Podcasts about Susan Jacoby

The media's focus on military and warfare consumes a vast amount of attention, neglecting other major threats. Today, Colin Robertson sits down Joe Ingram, Dr. Ted Manning, Geoff Strong and Andrew Welch to discuss global warming, harming biodiversity, health impacts, and refusal to acknowledge the need for social change. // Participants' bios - Joe Ingram is the Chairman of GreenTech labs, served with the International Development Agency, former President/CEO of the North-South Institute, was the Deputy Director at the World Bank Institute, including as its Special Representative to the UN and WTO. - Dr. Ted Manning is the President of Tourisk Inc., a consultant to the UN World Tourism Organization, advisor to the World Wildlife Fund and lectures in tourism and environmental topics internationally. - Geoff Strong is an atmospheric climate scientist, sits of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome, a fellow and former national President of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. He was nominated in 2023 for the prestigious Patterson Medal from Environment Canada. - Andrew Welch is the author of The Value Crisis and sits of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome. He is an Emergency Response Team Site Manager (volunteer) with the Canadian Red Cross, and was a founding member of their National Disaster Management Evaluation Team. // Host bio: Colin Robertson is a former diplomat and Senior Advisor to the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, www.cgai.ca/colin_robertson // Reading Recommendations: - "Canadian Industry and Security on an Age of Existential Threat", by Joe Ingram. - The Value Crisis, by Andrew Welch. - Risk and Resilience in the Era of Climate Change, by Vinod Thomas. - The Age of American Unreason in a Culture of Lies, by Susan Jacoby. - Sustainable Tourism in the Americas, by Ted Manning. - Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson. - Anaximander: And the Birth of Science, by Carlo Rovelli. // Music Credit: Drew Phillips | Producer: Jordyn Carroll // Recording Date: February 18, 2025 Release date: March 24, 2025

Back in 2018 your host met Stormy Daniels as part of his 15 part investigation into America's disinformation complex. You can find that series here. On this historic day, as we learn that no American floats above the law, we turn back to this historic TOE moment, a remix of False Alarm, featuring a profile of the artist Lynn Hershman Leeson, a conversation with writer Susan Jacoby and Benjamen Walker's meeting with Stormy Daniels!

FFRF's Senior Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott tells us about the lawsuit we filed today challenging the required "So help me, God" oath on Alabama's voter registration forms. Then author, scholar and essayist Susan Jacoby joins us to explain the dangerous religiously dogmatic views of Amy Coney Barrett, the nominee to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court.

This week on Beliefs, we return to a conversation with one of our favorite guests, scholar and writer Susan Jacoby. Secularism and atheism finds a full-throated defense in this episode. Jacoby takes us on a journey of where we were just one year ago: presidential politics on the rise, the rise of secularism, no pandemic in sight, and a world less complicated. Jacoby brings together the threads of various moments in history to identify her view that religion and politics have never comfortably coexisted.  

This week on Freethought Radio: President Trump wants to "pack the pews" of churches by Easter. Vice President Pence encourages believers to continue tithing. Governors, mayors and lawmakers promote prayer as a response to the pandemic. After hearing the Philip Appleman song "In A Dark Time," we talk by phone with journalist and author Susan Jacoby, from her New York City apartment where she is sheltering in place in the coronavirus epicenter, about battling the virus of faith.

Welcome to another episode of the Bowie Book Club, where wild speculation and grasping for straws about Bowie’s favorite books has reigned supreme since 2016. This time we read a wide-ranging screed on the intellectual wasteland of current American culture - Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason. And Greg reveals his ignorance of fairly presidential elections. Fun! #tuesdaygoths

  Susan Jacoby is an independent scholar specializing  in the history of reason, atheism, secularism, and religious liberty. Her best-known books include Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism and the New York Times best-seller, The Age of American Unreason in a Culture of Lies.   At turns passionate, ardent, funny, and defiant, Jacoby lives her truth and embodies the vibrance of her beliefs. 

Encore release October 16, 2018. Encore release July 9, 2017. Not much of a war this year, and if there is one it looks like Christmas is winning. The American Family Association's "Naughty or Nice" list features far more companies that are Christmas-friendly than not. Sarah Palin has a new book out: Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas. It's more word salad from the former governor of Alaska, in which she laments the supposed assault on the Baby Jesus' Birthday. Check out Katy Steinmetz's humorous review at TIME. Here are our suggestions for holiday gifts for non-believers: David's suggestions: 5. A gym membership ('cause this the only body you'll ever have) 4. One or more of the following books: The Great Agnostic by Susan Jacoby; What You Don't Know about Religion (but Should) by Ryan Cragun; Last Ape Standing by Chip Walter 3. A Nice Trip (David recommends Vegas) 2. Contribution in their name to American Atheists (or some other secular charity of your choice) 1. Binoculars (what non-believer doesn't enjoy sky gazing?) John's suggestions: 5. Cognitive Dissonance Combo Pack: Zealot by Reza Aslan & Killing Jesus by Bill O'Reilly 4. Books on the History of Christmas: The Battle for Christmas by Stephen Nissenbaum; Christmas in America by Penne Restad; Christmas Curiosities by John Grossman 3. Subscription to MUSE, a science magazine for 9 to 14-year-olds . 2. GoldieBlox - building toys aimed at getting girls interested in engineering. 1. Atheist Shoes  

Encore release September 24, 2018. Encore release June 17, 2017. We interview Susan Jacoby, journalist and outspoken nonbeliever, about her new book The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought. Susan is also the author of (among other titles) Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism and The Age of American Unreason. The Great Agnostic is available in hardcover and forKindle. Also, be sure to read Susan's recent essay in the New York Times, "The Blessings of Atheism." For more about Susan and her work visit SusanJacoby.com. Plus: John recommends the book Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State and the Birth of Liberty by John M. Barry. On a non-freethought note, John also recommends the 1954 proto-Indiana-Jones adventure flick Secret of the Incas, starring Charlton Heston, and featuring the "Peruvian Songbird" Yma Sumac (for ultimately kitschy goodness, check out Sumac's albumMambo).

This episode discusses the Chicago Cubs' World Series win, the latest woes for the Washington Nationals, and Susan Jacoby's ‘Why Baseball Matters.'

Cardinal McCarrick (a fox guarding the chicken coop) is sacked for sexual molestation. FFRF complains about a Texas police department worship video and about Tennessee's law requiring the posting of "In God We Trust" in classrooms. After discussing the Russian connection to the National Prayer Breakfast, we hear part of Samantha Bee's "Goodbye Roe v. Wade" monologue. The we talk with author Susan Jacoby, whose article “The White House is Tearing Down the Wall Between Church and State” ran this month in the New York Times.

