Greetings,

Recently I received one of the most intriguing media requests to date. I was sent the message below and asked to assist with recruiting atheists for the CBC. If you're interested in being considered for the team, please contact me at [address removed].

Justin Trottier
Executive Director
Centre for Inquiry Canada

****************************************************************************
I'm one of the producers of the CBC show Test the Nation: IQ and I'd
be interested in speaking with you about joining our “Atheists” team
in studio on January 24, 2010.

Test the Nation is a live two-hour special that surveys six in-studio
teams as well as viewers across the country. This year, we are
bringing back the popular first season with another IQ test. For more
information on the program, please go to www.cbc.ca/testthenation

To start off, let me assure you that the individual IQ scores of
participants writing the test will not be revealed - except that of
the person with the highest IQ. Otherwise, we reveal only the average
scores of general categories such as women vs. men, hair colour, and
so on.

There will be six teams of 30 people participating in studio and
thousands of Canadians participating online. The idea is to test
society’s preconceived notions of intelligence based on occupation or
area of interest. In our original Test the Nation: IQ (which aired in
2007) we had an audience of 1.5 million viewers.

In addition to a team of well-known federal and provincial
Politicians, we are looking at testing Contact Sports athletes (do
multiple concussions affect IQ), the "nerd" stereotype as a fun team
(Star Trek fans, comic book fans), twins (do multiples have similar
IQs) and whether being religious has any correlation to IQ. (some
studies have found that people with higher IQs do not have any
religious beliefs). That would make our six teams the following
-Politicians, Athletes, Twins, Nerds, Religious Leaders, and Atheists.

It's going to be a great show, and team selection is generating lots
of interest. Please let me know whether you would be interested and
available to take part on Sunday, January 24 in our Toronto studio.