Podcast appearances and mentions of lindsay beyerstein

You're going to hear a lot of Russian disinformation from House Republicans in the next few months. As they gear up to rehash the Hunter Biden laptop story, Republicans are preparing to spread what they know full well to be a noxious mix of salacious personal detail, mixed with invented Russian intelligence material. Veteran reporter Lindsay Beyerstein provides definitive rundown of the distortions, tall tales, and outright lies that are coming, and why legitimate media was right to be so skeptical of this story. For the video version, check out the Blue Amp channel part one here.

This week, Joshua Holland kicks off the show with a look at how the FBI is at the same time pursuing more investigations into increasingly violent right-wing extremism and also making subtle changes to its definition of terrorism that are resulting in a lower priority for some of that extremism.Then we are joined by Oliver Willis to talk about how the GOP's messaging apparatus has become so successful that it's left the party wildly out-of-touch with the concerns of normal Americans and, in many cases, just kinda weird.  We also preview the coming GOP House majority and inevitable intra-party crackup. Then we're joined by Lindsay Beyerstein to talk about the real scandal that lies at the heart of the right's clumsy conspiracy theories about Twitter, big tech and Hunter Biden's laptop.PlaylistVéronique Sanson "Chanson Sur Ma Drôle De Vie"Eddy Mitchell: "Fortissimo"Sylvie Vartan: "La Plus Belle Pour Aller Danser" 

The saga of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in some ways looks like what journalists call a man bites dog story: something that happens so often that it almost escapes our attention. It does seem hardly new that awful behavior and sexual harassment by a male politician comes to light and ends a once-lofty career. But there's a lot going on under the surface in this story, both in this particular case and in the trajectory of how we deal with issues like this among American politicians. Lindsay Beyerstein is an award-winning investigative journalist who has covered the Cuomo saga in depth. She covers legal affairs, health care and politics for The Editorial Board, and is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker and a judge for the Sidney Hillman Foundation. She joins the show to dissect what we can take away from the Cuomo story.

With the announcement that Hunter Biden is selling his artwork through New York City gallerist Georges Bergès, ethics concerns are being raised by both the art world and in politics. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WwDV4dt0HHQ Hunter Biden's artworks will be priced between $75,000 and $500,000 individually, is his artwork any good, is it worth commanding these prices? Discussion led by Art Prof Clara Lieu, Teaching Artist Lauryn Welch, and guest speaker & investigative journalist Lindsay Beyerstein. Support Art Prof on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/artprof  or make a one-time donation: https://www.paypal.me/artprof 

Behind the News, 12/17/20 - guests: Walter Olson on why Republican judges voted against Trump suits; Lindsay Beyerstein on a brutal pre-release house for prisoners - Doug Henwood

Show Credit: WERA-FM, 96.7|Show Title: Care In Chaos As the debate over healthcare looms in the form of “repeal and replace”, or “just repeal” or “try to replace at another more convenient time”, the good folks over at Rewire News have peered into a byproduct of the debate.On the program today, the women behind the doc: Calla Hales, the 27 year old administrator who works at the abortion clinic and Lindsay Beyerstein an award winning investigative journalist and the woman behind the lens. They will join me to talk about how these top down policies affect the local community. Enlighten Me Wednesday 4-5p ET WERA-FM 96.7|@EnlightenMeWERA Enlighten Me is a news talk program that aims to educate and inform. From historical perspectives to modern day stories, we will focus our attention on the issues that everyone deals with — be it policy, health, education, the economy, current events and race. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/enlighten-me/support

I sat down with Lindsay Beyerstein, award-winning documentary filmmaker, investigative journalist and host of The Breach podcast! We go over season 4 of The Breach, women struggling with incarceration, addiction, "Wellness court" and how hard it is for women dealing with these issues -- mothers in particular -- to get back on their feet. This is an amazing podcast and Lindsay and I had a fantastic conversation. Check out her vital show: https://rewire.news/multimedia/podcast/the-breach-season-4-montana-e2/

Season Four of the The Breach explores one central question: What happens when drug use during pregnancy becomes a felony? In our last episode, we met Reneé, a woman jailed under 240-D, a unique law in Fort Peck, Montana, that criminalizes substance use during pregnancy. As part of her sentence, Reneé was required to participate in a special court in the Fort Peck justice system known as Healing to Wellness Court. This is the tribal system's version of a drug court, which is often billed as a more humane solution to drug-related crime. Today there are more than 3100 drug courts operating in the United States, including more than 70 Healing to Wellness Courts. But beneath the assurances of compassion and the glossy data suggesting success lurk very real concerns about the effectiveness of this system. In this episode, host Lindsay Beyerstein speaks with drug court expert Denise Tomasini-Joshi. Together, they unpack the reality behind these band-aid courts and reveal how a seemingly humane solution falls short in practice.

Part 1 of 3–all 3 parts available now. When Montana county prosecutor Jay Harris announced he was going to seek protective orders for fetuses against pregnant people who use drugs or alcohol, it made international news. So why doesn't anybody know that more than a dozen Native women have been criminally charged for the same behavior just a few hours away? Join host Lindsay Beyerstein for a completely new investigative season of The Breach exploring one central question: What happens when drug use during pregnancy becomes a felony? Hear from experts, locals, officials, and a woman from the jail in which she was held under a law that few people even knew existed—until now.

Part 3 of 3–all 3 parts available now. When Montana county prosecutor Jay Harris announced he was going to seek protective orders for fetuses against pregnant people who use drugs or alcohol, it made international news. So why doesn't anybody know that more than a dozen Native women have been criminally charged for the same behavior just a few hours away? Join host Lindsay Beyerstein for a completely new investigative season of The Breach exploring one central question: What happens when drug use during pregnancy becomes a felony? Hear from experts, locals, officials, and a woman from the jail in which she was held under a law that few people even knew existed—until now.

Part 2 of 3–all 3 parts available now. When Montana county prosecutor Jay Harris announced he was going to seek protective orders for fetuses against pregnant people who use drugs or alcohol, it made international news. So why doesn't anybody know that more than a dozen Native women have been criminally charged for the same behavior just a few hours away? Join host Lindsay Beyerstein for a completely new investigative season of The Breach exploring one central question: What happens when drug use during pregnancy becomes a felony? Hear from experts, locals, officials, and a woman from the jail in which she was held under a law that few people even knew existed—until now.

