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Legendary populist Jim Hightower starts off the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “Freethought Matters” show’s new season with a bang this Sunday.
Hightower will fit in very well at FFRF’s convention in San Antonio in October as a keynote speaker, since the convention’s theme is “Do Mess with Texas” and Hightower is a Texan who has spent a lifetime messing with the Lone Star State. He is a national radio commentator, a writer, a public speaker, a columnist, the creator of an eponymous newsletter and a New York Times best-selling author whose books include Thieves in High Places and There’s Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos. Hightower was Texas agriculture commissioner until he was replaced by — of all people — Rick Perry. He has now become a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, spreading progressive populism throughout America.
“Our state has been taken over by a right-wing bunch of thugs who have gerrymandered the state and have basically been having a theocratic and a plutocratic and autocratic kleptocratic rule here,” he tells “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. “But they do not represent the majority of the people of Texas.”
If you don’t live in the quarter-plus of the nation where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the interview on FFRF’s YouTube channel. New shows go up every Thursday. You can also receive notifications when we post new episodes of “Freethought Matters” by subscribing to FFRF’s YouTube channel.
Upcoming guests on the show include renowned constitutional scholar Professor Geoffrey Stone (who was a Supreme Court clerk when Roe v. Wade was handed down) talking about the Supreme Court’s anti-abortion ruling, two authors discussing white Christian nationalism — Anthea Butler (White Evangelical Racism) and Sam Perry (The Flag and the Cross) — plus Washington Post columnist/outspoken atheist Kate Cohen, and atheist and actress Randa Black, who received FFRF’s “Nothing Fails Like Prayer” Award for her invocation before a Florida city council.
“Freethought Matters” airs in:
Chicago, WPWR-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 9 a.m.
Denver, KWGN-CW (Ch. 2), Sundays at 7 a.m.
Houston, KIAH-CW (Ch. 39), Sundays at 11 a.m.
Los Angeles, KCOP-MY (Ch. 13), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
Madison, Wis., WISC-TV (Ch. 3), Sundays at 11 p.m.
Minneapolis, KSTC-IND (Ch. 45, Digital Channel 5.5), Sundays at 9:30 a.m. (Digital channel 5.2 has been dropped.)
New York City, WPIX-IND (Ch. 11), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
Phoenix, KASW-CW (Ch. 61, or 6 or 1006 for HD), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
Portland, Ore., KRCW-CW (Ch. 32), Sundays at 9 a.m. Comcast channel 703 for High Def, or Channel 3.
Sacramento, KQCA-MY (Ch. 58), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
San Francisco, KICU-IND (Ch. 36), Sundays at 10 a.m.
Seattle, KONG-IND (Ch. 16 or Ch. 106 on Comcast). Sundays at 8 a.m.
Washington, D.C., WDCW-CW (Ch. 50 or Ch. 23 or Ch. 3), Sundays at 8 a.m.
You can catch interviews from past seasons here, including with Gloria Steinem, Ron Reagan, actors John de Lancie and Julia Sweeney and Reps. Jared Huffman, Jamie Raskin, Hank Johnson, Jerry McNerney and Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Please tune in to “Freethought Matters” . . . because freethought matters.
P.S. Please tune in or record according to the times given above regardless of what is listed in your TV guide (it may be listed simply as “paid programming” or even be misidentified). To set up an automatic weekly recording, try taping manually by time or channel. And spread the word to freethinking friends, family or colleagues about a TV show, finally, that is dedicated to providing programming for freethinkers — your antidote to religion on Sunday morning!