The Atheist News Podcast

I went to a couple more talks today which I actually got decent audio for, so I will cover them a bit later.

After the talks for the day ended, we retired to the convention hall lobby for cocktails. They called it a “happy hour,” but the drinks were more expensive than they were in the bar. I met Noelle Dildine, AAI’s Ambassador Director who introduced Eli, Richard and I to a couple of the people working on a movie about Atheism.

We then got introduced to Rich Orman, who is the host of the very popular Dogma Free America podcast. That was pretty awesome, we’ve been hanging out for the last couple hours and he saved me from having to buy another over-priced drink by giving me a beer from his private stash (his hotel room sink is filled with ice and beer. Awesome.) We’ve been having a lot of fun talking shop and having drinks.

For the live Bill Maher screening, Viktor got Eli, Rich and I a press table in the front of the big screening room, which is really nice. Currently we’re watching Bill Maher live. Soon he’s going to have Richard Dawkins on, then they are headed over here for the award Ceremony.

More to come…

Ben Akerley is the author of The X-Rated Bible: An Irreverent Survey of Sex in the Scriptures, his talk is on the unholy mix of sex and religion.

It was a very entertaining presentation in which Mr. Akerley points out the apparent foibles in a traditional religious world view in which everything from masturbation to married sex is something to be feared and avoided. I recorded the whole speech, but I am unsure as to the audio quality, so I may only be able to publish a partial transcription later on.

More to come…

I arrived at the AAI conference and got registered. That was pretty slick, they had a press and VIP line, so I got to skip the line.

There are a number of booths around the convention center representing different organizations which I am going to try to visit later.

I’m currently sitting in on the live broadcasting of the Dogma Free America podcast featuring Sunsara Taylor, William B. Davis and PZ Myers in one of the conference rooms.

If you haven’t listened to the show before, it is quite similar to the Atheist News podcast; covering several current-event type news articles.

Sunsara Taylor is a writer for Revolution newspaper and an atheist and womans rights activist.

William B. Davies is perhaps better known as “the Cigarette Smoking Man” from the X-Files and is also an “outspoken skeptic, a proud atheist and a great admirer of Richard Dawkins.”

PZ Myers probably needs no introduction, but he is a biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris and his Pharyngula blog is probably the most popular atheist / science blog today.

I am not going to cover what was said, you can go check it out on iTunes, just search for Dogma Free America. I’ll add a link later when I’m at a computer.

More to come…

I’m sitting in the lounge car hanging out on the train. We just left San Francisco and I am bored senseless. Over all, the trip has been pretty fun though. I got about 4 hours of sleep before we hit Sacramento and the train attendant woke the whole damn car up evicting people back to their actual seats.

That was when I found out that they gave out free pillows; after I slept.

I got a chance to make a couple videos yesterday and one today. Richard confided in me that he’s never been on a train before, so I might a video tour of the train so that he doesn’t feel left out.

If you didn’t watch the videos I posted you might not have caught the little drama moment I had yesterday, but I misread my train ticket and ended up missing my train in Portland. My wife raced me down to Eugene in a crazed attempt to beat the train down there. In the end, Ms. Andretti was victorious and I made it onto the train.

Brains, beauty, personality and stunt driving skills, what’s not to love?

Well, not too much more to say. If Woody Harelson and Wesley Snipes show up to rob the train, I’ll let you know.