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Show 207: Neil deGrasse Tyson

This interview was originally aired on May 20, 2007

Audio here!

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an African American astrophysicist and, since 1996, the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History worldview. Tyson has written a number of popular books on astronomy. In 1995, he began to write the “Universe” column for Natural History magazine. In a column for the magazine he authored in 2002, Tyson coined the term “Manhattanhenge” to describe the two days annually on which the evening sun aligns with the cross streets of the street grid in Manhattan, making sunset visible along unobstructed side streets. In 2004, he hosted the four-part “Origins” miniseries of PBS’s Nova, and co-authored, with Donald Goldsmith (renowned California astronomer and science writer/professor) the companion volume for this series, Origins: Fourteen Billion Years Of Cosmic Evolution.

As director of the Hayden Planetarium, Tyson bucked traditional thinking to keep Pluto from being referred to as the ninth planet in exhibits at the center. He has stated on “The Colbert Report” that this decision has resulted in large amounts of hate mail, much of it from children. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union confirmed this assessment by downgrading Pluto to “dwarf planet” classification. Tyson is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Planetary Society, where he was formerly the vice president. He is the new host of the PBS program NOVA scienceNOW.

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Show 206a: Noam Chomsky – “Chomsky on Humanism”

Audio here!

Listen to more Chomsky here! 

Noam Chomsky has been a leading intellectual of the Left for more than 35 years, and has written about, and spoke to, a variety of issues including capitalist economics, the nation-state – focusing on an extensive critique of the powers that be and the policies of the United States – education, socialism, war and peace and anarchism. He began his career in the study of language and is credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar, considered to be one of the most significant contributions to the field of linguistics made in the 20th Century. He is currently the Institute Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Recently, Professor Chomsky, author of over 30 books of science and of politics, has been the subject of an interview (along with Gilbert Achcar) by New Jersey based political scientist Stephen Shalom in the book titled, “Perilous Power: The Middle East and US Foreign Policy.” In this book, he discuses, among other things, the resurgence of religious fundamentalism in both the Middle East and within this country, and offers some perspective on what might be the cause(s) of the trend.

Also, in a recent interview in the Humanist, the flagship magazine of the American Humanist Association, Professor Chomsky continues his analysis of religious fundamentalism as well as talks about other issues at the core of the humanist worldview.

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Show 205: Fund Drive Show – “African-American Naturalism: A Forgotten Tradition” – Neil deGrasse Tyson, Anthony Pinn & Muntu Matsimela

Fund Drive Show – “African-American Naturalism: A Forgotten Tradition” – Neil deGrasse Tyson, Anthony Pinn & Muntu Matsimela

Audio here!

It’s widely accepted that faith and religious belief have been the most important elements sustaining the African-American community throughout their long history of subjection to oppression and adversity, but even in the Black Church, other worldly concerns were far less important than is generally believed.

The secular and humanistic traditions are long standing threads in African-American life that are hardly ever mentioned – yet it’s out of these traditions that the real world strategies and real world solutions which have yielded the greatest strides toward Black liberation and empowerment were developed and deployed.

What might happen if African-Americans today more fully embrace their rich history of naturalistic traditions; how might it make a difference for the future?

Dr. Anthony Pinn, author of “African American Humanist Principles: Living and Thinking like the Children of Nimrod” will help us trace the long and rich history of secular and humanistic traditions in African American life.

We will also be joined by Astrophysicist and Director of New York City’s Rose Planetarium and host of PBS’s “NOVA Now” series, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, and African Studies Professor, Community Activist and former Black Panther, Muntu Matsimela.

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Show 204: Jeff Sharlet – “BattleCry”

Audio here!

This Sunday, join co-host Sunsara Taylor for an exciting talk with Jeff Sharlet about BattleCry, the Christian fundamentalist movement that is training an army of youth to conquer the country and the world for their hateful, intolerant god.

