Atheists Talk Radio

6 O'Clock BS – Home Again Home Again

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 46 Comments

I went camping this weekend, so it’s been a bit slow here at Biodork. I actually did have wireless at the camp site, but somehow managed to find things to do that didn’t involve internet (*gasp*!). We went walking through the woods, sat around the campfire, sang camping songs, chatted with friends over meals, and generally had a kick-ass time.

But now I’m home, showered, tick-checked, itching from a gazillion and ten mosquito bites, and excited to get blogging again.

The big story I wanted to highlight for the 6 O’Clock BS was this story about the horrifying Orvillecopter. Art + taxidermy + robotics + the history of flight + dearly departed kitty = remote-controlled flying dead cat. I’m weeping over the dark weirdness of this.

Continue reading “6 O'Clock BS – Home Again Home Again” →

6 O'Clock BS – Home Again Home Again
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6 O’Clock BS – Home Again Home Again

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 408 Comments

I went camping this weekend, so it’s been a bit slow here at Biodork. I actually did have wireless at the camp site, but somehow managed to find things to do that didn’t involve internet (*gasp*!). We went walking through the woods, sat around the campfire, sang camping songs, chatted with friends over meals, and generally had a kick-ass time.

But now I’m home, showered, tick-checked, itching from a gazillion and ten mosquito bites, and excited to get blogging again.

The big story I wanted to highlight for the 6 O’Clock BS was this story about the horrifying Orvillecopter. Art + taxidermy + robotics + the history of flight + dearly departed kitty = remote-controlled flying dead cat. I’m weeping over the dark weirdness of this.

Continue reading “6 O’Clock BS – Home Again Home Again” →

6 O’Clock BS – Home Again Home Again

I Did This Today

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , , , , , , 673 Comments

This was just a typical day for me, hanging out with Phil Ferguson (Skeptic Money), Greg Laden (X Blog), Jen McCreight (Blag Hag) – that’s me next – and Stephanie Zvan (Almost Diamonds). 

Back story: The Atheists Talk radio show had Jen in the studio for a live interview. Greg, Stephanie, Jen and myself chatted about our blogging, our activism and Freethought Blogs. Phil Freaking Ferguson – which is how he introduces himself* – from Skeptic Money happened to be in town, so he stopped by the studio to watch the show and ended up letting us drag him on the air for a few moments. And we took this snazy photo afterwards.

And then this afternoon I attended the Minnesota Atheists monthly meeting. Jen was the guest speaker; she gave a talk called “God’s Lady Problem”. By my estimation the talk had major three parts: Religion-based discrimination against women and a thought-provoking God-as-abuser analogy, the current War On Women that we’ve been fighting against in the US in recent months (the Catholic church birth control hubaloo, transvaginal ultrasounds, Terry England’s “women-slash-livestock” speech, etc), and lastly the lady problems that we run into in our own atheist communities. It was a solid, engaging, well-attended talk and the Q&A took up all of the allotted time and then some. Jen will be in Indiana for three more speaking engagements in this next week leading up to the Reason Rally. If you’re in the area, I’d recommend stopping by.

So this was a pretty dandy way to spend a Sunday, right?

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*Not intended to be a factual statement.

I Did This Today

Weekend Report

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , , , , , 570 Comments

Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging. And that’s a good thing 🙂 Here’s a couple of highlights from late last week:

Because Santorum jokes never get old, here’s what I saw while walking the dog last week:

Also, Street Smarts.

Continue reading “Weekend Report” →

Weekend Report

Exciting Atheist Speakers in Minneapolis!

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , , , , 521 Comments

There are a couple of exciting events coming up, especially if you’re in the Twin Cities and interested in atheism and science.

TONIGHT JT Eberhard from FreeThought Blogs WWJTD will be speaking at the University of Minnesota for the student group CASH – Campus Atheists, Skeptics and Humanists. He’ll be giving a talk called “Activism and Why Atheism Rocks!”. Tonight, 7pm at Smith Hall, Room 231, 207 Pleasant Street SE, Minneapolis, MN. There’s talk of pizza and karaoke at nearby Campus Pizza afterwards.

SUNDAY I’m hosting the Atheists Talk radio show and podcast and we’re interview some guy who’s going to be talking about some stuff, which would be pretty meh except the guy is fricking Dr. LAWRENCE KRAUSS and the stuff he’ll be talking about are the wild ideas in his newest book The Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing. You can read my write-up for the event at the Minnesota Atheists Atheists Talk radio web page. And if you’re not local, the website will also tell you how to stream the interview and call or email with questions during Dr. Krauss’s visit.

