A podcast about politics. society, and culture from a secular Latinx perspective. Hosted by Luciano Joshua Gonzalez & Dr. Juhem Navarro-Rivera.
Episodes
Wednesday Jun 21, 2017
Wednesday Jun 21, 2017
President Trump got the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord(s) earlier this month. This week, in the first of two episodes dedicated to analyze this event, Luciano explains what is the Paris Climate Accord, why it is important, and the limits of this international agreement. Juhem discusses the public opinion on climate change and introduces the concept of "Trumpslating": the art of translating the President's statements into something that makes sense.
Related links:
PRRI/AAR Religion, Values and Climate Change Survey
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
President Trump's speech on Paris Climate Agreement (annotated by NPR)
Cover image source: NASA
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
This week Juhem and Luciano discuss two articles exploring the same piece of research: Are atheists undercounted in the United States? Juhem focuses on the different ways surveys measure non-belief while Luciano questions whether people who do not use the word atheist should be identified as such. The discussion, naturally, later revolves about politics and whether an openly atheist politician can have a long and successful career.
Links:
Is one American in Four an Atheist? (Tom Jacobs, Pacific Standard)
Way More Americans May Be Atheists Than We Thought (Daniel Cox, Fivethirtyeight.com)
Other links:
'American Nones' ISSSC Report (2009)
'Nones on the Rise' Pew Report (2012)
'Exodus' PRRI Report (2016)
Secular Nation podcast on the Freethought Equality PAC
Image source: Religion News Service
Wednesday Jun 07, 2017
Wednesday Jun 07, 2017
Recently, the Republican-controlled legislature in North Carolina removed
funding for schools in districts represented by Democratic Party legislators.
Luciano discusses the politics behind this move and the consequences of
these actions while Juhem places these events in the larger national contexts of partisan polarization and the role of public education in society.
Links
Luciano on "North Carolina’s Highly Problematic General Assembly Republicans."
Image source: North Carolina GOP
Wednesday May 31, 2017
Wednesday May 31, 2017
In April the Pew Research Center released a report exploring the educational attainment statistics of various religious groups.
All Americans PRRI 2014: http://ava.prri.org/#demographics/2014/States/education/1,2,3,4
All Religions PEW 2014: http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/educational-distribution/
Atheists PEW 2014: http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-family/atheist/#educational-distribution
Agnostics PEW 2014:
Education Report
http://www.pewforum.org/2017/04/26/in-america-does-more-education-equal-less-religion/
Nones PEW 2014:
DEGREES CONFERRED: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1czOtcCViQKY0E0tCkGKur0_p5Ctaax9I8BfTeNtrAT8/edit?usp=sharing
LATINO NONES HS Grads
Wednesday May 24, 2017
Wednesday May 24, 2017
Puerto Rico Speaker of the House Carlos "Johnny" Méndez led 40 days of prayer and fasting to "help" the island get out of its current crises despite obvious legal concerns regarding church-state separation (and the fact that prayer doesn't solve anything). Luciano tells the story of what happened and who opposed the government-led religious activity. Juhem provides some historical and anecdotal evidence of why these acts by politicians are commonplace in Puerto Rico.
Resources:
Luciano's blog post "Secular Humanists Of Puerto Rico Move To Challenge Carlos “Johnny” Mendez." at Sin/God.
Fox News article
India.com article
Pasquines.us article
IHEU article
Metro Puerto Rico article (en español)
Johnny Mendez image source: Twitter
Wednesday May 17, 2017
Wednesday May 17, 2017
This week Juhem and Luciano continue their conversation with Dr. Melixa Abad-Izquierdo about Telenovelas, the Latin American cultural phenomenon. In part 2 Dr. Abad-Izquierdo discusses telenovelas outside of Mexico, Non-Catholic representations of religion, and the future of telenovelas in the era of streaming media.
About the guest
Dr. Melixa Abad-Izquierdo is an Assistant Professor of History at Farmingdale State College. She is also the author of “A Melodramatic Miracle: The Cultural and Political Economy of the Mexican Telenovela, 1950-1980” an essay in Soap Operas and Telenovelas in the Digital Age: Global Industries, Hybrid Content, and New Audience,edited by Diana I. Rios and Mari Castañeda. Also by her, “A Lachrymose Heroine For the Masses: The Origins of the Cinderella Plotline in Mexican Telenovelas, 1968-1973.” In Modernization, Nation-Building, and Television History. Edited by Melissa Chakars and Stewart Anderson. New York: Routledge, 2014. Her research interests are Latin American popular culture and its connections to politics.
Wednesday May 10, 2017
Wednesday May 10, 2017
This week Juhem and Luciano talk to Dr. Melixa Abad-Izquierdo about Telenovelas, the Latin American cultural phenomenon in the first of two episodes exploring the concept. In part 1 Dr. Abad-Izquierdo looks at the history of telenovelas in Mexico and how interest groups helped shape the religious content in the genre.
About the guest
Dr. Melixa Abad-Izquierdo is an Assistant Professor of History at Farmingdale State College. She is also the author of “A Melodramatic Miracle: The Cultural and Political Economy of the Mexican Telenovela, 1950-1980” an essay in Soap Operas and Telenovelas in the Digital Age: Global Industries, Hybrid Content, and New Audience,edited by Diana I. Rios and Mari Castañeda. Also by her, “A Lachrymose Heroine For the Masses: The Origins of the Cinderella Plotline in Mexican Telenovelas, 1968-1973.” In Modernization, Nation-Building, and Television History. Edited by Melissa Chakars and Stewart Anderson. New York: Routledge, 2014. Her research interests are Latin American popular culture and its connections to politics.
Wednesday May 03, 2017
Wednesday May 03, 2017
Luciano and Juhem talk about the Johnson Amendment, the law regulating political spending by churches and other nonprofit organizations. President Trump promised to "destroy" the law to please his religious conservative base. In Part 2, Luciano and Juhem discuss how churches get involved in other countries and views about separation of church and state.
Links of interest:
Survey about support of Johnson Amendment
NPR pimer on Johnson Amendment
Wednesday Apr 26, 2017
Wednesday Apr 26, 2017
Luciano and Juhem talk about the Johnson Amendment, the law regulating political spending by churches and other nonprofit organizations. President Trump promised to "destroy" the law to please his religious conservative base. In Part 1, Luciano and Juhem focus on what is the Johnson Amendment and its role in the separation of church and state.
Links of interest:
Survey about support of Johnson Amendment
NPR pimer on Johnson Amendment
Wednesday Apr 19, 2017
Wednesday Apr 19, 2017
In the first episode of The Benito Juárez Experience Juhem and Luciano discuss their paths to atheism and activism, why we named the podcast "The Benito Juárez Experience." We also talk about how the American religious left gets too much attention compared to the nascent secular left, and the racial bias in the discussion of the religious left.
Links of interest:
'Religious left' emerging as U.S. political force in Trump era (Scott Malone, Reuters.com)