Debating Religion (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

We discuss the Supreme Court decision allowing states to defund Planned Parenthood and we decry many attempts by Christian nationalists to force religious conformity on a diverse nation. 

After celebrating the life of the irreverent comedian, actor, filmmaker, songwriter and playwright Mel Brooks (who turns 99 this month), we hear opening statements in two debates in the United Kingdom that FFRF co-presidents participated in. 

We hear the Opening Statement by Dan Barker in a debate at Oxford University on the topic: “This House Believes God Is a Delusion.” Then we hear the Opening Statement by Annie Laurie Gaylor at Cambridge University on the topic: “This House Believes Religion and Feminism Are Incompatible.”

Interview: 

https://ffrf.org/news/freethought-radio/freethought-today-june-26-2025/

She Launched “The Daily Show.” Now She’s Fighting Red State Abortion Bans. (Reveal podcast)

On this week’s “More To The Story,” Lizz Winstead discusses her advocacy group that uses comedy to educate and enrage.

For abortion rights advocate Lizz Winstead, her work has never felt more urgent. But her path to advocacy was a curvy one. She started out as a comedian, first as a stand-up and eventually as the co-creator of The Daily Show, which redefined television by deftly combining comedy and politics.

“I kept getting increasingly unnerved and also frustrated that I was just shelling people with information, even though it was funny, and not giving them a way to fight back,” Winstead says.

Today, Winstead produces the Feminist Buzzkills podcast and is founder of Abortion Access Front. Again, she’s weaving together politics and comedy to educate people about abortion laws and provide resources on independent abortion providers. But this time, she’s also giving them the tools to fight.

“I wanted to combine the effectiveness of using humor to expose hypocrisy and bad actors and then combine that with a call to action,” Winstead says.
Interview: 

https://revealnews.org/podcast/lizz-winstead-abortion-rights-ban-trump-dobbs/

“The Sin of Empathy” Part II (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

In this episode of Straight White American Jesus, we explore the troubling idea—promoted in some evangelical circles—that empathy is a sin. The conversation centers around Joe Rigney’s book The Sin of Empathy, unpacking its flawed biblical and theological claims. We examine how this perspective targets women in particular, framing empathy as a weakness that leads believers astray.

The episode also connects this mindset to broader cultural issues such as feminism, emotional intelligence, and traditional gender roles within Christian communities. Finally, we discuss the implications of this view on topics like transgender rights and abortion—and point out the striking absence of New Testament support in Rigney’s arguments.
Interview: 

https://www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/the-sin-of-empathy-part-ii/

Making Good Trouble (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

We cover a range of state/church news on the federal and state levels. We announce FFRF’s Scopes Trial Centennial celebration to be held in Tennessee in July. After hearing the irreverent Monty Python song, “Every Sperm is Sacred,” we memorialize the life of former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, an ardent proponent of feminism and democracy and author of the book Make Trouble, by replaying our 2018 interview with her on Freethought Radio.

Interview: 

https://ffrf.org/news/freethought-radio/freethought-today-january-30-2025/

Feminism and Religion (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

We talk about Trump’s cabinet picks and report on state/church news around the country. 

FFRF’s Senior Litigation Counsel Sam Grover joins us to talk about our recent complaint over Oklahoma Superintendent of Education Ryan Walters pushing religion in public schools. 

Then, we hear Annie Laurie Gaylor and Maryam Namazie (Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain) debate the topic “Feminism and Religion are Incompatible” at Cambridge University last week.

Interview: 

https://ffrf.org/news/freethought-radio/freethought-today-november-21-2024/

Mika Brzezinski: Asking if we're ready for a woman is 'stupidest thing I've ever heard'

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jKaISqrSDJ8

‘Dangerous and un-American’: new recording of JD Vance’s dark vision of women and immigration

In the 2021 interview Vance also claimed men and boys in the US were "suppressed" in their masculinity and made racially charged remarks about American cities and his political opponents...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/31/jd-vance-podcast-feminism-immigration

"I Escaped a Red Pill Cult" (with Coleman Watts) (Seth Andews; The Thinking Atheist podcast)

What's the "red pill?" Ex-cult member Coleman Watts explains the term and tells his deconstruction story.

Interview: 

https://www.thethinkingatheist.com/podcast-1/episode/7a3c0763/i-escaped-a-red-pill-cult-with-coleman-watts

Opinion | JD Vance Has a Bunch of Weird Views on Gender - POLITICO

But the one instinct that Vance and the rest of the New Right share is a deep skepticism about modern feminism and gender equality — or what the New Right calls "gender ideology." Overt chauvinism that seeks to roll back much of feminism's gains is one of the most obvious unifying threads of this varied movement, and Trump's choice of Vance anoints and entrenches it into the culture-war side of the MAGA movement...