Mitch discusses Why Baseball Matters with author of the new book "Why Baseball Matters", by Susan Jacoby

The Sports Capitol's Ben Standig joins us to discuss an extension of Wizards General Manager Ernie Grunfeld's contract...and grades the Redskins' draft. Author Susan Jacoby (Why Baseball Matters) on how MLB can attract younger and more diverse fans.

Murph and Andy talk NFL Draft, baseball with author Susan Jacoby, and more

Author Susan Jacoby discusses the current state and future of baseball in America.

Baseball is America's Pastime but can it survive in the technological era when games are longer than most attention spans? Susan Jacoby, author and longtime baseball fan, discusses the history of the game and what it can do to keep fans engaged.

Baseball is America’s Pastime but can it survive in the technological era when games are longer than most attention spans? Susan Jacoby, author and longtime baseball fan, discusses the history of the game and what it can do to keep fans engaged. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher | Soundcloud

Claudia Cragg (@KGNUClaudia for @KGNU) speaks here with  about her new book, “,” in which she asserts that “America is now ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism.” For more than a decade, Jacoby says, there have been growing symptoms of this affliction, from fundamentalist assaults on the teaching of evolution to the Bush administration’s willful disavowal of expert opinion on  and strategies for prosecuting the war in Iraq. Conservatives have turned the term “intellectual,” like the term “ liberal,” into a dirty word in politics (even though neo-conservative intellectuals played a formative role in making the case for war against Iraq); policy positions tend to get less attention than personality and tactics in the current presidential campaign; and the democratizing influence of the Internet is working to banish expertise altogether, making everyone an authority on everything.  Susan Jacoby is the author of eleven previous books, including Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism and Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion. Her articles have appeared frequently in the op-ed pages of The New York Times and in forums… 

When America has a problem, we no longer turn to the experts. And that’s a problem, too. At least, according to Tom Nichols and Susan Jacoby.

The decline of experts, why interviews are awful, and how healthy lunches help kids. That's all this week, on Innovation Hub.

Talking to Trump voters during the campaign, we'd sometimes hear what felt like a unified sentiment bubbling up beneath the popular, and populist, reasons for supporting their candidate. Retired truck mechanic Fiore Napolitano from Long Island put it this way: "You talk to these idiots, supposed to be doctors and this and that, scientists, they got [expletive] for brains," he said. "They have no common sense.” Trump was Napolitano's man because he did not speak like a credentialed expert or someone with an Ivy League degree — the type of person whose depth of learning might actually make them dumb. About those kinds of people, Napolitano added, "I got more brains in my little thumb." What's up, America? Why the qualms about erudition and expertise? Where does this wariness spring from, and what role did it play in the rise of Donald Trump — opposed by just about every intellectual associated with either party but whose supporters simply did not care about that? Connie and Fiore Napolitano at a roadside hot dog stand off Montauk Highway in Suffolk County. (Chris Arnade ) In this episode, we tell the story of anti-intellectualism in America life. We talk to the learned and those who loathe them, including writers and commentators, a neuroscientist and a gun shop owner in a red-voting part of upstate New York. We quote a fiery pamphlet penned by a yeoman farmer from the Revolutionary Era, and we delve into the book that describes and frames this issue better and more enduringly than any other. We also explore insights by the author of that book, a Columbia University professor who wore a bow tie and Clark Kent glasses and whose grad students recalled that "he was continually hitching up his sagging trousers." A real egghead, in other words. Susan Jacoby is author of the 2008 book, "The Age of American Unreason," which she is revising for republication this fall. "New examples of unreason keep cropping up every minute," she quipped to WNYC Studios. She says the current tensions in our politics would surprise no one with a grasp of this country's history. "When people talk about two Americas today, wide-eyed, as though this were something new or we are more culturally divided now than we were 150 years ago or after the American Revolution, they're wrong," she declared before talking about the Puritans and their love of books. Jim O’Grady walks us through the centuries-long debate about intellectualism, elitism, and our reverence for the common man. Episode Contributors: Kai Wright Jim O'Grady Karen Frillmann Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts.

We celebrate the Bill of Rights (December 15) and the Winter Solstice (December 21) this week. Dan reads FFRF’s full-page “Bill of Rights” ad that ran in today's New York Times and Annie Laurie reads “Away with the manger—in with the Solstice!” FFRF secular holiday signs are going up all over the country. After hearing solstice songs by Kristin Lems and Dan Barker, we listen to part of the speech by Susan Jacoby —“Why I am sick and tired of ‘God Bless America’”—which she gave at FFRF’s October convention in Pittsburgh.

Last week's episode hit a nerve, or perhaps that should be many nerves. It's late at night in his apartment in Los Angeles and Bart takes a few minutes to touch upon the many responses to the episode with his wife Marty about whether he's being ‘too nice' about Christianity.For those asking about Robert Ingersoll, Ingersoll the Magnificent by Joseph Lewis can be found HERE for free. Bart also recommends Susan Jacoby’s biography The Great Agnostic HERE.Also, a new Facebook Group for this podcast can be found HERE. Click ‘Join' to be among the very first to get in on that conversation!

We tend to think of the process of converting from one religion to another as a religious experience, but how much of that reflects the outlook of the people who usually talk about conversion? When author Susan Jacoby set out to explore conversion from the perspective of an atheist, she found, by contrast, that many if not most religious conversions are undertaken for frankly pragmatic reasons. From politics to position in society, she details many of the reasons people convert in her latest book, Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion. This week, she joins Peggy Knudtson to talk about the book and what the current political season tells us about the influence of religion on the hearts, minds, and ballots of Americans.

In the literature about religious conversion, embracing a new faith is usually explained as being a profound and magical experience. A flash of light, a near death experience, an emotional new beginning; these are all common themes in religious conversion stories. But what about the less flashy stories of people who change their religious affiliation simply for reasons of practicality? Point of Inquiry welcomes back bestselling, award-winning author Susan Jacoby to discus her new book, Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion, an exploration of the cultural, political and secular forces driving religious conversion in the western world. Jacoby argues that while spiritual revelation may be a motivator for some, the majority of religious conversions are far more often due to the secular components of an individual’s life. Susan Jacoby was honored with a Center for Inquiry Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, and formerly served as the program director of CFI’s New York City branch.