On this edition of The Way, Anoa discusses the Rewire original documentary "Care in Chaos" with Lindsay Beyerstein, investigative journalist and Care in Chaos Director; Calla Hales, Clinic Administrator at A Preferred Women's Health Center (APWHC) in Charlotte, NC; and Jessica Mason Pieklo, Rewire Vice President of Law and the Courts, legal expert. "Care in Chaos" highlights the issues with the growing threat to safe and legal abortion access. While there is so much focus on legislative efforts to restrict a woman's right to choose as well as her ability to access care, there is little attention given to physical barriers to access. "Care in Chaos" examines the issue with anti-choice protesters engagement with abortion clinics, patients, and staff. There are laws in some states that provide some degree of protection against anti-choice actors, yet there continue to be issues with acts of aggression and violence levied at clinics, staff, and patients. Lindsay, Calla, and Jessica set the stage for greater conversation on protecting women's' access to care as well as engaging with elected officials and community advocates to provide meaningful enforcement of laws meant to protect in situations of harassment as documented in the film. This isn't simply an issue of a bygone era. This is happening right now. Please watch and share Care in Chaos. https://rewire.news/videos/2017/07/11/care-in-chaos/ More info: https://rewire.news/legislative-tracker/law-topic/buffer-zones-bubble-zones-and-clinic-access/ https://rewire.news/article/2016/05/25/as-threats-spike-advocates-urge-feds-strengthen/ http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/schneiderman-sues-pro-life-protesters-women-clinic-queens-article-1.3263052

#115: Care in Chaos Cellar Door Skeptics dedicated the podcast to helping bring to light stories that may enrage you, enthrall you, educate you, and entertain you. Tonight’s episode comes with a content warning. CN: Abortion Clinic Violence / Anti-Choice Violence This episode has a special place in the hearts of the host. Their first topic for the tonight is a great interview with Lindsay Beyerstein and her new documentary “Care in Chaos”. The filmmaker talks about her experiences with a couple of women’s health clinics that are being bombarded by antics from Anti-Choice groups that will make your blood boil. This heartfelt look at how awful our nation can be, shows the strength and courage of the women who work at these clinics. As the episode rolls onward, the duo discuss extreme poverty in America, and how the a new study finds poverty of the world is not always combated with compassion and action, but with laws forcing homeless people to struggle and dig themselves a deeper ditch. They do not go off about healthcare this time but about the poor treatment of our nations and the world's poor people. The last segment they lighten up the show with a discussion on Hanlon’s Razor and a new study on dogs breeding the best traits from wolves. Both are a unique inquiry into some of the suttle thoughts the team has as they prep for each episode. Subscribe: http://www.spreaker.com/user/cellardoorskeptics Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CellarDoorSkeptics RSS Feed: https://www.spreaker.com/user/8326690/episodes/feed iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cellar-door-skeptics/id1044088575?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 Website: http://cellardoorskeptics.com Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/cellar-door-skeptics Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cellardoorskeptics PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/CellarDoorSkeptics Intro Music: http://aloststateofmind.com/ Links -------- https://rewire.news/videos/2017/06/06/care-in-chaos/ @beyerstein https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/14/care_in_chaos_new_documentary_uncovers https://rewire.news/tag/the-breach/ -------- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/15/extreme-poverty-america-un-special-monitor-report http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22533&LangID=E https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/15/america-extreme-poverty-un-special-rapporteur http://considerthehomeless.org/pdf/CA_New_Vagrancy_Laws.pdf -------- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HanlonsRazor https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor -------- https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/dogs-breeds-pets-wolves-evolution/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20171117news-resurffriendlydogs&utm_campaign=Content&sf99255202=1&sf173577201=1 https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/williams-syndrome

Chye-Ching Huang of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to break down exactly how the Senate tax bill will shift massive amounts of wealth from working people to corporations and the rich. Learn more today at Rewire.news. Recommended Reading: Does the GOP Tax Plan Include a Tax Cut for Private Jet Owners? by Alex Kasprak for Snopes, November 2017

Rebecca Traister, award-winning journalist and writer at large for New York magazine, joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to discuss the righteous anger that has been unleashed by reports of Harvey Weinstein and countless other powerful men perpetrating sexual violence against women. Learn more at Rewire.news. Recommended Reading: Two Dozen African Girls Dead at Sea, by Tariro Mzezewa for The New York Times, November 2017

Andy Wright, a law professor and former associate counsel to President Obama, joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to discuss what the indictment of Paul Manafort and guilty plea of George Papadopoulos reveal about the next steps of Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into President Donald Trump and his campaign associates. Learn more at Rewire.news today! Recommended Reading: Commerce Secretary's Offshore Ties to Putin ‘Cronies,' by By Mike McIntire, Sasha Chavkin, and Martha M. Hamilton for The New York Times, November 2017

Journalist Ari Berman joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to discuss his jaw-dropping Mother Jones story about Wisconsin voter suppression in 2016 and how that may be the start of a much larger trend. Recommended Reading: The Hillary Clinton Russia Uranium One Conspiracy Theory Doesn't Make Any Sense, by Zachary Fryer-Biggs for Newsweek, October 2017 Watch MSNBC's Joy Reid Expertly Debunk Lies Around Uranium-Clinton Story, by Daniel Politi for Slate, October 2017 Learn more at Rewire.news!

President Trump is expected to declare a national state of emergency for opioids this week. Sanho Tree of the Institute for Policy Studies joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to discuss the latest news on the overdose epidemic, including a blockbuster Washington Post story that led Trump's pick to head the DEA to withdraw his name from consideration. The episode also delves into the root causes of opioid abuse, from under-regulation of drug distribution companies to social disintegration, as well as alarming new "drug war" developments in the Philippines. Recommended Reading: John Kelly's Lies About Frederica Wilson Are Part of a Pattern of Not Believing Black Women, by Shaun King for The Intercept, October 2017 Learn more at Rewire.news today!

Medical anthropologist Dr. Adia Benton joins Lindsay Beyerstein to discuss why the government and private donors are treating Puerto Ricans like second-class citizens in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Recommended reading: Here's How Breitbart and Milo Smuggled Nazi and White Nationalist Ideas Into The Mainstream, by Joseph Bernstein for Buzzfeed, October 2017

In the latest episode of The Breach, host Lindsay Beyerstein is joined by award-winning journalist Brooke Binkowski, the managing editor of Snopes, to discuss the ever-evolving "fake news" landscape. As verifiably false stories loosely based on urban legends continue to gain traction on social media and elsewhere, real journalism is increasingly lost in the noise. Binkowski explains how we arrived at our current crisis, what defenders of legitimate news can do to combat it, and the chilling toll her work at Snopes has taken on her personal life. Recommended Reading:  "Steve Bannon Readies His Revenge," by Gabriel Sherman for Vanity Fair, August 2017.

Natasha Merle, a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to discuss how false allegations of voter fraud are being used to suppress the votes of communities of color. Merle and her organization are suing Donald Trump's handpicked electoral commission for intentional discrimination against Black and Latino voters. Merle explains how voter ID laws have become the modern-day equivalent of poll taxes, imposing undue burdens on vulnerable people seeking to exercise their franchise, and how citizens can take action to combat these efforts. Recommended Viewing: "Charlottesville: Race and Terror," by Vice News, August 2017 "Difference Makers: The Free Keane Squad," by The Colbert Report, November 2014 "Nazi Christopher Cantwell Crying," by Peter Case via YouTube, August 2017

From his hesitation in denouncing Nazis in Charlottesville to his attacks on the free press, Donald Trump is governing like an authoritarian. This approach threatens to bring the President into conflict with Congress, the courts, and even the military. Yascha Mounk, a lecturer on government at Harvard University and a columnist at Slate, joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to explore Mounk's hypothesis that Trump is "an authoritarian by instinct” and the myriad ways his governing style may bring about a genuine constitutional crisis. Recommended Reading:  "How Federal Grand Juries Work," by Ken White for Popehat, August 2017 "We Interrupt This Grand Jury Lawsplainer For A Search Warrant Lawsplainer," by Ken White for Popehat, August 2017 Yascha's podcast: The Good Fight