And this one’s a bit farther out, but another FreeThought Blogger, Jen McCreight, the author of Blag Hag will be speaking at the March public meeting of Minnesota Atheists on March 18th. She’ll be giving her talk “God’s Lady Problem”. More details like time, location, etc. can be found at the Minnesota Atheists Meetup page for this event.

 

Exciting Atheist Speakers in Minneapolis!

Sean Faircloth: Attack of the Theocrats

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , 923 Comments

Atheists Talk radio show is interviewing politician and church-state separation activist Sean Faircloth this upcoming Sunday, January  22nd. Starting in 2009 Sean Faircloth was the Executive Director of the Secular Coalition of America, and in 2011 he became the Director of Strategy and Policy for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

I’m hosting Atheists Talk this weekend, so in preparation and interest I have started reading his newest book, Attack of the Theocrats, and watching videos of his speeches. I think I’m going to connect with his message that secular activists need to focus first on the real human harm that results from religious privilege, and not get lost in symbolic battles that  stoke theistic ire and strengthen resistance to secular activism.

From Attack of the Theocrats:

…the secular movement suffers from a noble flaw. Secular people tend to have an almost religious faith in statistics and dry arguments and abstractions as the proper method by which to carry the day. This has made it difficult to connect with the broader American public, particularly when many of our battles emphasize symbols – and not the numerous religious laws that harm real people.

Secular Americans remain a sleeping giant, a huge demographic that has thus far failed to flex its own muscle, much less galvanize the general population. We ignore people suffering under religious privilege while shaking our fist at a slapped-together manger with a plastic baby Jesus in the town square at Christmas time. While symbols are meaningful and these particular symbols on public grounds do violate Madison’s Constitution, Secular Americans must do better to reach all Americans. We must explain the human story – the human harm and the outright abuse of our tax dollars that result from religious privileging in law.

In the video below Mr. Faircloth outlines for the audience a few of the cases from Attack of the Theocrats, and lists his proposals for how secular activists can direct our efforts to focus on religious privilege that is enshrined in laws, and which are causing real human harm and waste of tax dollars.

Video first seen at RDF.

Sean Faircloth: Attack of the Theocrats

Upcoming Show: Atheists Talk with David Silverman

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , 446 Comments

Imma be on the radio again tomorrow! I’m actually pretty excited to sit in on this interview; we’re speaking with David Silverman, the current president of American Atheists. He’s going to talk about the upcoming Reason Rally in Washington D.C., which is an event that the Hubby and I are considering attending next March. From the Reason Rally website:

The intent is to unify, energize, and embolden secular people nationwide, while dispelling the negative opinions held by so much of American society… and having a damn good time doing it! It will be the largest secular event in world history. There will be music, comedy, great speakers, and lots of fun… and it’s free!

The three main goals of the rally are:

  • To encourage attendees (and those who can’t make it) to come out of the closet as an atheist, or at least a supporter of secular values.
  • To dispel stereotypes – there is no one “True Atheist” no matter what your pastor or parent may tell you. We will have non-theists from all political persuasions, ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds. We will show that there are atheists in every American demographic.
  • Legislative equality. We want to show the country that atheists can run for office and adequately represent theists, just as theists in office can represent atheists proudly and openly. We deserve a seat at the table just like theists, and we hope this rally can put our values in the radar of American voters, who may one day elect an atheist to public office.

The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey estimates that 12% of Americans identify as atheist or agnostic. According to google.com/publicdata there are 307,006,550 people in the United States. 12% of that is 36.8 million people who identify as atheist/agnostic.

That number sounds large, but it still seems pretty lonely being a non-believer when I’m outside of the internet or my close circle of friends. I feel a bit sad when I hear coworkers talking so freely about going to church on Sunday or going to a Bible study this or that evening, while I hesitate to share the exciting news that I’m a radio show host! because the next comment is “Really? For what?” And then there’s that sinking feeling when I realize that I’ve just shared a secular viewpoint that is not appreciated by the majority of people in the conversation. Also, there are the often innocently asked but ultimately silly or annoying or frustrating or laughable or offensive questions revolving around my atheism. Like the question I received from someone at work when I told them that I had visited Asissi, Italy. They looked confused and asked “But why? You’re an atheist. What did you do there?” 

I know a handful of people who think that they don’t know any atheists (hah!). Heck, I spoken to atheists who think they’re the only atheist they know!

If we can get a large enough number of people to the Reason Rally, not only do we have a fun time at a secular event with other non-theists, but we show the world that there are more of us around than they may think. We show them that people they know are atheists. We show them that we’re happy, healthy and not afraid or ashamed to tell the world that we don’t need a god to make us good, moral, upstanding human beings. We show them that we can know joy, exhilaration, peace and love without any sort of supernatural presence or interference. We show them that there is an entire group of us who are willing to fight to keep religion out of our government. And I imagine we’ll suprise the heck out of ourselves when we look around the mall that day and think…oh wow – there really are a lot of us!

So yeah.

Reason Rally. David Silverman. This Sunday, 9am on 950AM KTNF. You can listen to the show live or find us on iTunes under “Atheists Talk”.

Upcoming Show: Atheists Talk with David Silverman

Upcoming Show: Atheists Talk with Alex Rosenberg

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , 848 Comments

I had (great intentions for conceiving and writing) an awesome post for yesterday, but instead spent most of the evening (you know, after cooking dinner, preparing lunch for today and eating dinner over some Mythbusters with the Hubby; I totally knew those breast implants weren’t going to expand at high pressures!) writing up my first-ever Atheists Talk radio program notes for the MN Atheists website! And then I had to muddle my way through navigating the website for the first time. I admit, there were a few frantic emails between me and the other administrators last night and this morning (frantic on my part, not theirs), and at least one header that included the plea “HALP!”. But I finally got all of the content in the right place and in a format that I’m almost happy with(dadgummed HTML!).

On Sunday we’re interviewing the American philosopher Dr. Alex Rosenberg about his new book, The Atheist’s Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life Without Illusions. I’m currently halfway through it and I’m enjoying his writing style. It’s a lot of science and deep reading, but every so often Rosenberg will slip in some completely unexpected humor and I’m reminded that, oh yeah – this is actually really fun stuff! 

I’ll be interested to hear the interview because there are a few things in the book that I’m not completely on board with, and I’m excited to hear Dr. Rosenberg expound on his ideas. This will only be my second time hosting, so I’m still allowed to be a little star-struck about our guests, right?

If you want to learn more about the upcoming radio interview on this Sunday October 30th at 9am (and see my shiny write-up!) visit mnatheists.org

Upcoming Show: Atheists Talk with Alex Rosenberg

I was on the radio!

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 211 Comments

A few months ago I was invited to do something new and exciting: I was asked if I wanted to be a radio host for MN Atheists radio show, Atheists Talk! I was very excited to be asked, but I didn’t want to put anything out here on the blog until all the details came together. Today they did.

Today I was the host for an interview with Dr. David Eller on his book Cruel Creeds, Virtuous Violence: Religious Violence Across Culture and History. It aired at 9am this morning on AM950 KTFN. You can listen to the interview here or on iTunes (the podcast is called “Atheists Talk”, and this is episode #137 “Exploring Religious Violence”). I won’t go into the details of the interview itself here, but it was interesting enough that I found it a little hard to stay focused on the technical side of things, instead of letting myself get completely engaged in the issues Dr. Eller was discussing.

Being the radio host was a neat experience. I read all of the intros and outros, kept an eye on the clock, introduced the guest and the interviewer, thanked the sponsors, and theoretically would have read any email questions or taken any phone calls for the guest, had that happened. There was a kick-butt radio engineer in studio who took care of the actual sound quality, getting Dr. Eller on the phone, turning the mics on and off, and other techy goodness. And aren’t we all grateful for that?

Hosting was a little nerve-wracking and I did mess up a few sections. I totally, utterly cut off Dr. Eller at two of the commercial breaks, but then the engineer came in and clued me in to how those were supposed to work (as opposed to how I had been doing them, lol). Going to commercial is a bit of a delicate dance between the interviewer, the interviewee and the host, but after messing it up twice we NAILED the third break. But then we ran out of time at the end. And I said “uh” quite a bit. And I missed an entire paragraph of script for one of the intros.

So, there’s room for improvement, but now I’ll be one of the regular hosts and I’ll have a chance to try it again! I’ll be alternating with Atheists Talk radio host (and the blogger behind Almost Diamonds) Stephanie Zvan most weeks. My next show is on Sunday October 30th at 9am. We’re scheduled to have Alex Rosenberg on to discuss his book The Atheist’s Guide to Reality.

Fun, huh?

I was on the radio!