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:

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:

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.