I read from an article written by Ray Williams of PSYCHOLOGY TODAY Wired for Success Anti-Intellectualism and the "Dumbing Down" of America Posted Jul 07, 2014 There is a growing and disturbing trend of anti-intellectual elitism in American culture. It’s the dismissal of science, the arts, and humanities and their replacement by entertainment, self-righteousness, ignorance, and deliberate gullibility. Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason, says in an article in the Washington Post, "Dumbness, to paraphrase the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has been steadily defined downward for several decades, by a combination of heretofore irresistible forces. These include the triumph of video culture over print culture; a disjunction between Americans' rising level of formal education and their shaky grasp of basic geography, science and history; and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism." There has been a long tradition of anti-intellectualism in America, unlike most other Western countries. Richard Hofstadter, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his book, Anti-Intellectualism In American Life, describes how the vast underlying foundations of anti-elite, anti-reason and anti-science have been infused into America’s political and social fabric. Famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov once said: "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." Mark Bauerlein, in his book, The Dumbest Generation, reveals how a whole generation of youth is being dumbed down by their aversion to reading anything of substance and their addiction to digital "crap" via social media. Journalist Charles Pierce, author of Idiot America, adds another perspective: “The rise of idiot America today represents--for profit mainly, but also and more cynically, for political advantage in the pursuit of power--the breakdown of a consensus that the pursuit of knowledge is a good. It also represents the ascendancy of the notion that the people whom we should trust the least are the people who best know what they are talking about. In the new media age, everybody is an expert.” “There’s a pervasive suspicion of rights, privileges, knowledge and specialization,” says Catherine Liu, the author of American Idyll: Academic Antielitism as Cultural Critique and a film and media studies professor at University of California. The very mission of universities has changed, argues Liu. “We don’t educate people anymore. We train them to get jobs.” Part of the reason for the rising anti-intellectualism can be found in the declining state of education in the U.S. compared to other advanced countries: After leading the world for decades in 25-34 year olds with university degrees, the U.S. is now in 12th place. The World Economic Forum ranked the U.S. at 52nd among 139 nations in the quality of its university math and science instruction in 2010. Nearly 50% of all graduate students in the sciences in the U.S. are foreigners, most of whom are returning to their home countries; The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs commissioned a civic education poll among public school students. A surprising 77% didn't know that George Washington was the first President; couldn't name Thomas Jefferson as the author of the Declaration of Independence; and only 2.8% of the students actually passed the citizenship test. Along similar lines, the Goldwater Institute of Phoenix did the same survey and only 3.5% of students passed the civics test; According to the National Research Council report, only 28% of high school science teachers consistently follow the National Research Council guidelines on teaching evolution, and 13% of those teachers explicitly advocate creationism or "intelligent design;" 18% of Americans still believe that the sun revolves around the earth, according to a Gallup poll; The American Association of State Colleges and Universities report on education shows that the U.S. ranks second among all nations in the proportion of the population aged 35-64 with a college degree, but 19th in the percentage of those aged 25-34 with an associate or high school diploma, which means that for the first time, the educational attainment of young people will be lower than their parents; 74% of Republicans in the U.S. Senate and 53% in the House of Representatives deny the validity of climate change despite the findings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and every other significant scientific organization in the world; According to the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 68% of public school children in the U.S. do not read proficiently by the time they finish third grade. And the U.S. News & World reported that barely 50% of students are ready for college level reading when they graduate; According to a 2006 survey by National Geographic-Roper, nearly half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 do not think it necessary to know the location of other countries in which important news is being made. More than a third consider it "not at all important" to know a foreign language, and only 14 percent consider it "very important;" According to the National Endowment for the Arts report in 1982, 82% of college graduates read novels or poems for pleasure; two decades later only 67% did. And more than 40% of Americans under 44 did not read a single book--fiction or nonfiction--over the course of a year. The proportion of 17 year olds who read nothing (unless required by school ) has doubled between 1984-2004; Gallup released a poll indicating 42 percent of Americans still believe God created human beings in their present form less than 10,000 years ago; A 2008 University of Texas study found that 25 percent of public school biology teachers believe that humans and dinosaurs inhabited the earth simultaneously. In American schools, the culture exalts the athlete and good-looking cheerleader. Well-educated and intellectual students are commonly referred to in public schools and the media as "nerds," "dweebs," "dorks," and "geeks," and are relentlessly harassed and even assaulted by the more popular "jocks" for openly displaying any intellect.  These anti-intellectual attitudes are not reflected in students in most European or Asian countries, whose educational levels have now equaled and and will surpass that of the U.S.  And most TV shows or movies such as The Big Bang Theory depict intellectuals as being geeks if not effeminate. John W. Traphagan ,Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Texas, argues the problem is that Asian countries have core cultural values that are more akin to a cult of intelligence and education than a cult of ignorance and anti-intellectualism. In Japan, for example, teachers are held in high esteem and normally viewed as among the most important members of a community. There is suspicion and even disdain for the work of teachers that occurs in the U.S. Teachers in Japan typically are paid significantly more than their peers in the U.S. The profession of teaching is one that is seen as being of central value in Japanese society and those who choose that profession are well compensated in terms of salary, pension, and respect for their knowledge and their efforts on behalf of children. In addition, we do not see in Japan significant numbers of the types of religious schools that are designed to shield children from knowledge about basic tenets of science and accepted understandings of history--such as evolutionary theory or the religious views of the Founding Fathers, who were largely deists--which are essential to having a fundamental understanding of the world, Traphagan contends. The reason for this is because in general Japanese value education, value the work of intellectuals, and see a well-educated public with a basic common knowledge in areas of scientific fact, math, history, literature, etc. as being an essential foundation to a successful democracy. We’re creating a world of dummies. Angry dummies who feel they have the right, the authority and the need not only to comment on everything, but to make sure their voice is heard above the rest, and to drag down any opposing views through personal attacks, loud repetition and confrontation. Bill Keller, writing in the New York Times argues that the anti-intellectual elitism is not an elitism of wisdom, education, experience or knowledge. The new elite are the angry social media posters, those who can shout loudest and more often, a clique of bullies and malcontents baying together like dogs cornering a fox. Too often it’s a combined elite of the anti-intellectuals and the conspiracy followers – not those who can voice the most cogent, most coherent response. Together they forment a rabid culture of anti-rationalism where every fact is suspect; every shadow holds a secret conspiracy. Rational thought is the enemy. Critical thinking is the devil’s tool. Keller also notes that the herd mentality takes over online; the anti-intellectuals become the metaphorical equivalent of an angry lynch mob when anyone either challenges one of the mob beliefs or posts anything outside the mob’s self-limiting set of values. Keller blames this in part to the online universe that “skews young, educated and attentive to fashions.” Fashion, entertainment, spectacle, voyeurism – we’re directed towards trivia, towards the inconsequential, towards unquestioning and blatant consumerism. This results in intellectual complacency. People accept without questioning, believe without weighing the choices, join the pack because in a culture where convenience rules, real individualism is too hard work. Thinking takes too much time: it gets in the way of the immediacy of the online experience. Reality TV and pop culture presented in magazines and online sites claim to provide useful information about the importance of The Housewives of [you name the city] that can somehow enrich our lives. After all, how else can one explain the insipid and pointless stories that tout divorces, cheating and weight gain? How else can we explain how the Kardashians,or Paris Hilton are known for being famous for being famous without actually contributing anything worth discussion? The artificial events of their lives become the mainstay of populist media to distract people from the real issues and concerns facing us. The current trend of increasing anti-intellectualism now establishing itself in politics and business leadership, and supported by a declining education system should be a cause for concern for leaders and the general population,one that needs to be addressed now.

