Episodes

  • The Power of Us: Supporting Humanist Education in Uganda; Nathan Schrenk; 7-Dec-2025

    The Power of Us: Supporting Humanist Education in Uganda; Nathan Schrenk; 7-Dec-2025
    Dec 7 2025
    We will provide an overview of Ethical Society of St Louis' history of support for humanist schools in Uganda in cooperation with the Uganda Humanist Schools Trust (UHST), then updates on progress and challenges at the schools during the past year, then finish with a call for our community to continue our support for the students and schools in the upcoming year.
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    32 mins
  • Ethics for an Age of Distraction; Louise Jett; 30-Nov-2025

    Ethics for an Age of Distraction; Louise Jett; 30-Nov-2025
    Nov 30 2025
    In today's attention economy, where people focus shapes daily life and the wider culture. This talk will examine how Humanists can treat attention as a sacred resource. Creative Director Louise Jett will pair reflection with practice. Participants will be invited to turn scattered attention into deliberate care, because what we look at, shapes us; and what we tend together, we can shape.
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    25 mins
  • Why Humanists Need to Change Their Media Tactics; Hemant Mehta; 23-Nov-2025

    Why Humanists Need to Change Their Media Tactics; Hemant Mehta; 23-Nov-2025
    Nov 23 2025
    The New Atheists became popular at a time when books could captivate a country. That time is long gone. While some politicians and powerful religious groups have adapted to a new era of media, secular organizations and people have not. Let's talk about what needs to change in our community and how all of us can play a part in that.=
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    44 mins
  • Health, Worth, and Democracy; KC Kvasnicka-Slack; 16-Nov-2025

    Health, Worth, and Democracy; KC Kvasnicka-Slack; 16-Nov-2025
    Nov 16 2025
    How does our conceptualization of health reflect or deny the inherent worth and dignity of all people? What does it mean to engage in democracy when definitions of health are being narrowed while access to meaningful health-care is being degraded? What roots should we be aware of in discussions of public health? Are some more in line with our values than others? Join us to explore the intersections of health, worth, and democracy in modern US society.
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    27 mins
  • Don't Stop the Music: Remembering the Power of Song in a Noisy World; Lynn O'Brien; 9-Nov-2025

    Don't Stop the Music: Remembering the Power of Song in a Noisy World; Lynn O'Brien; 9-Nov-2025
    Nov 9 2025
    Music is more than entertainment it's a lifeline. In this heartfelt, interactive talk and live performance, Lynn O'Brien explores how music supports our health, relationships, and sense of meaning in everyday life. Drawing from her years as a board-certified music therapist and professional artist, she shares real stories and songs that reveal how music can calm, connect, and carry us through change. This is an invitation to listen differently, to notice how music meets us right where we are, and how it can help us stay grounded, creative, and connected in a noisy world.
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    25 mins
  • Play Harder: The Triumph of Black Baseball in America; Gerald Early, PhD; 2-Nov-2025

    Play Harder: The Triumph of Black Baseball in America; Gerald Early, PhD; 2-Nov-2025
    Nov 2 2025
    My presentation centers on the book, which I wrote in conjunction with the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, on the history of Black Baseball in America. The book accompanies the Hall of Fame’s new exhibit on Black baseball which opened in May 2024. I worked as a consultant on the exhibit and will discuss the development of the exhibit as well as the process of writing the book.
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    22 mins
  • Music and Liberation; Lauren Eldridge Stewart, PhD; 19-Oct-2025

    Music and Liberation; Lauren Eldridge Stewart, PhD; 19-Oct-2025
    Oct 19 2025
    Music has always been a force for justice—giving voice to struggle, inspiring resilience, and building solidarity across movements. Join us for a moving Platform experience with Dr. Lauren Eldridge Stewart, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Washington University.
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    27 mins
  • Justice Through Memory; Geoff Ward, PhD; 12-Oct-2025

    Justice Through Memory; Geoff Ward, PhD; 12-Oct-2025
    Oct 12 2025
    In this presentation Geoff Ward discusses efforts of Community Remembrance Projects across the U.S. and here in MO working with Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to address legacies of lynching. He will briefly discuss the large body of social science research showing how histories of lynching contribute to enduring patterns of conflict, violence, and inequality, in part through their distortions of the moral universe and corruption of the rule of law. Community Remembrance efforts aim to leverage the “power of us” to repair these harms, elevating the plane of civil and human rights in places where it was degraded by histories of lynching. The St. Louis Community Remembrance Project is unveiling St. Louis’ first EJI historical marker Oct. 18 in Buder Park and will next turn its attention to installing a second marker commemorating the 1836 lynching of Francis McIntosh in downtown St. Louis. Members of the Ethical Society of St. Louis have been involved in our local efforts since their inception, and all are welcome to join.
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    39 mins