Stay ConnectedPoint of Inquiry is the Center for Inquiry’s flagship podcast, where the brightest minds of our time sound off on all the things you’re not supposed to talk about at the dinner table: science, religion, and politics.
Guests have included Brian Greene, Susan Jacoby, Richard Dawkins, Ann Druyan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Eugenie Scott, Adam Savage, Bill Nye, and Francis Collins.
Point of Inquiry is produced at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, N.Y.
Copyright: © Center for Inquiry
The U.S. Supreme Court -- that over sixty years ago ruled against state-led prayer in public schools -- has swung back the other way with a vengeance. The ultra-conservative majority on the current court has reversed 60 years of progress and put the rights of non-believers in jeopardy.
In this episode, Jim Underdown speaks to Nick Little, former Director of CFI's Legal department, and Eddie Tabash, Chair of the CFI Board of Directors. The two lawyers talk about the state of the court, recent decisions, and the problematic future for secular Americans.
The Nones are on the rise! When asked about their religious affiliation, year after year, more and more Americans are choosing "none of the above." The number of religiously unaffiliated Americans, which includes atheists and agnostics, has been rocketing up over the past couple of decades, and today these Nones make up about one-third of the American population. But they're not matching their religious counterparts in terms of political organization or cultivating tightly bonded communities, so what's going on?
In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Free Inquiry editor Paul Fidalgo talks to political scientist Dr. Juhem Navarro-Rivera, Political Research director and Managing Partner at Socioanalitica Research and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Humanist Studies. His article "The Boundaries of Secularism: Who's in? Who's Out?" is featured in the October/November 2023 issue of Free Inquiry, and he has some important observations about the rise of the nones and what's preventing the nonreligious from becoming a social and political force to be reckoned with.
Of the 535 Members of Congress, only one is an out-of-the-closet atheist. His name is Jared Huffman, and he is a U.S. Representative from Northern California. He is also the co-chair (with Rep. Jamie Raskin) of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, a group all secular Americans should know about and support.
In this episode, Jim Underdown chats with the congressman about a number of different issues, including the religiosity of his fellow representatives.
What happens when a group of skeptics from across the globe keeps score of over twenty years of psychic predictions? Any guesses?
In this episode of Point of Inquiry, host Jim Underdown speaks to Rob Palmer and Richard Saunders of the Great Australian Psychic Prediction Project about this ambitious effort to track the accuracy of those who claim to see the future.
How did the prognosticators do? Listen to this week's episode to find out!
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California may be the world's premiere space exploration facility. From the earliest days of rocketry, JPL has been at the vanguard of designing and building rockets and spaceships.
But the lab has a colorful history, and some of its founders broke the stereotypes of what a rocket scientist might be. Satanism? Friendships with L. Ron Hubbard? The Red Scare? Those only scratch the surface of this fascinating place.
And who better to talk about all this than MGLord, author of AstroTurf: The Private Life of Rocket Science, and host and creator of a podcast called Blood, Sweat, and Rockets. Host Jim Underdown chats with MG as they delve into the weird and wonderful history of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"Many of us who are happy to live outside religion still suffer from a lack of things religion gives its members," writes historian and poet Jennifer Michael Hecht. "It seems to me the remedy to this suffering is a shift in the way we think about ritual and the poetry of our lives."
Hecht is our guest on this episode of Point of Inquiry. She's the author of books such as Doubt: A History, The Happiness Myth, and Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It. Her most recent book is The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of our Lives. In it, she shows us how encounters with poems can help us get through our toughest moments, enrich our celebrations, and cultivate a sense of awe and meaning—all without appeals to the supernatural. In a conversation with Free Inquiry editor Paul Fidalgo, Hecht discusses how poems offer all of us—secular and religious alike—a way to think and feel more deeply, and provide us with a foundation for ritual to mark the milestones of life.
And keep an eye out for the June/July 2023 issue of Free Inquiry magazine, which will feature an excerpt from The Wonder Paradox: "On Choosing a Code to Live By."
Graham Cooks and his team at Purdue University have discovered a chemical process that has exciting implications for people who believe that life could have emerged spontaneously and through natural means. The idea that the building blocks of life started in a primordial ocean now has a competitor: airborne tiny water droplets.
In this episode of Point of Inquiry, Jim Underdown speaks to chemistry professor and researcher Graham Cooks about his work in mass spectrometry and his discovery that adds an important piece of the puzzle of how life came to be. Does this find have religious implications?
Realizing the faith you've had your entire life is wrong can be devastating for some people. The process of deconversion can lead to panic attacks, depression, and more. What does it take for someone to get through that complicated process?
Our guest is Alice Greczyn, author of the memoir Wayward: A Memoir of Spiritual Warfare and Sexual Purity. She's an actress, author, and founder of Dare to Doubt, which provides resources like mental health professionals, aid organizations, and peer support groups to help heal the damage from indoctrination. Her own story includes a painful but rewarding transition out of evangelical Christianity.
In a conversation with Jim Underdown, Greczyn dives into her early life living in a strict religious household and how she began to see the faults of Christianity. She also details her journey of walking away from her faith completely and how she hopes to help others do the same.Greczyn recently released her memoir Wayward: A Memoir of Spiritual Warfare and Sexual Purity as an audiobook, read by her!
You can also read her cover story published in Free Inquiry, Excerpts from Wayward—A Memoir of Spiritual Warfare and Sexual Purity.
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