We welcome the spring with some light music by freethinking songwriter Yip Harburg (who wrote “Over The Rainbow”) and country singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks (“God Isn’t Real”). After FFRF staff attorney Sam Grover updates us on some state/church victories in southern states, we announce a new drawing for the Yip Harburg book Rhymes For The Irreverent. Then we talk with author, historian, and cultural critic Susan Jacoby about her new book, Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion.

It's 2016 - have you considered joining the AFA? We've got memberships where you can not only support future projects like billboards, media releases and events - but also get a fantastic magazine, network with other like-minded atheists, get some pretty snappy merchandise, and have a say in the future of the association. We're holding our AGM in March in Sydney - so consider starting your year off right and join now at www.atheistfoundation.org.au/membership. ***** Founded in 2012, the Women without Religion forum began with women without religion - and has since grown to be inclusive of feminists, rationalists, atheists, LBGTQI and cis gendered folk. The page primarily acts as a billboard that advocates for changes to make the world a better place for everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ableness and age. The Women without Religion page is without religion for a large number of reasons but two main reasons are that we are without bigotry, and we value evidence based reasoning. We understand that without religion and with more evidenced based reasoning, the world would be a better place for everyone. I spoke to Annie, the founder and one of the administrators of the page - you can find it at: https://www.facebook.com/WomenWithoutReligion/ ******* Paul Fidalgo is our international correspondent on the show; he is the communications director for the skeptic and humanist organization the Center for Inquiry, where he writes the daily news roundup The Morning Heresy, among a bazillion other things. He blogs at iMortal over on the Patheos network and podcasts with Brian Hogg at www.thinkerypodcast.com. - The coming of the Depp to the Reason Rally is making news - is it a sign of a cultural acceptance of atheism in the entertainment industry? - A bishop in the Philippines says folks should keep away from Madonna's tour for being suggestive and vulgar - it also happens to be one year since the murder of Avijit Roy and Salman Rushdie is again being targeted. - NYT publishes two letters to the editor reacting to Susan Jacoby's recent piece on atheists and the language of politics and Joseph Berger at NYT looks at how Bernie Sanders talks about (or doesn't talk about) being Jewish. - We also talk about Tim Minchin's Cardinal Pell song and what's involved in the investigation in Rome. ***** In Australian and AFA forum board news – our correspondent GoldenMane gives us the lowdown on what’s happened this month on the boards. Join him and the lively crowd at atheistfoundation.org.au/forums. ***** For more information visit: atheistfoundation.org.au/podcast/ All Atheist Aus Podcast episodes are under the Creative Commons license. You are free to distribute unedited versions of the episodes for non-commercial purposes. If you would like to edit the episode please contact us. The views expressed are not necessarily representative of the Atheist Foundation of Australia, its affiliates, sponsors or advertisers. Continue the conversation with atheists, the like-minded and the not-so-like minded at the AFA forums, found at atheistfoundation.org.au/forums or tweet us at twitter.com/atheistaus. Contact the show at atheistauspodcast@gmail.com. “Backed Vibes Clean” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ “Base Walker” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution3.0creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ You can find all the previous episodes of Atheist Aus over on the SoundCloud site and on iTunes!

This week I speak with author and public intellectual, Susan Jacoby, about her new book, "Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion." Jacoby explains how stories of famous conversions throughout history are almost always accompanied significant social turmoil and compulsion of one kind or another. Even today, religious conversion is often heavily influenced by socio-political factors.We talk about how the experience of "deconversion" is similar and different from what we usually mean by conversion and whether that is the right word to describe the process.Buy "Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion" here: http://amzn.to/1T5CY8w

REFLECTION QUOTES “Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose…” ~Janis Joplin, “Me and Bobby McGee” “If what we do now is to make no difference in the end, then all the seriousness of life is done a way with.” ~Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), Austrian-British philosopher “Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.” ~Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), French existentialist philosopher “The ultimate apologetic is to a dying man…. the news that ‘Christ is risen!' really is Good News for one kind of person: The person who is dying. If Christianity is not a dying word to dying men, it is not the message of the Bible that gives hope now.” ~Michael Spencer (1956-2010), internet blogger “I know a place, ain't nobody cryin', ain't nobody worried. Ain't no smilin' faces, mmm, no, no, lyin' to the races.” ~“I'll Take You There”, The Staple Singers (1972) “It is the secular whose longing for perfection has grown so intense as to lead them to imagine that paradise might be realized on this earth after just a few more years of financial growth and medical research. With no evident awareness of the contradiction they may, in the same breath, gruffly dismiss a belief in angels while sincerely trusting that the combined powers of the IMF, the medical research establishment, Silicon Valley, and democratic politics could together cure the ills of mankind.” ~Alain de Botton, Swiss-born writer and television producer “Too many Americans have twisted the sensible right to pursue happiness into the delusion that we are entitled to a guarantee of happiness. If we don't get exactly what we want, we assume someone must be violating our rights.” ~Susan Jacoby, American public intellectual and author “Definition of a wanderer: A guy who's always looking beyond.” ~Stephen King (1947-present), in Wolves of the Calla SERMON PASSAGE Genesis 23 (ESV) 1 Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. 3 And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, 4 “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” 5 The Hittites answered Abraham, 6 “Hear us, my lord; you are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead.” 7 Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. 8 And he said to them, “If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat for me Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns; it is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as property for a burying place.” 10 Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city, 11 “No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the sight of the sons of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.” 12 Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. 13 And he said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, “But if you will, hear me: I give the price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there.” 14 Ephron answered Abraham, 15 “My lord, listen to me: a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” 16 Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants. 17 So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over 18 to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the Hittites.

Point of Inquiry is on a short hiatus right now as we transition to a new podcast team. In the meantime, enjoy these classic episodes from the POI archives, featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Susan Jacoby, and other luminaries in the science and secularism movement. Our guest this week needs little introduction—he may be our most famous public communicator of science. He's Neil DeGrasse Tyson, renowned American astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, and the host of PBS's NOVA ScienceNow, which just completed a new six part season. Tyson is also the author of 9 books, most recently Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, which was a New York Times bestseller, and The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet.  In this double length episode, Tyson discusses a wide range of topics: the just finished 2011 season of ScienceNow; how to restore a science "Zeitgeist" in our culture; Bill O'Reilly's recent foot-in-mouth comments about how the world works; this million-view YouTube clip of Tyson and Richard Dawkins; and much more. 

