Humanize Me

Ex-Mormons. Ex-Scientologists. Ex-Jehovah Witnesses. Ex-Evangelicals. They were all there at sunset at Morris Bird's bi-annual gathering on the beach, cooking ribs and meeting each other. Some had travelled for hours to get there, desperate for community with those like them. On this episode, Bart chats with Morris about such communities and how they may be inspired by those who are doing it already.

What kind of sex are Americans having? Will the Americans of the future have different sexual values than Americans of the past? What should our sexual values be, anyhow? Lisa Wade is a world expert – maybe the world expert – on hookup culture among U.S. college students. Her book, American Hookup, details her research into a culture that a growing number of people worry about.

Hank Green is a digital creator and content producer with popular YouTube channels such as Vlogbrothers and Crash Course. He reached out to Bart with some interesting thoughts about the digital age and humanism, leading to this podcast, in which the two explore things like: shared values and what helps people flourish, Hank’s approach to productivity, Bart’s technophobia, and the challenges of how to incorporate the internet into our lives healthfully.

In our second episode intended to help those who want to start their own local secular community, Bart warns against manifestos, vision statements, lists of values and other formalized statements of belief for emerging secular groups.

Is society going to suffer a collapse from unsustainability worse than the Great Depression sometime in the not-too-distant future? Both Bart and his guest for this episode, self-described ‘apocaloptimist' Michael Dowd, think so.

Bart talks with former Hollywood jack-of-all-trades turned super-cool master facilitator Jared Seide about Council, an age-old practice that involves bringing people together in a circle for candid and heartfelt conversations. Participants speak one at a time, sharing their personal stories and experiences, rather than opinions, and listen intently while others do the same.

In this - the first of two episodes on the topic - Bart talks about taking the first steps to starting your own secular community wherever you are. Consider it a practical guide to the first moves Bart recommends making, and how to talk about it to your friends and family.

In this episode, Bart shares an email from a listener who called him a 'just another liberal do-gooder.' Bart responded with kindness at the prompting of a student called Katie, and lessons were learned.

A brief update from Bart on the latest going on, including how he ended up losing all his emails, the release of his new book co-authored with Tony Campolo, and some new podcasts you can hear Bart on as a guest.

Bart doesn't believe in a god. And he's no fan of the new U.S. President, Donald J Trump. So what could he possibly mean by urging people to pray for the president?