Video of Programs (search and sort)

Understanding & Challenging Anti-Democracy Movements
08/31/2025
Dr. Joan Braune

 

Numerous ideological factions present within the current administration and adjacent networks see leaders as above law, rather than subject to it. Dr. Joan Braune presents some of the far-right ideologies and movements (including fascism and Christian nationalism) influencing current policies, and how people are counter-organizing against authoritarian hate. Dr. Braune is Lecturer in Philosophy at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, and invited expert speaker on hate groups and far-right movements. Her publications include Understanding and Countering Fascist Movements: From Void to Hope (Routledge 2024), a co-edited volume on the ethics of researching the far right.

 

Discussion: Being A "Good Citizen" in Today's World
08/24/2025
Anand Atre

 

HGP member Anand Atre conducts a thought-provoking conversation about good citizenship in today’s world. Drawing from Richard Haas’ “The Bill of Obligations,” which inspired the PBS documentary “A Citizen’s Guide to Preserving Democracy,”, we’ll briefly view and then explore Haas’ suggested essential habits for strengthening democracies and building resilient communities. In an era of increasing polarization, these habits face new tests. We’ll examine how modern pressures challenge good citizenship and undermine democratic norms. This open discussion is an opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue, share perspectives, and discuss actionable ideas for positive civic engagement.

 

AHA Conference 2025: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart
08/17/2025
David Buckley

 

At Friendly House, HGP member David Buckley reports back from the American Humanist Association conference which took place June 26-29. While the challenges of this moment in American society and politics are hard to overstate, the conference highlighted hopeful developments and opportunities that are present in spite of - and sometimes because of - those challenges. David conveys that sense of hope and lays out specific opportunities for AHA chapters (like ours) to consider. Buckley is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner who has been actively involved in Humanist Community for over a decade.

 

China: What It's Actually Like
08/10/2025
Ralph Jennings

 

A beyond-the-media presentation by a media guy, about the world's (second?) most important country. What's it like to live there, as native or not? Are you oppressed? Free to move about? What inspires the average person to get out of bed? Ralph Jennings was born and raised in Portland, graduated from Cal, and later pursued an MA in Taipei. A lifelong journalist, he now works for the South China Morning Post (scmp.com) covering the Chinese economy: prices, consumption, talent, labor, aviation, shipping, trade – and once in a while the king of fruits, durians.

 

Further reading:

    "50 Useful Tips on China" by Ralf Jennings

     https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXJDLDPX.

 

Why do Chinese people do so much voluntary overtime at work? Who is the key mastermind behind traditional marriages, and how come their jokes are funny but yours are not? 50 Useful Tips on China helps to unravel the many mysteries of the Middle Kingdom. The author, Ralph Jennings, isn’t Chinese and while that gives him a certain objectivity, it also inevitably leaves him partly in the dark. He put in his time, but how far did he really get in figuring things out? A lot further than most.

 

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