Point of Inquiry is on a short hiatus right now as we transition to a new podcast team. In the meantime, enjoy these classic episodes from the POI archives, featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Susan Jacoby, and other luminaries in the science and secularism movement. Recently in New Orleans, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry held the very first CSIcon—the conference dedicated to scientific inquiry and critical thinking. The main honoree: Bill Nye the Science Guy, who was given CSI's premiere "In Praise of Reason" award. The next day, Point of Inquiry caught up with Nye, a guest who really needs no introduction... at least not to the thousands upon thousands of kids who saw a little show called Bill Nye the Science Guy. Since then, Nye has been involved in many other endeavors and television programs to improve science teaching and understanding in our country, including his latest show on Planet Green, "Stuff Happens". Nye is an engineer, inventor, author, comedian—a supporter of clean energy, and above all a skeptic.

Government prayer is run amok! Hear updates about FFRF complaints in Texas and Alabama, as well as the Cullman County "Prayer Caravan" saga, in which the governor takes sides against FFRF. Then we interview Susan Jacoby about her newly released book, The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought.

Point of Inquiry is on a short hiatus right now as we transition to a new podcast team. In the meantime, enjoy these classic episodes from the POI archives, featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Susan Jacoby, and other luminaries in the science and secularism movement. It's the beginning of a new year here at Point of Inquiry, and we've got a pretty good guest to kick it off. He needs no introduction. He's Brian Greene—celebrity physicist, bestselling author, television star and all around science communication maestro. Officially: Greene is co-founder and director of Columbia University's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, author of the bestselling books The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, and co-founder of the World Science Festival. We caught up with Greene to discuss the recently aired four part NOVA special based on The Fabric of the Cosmos, as well as, well, sciency things in general.

Point of Inquiry is on a short hiatus right now as we transition to a new podcast team. In the meantime, enjoy these classic episodes from the POI archives, featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Susan Jacoby, and other luminaries in the science and secularism movement. According to the USDA, Americans produce and consume more beef, veal, and chicken than any other nation in the world. As a result, the status of animal welfare in the meat production industry should be of some concern to all Americans, regardless of dietary habits. One of the world's leading experts in livestock handling practices is Dr. Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University. In addition to gaining international recognition for her research on animal behavior and designs of feed yards and slaughterhouses, Dr. Grandin is also arguably the most famous high-functioning autistic adult. Her story has inspired countless individuals and families who have been touched by autism spectrum disorders, as well as other conditions that cause sensory hypersensitivity. In 2010, Claire Danes won both Emmy and Golden Globe awards for her portrayal of Temple in the critically-acclaimed HBO biopic Temple Grandin. This week on Point of Inquiry, we talk to Grandin about science, animal behavior, autism, ethics, and much more. Temple Grandin teaches courses on livestock behavior and facility design at Colorado State University and consults with the livestock industry on facility design, livestock handling, and animal welfare. She has appeared on television shows such as 20/20, 48 Hours, CNN Larry King Live, PrimeTime Live, the Today Show, and many shows in other countries. She has been featured in People Magazine, the New York Times, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, Time Magazine, the New York Times book review, and Discover magazine. In 2010, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people. She has also authored over 400 articles in both scientific journals and livestock periodicals on animal handling, welfare, and facility design. She is the author of Thinking in Pictures, Livestock Handling and Transport, Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals, and Humane Livestock Handling. Her books Animals in Translation and Animals Make Us Human were both on the New York Times best seller list.

Point of Inquiry is on a short hiatus right now as we transition to a new podcast team. In the meantime, enjoy these classic episodes from the POI archives, featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Susan Jacoby, and other luminaries in the science and secularism movement. Susan Jacoby is the author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, now in its tenth hardcover printing and recently published in paperback. Freethinkers was hailed in the New York Times as an “ardent and insightful work” that “seeks to rescue a proud tradition from the indifference of posterity.” Named a notable nonfiction book of 2004 by The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, Freethinkers was cited in England as one of the outstanding international books of 2004 by the Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian.   In this interview with DJ Grothe, Jacoby talks about the role that freethinkers played in American social justice movements, and discusses the forgotten history of Robert Green Ingersoll.   Also in this episode, Tom Flynn asks Did You Know?, detailing facts about Robert Green Ingersoll and new data about nonbelievers from University of Akron, and Lauren Becker shares some thoughts on Darwin and Oliver Sacks and what these scientists teach us about ourselves.

Point of Inquiry is on a short hiatus right now as we transition to a new podcast team. In the meantime, enjoy these classic episodes from the POI archives, featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Susan Jacoby, and other luminaries in the science and secularism movement. Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of America’s leading spokespersons for science. The research areas he focuses on are star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. In addition to many scholarly publications, Dr Tyson is one of America’s most respected science writers, and he writes a monthly column for Natural History magazine simply titled the “Universe.” Among his eight books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and also Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. His most recent book is Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries. He is the on-camera host of PBS-NOVA’s program ScienceNow, which explore the frontiers of all the science that shapes our understanding of our place in the universe. He is the first occupant of the Frederick P. Rose Directorship of the Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan, where he also teaches.   In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Neil deGrasse Tyson examines various approaches to informal science education, his experiences teaching science through pop-culture media outlets, and controversies regarding science popularization. He explains his views on the implications of science for religious belief, questioning the strategy of science educators who seem to equate science and atheism. He also recounts the direct influence of Carl Sagan on his professional development.

Today most Americans have never heard of Robert Green Ingersoll but in the 19th century he was considered one of the greatest orators of his age. Known as "the Great Agnostic", Ingersoll criticized religion and championed progressive political causes with great ferocity, wit and humor. Though his writings are controversial even by today's standards his personal charm was so disarming that people would travel miles for a chance to hear him speak. Susan Jacoby, author of Freethinkers and the Age of American Unreason joins us to talk about her new biography of Ingersoll and to illuminate how his courage and integrity continues to inspire to this day. Also on this episode: Unlike Ingersoll, Pope Francis seems to have more charm than courage and the doubtcasters enjoy a hearty "I told you so" moment thanks to a new study on the impact of free will/ determinism belief on ones larger worldview.

Host: Chris Mooney Later this year, May 17 to 19 in Washington, D.C., the Center for Inquiry will convene its second "Women in Secularism" conference. There are a host of great speakers, many of whom we've had on this show before, like Susan Jacoby, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Greta Christina, and Rebecca Watson. And we're going to be there covering it. But in the meantime, to get you ready, we've invited on one of the featured speakers ahead of time—Amanda Marcotte. Marcotte writes for and manages the blog Pandagon, blogs for Slate's Double X, and has two books out: It's A Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments and Get Opinionated: A Progressive's Guide to Finding Your Voice (and Taking a Little Action). She's written about politics, pop culture, and feminism for outlets such as Slate, Salon, the LA Times, the Guardian, and the American Prospect.

Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week is Susan Jacoby. She's the bestselling author of a number of books about secularism and American culture, including Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism and The Age of American Unreason. Jacoby started her career at the Washington Post, and her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Book Review, Newsday, Harper's, The Nation, Vogue, The American Prospect, Mother Jones, and the AARP Magazine, among other publications. Her latest book, just published and the subject of our interview, is The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought.

"Get Off Your Knees And Get To Work," a new song by Dan Barker, is debuted this week, especially in response to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback calling for a "Day of Repentance." Listen to some brave Florida commissioners objecting to prayer, and hear an NPR interview of FFRF member William Cox objecting to the Jesus statue in the Montana federal park. Then we talk with Susan Jacoby who has a new book out about Robert Ingersoll: The Great Agnostic.

Last April, secularist author Susan Jacoby and Christian apologist Dinesh D'Souza debated each other over the question, "Is Christianity Good for American Politics?" While Jacoby's argument was more accurate, D'Souza employed a host of logical fallacies and historical inaccuracies to gain a rhetorical edge. For this RD Extra, doubtcaster Jeremy Beahan joins Ed Brayton of Culture Wars Radio for some in-depth post-debate analysis.

  Sean's 10 point plan. Sean's book:  Reviews: Shocking! Will keep you on the edge of your seat! Sean Faircloth is doing such important work. There's not a doubt in my mind that if he was (suddenly, inexplicably) zapped back in time to meet Thomas Jefferson, that the Founding Father would clap him on the shoulder and say ‘Thanks.'” –Adam Savage, MythBusters co-host and executive producer. “Faircloth paints a sobering picture, but fortunately, as anyone who has heard his speeches knows, he also has an inspiring and invigorating vision to offer. . . . Readers will finish the book exercised, energized, and eager to join Faircloth in a bold rediscovery of the secular dream of the European Enlightenment and America's enlightened Fathers.” – Richard Dawkins, from the foreword to Attack of the Theocrats! “I've devoted the last twenty years of my professional life to pointing out unscientific assertions that harm or swindle innocent people. It becomes particularly insidious when unsound reasoning is used to justify and apply unjust laws. This book describes this very real problem in American today, then offers a bold plan to do something about it.” –James Randi, Founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation “What does the erosion of America's noble separation of church and state the basis of the first secular government in the world have to do with your everyday life? In this lively and historically grounded survey of the way we live now, the author explains why the thirty-year-old assault on church-state separation affects all of us from children who are not getting a world-class education in science because of fundamentalist interference with the teaching of biology to soldiers subjected to evangelical proselytizing on military bases. Nothing could be more timely than this reminder that the founders left God out of the Constitution to provide citizens of every faith and no faith the freedom to act on their consciences. We ignore this historic liberty, the gift of America's founding generation, at our peril.” –Susan Jacoby, Author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism and The Age of American Unreason “Faircloth makes a compelling case for people everywhere to steadily reestablish Thomas Jefferson's fundamental idea and keep religions out of politics. Read this, and you'll become a Constitution thumper.” –Bill Nye the Science Guy

  Sean’s 10 point plan. Sean’s book:  Reviews: Shocking! Will keep you on the edge of your seat! Sean Faircloth is doing such important work. There’s not a doubt in my mind that if he was (suddenly, inexplicably) zapped back in time to meet Thomas Jefferson, that the Founding Father would clap him on the shoulder and say ‘Thanks.’” –Adam Savage, MythBusters co-host and executive producer. “Faircloth paints a sobering picture, but fortunately, as anyone who has heard his speeches knows, he also has an inspiring and invigorating vision to offer. . . . Readers will finish the book exercised, energized, and eager to join Faircloth in a bold rediscovery of the secular dream of the European Enlightenment and America’s enlightened Fathers.” – Richard Dawkins, from the foreword to Attack of the Theocrats! “I’ve devoted the last twenty years of my professional life to pointing out unscientific assertions that harm or swindle innocent people. It becomes particularly insidious when unsound reasoning is used to justify and apply unjust laws. This book describes this very real problem in American today, then offers a bold plan to do something about it.” –James Randi, Founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation “What does the erosion of America’s noble separation of church and state the basis of the first secular government in the world have to do with your everyday life? In this lively and historically grounded survey of the way we live now, the author explains why the thirty-year-old assault on church-state separation affects all of us from children who are not getting a world-class education in science because of fundamentalist interference with the teaching of biology to soldiers subjected to evangelical proselytizing on military bases. Nothing could be more timely than this reminder that the founders left God out of the Constitution to provide citizens of every faith and no faith the freedom to act on their consciences. We ignore this historic liberty, the gift of America’s founding generation, at our peril.” –Susan Jacoby, Author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism and The Age of American Unreason “Faircloth makes a compelling case for people everywhere to steadily reestablish Thomas Jefferson’s fundamental idea and keep religions out of politics. Read this, and you’ll become a Constitution thumper.” –Bill Nye the Science Guy

In this episode, prominent atheist Susan Jacoby discusses her life and work on the October 12, 2011 edition of KNPR's "State of Nevada." Jacoby appeared, along with Karen King and Reza Aslan, at the BMI "Theism/Atheism" event the next night. This audio segment is used with the gracious permission of KNPRs "State of Nevada" which podcasts many segments of its programs. See knpr.org/son/feeds for more information.

In this episode, Harvard Divinity professor Karen King discusses her life and work on the October 13, 2011 edition of KNPR's "State of Nevada." King appeared, along with Susan Jacoby and Reza Aslan, at the BMI "Theism/Atheism" event later that night. This audio segment is used with the gracious permission of KNPRs "State of Nevada" which podcasts many segments of its programs. See knpr.org/son/feeds for more information.

In this episode, prominent atheist Susan Jacoby, Harvard Divinity professor Karen King, and Islamist activist and writer Reza Aslan discuss "Theism/Atheism: Belief and Unbelief in America." Moderated by BMI Executive Director Carol Harter, the event was held October 13th, 2011 in the UNLV Student Union Ballroom in Las Vegas, NV.

In this episode, Islamist activist and writer Reza Aslan discusses his life and work on the October 13, 2011 edition of KNPR's "State of Nevada." Aslan appeared, along with Susan Jacoby and Karen King, at the BMI "Theism/Atheism" event later that night. This audio segment is used with the gracious permission of KNPRs "State of Nevada" which podcasts many segments of its programs. See knpr.org/son/feeds for more information.

Award-winning writer, Susan Jacoby, most recently the author of Never Say Die: the Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 2011), discussed the uncensored realities of growing old with an audience at The Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles. As the youngest baby boomers turn 65 this year, Jacoby warned that clinging to false hope about the future of aging leaves us unprepared to deal with the financial and medical woes destined to afflict the swelling ranks of the elderly.

