State-Church Watchdogs

After reporting on state/church separation in Alabama, Florida and Arizona, and on blasphemy, book banning and abortion, we hear the optimistic song "Workin' on a World" by Iris DeMent. Then, we speak with NPR Correspondent Sarah McCammon about her new book The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church.

Guest host Amitabh Pal, FFRF Communications Director, begins by talking about the various ways the Freedom From Religion Foundation is making waves: at Capitol Hill receptions, during major conferences and in the media. Then, the show has an interview with Indian activist Shabnam Hashmi discussing possibly the most important election in the history of the world's largest secular democracy. Johannes Brahms (whose birth anniversary is a few days away) and FFRF Co-President Dan Barker provide the musical interludes.

FFRF attorney Sam Grover joins us to describe our newest amicus ("friend of the court") brief over an Arizona school board member who refuses to stop pushing her religion at board meetings. We announce FFRF's "Godless Gospel" musical show to be performed in Manhattan June 24 and 25 (and hear a sneak preview). Then, we speak with Adam Neiblum, author of the book Rise of the Nones: The Importance of Freedom from Religion.

"Christian nationalists are truly in la-la land," says Annie Laurie Gaylor. We cover state/church news in Tennessee, Arizona, Maine, Wisconsin and Louisiana. To honor Earth Day (April 22), after hearing satiric songwriter Roy Zimmerman perform his climate-change song "We Are The Worst," well-known Wisconsin TV meteorologist Bob Lindmeier tells us that "climate change is serious and solvable."

We talk about Charlie Chaplin, the “Lucy” fossil, the eclipse, and state/church issues in Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, Arizona, Utah, Louisiana and Uganda. Then, we speak with journalism Professor Diane Winston about her new book Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan’s Evangelical Vision.

We talk about the eclipse, an intersex atheist, and a freethinking songwriter. We report on state/church complaints and victories. Then, we speak with Danielle Nagle, director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Museum in upper New York state dedicated to the 19th-century feminist, abolitionist, author of the 1893 book Woman, Church and State, and advocate for secular government.

Abortion is in the news this week. FFRF attorneys analyze oral arguments in the mifepristone (abortion pill) case before the Supreme Court that was taken by religious-right groups. Then, we speak with U.K. journalist Siân Norris about her book Bodies Under Siege: How the Far-Right Attack on Reproductive Rights Went Global.

FFRF Senior Counsel Patrick Elliott tells us about FFRF's newest federal lawsuit challenging religious discrimination against the Satanic Temple's desire to host afterschool club meetings for children in Memphis, Tenn. Then, FFRF Director of Governmental Affairs Mark Dann and Senior Policy Counsel Ryan Jayne describe how the FFRF Action Fund (a 501(c)(4) nonprofit) is working to keep religion out of our laws and policies.

Many FFRF victories and legal complaints to talk about this week. Since today is "Pi Day," and π is irrational, we hear the irreverent Joe Hill song about the irrational belief of "pie in the sky" called "The Preacher and the Slave." Then we speak with Steven Emmert, Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America, working to "protect the equal rights of nonreligious Americans."

After we report on state/church violations and victories in Illinois, California, Kentucky, Alabama, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, FFRF's Senior Policy Counsel Ryan Jayne tells us "everything you need to know about public school chaplain bills" that are being introduced in many states. Then, we speak with Wisconsin state Sen. Kelda Roys, an openly atheistic public official who is working to improve this world.