“Freethought Matters” TV Program Coming to the Chicago Market!

The national Freedom From Religion Foundation recently announced they will be expanding market coverage of their weekly television program, “Freethought Matters.”  Beginning September 2nd, the show will now air in three new cities:

Portland, OR – KRCW-CW (Ch 32), Sunday at 9:00 a.m

Sacramento, CA – KQCA-MY (58), Sunday at 8:30 a.m

Chicago, IL – WPWR-CW (50), Sunday 9:00 a.m.

The addition of these three markets will increase coverage to 22% of the nation, as the program is currently broadcast in New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, Phoenix, AZ, Seattle, WA and Washington, DC.

“Freethought Matters” will be seen in the Chicago market for 26 weeks, beginning with approximately 13 episodes that previously aired in Madison, while new episodes are being recorded.  The first show will be an interview with FFRF honorary Board member Julia Sweeney.

“You can turn on the TV and be preached at 24/7, especially on Sunday mornings,” says FFRF co-founder Annie Laurie Gaylor. Gaylor and her husband, Dan Barker, a former evangelical minister and well-known atheist author, are FFRF co-presidents and typically co-host the program.

“We not only want to provide sympathetic programming for the ‘unmassed masses,’ but offer an alternative, so that religious programming does not win by default,” adds Barker.

The intent is to introduce communities to leading freethought authors, thinkers and activists. Today, the nonreligious is the largest “denomination,” surpassing Roman Catholics, at almost 24 percent of the adult population. A third of Millennials are “Nones” and a fifth of Gen Z explicitly identify as atheists or agnostics.

Future guests will include Steven Pinker, Cara Santa Maria and Jerry Coyne.  The day and air times for the broadcast are an attempt at a kind of “un-sermon” — an alternative to church and religious programming on Sunday mornings.  The goal of the production is to provide programming for the nonreligious that has a friendly and nonthreatening message to counteract defamation of nonbelievers.