Atheists Talk Radio Show

Sunday May 3, 2020

The conversation today is with virologist Dr. Richard Allen Wjhite the 3rd, virologist and CEO of Raw Molecular Systems LLC, and is going to focus on Covid-19.  While we just had a conversation about covid-19 last month, we felt there has been so much change on this topic in the last 6 weeks, that another conversation would be useful and informative. 

LINKS: Your Friendly Neighborhood Virologist on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/244598023354096/

Support this show by visiting https://www.patreon.com/AtheistTalk

These are anxious days. Whether you're looking at politics or the pandemic, there's plenty of cause for concern. If you're suddenly having problems coping, today's show is for you. My guest today is Miri Mogilevsky. a clinical social worker specializing in LGBTQ and HIV-positive clients. If anyone understands anxiety, Miri does.

Links:

• Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
• "Free Guide to Living with Worry and Anxiety Amidst Global Uncertainty"

Sunday March 22nd, 2020

Rob Ray, atheist and host of the podcasts Secular Yakking and Sparky on Ice joins us to discuss his year living and working in Antarctica.  Sparky on Ice was a one of a kind podcast, recorded and published from the continent of Antarctica.

Among the many points of this conversation is a discussion of how scientists catch penguins for studying.  I've linked a video, and now I only want to visit Antarctica even more than previously.

LINKS:

Secular Yakking: https://www.facebook.com/secularyakking/

Sparky on Ice: https://www.facebook.com/sparkyonice/

Tackling a Penguin, from the BBC: https://youtu.be/RxgScMyZDXI

If you enjoyed this show, we'd love to have you come back next week for another episode.  You can catch Atheists Talk live, every Sunday Morning at 9am Central on AM950 KTNF online at http://www.am950radio.com/listen-live/  Contact us during the show with questions or comments at 952-946-6205 or contact us anytime via radio@mnatheists.org or tweet us @atheiststalk

Support this show by visiting https://www.patreon.com/AtheistTalk

Sunday March 15, 2020

Dr. Vincent Racaniello, is Higgins Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Mount Sinai School of medicine, Columbia University New York. He has been studying viruses for over 40 years, starting in 1975, when he entered the Ph.D. program in Biomedical Sciences at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York. His thesis research was focused on influenza viruses. In 1979 he joined the laboratory of Dr. David Baltimore at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for postdoctoral work on poliovirus. In 1982 Vincent joined the faculty  in the Department of Microbiology at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York City. There he established a laboratory to study viruses, and to train other scientists to become virologists. Over the years his laboratory has studied a variety of viruses including poliovirus, echovirus, enteroviruses 70 and D68, rhinovirus, Zika virus and hepatitis C virus. As principal investigator of his laboratory, he oversees the research  that is carried out by Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows. He also teaches virology to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as medical, dental, and nursing students. His virology lectures are available online at iTunes University, YouTube, and Coursera.

Personally I listen to Dr. Racaniello on his many podcasts including This Week in Microbiology, This week in parasitology, this week in evolution, and of course, this week in virology, the podcasts about viruses, the kind that make you sick.

LINKS:

http://www.microbe.tv/twiv/

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports

www.virus.blog

https://promedmail.org/

If you enjoyed this show, we'd love to have you come back next week for another episode.  You can catch Atheists Talk live, every Sunday Morning at 9am Central on AM950 KTNF online at http://www.am950radio.com/listen-live/  Contact us during the show with questions or comments at 952-946-6205 or contact us anytime via radio@mnatheists.org or tweet us @atheiststalk

Support this show by visiting https://www.patreon.com/AtheistTalk

We recorded with Ron Millar of the Center for Freethought Equality as Democratic presidential candidates got serious about dropping out of the race. We still have to make decisions about a lot of more local races, though. Listen as Ron discusses experience, policy, and more with David Norton and Dave Pacheco.

Links:

• Center for Freethought Equality

Minnesota Atheists president, Ben Blanchard, joins Stephanie Zvan to talk about what we accomplished in 2019 and have planned for the new year. Plus upstate New York.

Again this year, Marissa Alexa McCool brings us a radio play dealing with the emotions and weirdness that is Christmas. Afterward, we catch up with Marissa.

Again this year, Marissa Alexa McCool brings us a radio play dealing with the emotions and weirdness that is Christmas.

When I first invited Phil Session to the show, he had to turn me down. He had a conflict with an Atheists Helping the Homeless event he was coordinating. He’s a busy man these days, having recently joined the boards of Recovering From Religion and Foundation Beyond Belief. But this Sunday, Phil will join me to talk a little bit about the stereotype of community volunteers as religious and about finding or creating volunteer opportunities for atheists.

Related Links:

• Atheists Helping the Homeless — Austin
• CoR interview with Phil

Once upon a time, we thought artificial intelligence would be less racist than people. After all, machines are objective, right? Then we started teaching them how to think and made some discoveries of our own. When racism permeates our society and our IT infrastructure, how do we teach machines to do better than we do?

This week, we spoke with Alix Jules about the point where technology, cognitive sciences, and sociology collide.

Related Links:

• “New York is investigating UnitedHealth’s use of a medical algorithm that steered black patients away from getting higher-quality care“
• “Yes, artificial intelligence can be racist“
• “Microsoft silences its new A.I. bot Tay, after Twitter users teach it racism“
• Alix Jules’ blog

The nonreligious population of the U.S. has grown significantly in the last couple of decades. We're relatively young. We're only a minority non-believer. But who are we? What issues are important to us? What do we want from the secular organizations that represent us.

Today we're talking with Alison Gill, American Atheists' Vice President of Legal and Policy, about the U.S. Secular Survey. This is an ambitious survey with a goal of getting a better picture of American nonbelievers and other nonreligious populations, now and for the future.

Links:

• U.S. Secular Survey
• Blitz Watch
• American Atheists

Sunday September 29th, 2019

This episode we are happy to be joined by Caitlin Doughty, mortician, author, and founder of The Order of a Good Death.  Caitlin's newest book is "Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?  Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death."

 Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death https://www.amazon.com/dp/039365270X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_WzGKDbK7TV3A0

We talk a fair amount in the secular movement about the non-religious as a growing political force. We should. We are. But the problem is that we don’t have a lot of data about how we behave as voters. Truth be told, we don’t even always have a good picture of who we are. We just know there are more of us than there used to be.

Juhem Navarro-Rivera is a political scientist working to shed light on the topic. His latest project is the Secular Voices Panel, which will survey secular voters during the 2020 campaigns. Juhem joins us this Sunday to talk about why this work is important and what he’s already learned.

Links:

• Juhem’s blog, Beyond Church and State
• “Secular Identity, Belief in God, and 2020 Preferences“
• Secular Voices Panel on Indiegogo

This show promises to be just a little bit geeky. Or maybe a lot geeky. Scott Lohman is joining us to talk with James Croft about the ethics of Star Trek. James presented a workshop on the topic at the Secular Student Alliance conference this summer, and when we heard about it, we knew we had to put the two of them together to talk about it.

Related Links:

• James’s blog, Temple of the Future
• “Why We Need Star Trek“

We are happy to be joined by Professor Dr. Chester O'Gorman author of Demythologizing Revelation.

Links:

Demythologizing Revelation

August 25th, 2019

Hertzey chats with Nancy and Matthew former TEC-ites

Cory Johnston of the Brainstorm Podcast joins Stephanie Zvan to talk about skeptics failing to be skeptical in their public work and what he does to fight that on his podcasts.

Links:

• Brainstorm Podcast

We were going to have Charone Frankel of Habeas Humor back just to talk about separation of church and state, but then we looked at the news.

Links:

• Habeas Humor

All too often, we view art and science as opposed to each other. Science artist Lynn Fellman joins us to talk about how they complement each other.

Links:

• Fellman Studio

There's a lot of concern about birth rates in industrialized nations. Racist and anti-immigrant tropes are making a lot press right now. In Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight Over Women's Work, Jenny Brown examines the concerns of capital over declining birth rates and attempts to legislatively coerce more children instead of supporting parents.

Links:

• Birth Strike: The Hidden Fight Over Women's Work