.
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!