Are the Democrats going soft on choice? Reproductive justice advocate and NARAL Missouri board member Pamela Merritt joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to discuss the rhetoric of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Ben Ray Luján who decided to remind everyone that the DCCC has no “litmus test” on abortion. Merritt explains why it's impossible to achieve economic justice without addressing reproductive justice and that Democrats who try to tackle the former while ignoring the latter risk alienating their most loyal supporters, notably women of color.  If they want to win a majority in the House of Representatives in 2018, the Democratic Party can't afford to throw the base under the bus one more time. As Merritt argues, they can go even further by actually listening to that base and elevating its concerns as part of a "fifty plus one" strategy for victory.  Recommended Reading:  "Why the Scariest Nuclear Threat May Be Coming From Inside the White House," by Michael Lewis for Vanity Fair, 2017 

Issues for Your Tissues episode from July 27, 2017 featuring Calla Hales lead Administrator of Charlotte, NC's A Preferred Women's Health Center and Lindsay Beyerstein, Investigative Journalist and Director of the documentary Care in Chaos which featured Calla and the clinic prominently.Care in Chaos is Rewire News' first documentary production.

The earth is warming rapidly and humans are to blame, but the Trump administration is determined to deny the science and delay policy changes that might cap rising temperatures. Professor Mike Mann is one of the world's foremost experts on climate science and climate policy. Vanity Fair has dubbed him the "Jon Snow of Climate Change” for his tireless efforts to warn the public about the encroaching ice zombies climate threat. Dr. Mann joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to talk about climate policy in the era of Trump, the challenges of communicating complex scientific ideas, and more.  Recommended Reading: "A Tweet Is a Direct Order," by Phillip Carter for Slate, July 2017

As a United States Attorney in 2002, James Comey mocked prosecutors who never lost a case as members of "The Chickenshit Club." In Comey's opinion, if a prosecuting attorney never lost, it meant they were too risk averse and failed to bring the most important cases to trial. In his book by the same name, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Jesse Eisinger of ProPublica argues that the entire Department of Justice has become a "Chickenshit Club" for prosecutors who are unwilling and unable to take on white-collar criminals at the biggest banks and financial firms. In the latest episode of The Breach, Eisinger and host Lindsay Beyerstein discuss how and why this occurs – despite these crimes threatening the stability of the economy and the basic principle of equality before the law. Recommended Reading: Possible Presidential Pardon Scenarios, by Andy Wright for Just Security, July 2017

Rewire VP of Law and the Courts Jessica Mason Pieklo joins Lindsay Beyerstein for a special episode on abortion access to mark the launch of Rewire's first original documentary, “Care in Chaos.” Anti-choice activists are already testing the federal government's commitment to enforcing the FACE Act, which makes it a federal crime to blockade an abortion clinic. If the federal government won't defend the rule of law, we could be looking at a return to the tactics of the “Summer of Mercy,” when thousands of anti-choice protesters physically blocked access to clinics in Wichita, KS. “Care in Chaos,” directed by Lindsay Beyerstein and Martyna Starosta, follows a 27-year-old abortion clinic administrator as she battles anti-choice aggression and law enforcement indifference that threatens safe access for patients and staff. Recommended Reading: Ivanka Inc. by Matea Gold, Drew Harwell, Maher Sattar and Simon Denyer for The Washington Post, July 2017

In this episode of the podcast we are live from the Lady Parts Justice League VAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR!! The team was in Detroit supporting and loving on the Northland Family Planning folks - WHO ARE AMAZING! This episode features two amazing interviews, one of which is the talkback that occurred after the show in Detroit. Julie also had the insane pleasure of speaking to director Lindsay Beyerstein and Rewire journalist Jessica Mason Pieklo about the newest documentary to be produced by Rewire, Care in Chaos. Care in Chaos: https://rewire.news/videos/2017/06/06/care-in-chaos/ Donate to LPJ: https://www.ladypartsjustice.com/

In this episode of the podcast we are live from the Lady Parts Justice League VAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR!! The team was in Detroit supporting and loving on the Northland Family Planning folks - WHO ARE AMAZING! This episode features two amazing interviews, one of which is the talkback that occurred after the show in Detroit. Julie also had the insane pleasure of speaking to director Lindsay Beyerstein and Rewire journalist Jessica Mason Pieklo about the newest documentary to be produced by Rewire, Care in Chaos. Care in Chaos: https://rewire.news/videos/2017/06/06/care-in-chaos/ Donate to LPJ: https://www.ladypartsjustice.com/

Rick Perlstein, bestselling author of Nixonland and historian of the conservative movement, joins host Lindsay Beyerstein for a discussion of Donald Trump's attacks on the press. Perlstein argues that Trump is the ultimate Richard Nixon Republican, from his love-hate relationship with mass media to his preoccupation with vendettas. While Nixon usually kept his gripes against the media private, Trump has made his battle with the media the signature fight of his administration. His tirades are also mobilizing bands of right-wing trolls to harass journalists online. As Trump's popularity falls and the frustrations of his supporters rise, the situation is becoming increasingly explosive. Recommended Reading: I Found HanAssholeSolo's anti-Semitic Posts. Then, the Death Threats Started, by Jared Yates Sexton for Politico, July 2017

In our season finale of The Breach, Adam Serwer of the Atlantic joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to discuss Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his radical plans for the Department of Justice, which threaten civil rights enforcement at federal agencies; sentencing reform; bathroom access for transgender students in public schools; and so much more. How will Sessions, who has expressed skepticism about prosecuting hate crimes, contend with rising levels of bias-based attacks? And what does Sessions' tenure at DOJ mean for the nation's $6.7 billion legal marijuana industry? The Breach will return on July 11. In the meantime, subscribe to our new podcast miniseries CHOICE/LESS The Backstory, which explores the dark history behind some of our most important advancements in reproductive health. Recommended Reading: Jared Kushner's Other Real Estate Empire, by Alec MacGillis for ProPublica/The New York Times, May 2017

President Trump's budget would cut Medicaid spending nearly in half and slash nearly $13 billion from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Medicaid covers more than 70 million Americans, including 40 percent of all children and nearly half of all births. Trump's budget also calls for an end to all federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Dr. Diane Horvath-Cosper, a fellow at Physicians for Reproductive Health and an abortion provider in Maryland, joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to discuss the real-life consequences of these cuts. Recommended Reading: The Lesser Part of Valor, by Adam Serwer for The Atlantic, 2017

North Korea's nuclear program is racing forward. The regime tested a Pukguksong-2 missile on Sunday and leader Kim Jong-Un made a big show of ordering the missiles into mass production. Ankit Panda, host of the podcast The Diplomat, joins Lindsay Beyerstein to talk about North Korea's nuclear strategy. Mainstream media pundits often portray Korean leadership as erratic and irrational, but Kim's nuclear strategy is anything but haphazard, Panda says. What kind of nuclear conflict is North Korea envisioning? What can their arsenal already do? The Trump administration has promised a new approach to North Korea, but officials have struggled to articulate what that means. Is the era of “Strategic Patience” really over? Recommended reading: With DHS Position, Clarke Would Be the First ‘Patriot' Leader to Hold a Federal Post, by David Neiwert for The Southern Poverty Law Center, 2017 A David Clarke dossier, by Radley Balko for the Washington Post, 2017

