Freethought Radio

TOPICS: BILLBOARDS, CITY PRAYER, AND ATHEIST JAZZThis week Freethought Radio hosts Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker interview the award-winning California jazz vocalist Tokeli and talk about her career and life as an atheist Mom. Listen to clips from Tokeli's CD "Where Do You Start?," including "The Nearness of You," "I've Got the World On a String," and "As Time Goes By." Also hear two TV news stories about FFRF's blitz of 20 new billboards in Tampa, Florida, and an update on the city prayer controversy in Aiken, South Carolina.

TOPICS: ANSEL ADAMS & FREETHOUGHT; REMEMBERING ROBERT G. INGERSOLLFreethought Radio will interview the daughter of photographer Ansel Adams, who is a freethinker and Lifetime Member of FFRF, about her life, her famous father, what it was like growing up in Yosemite, current exhibits, and will also interview Ken Helms, a former Unitarian minister and FFRF Lifetime Member. In honor of 19th century "infidel" Robert G. Ingersoll's Aug. 11 birthdate anniversary, the show will play a clip from a famous 1950s movie that pays homage to Ingersoll, and play some of his famous poems set to music. Also featured: How FFRF is stirring things up in South Carolina!

Meet high-school science teacher Kirk Mefford, faculty advisor for the West High School chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and learn how hard it is to be an open atheist on campus. This week’s show also announces many state/church victories and complaints made by FFRF’s legal staff, and features a very funny excerpt of the “Door to Door Atheist” video made by Australian filmmaker John Safran.

The highly intelligent and hardworking Sam Grove, FFRF's summer intern from the law school at Boston University, will talk about his varied legal experiences working for FFRF, and promises to give the "inside story" on what it's like to work for FFRF. The hosts also report on the Vatican's decision to go after pedophile priests. Not!

This week we celebrate the historic 162nd anniversary of the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention by speaking with the daughter of the authors of Bloomer Girls, an atheist hit. Dan and Annie Laurie also examine some "unfriendly" friend-of-the-court briefs filed in appeal to the National Day of Prayer ruling

News clips include excerpts of Sen. Diane Feinstein's quizzing of Supreme Court nominee (now justice) Elena Kagin over the Hein v. FFRF Supreme Court decision, a clip on the National Day of Prayer issue from the Keith Olbermann Show, and news excerpts about the outcry over Iran's plan to stone an "adulteress" to death (now in abeyance). The cohosts also debunk U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert's portrayal of July 4 as a religious event!

The show includes clips of Australia's new atheist prime minister. Guests include: Prof. Mark Silk, an expert on the topic of religion in America, who questions a new Gallup poll on church attendence, and lighthearted filmmaker Roger Nygard, whose new documentary takes on the "Nature of Existence."

The estranged son of notorious anti-homosexual pastor Fred Phelps explains why he left his dad's church and religion. Dan and Annie Laurie discuss reasons to "Sleep in on Sundays," the add campaign that hit Chicago.

Legal scholar Prof. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California-Irvine School of Law, will be the special guest. Prof. Chemerinsky will discuss his role in exposing the unconstitutionality of the IRS parish exemption benefiting clergy, which FFRF is now challenging in federal court.

Guest: Dannel McCollum, author of The Lord Was Not on Trial: The Inside Story of the Supreme Court's Precedent-Setting McCollum ruling, will talk about his new book: about his mother Vashti McCollum's landmark lawsuit. The hosts will also talk briefly about nontheistic musicians born in June and Ayaan Hirsi Ali's new book, Nomad.