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/24/jd-vance-gender-views-00170673

Opinion | Less Marriage, Less Sex, Less Agreement - The New York Times

The upshot, polling suggests, is that men are becoming grumpier and more resentful of women's success, and more drawn to conservative authoritarian populists, from Donald Trump to misogynist internet personalities like Andrew Tate. 

The Glocalities survey concluded that around the world the "radical right increasingly finds fertile ground among young men, which is already impacting elections." Representative Matt Gaetz suggested that it doesn't matter if Republicans antagonize female voters because they can be replaced by male voters...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/opinion/marriage-sex-gender-divide.html

Woman, Church and State (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

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.

Interview: 

https://ffrf.org/news/radio/show-items/item/43594-freethought-radio-april-4-2024

Josh Hawley gets one thing right about unemployed men.

… Hawley's belief that men are idle because traditional masculinity is under attack ignores the simple fact that the economic forces of globalization, automation, and outsourcing—and the subsequent rise of suicide, overdoses, and alcohol poisonings—predate our current reckoning with gender norms and roles by decades. Many of these men were suffering long before the #MeToo movement...

https://slate.com/business/2021/11/josh-hawley-men-porn-video-games-employment-despair.html

Republican senator Josh Hawley worries feminism has driven men to ‘pornography and video games’ | Republicans | The Guardian

Far-right senator from Missouri ridiculed for his homilies on 'manly virtues'…

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/01/josh-hawley-feminism-men-pornography-video-games

How An Anti-Vice Crusader Sabotaged The Early Birth Control Movement (Terry Gross; Fresh Air)

In 1916, feminist activist Emma Goldman was arrested in New York City just before giving a lecture on family planning. One year earlier, birth control advocate Margaret Sanger had been charged with violating the law. Goldman and Sanger are just two of the eight women profiled in Sohn's book. Others include nurses and health practitioners, spiritualists and women in the so-called free love movement.

Interview: 

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/07/1013592570/how-an-anti-vice-crusader-sabotaged-the-early-birth-control-movement

Feminist Activist Gloria Steinem (Terry Gross, Fresh Air)

The new drama 'The Glorias' is based on the feminist activist's memoir 'My Life on the Road,' and follows Steinem from ages 20 to 40. Steinem spoke with Terry Gross in 2015 about her unique childhood, the illegal abortion she had when she was 22, and how aging has been liberating. We'll also hear an excerpt of her 1987 interview, about the 15th anniversary of 'Ms.' magazine, the feminist publication which she co-founded.

Interview: 

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/25/916910998/feminist-activist-gloria-steinem

Tucker Carlson regularly fearmongers about the decline of male power

Interview:
https://youtu.be/V6eygvlJHfc

Murphy Brown vs Vice President Dan Quayle

This video depicts Vice President Dan Quayle labeling Murphy Brown as a menace to society. She influences single mothers that it is okay to have children out of wedlock, which destroys the traditional family structure and values. This is a great video clip on discussing traditional family values/family structure, Feminism, and women in the workforce. I do not claim to own any rights to the video clips.
 https://youtu.be/TnhhZ0LVNPU

The Magic of Reality - Markella Hatziano | Μαρκελλα Χατζιανο

https://youtu.be/pUzSRuIDT-c


Once upon a wondrous time
A child was born among the stars
The universe began to sing
A song of endless curiosity

The music filled her soul
With unexpected harmony
The dancing notes on an empty page
An unwritten book a trillion miles away

Her journey begun
To someday understand
The cosmic melody now weaving
Through the rainbow of her mind

The magic of reality
Imagine...
The colors of infinity
Imagine...
The chorus of humanity
Imagine...
The truth in place of fantasy

And just imagine the promise
Of one little girl
In learning how to think
Not what to believe
Just imagine...

The magic of reality
Imagine...
The colors of infinity
Imagine...
The chorus of humanity
Imagine...
The truth in place of fantasy

And just imagine the rhythm of her questions
As she discovered
The music played on without a baton
There were so many things
She didn't know...

The magic of reality...
The magic of reality...

How we know what's really true...

What Is The Alt-Right 'White Sharia' Movement? | Alternet

White supremacists want to take over everything — even the thing they hate the most: Islam's Sharia Law.

White Sharia—as coined by a former Marine blogger—is still anti-Muslim, but seizes on orthodox Islam's ideal of obedient women and turns it into its own movement, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. White Sharia started as an online meme by Sacco Vandal, the ex-soldier and white supremacist, who wrote on his blog that feminists and a falling American patriarchy are resulting in men losing their "barbarity."....
http://www.newsweek.com/what-white-sharia-and-what-does-it-have-do-americas-sexual-harassment-problem-725163