Donald Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey shocked the nation. Initially, the White House claimed that the president had fired the director because of Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, based on the recommendation of new Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Trump backed off that story almost immediately and admitted that he'd decided to fire Comey all by himself. The president admitted that he fired Comey in part because Comey was overseeing the “Russia thing.” Leon Neyfakh of Slate has been reporting on Comey's firing and the swirling justifications coming out of the White House. He joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to discuss the current state of affairs and what might come next. This episode also features a special comment from Lindsay on Trump, Comey, and democratic norms. Recommended Reading: The Toughest Death of 2016: The Democratic Norms that (Used To) Guide our Political System by Seth Masket for Pacific Standard, December 2106

It's no secret that Donald J. Trump is possessed of an outsized ego. Some psychiatrists speculate that he suffers from a psychiatric condition known as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), which is defined by grandiosity, insecurity, callousness, and a predatory approach to human relationships. Dr. Allen Frances, who helped write the criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder for psychiatry's diagnostic bible, argues that Trump does not meet the criteria for NPD because he doesn't suffer from his egocentric behavior. Rather, Frances argues, Trump makes other people suffer and should therefore be understood as a bad person rather than one with a mental illness. Frances and host Lindsay Beyerstein use the question of the president's mental health as a jumping off point to consider the nature of psychiatric diagnosis and the applicability of psychiatric concepts to politics. Recommended Reading: How Trump Could Get Fired, by Evan Osnos for The New Yorker

Don’t touch that podcast! Yes, Lindsay Beyerstein and Josh Zepps have moved on to new endeavors, but a new chapter for Point of Inquiry is about to begin, with new hosts and a new format. In this quick update the hosts-to-be will tell us a little bit about themselves and preview what they have planned for Point of Inquiry’s new direction. So stay subscribed to Point of Inquiry in your podcast app of choice, and look for new episodes starting in June.

Last week, we learned that a FISA court gave the government permission to monitor the communications of Carter Page, a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign. Such warrants are only granted when there is probable cause that the target is operating as an agent of a foreign power. In Page's case, it's not hard to guess which foreign power. In 2013, Page admitted to the FBI that he gave documents to a Russian spy ring. On the latest episode of The Breach, Liza Goitein joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to reveal how our separate, secretive national security court system, known as FISA Court, works – and whether its benefits outweigh its risks. Liza is the co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. She is a former counsel to Senator Russ Feingold and a former lawyer for the Civil Division of the Justice Department. Recommended Reading: Julia Ioffe's “The Mystery of Trump's Man in Moscow,” TNR, 2016. Emma Ashford's "The Real Factions of Trumpland and U.S. Foreign Policy,” War on the Rocks.

How did a man living an ostensibly godless, hedonistic life become the champion of the very groups who one would expect to denounce his behavior? Being a real estate mogul and reality TV star, it’s no secret to anyone that President Trump has spent far more time in country clubs than churches. A man who’s had several wives, owned casinos and bars, and had multiple accusations of sexual assault leveled against him is hardly the pinnacle of virtue the religious right professes to yearn for. Trump’s aggressively nationalistic campaign rhetoric clearly appealed to the so-called “alt-right,” but he could not have won the election without simultaneously appealing to religious conservatives. So what happened?    Today’s guest is investigative journalist Sarah Posner, whose expertise in reporting on religion and the conservative movement enable her to unravel the reasoning behind Trump’s success with evangelical Christians. Posner’s newest piece for The New Republic is "Amazing Disgrace,” which explores how “a thrice-married, biblically illiterate sexual predator” hijacked the religious right. While the alt-right and the cultural conservative movement have long been at odds, they shared common goals and prospects in the 2016 election, and that what unites them in terms of race and nationalism may be greater than even they would like to admit. Special note from the Center for Inquiry: This is Lindsay Beyerstein's final episode of Point of Inquiry. We are enormously proud of Lindsay's remarkable body of work with Point of Inquiry. She is smart, insightful, witty, and has always been a genuine pleasure to work with, having grown tremendously as an interviewer over her time with us. We wish her great success with her new endeavors, including her new podcast, The Breach. Thank you, Lindsay! Stay tuned in the coming weeks for news about what's next for Point of Inquiry!  

This week on The Breach, we take a closer look at those 49 words that mean so much: the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution. Law professor Zephyr Teachout joins host Lindsay Beyerstein for an in-depth discussion of one of our founding document's most critical anti-corruption clauses. Teachout and her legal colleagues at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) have launched a groundbreaking lawsuit against Trump to stop him from taking cash from foreign governments through his empire of hotels and rental properties. The Emoluments Clause has never been tested in court. A loss for Trump will make legal history and could set the stage for divestment, resignation, or even impeachment.

Welcome to the new series from Rewire Radio, The Breach! Listen to this short promo to hear more about the show from host Lindsay Beyerstein, then subscribe and share this feed with everyone you know who should be vigilant and informed on authoritarianism, corruption and overreach in our government.

Ted Conover is an American journalist and author, known for fully immersing himself in the world of the subjects he covers. Conover writes about the people we understand the least by attempting to live their lives. Whether he’s riding freight trains with the homeless or navigating the ethical pitfalls of being a prison guard, he walks a mile in their shoes so we don’t have to. His newest book is Immersion: A Writer’s Guide to Going Deep, and in this week’s episode of Point of Inquiry, Conover discloses to host Lindsay Beyerstein what some of the most difficult moments of his immersion-journalism career have been, and reveals some of the tricks of the trade for getting close to your subjects without losing yourself in the process.

Daniel C. Dennett is one of the most influential philosophers of our time, perhaps best known in cognitive science for his multiple drafts (or "fame in the brain") model of human consciousness, and to the secular community for his 2006 book Breaking the Spell. Author and co-author of two-dozen books, he’s the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, where he taught our very own Point of Inquiry host Lindsay Beyerstein. Beyerstein and Dennett catch up to discuss Dennett’s newest book, From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds. It’s a fresh look at Dennett’s earlier work on the subject of consciousness, taken in new directions as he seeks a “bottom-up view of creation.” Join Dennett and Beyerstein as they discuss the how’s and why’s of consciousness, not just from an evolutionary and neurological standpoint, but also through the lenses of computer science and human culture. 

Tom Flynn is Executive Director of Council for Secular Humanism (a program of the Center for Inquiry), as well as a novelist, journalist, and editor of Free Inquiry magazine. Outside of the freethought universe, however, Flynn may be best known as a professional Christmas opponent “the Anti-Claus,” and author of the book The Trouble with Christmas. For decades, Flynn has argued against atheists taking part in the celebration of Christmas, saying it makes hypocrites of nonbelievers and validates Christians’ claims over the season. Point of Inquiry host Lindsay Beyerstein disagrees, and this week she and Flynn engage in a friendly debate over whether atheists should reject all trappings of the holiday, or claim its secular aspects for our own.  

