Episode Archives

This month, experience even more of the Reason Rally, the largest gathering of the secular movement in the world, with: British stand up comedian Eddie Izzard, youTube activist Cristina Rad, long time humanist activist and leader “the Amazing” James Randi, best-selling author Richard Dawkins, and our very own Todd Stiefel. More →

Experience the Reason Rally, the largest gathering of the secular movement in the world: Author and blogger Greta Christina tells us why she is angry, Taslima Nasrin describes her experience of fighting for secularism in a country from which she has been exiled, Mythbuster Adam Savage describes his definition of reason, with Australian musicians Tim Minchin and Shelley Segal. More →

Jes Constantine heads to Cranston, RI to hear the local residents, students, and teachers voice their opinion about the Cranston High School West prayer banner. Also, listen to Ellery Schempp tell the story of his landmark US Supreme Court case from over 50 years ago, ruling government sanctioned prayer unconstitutional. More →

Jes Constantine and Todd Stiefel speak with Harvard University’s Humanist Chaplain, Greg Epstein, about the Humanist Community Project. Plus, hear a followup interview with Dr. Darrel Ray about his new book: Sex and God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality. More →

Jes Constantine and Todd Stiefel interview satirical musician Roy Zimmerman, Australian freethought singer / songwriter Shelley Segal, and rational rocker Bruce Harris from Words Such As Burn, about their experience as atheist artists in the music industry. More →

Jes Constantine and Todd Stiefel interview Rabbi Binyamin Biber about his services to the community as a Humanist Celebrant and Humanist Chaplain at American University. Also, we highlight the AHA’s recent “Naughty” Awareness Campaign, aimed to raise awareness of discrimination against nonbelievers in America. More →

Jes Constantine and Todd Stiefel interview American Atheists’ president, David Silverman, about the largest secular event in world history-Reason Rally. Jes and Todd also discuss a listener comment about the proposed personhood amendment. More →

Todd Stiefel interviews Apple’s Co-Founder, author, and the 2011 recipient of the American Humanist Association’s Isaac Asimov Science award, Steve Wozniak about the importance of skepticism in today’s youth. Also, hear about the experience of two American teenagers who are out as atheists. More →

Jes Constantine and Todd Stiefel talk to Hemant Mehta, the friendly atheist, about his activism in the freethought movement. Hemant also gives Jes and Todd a brief public speaking lesson and pop quiz. Plus, learn about the latest news with Rock Beyond Belief and the Reason Rally! More →

A new episode of the Humanist Hour is available for listening. Keep reading to find out about the guests on this month’s show. In this month’s  podcast, Jes Constantine and Todd Stiefel interview writer, director, and producer, Matthew Chapman about the … More →

Jes Constantine and Todd Stiefel interview organizational psychologist, Dr. Darrell Ray, about his recent empirical study, called Sex and Secularism: What Happens When You Leave Religion? Also, listen to an interview with movie writer and producer, Matthew Chapman about his upcoming film, The Ledge. This episode contains explicit content and listener discretion is advised. More →

Jes Constantine and Todd Stiefel reflect on the AHA 70th Annual Conference, highlighting the acceptance speech by Candace Gingrich-Jones, the first ever awardee of the LGBT Humanist Pride Award. Also, listen to an interview with Candace and some special guest interviewers. More →

Jes Constantine and Todd Stiefel reflect on the AHA 70th Annual Conference, highlighting the acceptance speech by Humanist of the Year, Rebecca Goldstein. Also, listen to an interview with a very special surprise guest. Don’t forget to celebrate the National Day of Reason on Thursday, May 5, 2011! More →

Jes Constantine and Todd Stiefel interview Fred Edwords of United Coalition of Reason, debate the concept that vegan priorities are humanist priorities with surprise special guest, Jason Torpy, and highlight the AHA 70th Annual Conference with AHA staffer, Maggie Ardiente. More →

Listen to Jes Constantine interview her new co-host, Todd Stiefel.  Todd Stiefel lives in Raleigh, NC. He is a secular humanist, an atheist and full-time freethought activist. More →

Listen to Jes Constantine and guest interviewer, Todd Stiefel, speak with Justin Griffith about his experience as an atheist in the U.S. Army and, more specifically, about failing the Spiritual Fitness component of the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness test and turning that experience into a freethought activist opportunity with Rock Beyond Belief.  Also: don’t forget to celebrate Darwin Day this February 12th!  Happy Birthday, Charles! More →

Listen to the magical monologist, Jean Shepherd, read an excerpt from his 1966 book, “In God We Trust (All Others Pay Cash),” which originally appeared in the December 1965 edition of Playboy. More →

“Onward Christian Athletes” author, Tom Krattenmaker, presents his book to AHA’s 69th Annual Conference attendees.  Also learn more about the largest non-religious ad campaign, launched earlier in November by the American Humanist Association. More →

Jes Constantine interviews Dr. Daniel Lieberman, a professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard and Dr. Daniel Howell, author of The Barefoot Book about the benefits of barefoot living and how it relates to humanism. More →

