I’m going to try it again. I’m scheduling it for 10am Central time on Saturday, 30 June, in the usual place, Google+. I think that works for a large part of the world; west coasters will have to be up early at 8am, it’s late afternoon/early evening in Europe, and evening for Australia (you can check your time with this Time Zone Converter.)

I’m experimenting with the format still. I’d like to have some regulars confirm that they’ll be available then, so I know we’ll have a core of people to chat, but I’m also going to make it public, so anyone can join in, up to the limit of 10 participants. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get a creationist trolling through.

Which would be appropriate. The theme will be “Creationists say the silliest things” — come prepared with your favorite/goofiest creationist arguments, and tear it apart in a few minutes on air.

I told you all we’re getting some phenomenal video bloggers here…and now we add to the list Cristina Rad, a person many of you know from her work on youtube as ZOMGitsCriss!

This is the inaugural Pharyngula podcast, in which I bring on a few of the commenters on my site to tell me what to think. This time around, I have Audley Darkheart, Brownian, Elly Pemberton, Helen Sotiriadis, and Jonny Scaramanga to carry on the conversation.

Topics to be discussed:

1. The creationist assault on education

Creationists have chalked up a victory in Louisiana; their airhead governor, Bobby Jindal, has implemented a voucher program that will redirect state money intended for public education into support for private schools…and the conservative, fundamentalist Christian schools have cause to celebrate. Jonny Scaramanga has written about this on his blog, Leaving Fundamentalism, so I’m going to let him tell us about this sad turn of events.

In charge: Jonny Scaramanga

A few relevant links:

• Leaving Fundamentalism

• A quick peek at the future Louisiana science curriculum

• A well informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will

2. The conservative assault on reproductive rights

Recently, Republicans have been particularly evil, doing their damnedest to invade women’s privacy in the name of blocking all abortions…and they’ve got their sights set on contraception as well. The latest outrage is that the Michigan legislature recently silenced a pair of senators for daring to speak against yet another invasive, abusive, anti-woman bill. I’m going to let Audley Darkheart speak on this one, since apparently women are supposed to shut up elsewhere.

In charge: Audley Darkheart

A few relevant links:

• Audley Darkheart’s Blog

• Women shall not speak

• Why everyone should be pro-choice

• A compendium of the dumbest anti-choice arguments ever

Done! And here it is.

All right, we’ll do this again, but next time, we have to pick at least one subject that is a little lighter and provides some cheerful news.

Yes, the awesome has just gone up another notch, because Thunderf00t has joined Freethoughtblogs.

You will never leave, ever again.

I’m trying! But coordinating schedules and getting people to agree has been a struggle. A major problem has been Google+’s annoying policies on pseudonyms; another has been that I’ve emailed invitations to a number of people who haven’t replied, and I suspect that their secret email addresses (which I will not reveal) may be fake. Another concern is the international nature of this crowd, with people in the UK, Australia, and North America…so for this first trial, I’m just confining the invitation list to my continent, to minimize scheduling problems a little bit. I will pick hours for future podcasts with an eye to making it more convenient for those other strange parts of the universe.

I will break the news that so far I’ve got Audley Darkheart, Brownian, and Patricia signed up for the first event. I’m really determined to make this a community thing, rather than centered on me, so maybe those names will entice a few more of you to ask to join in…I know that ol’ Poopyhead is no draw at all. If you’re interested, you need a Google+ account (if you’re keeping it mum, email it to me), an email address where I can reach you, and a webcam. I’m also confining the panel to friendly, reasonably well-known participants around these parts, but I could see bringing in creationists or other nemeses at a later date, just not yet.

It’s going to happen this week, because I want to hammer out the bugs. Then it may follow as a roughly weekly event thereafter, preferably with a rotating cast of participants.

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P.S. Everyone will be able to watch, it will be stored on Youtube and I’ll post it here. You only need to write to me if you want to be on the panel. You should also be a regular participant in the comments, so people have some idea who you are.

We have another new face at FreethoughtBlogs: Aron Ra has joined us. Stop by and say hello.