The Humanist Network News (HNN) Audio Podcast is a monthly one-hour talk show created by the Institute for Humanist Studies. HNN is the official podcast of the American Humanist Association.
Every episode of the
HNN Audio Podcast explores a different area of humanist thought, from politics to pop culture.
Humanism is a philosophy of life inspired by humanity and guided by reason. Humanists strive to lead ethical and joyful lives without supernatural belief in gods, heaven or hell. (Are you a humanist?)
A typical episode of the HNN Audio Podcast features interviews, commentary, news, music, and listener comments recorded on our Toll Free HNN Listener Comment Line, (877) 659-1515. Notable guests have included Sir Salman Rushdie, Prof. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, E.O. Wilson, Alan Dershowitz, Holly Near, Dar Williams and Julia Sweeney.
The HNN Audio Podcast is hosted and produced by Institute for Humanist Studies staffers Duncan Crary and Jessica Constantine.
Many listeners of the HNN Audio Podcast also read the weekly Humanist Network News e-zine.
Questions about our podcast? Trouble listening or subscribing? Contact us
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Show notes by episode |
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#33 
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HNN Podcast: Peeking over Darwin's Shoulder
2008-07-30
In this month's audio podcast we are dedicating the entire program to one story. During the 1970s, P. Thomas Carroll read and transcribed hundreds of Charles Darwin's personal correspondences for research purposes. Carroll shares his story of becoming intimately familiar with the great 19th century evolutionary biologist over the course of several years and 14,000 letters.
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#32 
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HNN Podcast: Humanist StoryCorps
2008-06-25
This month's Humanist Network News podcast is modeled after the popular National Public Radio program StoryCorps. In this program we hear the personal stories of humanists from Scotland, Africa, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Brazil and the U.S.
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#31 
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HNN Podcast: IHEU World Congress Promotional Show
2008-05-30
This month's Humanist Network News podcast is a special promotional show recorded for the World Humanist Congress of the International Humanist and Ethical Union which will be held in Washington DC from June 5-8, 2008. The program contains excerpts from dozens previously released HNN interviews, including Sir Salman Rushdie, Richard Dawkins, E.O. Wilson and many other notable humanists. Old interviews are re-mastered for improved sound quality.
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#30 
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HNN Podcast: Greg Graffin of Bad Religion
2008-04-30
In this month's Humanist Network News 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. The weekend at Harvard, Graffin received the lifetime achievement award in cultural humanism, given by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University.
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#29 
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HNN Podcast: Anatomy of a Suicide Bomber
2008-03-26
In this month's Humanist Network News audio podcast we explore the human mind. Dr. J. Anderson Thomson, Jr. explains the psychological anatomy of a suicide bomber. Dr. Stephen Uhl shares his story of transformation from a sincere Catholic priest to an atheist psychologist.
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#28 
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HNN Podcast: Arthur Miller, American Playwright
2008-02-27
In this month's audio podcast we present a very special interview with the late Arthur Miller, American playwright, and Jonathan Miller, physician, author and director. This interview appears courtesy of Alive Mind Media, which recently released Jonathan Miller's "The Atheism Tapes."
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#27 
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HNN Podcast: Darwin Day '08
2008-01-30
In this month's audio podcast we gear up for the 199th anniversary of Charles Darwin, which is celebrated around the world as Darwin Day on Feb. 12. Our first guest is Matthew Chapman, writer, director producer and great great grandson of Charles Darwin. Our second guest is anthropologist-songwriter Richard Milner, creator and star of the musical Charles Darwin Live & In Concert.
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#26 
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HNN Podcast: Mortal Lessons & The Art of Surgery
2007-12-19
In HNN #26 we travel to Yale University to speak to former surgeon and author Dr. Richard Selzer about humanism and healing. Selzer's vivid autobiographical essays give us a rare glimpse into a surgeon's world. Selzer's literature marries the harsh realities of blood, broken bones and death with the compassionate reflections of a humanist and a healer. His books include: Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery, Confessions of a Knife, and Letters to a Young Doctor.
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#25 
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HNN Podcast: The Golden Compass & The Geography of Nowhere
2007-11-28
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.
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#24 
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HNN Podcast: The New Atheists on Organized Freethought
2007-10-24
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.
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#23 
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HNN Podcast: Government Without God
2007-09-26
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.
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#22 
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HNN Podcast: International Humanist Youth
2007-08-29
The focus of this month's audio podcast is the international humanist youth movement. We present to you a special dispatch from Nepal, with recordings from the Fifth Annual Conference of the International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organization (IHEYO) Conference, held in Vijayawada, India.
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#21 
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HNN Podcast: Camp Quest Summer Camp
2007-07-25
A new installment of the HNN Audio Podcast is available for listening. The topic of this month's audio podcast is Camp Quest, the sleepaway summer camp for children from humanist, atheist and other freethinking families. We hear from Amanda Metskas, president of Camp Quest, Inc., and from the campers and counselors of Camp Quest West. We also take a moment to remember Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine, founder of Humanistic Judaism. Rabbi Wine was killed this weekend in a car accident.
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#20 
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HNN Podcast: Humanistic Judaism
2007-06-27
A new installment of the HNN Audio Podcast is available for listening. In HNN Audio Podcast #20, we interview Harvard Law Prof. Alan M. Dershowitz, Humanistic Judaism founder Rabbi Sherwin Wine, and local student gay rights activist Erin Davies of the "Fag Bug" project.
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#19 
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HNN Podcast: Dar Williams & E.O. Wilson
2007-05-30
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.
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#18 
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HNN Podcast: Salman Rushdie & Cultural Humanism
2007-05-02
A new installment of the HNN Audio Podcast is available for listening. 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.
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#17 
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HNN Podcast: The Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard
2007-03-28
A new installment of the HNN Audio Podcast is available for listening. 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.
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#16 
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HNN Podcast: Geomythology, Rational Rap & Mr. Deity
2007-02-28
In HNN Audio Podcast #16, we speak to Adrienne Mayor, a geomythologist, about how real fossils may have inspired mythological creatures like the Cyclops and the griffin. Greydon Square, an African-American atheist, talks to us about his freethinking hip hop music. And Brian Dalton, creator of the YouTube phenomenon Mr. Deity, talks to us about his popular Internet video series.
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#15 
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HNN Podcast: Darwin Day
2007-01-31
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.
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#14 
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HNN Podcast: Humanists in Action
2006-12-27
The theme of HNN Audio Podcast #14 is humanists taking legal action to defend their rights. We speak with Secular Coalition for America lobbyist Lori Lipman Brown, Heidi Bruggink, legal coordinator for the Appignani Humanist Legal Center at the American Humanist Association, and Ellery Schempp, who initiated the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Case which declared that public school-sanctioned Bible readings were unconstitutional. HNN Listeners share their thoughts on humanism. And contributor Jamila Bey shares a humanist New Year's poem.
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#13 
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HNN Podcast: Sex & Humanism
2006-11-29
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".
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#12 
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HNN Podcast: Julia Sweeney - Letting Go of God
2006-10-25
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.
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Web ExtrasListen to Humanist Network News segments that were not released on our feed. |
 | In Memory of Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine
Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine, founder of Humanistic Judaism, was killed in a car crash on July 27, 2007. The charismatic Rabbi Wine, 79, was a pillar of the humanist community. He appeared as a guest on HNN Audio Podcast #20.The following HNN Audio Web Extra* is a recording of Wine's speech at The New Humanism Conference, hosted by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard in April 2007. To download Rabbi Wine's speech, Right/Option
click here . Or listen in the podcast player below.
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