Victor Stenger is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Hawaii and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado.  He is also founder of Colorado Citizens for Science.  He's held visiting faculty positions at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, and at Oxford in the United Kingdom, and has been a visiting researcher at Rutherford Laboratory in England, the National Nuclear Physics Laboratory in Frascati, Italy, and the University of Florence in Italy.  Stenger’s research career has spanned the period of great progress in elementary particle physics that ultimately led to the current standard model.  He participated in experiments that helped establish the properties of strange particles, quarks, gluons, and neutrinos and has also helped pioneer the emerging fields of very high energy gamma ray and neutrino astronomy.  In his last project before retiring, Vic collaborated on the experiment in Japan which showed for the first time that the neutrino has mass.  He is the author of many books, including Comprehensible Cosmos, The Unconscious Quantum, Not by Design, Has Science Found God, the New York times best-seller God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist, and The New Atheists: Standing Up for Science and Reason.   In this, the first of three special-edition epsiodes featuring D.J. Grothe, Vic Stenger discusses The New Atheism, contrasting it with the old atheism, in that it is more uncompromising in its critique of religion and God-belief.  He defends the view that a soft stand on religion for the sake of science education is unacceptable, because the evils resulting from religion demand a vocal response.  He describes his own history as an author critical of the paranormal and how this further fueled his atheism, contending that skepticism of the paranormal may lead to skepticism of religion.  He talks about Carl Sagan and Stephen J. Gould, and their reluctance to criticize theism, and argues that sometimes, contra Sagan's famous line, "absence of evidence is evidence of absence."  He defends making a positive statement that God does not exist -- beyond a reasonable doubt -- as opposed to merely stating that one lacks belief in God. He wonders if authors Susan Jacoby and Jennifer Michael Hecht should also be considered New Atheists. He describes lines of positive evidence from cosmology, physics, biology and neuroscience that he says necessary leads to a conclusion of atheism.  He tells why he doesn't think the battle over evolution education should take priority over the New Atheist's larger war on faith, and why rationalists should not unduly seek the support of religious moderates and religious supporters of science.  And he shares his optimism about the growing popularity of vocal, uncompromising atheism, especially among young people.

Topics: U.S.'s Growing Secularism, & What's Wrong with Pres. Obama's Faith-Based Plans?Barry A. Kosmin, a principal researcher of the definitive American Religious Identification Survey, will talk about the newest ARIS results released this week showing that up to 1 in 5 adult Americans is nonreligious, and the continuing decline of religiosity in America. Author, journalist and freethinker Susan Jacoby will talk about her op-ed piece in The New York Times, "Keeping the Faith, Ignoring the History," detailing what's wrong with faith-based funding and offices in the federal government.

Grant Steves interviews Jack Caravela about the book by Susan Jacoby, Age of American Unreason.

Grant Steves interviews Jack Caravela about the book by Susan Jacoby, Age of American Unreason.

SUSAN JACOBY – "THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON" American 15-year-olds rank 24th out of 29 countries in mathematical literacy. Americans are as likely to believe in flying saucers as in evolution. Depending on how the questions are asked, roughly 30-40 % of Americans believe in each. A 34-nation study found Americans less likely to believe in evolution than citizens of any of the countries polled except Turkey, and President George Bush says “the jury is still out.” in the summer of 2005 nearly two-thirds of Americans told pollsters that they believed creationism should be taught in schools alongside Darwinian evolution. Steve Colbert interviewed Georgia Rep. Lynn Westmoreland on "The Colbert Report." Westmoreland co-sponsored a bill that would require the display of the Ten Commandments in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, but, when asked, couldn't actually list the commandments. This stuff would be funny if it weren’t so tragic or dangerous. According to the Program on International Policy Attitudes, University of Maryland, among Bush supporters in the 2004 election, nearly 70% believed the U.S. had "clear evidence" that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda, a third believed weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, and more than a third that a substantial majority of world opinion supported the U.S.-led invasion. We can assume they were similarly uninformed about who benefits from Bush tax cuts, and the success or meaning of No Child Left Behind, Clear Skies, Healthy Forests, the Medicare prescription benefit, etc.? I believe there has been a concerted effort on the part of political and cultural advocates to encourage misinformation and the ignoring of evidence. In addition, their labeling of “intelligent” and “informed” as “elite” and “effete” implies that ignorance is somehow both valuable and under attack. I also believe that to ignore evidence – scientific as well as simply factual -- is primitive, pathological, suicidal, and an unfit way to run the world. Susan Jacoby has written a book about this -- THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON. A former reporter for the Washington Post and program director of the Center for Inquiry-New York City, Susan Jacoby, is the author of five books, including WILD JUSTICE, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. and FREETHINKERS: A HISTORY OF AMERICAN SECULARISM. Her political blog, The Secularist’s Corner is on the Web site of The Washington Post. http://www.susanjacoby.com

Susan Jacoby is the author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. A prominent public intellectual, she frequently appears in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Free Inquiry. Her latest best selling book is The Age of American Unreason. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Susan Jacoby explores recent trends that she argues have led to the "Age of American Unreason," including religious fundamentalism, mass media consumption and "video culture," and multiculturalism. She addresses how fundamentalism feeds anti-intellectualism in America, and how not only fundamentalism can be blamed for it. She details both the upside and the downside of the internet, the perils of too much TV viewing, and the effect of such over-consumtion on the cultural literacy of average Americans. She addresses criticism that she is merely "elitist" or a "luddite," and ends with specifics on how people can work to challenge the Age of American Unreason.

An interview with Susan Jacoby author of "The Age of American Unreason." Jacoby paints a disturbing portrait of a mutant strain of public ignorance, anti-rationalism, and anti-intellectualism that has developed over the past four decades and now threatens the future of American democracy. Combining historical analysis with contemporary observation, she dissects a culture at odds with America's heritage of Enlightenment reason and with modern knowledge and science. Jacoby offers an unsparing indictment of the ways in which dumbness has been defined downward throughout American society-on the political right and the left. America's endemic anti-intellectual tendencies have been exacerbated by a new species of semiconscious anti-rationalism, feeding on and fed by a popular culture of video images and unremitting noise that leaves no room for contemplation or logic. Jacoby is the author of eight books. She is also program director of the Center for Inquiry-New York City, a rationalist think tank with offices in Lower Manhattan.