In a recent issue of Rolling Stone, Jeff Sharlet, religious scholar and widely published author, took this exposure further in his piece, “Teenage Holy War: Behind-the-scenes with the most militant Christian youth crusade in America”

Excerpt: “Luce ends his rallies with an illustration from the Book of Judges: the story of a man who, after he gives over his concubine to be gang-raped, kills the disgraced woman and cuts her into twelve pieces, then sends one to each of the tribes of Israel as a reminder of what happens to the ungodly. For a finale, Luce or one of his junior pastors dissects a mannequin labeled with the sins of secularism and then – to the cheer ‘Cut up the concubine!’ — sends his assistants into the crowd to distribute the pieces.” (for the full piece, see here )

In March of 2006, Sunsara Taylor reported from inside BattleCry’s stadium, writing the first national exposure of this growing Christian fascist youth movement that has connections all the way up to George Bush himself. Her three part series appeared in TruthDig.com (here) and CounterPunch.org.

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Show 203: Robert M. Price – The Reason Driven Life

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Pastor Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life has been both a commercially successful best seller and a widely influential book in the Christian community. As a rejoinder to the fundamentalist assumptions of Warren’s book, Robert M. Price, a biblical scholar, a member of the Jesus Seminar, and a former liberal Baptist pastor, offers this witty, thoughtful, and detailed critique.

Following the concise forty-chapter structure of Warren’s book, Price’s point-counterpoint approach emphasizes the importance of reason in understanding life’s realities as opposed to Warren’s devotional perspective.

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Show 202a: Earth Day Special: Joel Kovel – The Enemy of Nature

Earth Day Special: Joel Kovel

The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World

Audio here!

As the world’s scientists converge on the all too real crisis of “global warming,” even while Right-wingers and the Bush Administration continue to spin the crises into a Left-wing Conspiracy – probably headed up by Al Gore – too few discussions are taking place concerning the root causes of our ecological dilemma.

Conservatives who are willing to acknowledge what science is telling us, and even those whom exhibit a real sense of urgency, are afraid of what might happen to the economy if we go at environmentalism full force. Mainstream liberals like Al Gore have been working hard to dispel this fear by assuring us that the economy will get even stronger, not weaker, if we take care of our planet.

But what if the economy is at the very heart of the crisis?

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Show 201: Easter Special: “Questioning Judeo-Christian Morality”

One-Hour Easter Special: “Questioning Judeo-Christian Morality”

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Are Easter and Passover the basis for morality or for violence?

This week most people commemorate the foundational narratives of the Jewish and Christian religions, both widely regarded as the main source of ethical inspiration and social stability for the Western world, yet there are sound reasons to believe that it’s our Judeo-Christian tradition that might actually be responsible for a great deal of violence.

At this moment in our nation’s history when we continue to have the largest prison population in the Western world – when we’re being told that the only solution to a disastrous unwinnable military adventure is to send more troops – and when our leaders have seen fit to pass the Military Commissions Act of 2006 which denies detainees the right of Habeas Corpus and the protections against torture afforded by the Geneva Convention – Equal Time for Freethought will take a critical look at how our Judeo-Christian traditions not only fail to curb such institutionalized brutality, but actually make such policies appear as if they are morally acceptable.

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Show 200: Raymond Lotta – “Atheism & Politics”

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In 1843, Karl Marx captured the way that religion is both an escape for millions whose lives consist of daily exploitation and oppression and is a mental shackle that keeps masses from understanding and making revolution to overcome those conditions of oppression, in his now famous statement, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.”

This week on Equal Time for Freethought, Sunsara Taylor will talk with Raymond Lotta about the past experience and future prospects of Marxist revolutions. They will explore both how these revolutions have popularized a scientific understanding of the world and made strides in overcoming the conditions that drive people to seek comfort in religion and some of the shortcomings of this experience, in part through engaging some of the work of Bob Avakian on questions of religion, morality, the role of myth, and the importance of bringing millions into an unfettered search for the truth as part of emancipating all of humanity.
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