Emily Willingham is a journalist, scientist, and award winning skeptical blogger, with much of her work centered on autism and debunking junk science controversies. Recently the autism community has shown a surge in support for medical cannabis, as anti-vaccination activists claim that cannabis may hold the key for a cure, and many people with autism claim it to be a useful for controlling their symptoms. Willingham and host Lindsay Beyerstein delve further into the topic to sort through the misconceptions that exist on both sides of the debate. Willingham explains that the data is limited on the relationship between cannabis and autism, in part because of the strict research restrictions that have been placed on what the government classifies as a Schedule I substance, a drug with no medical value. Despite the abundance of data showing its benefits and safety in regard to pain relief and inducing appetite, Willingham points out that the stigma against cannabis has lead to restrictions that are even more severe than those that exist on many other pain killers and opioids.   Emily Willingham will also be speaking at the upcoming Women in Secularism conference, September 23-25 in Arlington, VA. For more information go to womeninsecularism.org.   

Bronwen Dickey is a contributing editor at The Oxford American, and author of Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon. Her writing can also be found in The New York Times, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Newsweek, Slate, The San Francisco Chronicle, and numerous other publications. For Dickey’s most recent piece, just published in Popular Mechanics, she embarks on the “Conspire-Sea Cruise,” giving us an inside look at what the world of a conspiracy theorist is like and what fuels the need to believe in vast, nefarious plots. Dickey says she was inspired to report on the conspiracy cruise after working on Pit Bull, where she discovered just how strong the desire can be to ignore evidence and seek out junk science that supports one’s existing beliefs. In conversation with host Lindsay Beyerstein, Dickey looks at the paranoia that propels people towards conspiracy and compares it to the tireless fear mongering pit bull breeds are subjected to. Dickey gives a detailed account of the history and science behind pit bulls and offers a hardheaded overview of what we know about them as a breed and the contrasting ways everyday Americans view them.

Free speech on college campuses has become a topic of impassioned debate, as the lines between hate speech and harassment, or peaceful protest and public disturbance, are rather blurry and hotly contested. Particularly since the protest movements of the 1960s, college campuses have long been a kind of testing ground for different norms and boundaries of free expression. At the same time, some institutions of higher learning have speech codes which many feel are serving to silence debate and discussion among students in the name of protecting feelings.   Our guest this week, Wendy Kaminer, is among those who believe that things like speech codes and trigger warnings have gotten out of control. Kaminer is a lawyer and writer who has dedicated much of her life’s work to defending free speech. She and host Lindsay Beyerstein engage in a spirited discussion about the grayest areas concerning speech and censorship on campus and in the culture at large. Kaminer will also be one of the many fantastic speakers at the fourth Women in Secularism conference, September 23-25 in Alexandria, Virgina. 

Autumn Whitefield-Mandrano is the author of the acclaimed new book on feminism and beauty, Face Value: The Hidden Ways Beauty Shapes Women’s Lives. Her work can be found such outlets as Glamour, Jezebel, Salon, The Guardian, and her own blog, The Beheld: Beauty and What It Means. Her book takes a closer look at why beauty is so coveted in American society and how the pedestal of beauty affects women in particular.   She and host Lindsay Beyerstein delve into perceptions of beauty from both scientific and sociological perspectives. While Autumn’s research supports the notion that many women see beauty as a healthy celebration of individuality, she’s also all too aware of the multi-billion-dollar industry that cynically peddles snake oil and empty promises to women who feel forced to maintain impossible beauty standards.

Author and Guardian US columnist Jessica Valenti is a pioneer of digital-age feminist writing, starting her blog Feministing in 2004, and becoming known as one of the leading voices in the discussion about gender equality. Valenti’s newest contribution to the movement is her new book, Sex Object: A Memoir.   Her witty and courageous book explores the cold, hard realities of growing up female in a male-dominated society, with a unique spin on a story many women are all too familiar with. Point of Inquiry’s Lindsay Beyerstein gets the inside scoop on what motivated Valenti to write the memoir and what she advises for the future of feminism and the fight for gender equality. They talk about many of the stories Valenti shares about her life, and discuss the personal impact of divulging one’s most vulnerable experiences in order to tell the difficult truths about many women’s everyday lives.

Dr. Amy Tuteur is an obstetrician-gynecologist and writer, returning to Point of Inquiry to discuss her new book, Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting. Known from her popular blog as The Skeptical OB, she has appeared in several publications and news outlets over the years educating the public about the facts of birthing healthy babies, and more importantly correcting the misinformation surrounding birth and mothering, such as breast feeding, nipple confusion, attachment theory, and “birth warriors.”    Her book takes a closer look at the factual misconceptions surrounding childbirth, as well as the history behind these unscientific ideas. Dr Tuteur and host Lindsay Beyerstein discuss the history of natural parenting and how it affects mothers today, particularly the ways myths about childbirth can make life miserable for mothers, and how the natural childbirth industry can profit from their worries.

This week Point of Inquiry welcomes Dr. David Grimes, a board certified physician in obstetrics and gynecology and author of the new book Every Third Woman in America: How Legal Abortion Transformed Our Nation. Dr. Grimes talks with host Lindsay Beyerstein about the enormous good that’s been done as a result of the legalization of abortion, and the horrors that women used to face — and face anew — as access to abortion services is chipped away.  A powerful movement is relentlessly fighting to turn back the clock to the pre-Roe v. Wade era, when abortions were just as common as they are today, but far more dangerous and life-threatening. States across the country have seen the introduction and passage of “TRAP laws” (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) that harshly restrict access to abortion, birth control, and even cancer screenings, all under the pretense of protecting patients’ health. 

Myths and pseudoscience do not only apply to the realms of religion, alternative medicine, and the paranormal. One area of our lives in which science and a little myth-busting can do enormous good is…cooking! This week Point of Inquiry welcomes Kenji Lopez-Alt, managing culinary director of the website Serious Eats. Kenji suggests we take the scientific methods we’ve learned in school and bring them into our kitchens in his new book The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science. Chatting with host Lindsay Beyerstein, he shows how cooking is nothing more than a series of reactions between heat, energy and molecules, and experimenting with what we know about these reactions can help us all to perfect our favorite recipes, and, really, make the world a happier place.

One of the United States’ most prominent and respected advocates for secularism is a reverend, and that of course is our guest this week, Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Few have more experience untangling religion from government as Rev. Lynn, who has spent a career making the case that a truly free country requires a secular government, and true religious freedom requires church-state separation.   He and host Lindsay Beyerstein discuss the numerous ways the mixing of church and state have resulted in corruption and injustice. While Lynn believes that religion can play an important role in our communities and in many people’s lives, government should never be in a position to rely upon whatever charitable services a religious group might provide. Recounting some of fascinating experiences from his career, many from his new book God and Government: Twenty-Five Years of Fighting for Equality, Secularism, and Freedom Of Conscience, Lynn believes that the long battle for the wall of separation is one that secularists will eventually win.  

Our very special guest on Point of Inquiry this week is Eugenie Scott, the former director of the National Center for Science Education who has been waging and winning battles against creationism and pseudoscience for years, and has become one of the most venerated luminaries of the skeptic and secular movements. A Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, in 2013 she was honored with the Center for Inquiry Lifetime Achievement Award. Scott is getting back to her roots as a biological anthropologist to talk about cryptozoology and other fringe anthropological claims. Talking with host Lindsay Beyerstein, Scott explains the distinctions between real science and pseudoscience, as well as some of the common misconceptions that lead people to mistake fiction for fact. Why is the existence of things like yetis so improbable? Why couldn’t humans and aliens procreate? Questions like these point to a need that is at the core of Scott’s career: the need to better educate kids about the methods of science. Scott and Beyerstein also take an anthropological look at the recent controversy over Rachel Dolezal, the civil rights activist who became the focus of heated national attention when it was alleged that she was a white person passing as black. What does the concept of race even mean to biological anthropologists?  And as a bonus, as mentioned in the episode, below we have a picture of what Eugenie Scott might look like as a Neanderthal, thanks to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Happy cows and chickens grazing in pastures, we see them plastered all over our milk and egg cartons at the grocery store. While most of us realize these images are more marketing than reality, the truth about how animals are treated in factory farming is far worse than most of us imagine. It’s not even clear exactly how much better animals fare when packaging advertises things like "cage-free," "natural" and "vegetarian-fed.”  This week on Point of Inquiry, Paul Shapiro, the vice president of farm animal protection for the Humane Society, is here to sort through some of the common misconceptions about the meat industry. As a former factory farm inspector, Shapiro knows first hand how normalized animal suffering has become, and how lax the regulations are for determine how animals can be treated and mistreated throughout their lives. Shapiro and host Lindsay Beyerstein sort through many of the myths and misconceptions consumers have about animal well-being, from chickens raised in “battery cages,” to meat killed according to religious tenets.  *Correction: Philosopher Peter Singer wrote in to clarify his stance on the ethics of eating different kinds of sea creatures. In his classic book, "Animal Liberation," Singer draws a line between crustaceans and bivalves, and that's the distinction he follows in his day-to-day life. "You may have seen me eat something with oysters or clams in it, but I'm sure it wasn't a crab puff," Singer wrote.

This week on Point of Inquiry, our guest is Ta-Nehisi Coates, a renowned journalist and celebrated essayist on culture, history, and politics. He’s a senior editor at The Atlantic, where last year he ignited national introspection and heated debate with his cover feature, “The Case for Reparations.” He is also author of the new bestseller, Between the World and Me, a book he wrote for his son about surviving in America as a black man.    Coates joins Lindsay Beyerstein to discuss the heightening racial tension in America, the result of what he describes as a country built on black bodies and black suffering. In this evocative conversation, Coates compels us to look clearly at our illusions about American identity and social mobility, and explores what difficult remedies will be necessary to begin to rectify the damage American policies have done to black men and women over the centuries. He also considers how his atheism has influenced his own thinking about civil rights, justice, and forgiveness.

This week, Lindsay Beyerstein chats with medical ethicist Dr. Barron Lerner, author of the new book The Good Doctor: A Father, A Son and the Evolution of Medical Ethics. Lerner’s father Myer Lerner was a renowned infectious disease specialist who practiced medicine during what many consider to be the golden era of American medicine. Being a generation apart, Barron and Myer Lerner where taught very different approaches to medical ethics, especially when it came to patient autonomy and end-of-life issues.   Dr. Lerner critically examines the ethical principles that his father operated under during his years in practice, and explores how these ethical norms have either retained their value or become outdated. His understanding of his father’s point of view was illuminated when he was forced to make decisions about what was in the best interest of his father’s own medical care, without the benefit of his father’s input on the matter. Barron's unique perspective paints a global picture of all of the ethical considerations that come into play when practicing medicine as he wrestles with what he believes it takes to be a good doctor. *Correction: In the introduction of this episode, Dr. Meyer Lerner is referenced as Barron Lerner’s father. Barron Lerner’s father is Dr. Philip Lerner; Meyer Lerner is Barron’s grandfather.

Taslima Nasrin is a world-renowned author and secular activist from Bangladesh. A physician by training, she has written a plethora of novels, poems and papers standing for the rights of women and criticizing religious extremism. Nasrin’s brave and influential writings have angered both governments and Islamists, forcing her to leave her home country, and take up residence in several different countries, at one point settling in India until very recently.   Dr. Nasrin tells her story in this special episode of Point of Inquiry, recorded before a live audience at the Center for Inquiry’s Reason for Change conference. In conversation with Lindsay Beyerstein, she discusses her life as a skeptical child in Bangladesh, her perspective on the Islamisation of her home country, and her rise to the dangerous status of human rights hero and “enemy number one” of Islamic extremists.  To this day her writing still causes outrage in Islamic extremists, and she was recently named as a target for murder by the same Al Qaeda-linked Islamists who claimed responsibility for the deaths of other secular bloggers, including Avijit Roy. In response to this threat, the Center for Inquiry took action to bring her to safety in the United States. Even thought Nasrin has lost the home she knows and loves but the Bangladeshi government and Islamic regime will never be able to take away her pen. Nasrin continues to write for freedom and justice, offering a voice to millions who do not have one.

Celebrities have always played an oversized role in our culture, and there’s nothing new about them using their star power to endorse ideas or products. But we now live in a time in which mass media consumption is greater than ever before, and the celebrities we revere are now at our fingertips, often only tweet away. This constant bombardment of celebrity culture is proving to have a greater impact on how we live our lives than we may even realize. Even if you aim to ignore celebrity endorsement, the ripple effects in our hyper-connected world are often unavoidable.   This week on Point of inquiry, Lindsay Beyerstein chats with Tim Caulfield, law professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, as well as the Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy. Caulfield is here to discuss his newest public health book, Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?: When Celebrity Culture and Science Clash. Caulfield’s research provides new insight into just how much of our well-being is at the mercy of our favorite stars.  

Opponents of abortion have been largely successful in wielding the First Amendment in their fight to protest abortion providers and patients, and according to this week’s guest, this freedom has too often resulted in the terrorization and harassment of providers who are forced to live each day fearing for their lives. Few realize just how dangerous it is to be a doctor who preforms abortion procedures, who often feel that they have no choice but to wear bulletproof vests or carry a firearm for protection.   David Cohen is associate professor at the Drexel University of Law and co-author of Living in the Crosshairs: The Untold Stories of Anti-Abortion Terrorism, co-authored with Krysten Connon. They interviewed abortion providers across the country about what they deal with on a day to day basis. Talking with host Lindsay Beyerstein, Cohen brings the insight he’s gained as to how exactly we should be responding to anti-abortion terrorism, and the need to protect the lives of health care providers as much as we protect freedom of speech.

This week on Point of Inquiry, Lindsay Beyerstein is joined by renowned journalist Michael Specter, a staff writer for The New Yorker, to talk about the subject of his award-winning story, “Against the Grain: Should You Go Gluten-Free?”  The trend of gluten-rejection is growing despite the fact that foregoing gluten has zero health benefits, unless you’re among the 1% of the population with celiac disease. Specter explains how the misinformation about gluten has gotten to this point, and what a health diets should actually look like.    Michael Specter will also be speaking at CFI’s Reason for Change conference June 11-15 in Buffalo, New York. If you’d like to see Michael Specter and Lindsay Beyerstein in person, make sure you go to ReasonforChange.org to register today!