In addition to sharing DNA, both Christopher and Peter Hitches posses a passion for ideas, eloquence of speech and razor-sharp wit. But this is where the similarities end. Christopher Hitchens, author of "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" is an outspoken Atheist and defender of the Iraq War. His brother Peter is a devout Anglican Christian and anti-war journalist. After a recent reconciliation the two met for their first (and possibly last) public debate in nearly a decade. The result was a fantastic debate on God and war that left a bewildered audience wondering who to cheer for. With the help of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies & Center For Inquiry Michigan, Reasonable Doubts was able to seize a rare opportunity to interview both Hitchens brothers together in the peaceful moments just before things got ugly. Also be sure to check out www.doubtcast.org for video and pictures from the Hitchens vs. Hitchens debate and to hear more great interviews with todays top skeptical minds such as Susan Jacoby, Paul Kurtz, DJ Grothe and Taner Edis.Reasonable Doubts: Your skeptical guide to religion offering news and commentary of interest to skeptics, atheists, humanists, apologists looking for a challenge and freethinkers of all persuasions.

How is it, that in an age of unprecedented access to information, ignorance and anti-reason could be so widespread in American society? Susan Jacoby author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism joins us to discuss her latest book, the Age of American Unreason. During the "golden age of American freethought" the great agnostic Robert Ingersoll could argue for religious skepticism before huge and ideologically diverse audiences. But in a world where video culture has replaced print culture, where sound-bytes and 24 hour infotainment have replaced thoughtful dialogue, Americans are able to isolate themselves from other viewpoints that might challenge their own. Can freethinkers learn anything from their own intellectual heritage, that will aid them in combating unreason today? Also: Buddhist violence, another installment of God Thinks Like You, listener e-mails and a totally psychedelic Stranger Than Fiction. Check out the Reasonable Doubts Podcast group on Facebook.com or myspace.com/doubtcast for a full length "spring break" bonus episode of Reasonable Doubts including SKEPTICS GONE WILD: uncensored outtakes and bloopers from previous episodes. Reasonable Doubts: Your skeptical guide to religion offering news and commentary of interest to skeptics, atheists, humanists, apologists looking for a challenge and freethinkers of all persuasions.

Journalist and freethinker Susan Jacoby, author of the new book, The Age of American Unreason, who also wrote Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, is interviewed on this weekend's show.

Does America's $9 trillion federal debt mean we are mortgaging our future and jeopardizing individual savings, healthcare, and retirement for generations to come? Bill Moyers gets a reality check from Public Agenda's Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson, co-authors of Where Does the Money Go?: Your Guided Tour to the Federal Budget Crisis. Susan Jacoby, author of THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON, talks about the crisis of ignorance in the U.S. and how a 'flight from reason' is playing out in American politics and society. "We have really, over the past 40 years, gotten shorter and shorter and shorter attention spans," says Jacoby. And photographer lori Grinker takes viewers to Amman, Jordan for a devastating look at the fate of Iraqi refugees displaced by the conflict.

Susan Jacoby, author of THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON, talks about the crisis of ignorance in the U.S. and how a 'flight from reason' is playing out in American politics and society. "We have really, over the past 40 years, gotten shorter and shorter and shorter attention spans," says Jacoby.

Susan Jacoby, a journalist and author of six books, is interviewed about her popular book, Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. The show is co-hosted by Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which produces the show. Featured music: "Declaration of the Free," words by Robert Ingersoll, music and vocals by Dan Barker, from the CD Friendly Neighborhood Atheist.(MP3, 46 min, 21 MB)

Susan Jacoby is the author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, now in its tenth hardcover printing and recently published in paperback. Freethinkers was hailed in the New York Times as an "ardent and insightful work that seeks to rescue a proud tradition from the indifference of posterity." Named a notable nonfiction book of 2004 by The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, Freethinkers was cited in England as one of the outstanding international books of 2004 by the Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian. In this interview with DJ Grothe, she discusses America's freethought heritage, and talks about Robert Green Ingersoll, and the role of freethinkers in various social justice movements. Also in this episode, Tom Flynn asks Did You Know?, detailing facts about Robert Green Ingersoll and new data about nonbelievers from University of Akron, and Lauren Becker shares some thoughts on Darwin and Olver Sacks and what these scientists teach us about ourselves.

Susan Jacoby is the author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, now in its tenth hardcover printing and recently published in paperback. Freethinkers was hailed in the New York Times as an "ardent and insightful work" that "seeks to rescue a proud tradition from the indifference of posterity." Named a notable nonfiction book of 2004 by The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, Freethinkers was cited in England as one of the outstanding international books of 2004 by the Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian. Since the publication of Freethinkers, Susan Jacoby has been interviewed on NOW with Bill Moyers, The O'Reilly Factor, and the Dennis Miller Show. She has been a guest on numerous National Public Radio programs, including the Diane Rehm and Tavis Smiley shows, as well as regional NPR programs broadcast from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia, and Madison, WIS. In this passionate and insightful interview, she discusses America's freethought heritage and the Dover intelligent design ruling. Also in this episode, Tom Flynn presents a new segment called simply, Did You Know? detailing punchy facts about Campus Crusade for Christ, Jimmy Carter and UFO's, and the growth of superstition on American campuses; contributer Lauren Becker shares her personal reflections on her experiences working at a national park in the Bible belt. Also, Ben Radford, in his regular segment, Media Mythmakers, casts a critical eye on President Bush and his war on terror and Paul Kurtz examines the secular humanist pursuit of excellence.

Mike and Jay lead off the show with Mike arguing that in the aftermath of tragic events, like the recent school shooting in Florida, we're far too quick to rush to judgment and far too eager to believe that incompetence or malfeasance is the cause. He argues that we should look to institutional structures, incentives, and resources which are, in his view, more commonly at fault. After that, Mike and Jay answer listener questions about whether liberals like Susan Jacoby ([who Mike recently interviewed on the show](http://politicsguys.com/the-age-of-american-unreason-in-a-culture-of-lies/)) are contemptuous of religion, their positions on universal healthcare, if Mike should be more aggressive, if Jay's carrying water for the Trump administration, and whether the nation debt is more the fault of Republicans than Democrats. **Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible.** If you're interested in supporting the show, go to [politicsguys.com/support](http://www.politicsguys.com/support). Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-politics-guys/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Mike talks with Susan Jacoby, an independent scholar specializing in the history of reason, atheism, secularism, and religious liberty. She's the bestselling author of 12 books, including '[Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism](http://amzn.to/2FnHx9T)' and 'The Age of American Unreason', which just came out in a new, updated edition titled ['The Age of American Unreason in a Culture of Lies](http://amzn.to/2Foubdk)'. They discuss American anti-intellectualism, the meaning of unreason, if unreason has become a bigger problem in recent years, whether this is a bipartisan phenomenon, if Donald Trump is an aberration or a sign of things to come, and lots more. [Susan Jacoby's Website](http://www.susanjacoby.co/) **Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible.** If you're interested in supporting the show, go to [politicsguys.com](http://www.politicsguys.com) and click on the Patreon or PayPal link. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-politics-guys/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy