Dan Barker

[music] This is Free Thought Radio with cohosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor.

Irreverent views, news, music, and interviews.

[singing] Imagine there's no heaven.

Hello, and welcome to Free Thought Radio.

I am Annie Laurie Gaylor.

And I'm Dan Barker.

Annie Laurie and I are co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

This is the September 10, 2026 episode of Free Thought Radio, recording in the Steven Ull Friendly Atheist Studio in Free Thought Hall, which is our national headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin.

But there's a reason Holy Saturday is there to sit there and lament.

And I think of, you know, in the response to your debate with Dan Barker, we talked a little about Jephthah and that actually there was a yearly memorial and mourning period for his daughter that people do every year to remember that terrible thing that happened.

These are deeply biblical notions too that somehow we've just lost through whatever it is that people think Chelsea even mentions it in one part in her book it's not even always that people don't they're afraid of you being of grieving you but they're afraid of seeing you grieved and the discomfort it puts them through versus actually what they think it's gonna do to you but but yeah that's all in but you know one of the the early parts of the book And it goes into some of the notion of remembering.

One of the things that really jumped out to me, and I've felt this so much, even like I talk about with my brother and writing articles, previous articles I've done, and wanting to put a picture of him in the article, because it's like I needed people to know him.

This is Free Thought Radio with co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor.

Irreverent views, news, music, and interviews.

Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us

I'm Annie Laurie Gaylor and happy September.

Remember, there are only 61 days till the midterm elections on November 3rd.

And I'm Dan Barker.

Annie Laurie and I are co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and this is the September 3rd, 2026 episode of Free Thought Radio.

We're recording in the Stephen Uhl Friendly Atheist Studio in Free Thought Hall, which is our national headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin.

I mean, we've heard some of those stories here today.

I'm sure you've heard others here at BajaCon, right? Dan, Seth, Timmy, right? These are powerful stories.

You might have your own story and have never considered that it is worth telling.

It is.

And if it was wrong about that, what else might it be wrong about? And I'm just gonna give three quick tips for how to engage with Christians and other believers if you're doing interfaith work.

Number one is they're not stupid.

I mean, Dan Barker is one of the smartest people I've ever met in real life.

And Dan Barker did not gain 50 IQ points overnight when he became non-religious.

[gentle music] This is Free Thought Radio with cohosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor.

Irreverent views, news, music, and interviews.

[singing] Imagine there's no heaven.

That, of course, is 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton, who died this week.

For more about why we're talking about Dolly on our Free Thought show, we'll, we'll say that in a minute.

And I'm Dan Barker.

Annie Laurie and I are co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is working a lot longer than 9 to 5 for you to keep religion out of government, out of public schools, and personal decisions.

This is the August 27th, 2026 episode of Free Thought Radio, recorded in the Steven Ull Friendly Atheist Studio in Free Thought Hall, our national headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, so I—my very first debate was with Dan Barker, who's a former-

Right

...uh, Christian pastor turned co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.