Bc Humanists Podcast

Informações:

Synopsis

We are building a community based on reason and compassion in BC through education, outreach, support, and advocacy. This podcast contains recordings of speakers at our weekly Sunday Meetings in Vancouver. Some speakers may use profanity or discuss explicit content.

Episodes

  • Ian Bushfield - On Trinity Western University

    10/09/2017 Duration: 37min

    Ian talks about the status of the legal battle for Trinity Western University to exercise a charter that evangelizes and implicitly discriminates against non-Christians. It questions the nature of religious organization and what rights they have. He discusses the role and efforts of the BCHA in standing for secularism and human rights. Make a donation to support our campaign: https://www.canadahelps.org/dn/27636 Read our response: http://www.bchumanist.ca/bcha_scc_twu_arguments

  • Stacey Hrushowy - Salmon Diseases

    03/09/2017 Duration: 53min

    Stacey Hrushowy is a Masters student in biology at Simon Fraser University. She studies the role of microparasites like bacteria and viruses in wild populations of salmon and trout, and just completed her third field season on the beautiful Central Coast of BC in the unceded territory of the Oweekeno First Nation. Before this, Stacey studied archaeology and biology at UVic and has spent time working with seabirds in Alaska, steelhead in California, and school children at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre. Over the past ten years she has worn a diversity of hats ranging from science educator to cider maker and spanning a lot in between. The BC Humanist Association was formed in 1984 and many of our members are not on Meetup. We have a regular attendance of about 30 people at our Sunday meetings (rather than the small number who RSVP on Meetup).

  • Chris Levenson - Poetry Readings

    27/08/2017 Duration: 32min

    Christopher Levenson taught English and Creative writing at Carleton University, Ottawa, and now lives in Vancouver. He has publish 12 books of poetry. Arriving at Night won the Archibald Lampman Award in 1978. He was co-founder and first editor of Arc magazine and series editor of Carleton University Press’s Harbinger imprint for first books of poetry. His 12th book A tattered coat upon a stick has just been published. Recorded at our August 27, 2017 Sunday meeting in Vancouver, BC.

  • Lee Moller - The God Con

    20/08/2017 Duration: 54min

    The crucifix is in! You can fool most of the people most of the time. In The God Con, Lee Moller, a life-long atheist and skeptic, looks at organized religion through the lens of the con. Organized religion has been selling an invisible product, that it never has to deliver, for thousands of years. It has given us bigotry, rampant paedophilia, terrorism, and bloodshed beyond imagining. And its acolytes have, in turn, given organized religion power over their bank accounts, their reproduction, and their very "souls." The BC Humanist Association was formed in 1984 and many of our members are not on Meetup. We have a regular attendance of about 30 people at our Sunday meetings (rather than the small number who RSVP on Meetup). http://bchumanist.ca

  • Daphne Bramham - Bountiful polygamy tials and religious freedom

    14/08/2017 Duration: 41min

    Daphne Bramham has been a columnist at the Vancouver Sun since 2000 and has won numerous awards for her writing, including a National Newspaper Award. She was named Commentator of the Year by the Jack Webster Foundation in 2005 and was honoured by the non-profit group Beyond Borders for a series of columns on the polygamous community of Bountiful, BC. She is author of the 2009 book The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada's Polygamous Mormon Sect and has been providing extensive coverage of the trial in the Vancouver Sun. Recorded at the Sunday, August 13, 2017 meeting of the BC Humanist Association in Vancouver. Learn more at www.bchumanist.ca Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. Subscribe on SoundCloud, iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play. Intro music: We are all connected instrumental - Symphony of Science www.symphonyofscience.com

  • Kat Anderson - Ocean Acidification

    30/07/2017 Duration: 34min

    Kat's main interest is in how changes in the physical environment alter biological interactions. My current research focuses specifically on how the addition carbon dioxide (ocean acidification) changes competition and herbivory in seaweed communities. Understanding the outcomes of anthropogenic climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing biologists today; while we expect that climate change will have large impacts on community structure and ecosystem function, we have only a minimal understanding of what those impacts will be. @KatMAnderson The BC Humanist Association was formed in 1984 and many of our members are not on Meetup. We have a regular attendance of about 30 people at our Sunday meetings (rather than the small number who RSVP on Meetup).

  • Helio Da Costa - Freemasonry & Humanism

    23/07/2017 Duration: 52min

    Last June Freemasonry celebrated worldwide its 300th anniversary as an organisation, although Freemasonic Lodges have existed, as historically proven, since at least the 1600’s. There are over 5 million members in the world today who made an oath never to reveal its secrets. What are its tenets and what does it stand for? Is there any relationship between Freemasonry and Humanism? For an answer to these and other questions, Helio Da Costa, a Freemason for 32 years, a Humanist and a descendant from Freemasons on both sides of his family will reveal some aspects of this institution. Helio is one of our board members. The BC Humanist Association was formed in 1984 and we have a regular attendance of over 30 people at our Sunday meetings.