When over one-third of American adults are obese, it’s no wonder that our culture is deluged with fad diets and alleged miracle supplements. Everyone is looking for the easiest way to obtain and maintain health but it’s no small task in the midst of a whirlwind of conflicting information. And what the heck is a calorie anyway? It may be that the easiest fix is to look at what science tells us about the kinds of foods best fuel our bodies.   This week on Point of Inquiry, Lindsay Beyerstein takes a closer look at what science tells us about our diets as she talks with nutritionist and author of Why Calories Count, Marion Nestle. She's the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and works extensively to research and educate what our bodies do and don’t need to work their best. 

There are dozens of bestselling books on spirituality for teens (and many more not on the bestseller list), and many books on atheism as well. But, surprisingly, books about atheism and agnosticism specifically for young people are rare indeed. David Seidman was perplexed by this lack of material for teenagers questioning faith, and that led him to write What If I'm an Atheist? A Teen's Guide to Exploring a Life Without Religion. In his conversation with Point of Inquiry’s Lindsay Beyerstein, Seidman discusses several techniques for young nonbelievers as to how best to come out to religious parents, and has advice on such things as dating and fitting into peer groups — all of which are all the more difficult when identifying with a minority belief. Teenagers are rebuilding their identities as adults and losing faith can be isolating and traumatic, making the need for this book long over due.

Our guest this week says that the U.S. Supreme Court’s power to interpret the Constitution is so great that they can use it to justify nearly anything they please. Even the American founders who forged the Constitution often had differing ideas of how its words should be interpreted. But one thing they did not foresee was the Supreme Court having the final say over all constitutional interpretation. Ironically, the most unconstitutional practice that we have may be the Supreme Court’s absolute power to determine what is and is not considered constitutional.   This week Point of Inquiry’s Lindsay Beyerstein chats with Ian Millhiser, the author of Injustices: The Supreme Court’s History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted. Millhiser takes a close look at how the various Justices of the Supreme Court have behaved throughout history, and rather than being champions of equality and justice, he concludes that the Court has largely served to perpetuate inequality and hinder progress. Millhiser argues that the only positive contributions the Supreme Court has made were a result of historical accidents, and that the most productive times of legislation in America’s history were during periods in which the Supreme Court was relatively inactive.   It’s a sobering and critical look at the role of the Supreme Court, this week on Point of Inquiry.

Phil Zuckerman is a professor of sociology at Pitzer College, and among the world's leading experts in the growing field of secular studies, with a deep understanding of how people's lives are lived without religion. He’s the author of the books Living the Secular Life: New Answers to Old Questions, Society without God, and Faith No More: Why People Reject Religion. There is wide range of secular people, from hardcore atheists and secular humanists to those for whom religion is simply unimportant, and Zuckerman distinguishes between the vast majority of nonbelievers who live normal, upstanding lives, and the small minority for whom secularism is an organizing force. He discusses with Point of Inquiry host Lindsay Beyerstein how empathy, rather than belief in the watchful eye of a deity, is the guiding force of secular morality, and how religion can actually hinder society’s larger moral understanding.    It’s a fascinating inward look at our own community of skeptics and humanists, and you can learn even more from Zuckerman about his ideas and research at the  Reason for Change conference, where he’ll be among the many brilliant and provocative speakers. Reason for Change takes place July 11-15 in Buffalo, New York. Visit  reasonforchange.org for more!

Memory is remarkably fallible, as we often frustrate ourselves with how certain we are about where we left our car keys only to realize how entirely wrong we were. But could it be that our memories are so easily corrupted that we could be led to believe we’ve committed crimes that never happened? (And while we’re at it, could Brian Williams have sincerely believed that he had been under attack in that helicopter?) This week on Point of Inquiry, Lindsay Beyerstein talks to Dr. Julia Shaw, a forensic psychology lecturer and false memory researcher. Dr. Shaw recently conducted a study in which she found that 70 percent of college-age students were convinced that they had committed a crime that never actually took place. By mixing actual facts with misinformation, in as little as 3 hours of friendly conversation, students not only admitted to committing these fictional crimes, they went as far as to recall details of their manufactured experience. Shaw suggests that these results have alarming implications for the way we conduct criminal investigations. It seems as though our own imaginations may be working against us more than we ever thought possible.

This week Point of Inquiry welcomes Laci Green for a special tell-all Valentine's Day episode. Green is a popular Youtube video blogger, sex education activist and feminist. In a time when sex pervades popular culture and marketing, and yet rarely discussed, her videos have managed to shed light on a plethora of minefield topics concerning sex, love, and gender issues. This Valentine's Day enhance your own carnal education as Laci Green has a frank and funny conversation with host Lindsay Beyerstein about the do's,  don'ts, and wow-I-didn't-know-that's of sex.

This week on Point of inquiry, New York Times bestselling author Karen Abbott talks to Lindsay Beyerstein about her newest book, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, which tells the true story of four women who served as spies during the U.S. Civil War.  In a time when women had few of the rights they would later win for themselves, the need for espionage turned out to be an early and important step in the fight for women’s suffrage. These bold women went to extraordinary lengths to fight for their respective sides, taking on various roles to gain information, even posing as men. The risk of being discovered was as much a concern during a military medical exam as it was when they were simply attempting to wear men’s pants properly.

Our Guest this week is Greta Christina, popular atheist blogger, speaker and author of several books on atheism including her newest, “Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do With God.”   Christina discusses with Lindsay Beyerstein the tendencies we have to avoid and deny death and how it affects our abilities to cope. Christina explains how the concept of an afterlife may actually be failing to prepare people for the end of their lives, and how we can use our humanism and skepticism to find comfort in the midst of mortality and grief.  

Despite the fact that the United States was founded as a secular state, government neutrality toward religion remains a tumultuous and controversial issue -- a conversation-stopper in most public policy discussions. This week on the show, Lindsay Beyerstein welcomes Ronald A. Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry, the organization responsible for Point of Inquiry. Ron joins us to discuss his just-released book, The Necessity of Secularism: Why God Can’t Tell Us What to Do, in which he explains how the language of secularism is the most ethical and productive language for believers and nonbelievers alike, the missing puzzle piece to fair public policy.   Ron Lindsay is both a lawyer and philosopher, as well as a veteran freethought activist, with several books and articles on ethics, philosophy, and secularism to his name. His particular background provides him with a unique understanding of how crucial the separation of church and state is for equality and stability, as well as how people can be persuaded that a society built on secularism is in everyone’s best interests. 

This week Point of Inquiry welcomes journalist Mark Oppenheimer. Mark writes the Beliefs column for the New York Times, and is the author of the e-book The Zen Predator of The Upper East Side. He is an expert on how religious and philosophical communities deal--or refuse to deal--with allegations of abuse in their ranks.    Mark joins host Lindsay Beyerstein to talk about a feature he wrote for BuzzFeed entitled "Will Misogyny Bring Down The Atheist Movement?", a discussion (as he puts it, "from an outsiders' perspective") about sexism and sexual coercion in organized secularism and skepticism, a phenomenon that he concludes is a threat to the movement's potential to grow and achieve mainstream acceptance. They explore this tumultuous topic both in terms of current debates, as well as in context of the freethought movement's broader history.