Jes Constantine plays another clip from AHA’s 69th Annual Conference, which took place earlier this summer in San Jose, CA.  Listen to Bill Nye the Science Guy answer questions from the conference attendees, after accepting our Humanist of the Year award. More →

Jes Constantine and guest co-host Jennifer Bardi introduce and discuss clips from AHA’s 69th Annual Conference, which took place earlier this summer in San Jose, CA. Listen to Bill Nye the Science Guy accepting our Humanist of the Year award. More →

We’ve got celebrities and the media on the brain. First we interview 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney about his atheist beliefs, then we record a “Humanist StoryCorps” with the National Secular Society of U.K. about their work promoting secularism in the media. More →

In this month’s audio podcast we speak to Greg Graffin, Ph.D., lead singer of the punk rock band Bad Religion and professor of life sciences at UCLA. This weekend at Harvard, Graffin received the lifetime achievement award in cultural humanism, given by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University. More →

In this month’s audio podcast Humanist Network News interviews author Philip Pullman about the religious protest of The Golden Compass, a new film based on his fantasy novel. Also, suburban sprawl critic James Howard Kunstler speaks to HNN about how and why Americans need to re-think the spaces they inhabit. More →

In this month’s audio podcast we celebrate our program’s two-year anniversary by interviewing Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens. HNN’s Duncan Crary interviewed these best-selling authors, a.k.a. “The New Atheists”, at the Atheist Alliance International annual conference in September. At the conference, Harris, author of “The End of Faith,” told the crowd that they should not identify with the atheist label. Dawkins, Dennett and Hitchens react. So does the Rational Response Squad and Pastor Deacon Fred of the Landover Baptist Church. Also, Sweet Reason gives advice on “coming out” as an atheist. More →

In this month’s audio podcast we interview U.S. Representative Pete Stark, the highest elected official in the United States to openly acknowledge that he does not believe in a supreme being. We hear from Tom, an atheist volunteer working to make the world a better place. Some humanist university students in Edinburgh, Scotland tell us about their new campus group. Norwegian journalist Evan Gran observed us recording this show for an article in Fri Tanke Magazine. Gran tell us a little about humanism in the media in Norway. More →

This month’s guests are Harvard Law Prof. Alan M. Dershowitz, Humanistic Judaism founder Rabbi Sherwin Wine, and student gay rights activist Erin Davies of the “Fag Bug” project. More →

In HNN Audio Podcast #19, our humanist advice columnist “Sweet Reason” helps acclaimed novelist and humanist Salman Rushdie take another look at religious language. Duncan Crary speaks with two-time Pulitzer Prize winning Harvard biologist and secular humanist E.O. Wilson. Jes Constantine interviews folk singer Dar Williams, winner of the “Humanist Album of the Year”. All interviews were recorded face-to-face at The New Humanism Conference hosted by Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard on April 20-22. More →

In HNN Audio Podcast #18, we interview acclaimed novelist and humanist Salman Rushdie about the organized humanist movement and the relationship between the novel and humanist thought. This show also contains live recordings of the April 20 ceremony hosted by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard honoring Salman Rushdie with the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism. The ceremony , which took place in the Memorial Chapel at Harvard Yard, marked the beginning of The New Humanism conference. More →

In HNN 17, we interview Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University Greg Epstein, we host an intergenerational dialogue about lesbianism, feminism and humanism, we introduce the Institute’s new humanist lobbyist, and we discuss humanism in the media: the good, the bad and the ugly. More →

In HNN Audio Podcast #16, we speak to a geomythologist, a rational rapper, and The Almighty Himself, Mr. Deity. Guests: Adrienne Mayor, Greydon Square, Brian Dalton. More →

In HNN Audio Podcast #15, we celebrate the birthday of Charles Darwin and his contribution to evolutionary biology. We speak with evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci, Ph.D., Noell Hyman a.k.a. “Agnostic Mom”, Matt Cherry, executive director of the Institute for Humanist Studies, evangelical Christian-Goth musicians The Rapture Right, Secular Student Alliance Executive Director August E. Brunsman IV and Ghandi Scholar Prasad, who founded the Vasavya Society for Rural Development, in the state of Andrha Pradesh, India. More →

In HNN Audio Podcast #13, we explore the topic of sex from a humanist perspective. Please be advised that the theme of this show is adult in nature and some portions may not be appropriate for certain listeners. We speak with sex therapist Marty Klein, Ph.D, cartoonist Jeff Swenson and humanist advice columnist Molleen Matsumura, a.k.a. “Sweet Reason.” Film critic Carolyn Braunius reviews Shortbus. And as a very special treat we perform a radio play, “Humanist Love – Deist On Top”. More →

In HNN Audio Podcast #12 we have two, count ‘em two celebrity interviews. We speak with singer Holly Near about her music and activism, and then we speak with comedian Julia Sweeney (of Saturday Night Live fame) about her show “Letting Go of God.” We also talk to cartoonist Matt Bors about his recent visit to a “Hell House” and Matt Cherry reads an essay about the origins of Halloween. More →