  • Shalaleh Rismani - Open Roboethics Institute

    17/07/2017 Duration: 33min

    As applications of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) extend to areas outside of industrial environments, it is increasingly important for designers and policy makers to address the question of “What should an autonomous system do?” For example, what should a robot do when it is on an urgent mission to deliver a package to someone upstairs, but the elevator is already occupied by someone else? Designing the robot to always yield (or never yield) might be a matter of a design decision for roboticists. But it also has normative implications with regards to systematically shaping priority relationships in human-robot interaction. The speaker advocates that designers shouldn't be the only ones left with the task of figuring out answers to these questions, especially when there's lack of guidelines on what the right answers are and how to implement them. The future adopters need to have increased awareness of how to use these technologies in a way that connects to their social and ethical ideals. Drawing

  • Ann Livingston - Overdose Prevention

    10/07/2017 Duration: 55min

    Donate to the Overdose Prevention Society: https://www.gofundme.com/wesavelives In September, 2016, three women were so concerned about the growing fentanyl overdose crisis that they set up a tent & table in an alley behind the DTES Market they managed. In potential violation of the law, they set up a drug injection/ consumption site in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to combat the many overdose deaths. About Ann: Ann Livingston is a creative, energetic and focused community organizer, who has made significant contributions to improving access to health care for people who use illegal drugs at the local, regional and national levels. After co founding the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) with poet/ activist Bud Osborn in 1998, she was employed as VANDU,s executive program director for 10 years. She encouraged people who use drugs, who are criminalized and labeled mentally ill, to form citizen associations and insist that they design and implement harm reduction programs. Consequently, VANDU ha

  • Naser Najjar - Humanitarianism and the Red Cross

    10/07/2017 Duration: 39min

    Nasser Najjar was formerly the spokesperson and head of communications for the International Committee of Red Cross mainly in Gaza, Palestine and went to other short mission in different places in the Middle East. He was also a researcher for Human Rights Watch and had documented violations committed against civilians in Gaza and refugees along the Turkish-Syrian border. In addition, Nasser had worked for a UN agency as a production manager. He wrote for some paper such as USAToday, Al Monitor, Gulfnews and worked as a producer for New York times. The BC Humanist Association was formed in 1984 and we have a regular attendance of over 30 people at our Sunday meetings.

  • Dr Ellen Wiebe - One year of medical assistance in dying

    10/07/2017 Duration: 40min

    Dr. Ellen Wiebe is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia. After 30 years of full-service family practice, she now restricts her practice to women’s health and assisted death. She is the Medical Director of Willow Women’s Clinic in Vancouver and provides medical and surgical abortions and contraception. She developed Hemlock Aid to provide consultations for doctors and patients about aid in dying and provides assisted death. The BC Humanist Association was formed in 1984 and we have a regular attendance of over 30 people at our Sunday meetings.

  • David Shiffman - Why Sharks Matter

    18/06/2017 Duration: 32min

    Why sharks matter: the ecological and economic importance of sharks, threats they face, and how you can help. Dr. David Shiffman is a Liber Ero Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Simon Fraser University, where his research focuses on the sustainability of Canadian shark fisheries. He is also an award winning science communicator who has written about sharks for the Washington Post, Scientific American, and other outlets. Follow him on twitter @WhySharksMatter The BC Humanist Association was formed in 1984 and many of our members are not on Meetup. We have a regular attendance of about 30 people at our Sunday meetings (rather than the small number who RSVP on Meetup). For more details on how to find the centre: http://www.bchumanist.ca/oakridge_seniors_centre

  • Carrie Jenkins - What Love Is

    11/06/2017 Duration: 57min

    Carrie Jenkins is a philosopher and author of the new book: What Love Is "Aside from being the title of many a popular love song, this is one of life's perennial questions. In What Love Is, philosopher Carrie Jenkins offers a bold new theory on the nature of romantic love that reconciles its humanistic and scientific components. Love can be a social construct (the idea of a perfect fairy tale romance) and a physical manifestation (those anxiety- inducing heart palpitations); we must recognize its complexities and decide for ourselves how to love. Motivated by her own polyamorous relationships, she examines the ways in which our parameters of love have recently changed-to be more accepting of homosexual, interracial, and non-monogamous relationships-and how they will continue to evolve in the future. Full of anecdotal, cultural, and scientific reflections on love, What Love Is is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand what it means to say "I love you." Whether young or old, gay or straight, male o

  • David Moscrop - Can we make good political decisions?

