Humanize Me

Brian Swimme is an evolutionary cosmologist whose latest book, Cosmogenesis, is autobiographical, but is also an attempt to tell the story of the universe as science knows it, placing human beings inside the story. Brian believes that, properly told, the story is awe-inspiring, beautiful and unifying, and potentially a foundation for a better world. In this episode, Bart tries to understand Brian's work, and how he seeks to 'turn others on' to what inspires him about our universe.

In the last of three episodes on 'high disclosure relationships', Bart gets to know someone in depth from scratch - a Humanize Me listener called Patti, who turns out to be as wonderful as we could have hoped - and in the process, provides an example of such conversations to inspire you to do the same.

Bart shares a tool he's used often to connect with people in the manner discussed in episode 901 with Rich Slatcher.

Rich Slatcher is a psychologist who is the current Gail M. Williamson Distinguished Professor in the Behavior and Brain Sciences area of the Department of Psychology at the University of Georgia. In this conversation with Bart Campolo, he talks about the power of self-disclosure in relationships, and the other factors which draw people closer to each other.

There’s doom and gloom in the ether, and many people aren't feeling too great about the world. What to do? Bart thinks the best move is to swing to the stoics, with a sense of separating what we can control versus what we can’t. Simply 'doing the next right thing'. Some things we can control: our next moves, our vote, our transactions, the ways we communicate, the protections we give our children, and what we pay attention to. To the point of what we pay attention to, Bart has a list of recommendations for some content on the theme of doing the next right thing, along the lines of some of the lists often shared in the media around this time of year. These are the podcasts, TV shows, movies and songs mentioned in this episode: An Unlikely SuperpowerFrom tree to shining treeLong, Long TimeWhat if you witnessed a thousand deaths?ForksFrankfurter Sandwich⁠The Next Right Thing⁠ We'll have one more episode this year for patrons of the show at Patreon.com/HumanizeMe. And with that, from us, a happy new year! See you in 2024.

Thanksgiving is here in the United States, set aside for the emotion of gratitude. We wonder what other emotions would be worth setting aside some time to express? Mentioned in the episode: this video and this 'emotion wheel.'

A 'Q&R' episode where a listener question about truth leads to morality via Dan Dennett.

Kate Cohen is a contributing columnist at The Washington Post whose new book, We of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending to Believe (And Maybe You Should Too), is of obvious interest to us at Humanize Me. Kate's book can be found on Amazon and wherever else books are sold.

Bart talks with prominent evangelical Christian author Philip Yancey, whose books have been instrumental in supporting the faith of many Christians and whose recent memoir, Where the Light Fell, led to this conversation. In it, the two talk about their upbringings, their faith journey and Bart's deconstruction of faith, their values and more.

Is it right, or not, to have biological children? The last time Bart addressed this issue in the podcast (Episode 514), it generated lots of passionate replies, including one listener in particular whose angry email we read aloud in this episode. Since we didn't feel we did the subject justice last time, or the people for whom it's an important question, we're revisiting it, having received some newer emails seeking clarification on whether Bart thinks humanists should be having biological children. (Content warning: there are a few swears within this episode.)

Back from a summer vacation and into a wide-ranging conversation with Lisa Kentgen, a psychologist who's written a book called The Practice of Belonging: Six Lessons from Vibrant Communities to Combat Loneliness, Foster Diversity, and Cultivate Caring Relationships.

Robert Rooks is the CEO of REFORM Alliance, a criminal justice organization focused on transforming probation and parole systems. In this conversation with Bart Campolo, he talks about seeing the hardships in his community growing up, and how he became inspired to start to work on systemic change. In the process, Robert lays out some solid, practical things that listeners can do to help.

A listener asks: "Hi Bart, I just want to encourage you by communicating how much your podcast has helped me and is sustaining me in my deconversion journey. In your conversation earlier this month with Ursula Goodenough, you talked about a reverence and awe for the natural world, and I couldn’t help but think of a bible verse admonishing Christians to worship the Creator, rather than the created. I could see my Christian friends using that verse to tell we humanists that we’re guilty of worshipping the wrong thing. What do you think of this and how would you respond?"

They say you should never meet your heroes, but this conversation with Ursula Goodenough proves definitively that it isn't always true! Bart first read Ursula's book, The Sacred Depths of Nature, almost immediately after deconverting from Christianity many years ago. It was a massive influence on his thinking, providing a scientific basis for a rational devotion to life, and forming the narrative around which he based his version of secular humanism. A new edition of the book has just been released, so it's a perfect time for a conversation with its author! Ursula is a Professor of Biology Emerita at Washington University in St. Louis who was recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Links to Ursula's work: ⁠sacreddepthsofnature.com⁠ ⁠religious-naturalist-association.org

It was only a matter of time before we got drawn into the burgeoning conversation about recent advances in artificial intelligence. A listener called Steve asks: "What do you think are the implications of AI for those of us devoted to the human experience?" Although he doesn't have a clear answer, and admits a catastrophist's bias, Bart shares some initial thoughts in response and argues that, even if the rise of AI is a very bad thing for the world, it can nevertheless reaffirm our existing humanist values and amplify the reasons to create supportive communities. Featuring a 'cold open' by an artificial Bart-like interloper. Were you fooled?

You’re probably never going to be a saint. Even so, let’s face it: you could be a better person. We all could. Todd May is a philosopher whose work brings high-minded philosophical concepts - like how to live a decent life - down to earth in attainable, realistic ways. In this conversation with Bart Campolo, Todd talks about aspiring to be decent, moral gracefulness, reasons for morality, intentions, honesty and truthfulness, happiness versus flourishing, altruism, the concept of evil, 'normal' selfishness, stoicism and Todd's work on The Good Place.

Two questions are posed to Bart, the first of which he declines to answer! Iain McGilchrist is one of several prominent thinkers who seem to suggest that consciousness is a fundamental of the universe, and that reality may not be entirely physical in nature. What does Bart think of these ideas? The second involves a listener whose liberal Christian friend can't understand her atheism. How can she articulate her disinterest to her friend?

Sasha Sagan is an author and now a podcaster who is intensely curious about the rituals, traditions, norms and practices which help define communities of people. When we had her on the podcast in 2020, it was because Sasha had released a book on the subject, For Small Creatures Such As We. The recent launch of her podcast, Strange Customs, inspired us to reach back out and ask her how rituals might find their place in today's world.

After Bart's deconversion from Christianity, he has been a 'naturalist', lacking belief in any of the proposed deities and supernatural ideas. But how satisfied is he that he's right about this? How surprised would he be to suddenly emerge into an afterlife of some kind? Bart and producer John discuss.

We've recently been wondering about the movement in Kentucky that has become known as the 'Asbury revival', and the mass religious experiences that have been reported there in the last couple of months. We could think of nobody better to help us think about it than TM Luhrmann, a highly esteemed psychological anthropologist currently based at Stanford University. Tanya is known partly for her study of religious groups, including evangelical and charismatic Christians. In this conversation with Bart Campolo, she talks about the 'inner sense' of believers that their beliefs are true, how religions allow these experiences to form the heart of their narratives, religious shame, authority, imagination and self-reinforcement, and more.