Point of Inquiry's hosts are off this week, so we're running Lindsay Beyerstein's excellent interview from earlier this year with Dr. Paul Offit. Dr. Offit will be the Center for Inquiry's special guest on September 6th in Amherst, NY, as he is awarded the Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking.  *   *   *  Paul A. Offit, MD is best known as a co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine and a staunch, public supporter of vaccination and opponent of pseudoscientific alternative medicine.  His most recent book, Do you Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicinepoints a critical eye at the alt-med industry, one than takes in 34 billion dollars a year with little to no regulation. Are patients being harmed, and is it any worse or better than so-called “Big Pharma”?  Dr. Offit talks with our host, Lindsay Beyerstein, about all of this and much more on this week’s Point of Inquiry.  Dr. Offit has published over 130 scholarly articles on the rotavirus vaccine and vaccine safety and efficacy in general. He has also authored or co-authored many books on pediatric medicine, childhood vaccination and opposing pseudoscience in Medicine. He is also the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia as well as a member of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Offit is also a Founding Board Member of the Autism Science Foundation (ASF).  

On March 15, 2000, over a dozen whales beached themselves in the Bahamas in one of the largest multi-species strandings in history. Suspicion turned to U.S. Navy sonar, but at first there was no proof. This revelation brings us into the detective story told in War of the Whales: A True Story. Point of Inquiry welcomes the author, Joshua Horowitz.  We discuss the history of the U.S. Navy’s use of high-intensity active sonar; the cover-up of sonar in the Bahamas; and the titanic struggle between the Navy and an unlikely team of conservationists: marine biologist and ex-Navy sonar man Ken Balcomb, and environmental lawyer Joel Reynolds of the Natural Resources Defense Council.   Host, Lindsay Beyerstein and Horowitz also delve into the history of sonar, the militarization of dolphins, and the sordid history of whales in captivity. 

To discuss last week's Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Point of Inquiry welcomes Dr. Brian Leiter, law professor and philosopher at the University of Chicago. He's the author of several books including Why Tolerate Religion?. He blogs at Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog.  Leiter and host Lindsay Beyerstein discuss what the Hobby Lobby decision means for women's health, corporate personhood, and the separation of church and state.    In 2013, Leiter headlined a daylong symposium with the Center for Inquiry (the organization that produces Point of Inquiry), and you can watch the video here.    

This week, Point of Inquiry welcomes Dahlia Lithwick, Senior Editor and Legal Correspondent for Slate, where she writes the "Supreme Court Dispatches" and "Jurisprudence" columns. Her legal commentary won her a National Magazine Award in 2013. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School and she joins Lindsay Beyerstein to talk about the crisis facing capital punishment in the United States.   Almost all executions in the United States are performed by lethal Injection but America's go-to lethal injection drug cocktail is rapidly becoming obsolete because a key component is no longer readily available. States have been reduced to scrounging drugs from unregulated bulk pharmacies and experimenting with secret and untested mixtures of medications, a practice that may amount to cruel and unusual punishment.    On May 21, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution of Russell Bucklew of Missouri, just two hours before he was scheduled to be executed for the murder of Michael Sanders. Bucklew suffers from a condition called cavernous hemangioma, which means that his brain is a swamp of blood-vessel based tumors where drugs could pool or leak during a lethal injection. Bucklew's lawyers argued that Missouri's secret lethal execution protocol risked causing their client an agonizing death. They cited the example of Clayton Lockett, an Oklahoma inmate who took 43 minutes to die last month, during a botched execution, a death so horrific that the State of Oklahoma suspended executions pending an investigation.    Lithwick and Beyerstein discuss immediate practical crisis of capital punishment, as well as the larger moral and legal issues surrounding the death penalty. 

This week Point of Inquiry is discussing Death. Specifically, Brain death and the efforts of some areas of the religious right and their attempts to eliminate whole brain Brain Death as the legal standard for death in America.  To aid in that,Lindsay Beyerstein welcomes, head of the division of bioethics at New York University's Langone Medical Center, Arthur Caplan, PhD. Dr. Caplan is the author of 32 books and over 600 papers on bioethics as well as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Centering on the recent high-profile cases in recent months with brain dead people being kept 'alive' by machines long after total irreversible loss of brain function. They discuss these cases specifically but also the idea of Brain Death in general and what keeping a corpse alive on machines entails.  What can and should you do to avoid putting your family through this ordeal if you were to fall into the dead zone of Brain Death? Of course, the unreasonable fear of organ thieves which seem to creep their fictitious noses into this discussion whenever it comes up, is discussed for any still afraid of that fate.

This week on Point of Inquiry, Lindsay Beyerstein talks with Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, and a strong advocate of separation of church and state. The conversation focuses on the Supreme Court's recent decision to hear the Hobby Lobby contraception mandate case. This is the most high profile case challenging the birth control mandate, one of the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).  Lynn explains how Hobby Lobby's court challenge could open the door for Jehovah's Witness-owned companies to refuse to cover blood transfusions, or for Christian Scientist-owned companies to refuse to cover any medical care.  ** Due to recording problems minutes 1:30 through 2:40 of Mr. Lynn's portion of the recording are slightly distorted. We apologize for the inconvenience and assure you that the remainder of the recording is clear and that, throughout, the discussion is in-depth and educating.

This week’s guest on Point of Inquiry, Paul A. Offit, MDis best known as a co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine and a staunch, public supporter of vaccination and opponent of pseudoscientific alternative medicine. His most recent book, Do you Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine points a critical eye at the alt-med industry, one than takes in 34 billion dollars a year with little to no regulation. Are patients being harmed, and is it any worse or better than so-called “Big Pharma”? Dr. Offit talks with our host, Lindsay Beyerstein, about all of this and much more on this week’s Point of Inquiry. Dr. Offit has published over 130 scholarly articles on the rotavirus vaccine  and vaccine safety and efficacy in general.  He has also authored or co-authored many books on pediatric medicine, childhood vaccination and opposing pseudoscience in Medicine. He is also the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, and the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia as well as a member of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Offit is also a Founding Board Member of the Autism Science Foundation (ASF).

Point of Inquiry, the flagship podcast for the Center for Inquiry, presents a special episode recorded before a live audience at the 2013 CFI Summit in Tacoma, Washington, with new co-host Lindsay Beyerstein. The fundamentalist, Christian right's influence and impact on our schools and the educating of our children is the subject of the new book The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children. Its author, Katherine Stewart, is our guest on this edition of Point of Inquiry, available in both video and audio editions. Stewart has publiched two novels about 21st Century parenting, worked in investigative journalism, written freelance for such publications as Newsweek International, Rolling Stone, The New York Observer, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Bloomberg View, and Religion Dispatches. What are these "Good News Clubs" and what is their influence on schools across the nation?Evolution and sex education are just two of the avenues these religious organizations are using to inject their brand of far-right Christianity (and Judaism and Scientology, surprisingly) into our public schools.  Next week we'll bring you another episode of Point of Inquiry, as co-host, Josh Zeps interviews Bill Nye, The Science Guy.