    04/06/2017 Duration: 52min

    One of the stories we tell ourselves is that human beings are dispassionate, rational, calculating machines. We collect data, we weigh evidence, we discuss, we debate, we judge, we decide. Not quite. Evidence suggests that when it comes to decision making, we're often biased, emotional, and irrational -- and there are few better examples of this than how we do politics. I'll discuss emotional, irrational decision making in the context of the recent rise of of nationalist and xenophobic populism in North America and Europe. David Moscrop is a PhD candidate in political science at UBC researching political theory/decision making. He has also written and commented for Macleans and BC1. To learn more, you can read David's dissertation online: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0343290 The BC Humanist Association was formed in 1984 and many of our members are not on Meetup. We have a regular attendance of about 30 people at our Sunday meetings (rather than the small number who

  • Gurpreet Singh - Secularism and Hindu Politics

    30/05/2017 Duration: 01h06min

    Gurpreet Singh is an atheist and voice in Metro Vancouver's Punjabi community. He's the founder of Radical Desi, a Georgia Straight contributor and he hosts a show on Spice Radio. He has sought to bring a liberal and anti-extremist voice to discussions that were often marked by Sikh fundamentalism. Read more about Gurpreet in his autobiographical column in the Georgia Straight. http://www.straight.com/news/gurpreet-singh-being-canadian The BC Humanist Association was formed in 1984 and many of our members are not on Meetup. We have a regular attendance of about 30 people at our Sunday meetings (rather than the small number who RSVP on Meetup).

  • Dr John Nightingale - Vancouver Aquarium and Cetaceans

    01/05/2017 Duration: 51min

    Dr John Nightingale is President and CEO of the Vancouver Aquarium. Dr Nightingale spoke to us about the Aquarium's educational and research programs, why it continues to have whales and dolphins in captivity, and what this change could mean for the future. The Vancouver Parks Board is set to consider a bylaw to ban cetaceans in captivity at the Aquarium at its next meeting on May 15. To learn more and find out how you can make your voice hear, visit http://www.vanaqua.org/share-support/ Recorded at the Sunday, April 30, 2017 meeting of the BC Humanist Association in Vancouver. Learn more at www.bchumanist.ca Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. Subscribe on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play. Intro music: We are all connected instrumental - Symphony of Science www.symphonyofscience.com

  • Ian Bushfield speaks at March for Science Vancouver

    24/04/2017 Duration: 09min

    Ian Bushfield, Executive Director of the BC Humanist Association, speaks at the March for Science in Vancouver on April 22, 2017. Listen to all of the talks from March for Science Vancouver on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj_Xm7TTocw&list=PL2WM8vqZFxd1WWhUvzYIfsNT8K9SQvpgb

  • Sarah Topps - Science and Public Health

    18/04/2017 Duration: 41min

    The March for Science is a celebration of science. It's not only about scientists and politicians; it is about the very real role that science plays in each of our lives and the need to respect and encourage research that gives us insight into the world. Nevertheless, the march has generated a great deal of conversation around whether or not scientists should involve themselves in politics. In the face of an alarming trend toward discrediting scientific consensus and restricting scientific discovery, we might ask instead: can we afford not to speak out in its defence? This week's speaker is Sarah Topps. Sarah holds an honours bachelor degree in International Development with minors in Economics and French from McGill University, and a Master in Public Health (MPH) with a focus in Global Health from Simon Fraser University. She completed a 4-month MPH practicum with CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology). Sarah’s final project focused on developing a free online training for community h

  • Yasmine Mohammad - Confessions of an Ex-Muslim

    11/04/2017 Duration: 55min

    Yasmine Mohammed is co-host of the new Secular Jihadists podcast and is an ex-Muslim living in Canada. This talk was given on April 9th, 2017. The BC Humanist Association was formed in 1984 and many of our members are not on Meetup. We have a regular attendance of about 30 people at our Sunday meetings (rather than the small number who RSVP on Meetup).

  • Ian Bushfield - Humanist Marriage

    03/04/2017 Duration: 01h05min

    The BC Humanist Association was denied the right to perform marriages in 2013 and last month published a report detailing the current legislative framework in BC that privileges the religious over the non-religious. It also documents numerous jurisdictions where Humanists are permitted to perform marriages and what steps Humanists in BC can take to gain equal legal status. The BC Humanist Association was formed in 1984 and many of our members are not on Meetup. We have a regular attendance of about 30 people at our Sunday meetings (rather than the small number who RSVP on Meetup).

page 6 from 9