Episodes

Rerelease of Ep 13. Next new episode (Ep 38) coming next week. Check out the full shownotes, video and transcript for this episode: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2019/09/ep-13-religious-appointees-news-round-up

Andrew Seidel returns to the NSS podcast to discuss the role secularist issues and Christian nationalism are playing in the ongoing US presidential election. Full show notes and subscriber information: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2020/10/ep37

In this episode, Emma Park speaks with the National Secular Society’s head of education, Alastair Lichten, about their new report, which reveals how academisation has enabled faith groups to increase their influence over all schools, including those with no religious character. Full show notes and subscriber information: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2020/10/36a/

Baroness Lynne Featherstone joins the podcast to discuss the tenth anniversary of the Equality Act 2010, the Act’s significance and the problems caused by continuing religious privilege, as covered in a recent NSS report. Full show notes and subscriber information: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2020/10/ep36

Rerelease of Ep 12. Next new episode (Ep 36) scheduled next Thursday, 15 October. Check out the full shownotes, video and transcript for this episode: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2019/08/ep-12-circumcision-no-outsiders

In this episode, Emma Park speaks to Lloyd Riley, policy and research manager at Dignity in Dying about campaigns for the legalisation of assisted dying in the UK. Full show notes and subscriber information: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2020/10/ep35

Why make a spectacle out of religion in the courtroom? In this bonus episode Stephen Evans, CEO of the NSS, makes the case for replacing religious oaths and affirmations should be replaced by a universal secular declaration of the solemn duty to tell the truth. Stephen and Emma Park discuss the importance of this issue in the history of the National Secular Society. Shownotes and subscriber information: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast.html

In this episode, Emma Park speaks to Stephen Evans and Megan Manson from the NSS team about marriage law reform in England and Wales. Show notes, transcript and supporter/subscriber information here: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2020/09/ep34

Rerelease of Ep 06. Next new episode (Ep 34) scheduled next Thursday, 17 September Check out the full shownotes, video and transcript for this episode: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2019/03/rudolf-eliott-lockhart-exploring-religious-freedom-episode-06

In this episode Emma Park speaks to Kaja Bryx, president of the Polish Rationalist Association, about the influence of the Catholic Church and the religious right in Poland. how notes, transcript and supporter/subscriber information here: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2020/09/ep-33-kaja-bryx-catholic-nationalism-in-poland

Rerelease of Ep 02. Next new episode (Ep 33) scheduled next Thursday, 3 September. Check out the full shownotes, video and transcript for this episode: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2019/01/rachel-laser-exploring-religious-freedom-episode-02

In this episode, Emma Park speaks to Nick Duffy, current affairs editor at Pink News, about so-called ‘conversion therapy’, the type of psychological practices that it can involve, and the harm it can cause to those who undergo it. Show notes, transcript and supporter/subscriber information here: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2020/08/ep-32-nick-duff-on-conversion-therapy

Rerelease of Ep 10. Next new episode (Ep 32) coming next Thursday, 13 August. Check out the full shownotes, video and transcript for this episode: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2019/06/episode-10-secularism-2019-conference-review

Show notes, transcript and supporter/subscriber information here: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2020/07/ep-31-graham-smith-not-that-type-of-republican

Rerelease of Ep 01. Next new episode (Ep 31) coming next Thursday, 30 July. Check out the full shownotes, video and transcript for this episode: https://www.secularism.org.uk/podcast/2019/01/stephen-evans-exploring-religious-freedom-episode-01

On paper, the Chinese constitution permits ‘normal religious activities’. In reality, if you try to practise your religion in China independently of the state, you risk prison and worse. In this episode, Dr Sophie Richardson, China Director of Human Rights Watch, speaks to Emma Park about freedom of religion and belief in China – or the lack of it. They discuss the Chinese authorities’ persecution of the Uighurs, the Turkic Muslim minority in the north-west, and the deliberate strategies that ar...

Where do you draw the line between safeguarding people’s protected characteristics, and guarding their right to freedom of speech? The new Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill, introduced in April purports to protect groups defined by reference to protected characteristics, including ‘religion’ or ‘perceived religious affiliation’. But some have argued that the proposed legislation will chill free speech about religion. In this episode, Emma Park is joined by Neil Barber, communications ...

How much progress will the Welsh government make with its proposed reforms to RE? In this episode, Emma Park speaks to Stephen Evans, CEO of the NSS, and Alastair Lichten, head of education, for an update. Encouragingly the subject’s name is to be changed to ‘Religion, Values and Ethics’, to reflect a more pluralistic and critical approach. But the proposed abolition of parents’ right to withdraw their children is more concerning. Faith schools will still be able to teach RVE ‘in line with the ...

In this episode, Emma Park discusses unregistered faith schools, particularly in the Hasidic community with Eve Sacks, a member of the Jewish anti-extremist organisation Nahamu. Eve has spent years engaging with members of the ultra-orthodox community in London. They discuss issues in registered independent schools and the prevalence of unregistered schools where boys aged 13 to 18 are sent to receive religious instruction with little or no secular education. There is also evidence that boys wh...

In this episode, Emma Park speaks to Gita Sahgal, a human rights activist and Honorary Associate of the NSS, about secularism in India, and the threats it is facing from the Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) movement endorsed by Modi’s government. Modern India has been a secularist state since its foundation in 1947. But since the first election of Modi’s government in 2014, as Gita explains, Indian supporters of secularism, pluralism, and the rule of law have been targeted, silenced, and in some cas...

This podcast gives an emergency update on the plight of Mubarak Bala, President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria (HAN). Bala was arrested in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, by the police on the 28th April, effectively for blasphemy against Islam. Although he has not yet been formally charged, he remains in custody, probably in Kano state, which is under Sharia law. He appears to be without access to a lawyer or contact with friends or family. Leo Igwe, founder of the HAN, speaks to Emma Park abo...

This episode is about secularism in the USA, its basis in the American constitution, and its opposition by the religious right. The NSS’s Alastair Lichten interviews Andrew Seidel, an attorney at the Freedom From Religion Foundation. They discuss the narratives of religious exceptionalism and persecution propagated by some on the Christian right – and other tactics which they have used over many years to build up their political influence. Andrew argues that the Christian right use a misinterpre...

How did the secularist movement begin in Britain? And why should modern supporters of secularism care about its history? In this week’s episode, Emma Park speaks to Bob Forder, a member of the NSS council and former history teacher, about the origins of secularism in Britain. Bob explains how the secularist movement was, from its early years, bound up with the story of the National Secular Society. From its origins in local working-class associations, secularism has always been a socially progr...

In this week’s episode, Emma Park speaks to Josephine Macintosh, a solicitor and vice president of the National Secular Society, about her work representing the NSS at the United Nations. Earlier this year, Josephine attended the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council at Geneva. She made submissions on behalf of the NSS on its objections to male circumcision, proposed reforms to Italian law to counter child abuse in the Catholic Church, and the need for the UK to legislate explicitly again...