Join us this Sunday, either in person or online, as we discuss How the Supreme Court of the United States Works.
This Sunday we will watch two videos on the Supreme Court.
The first video, How the Supreme Court is fast-tracking Trump’s cases on its ‘shadow docket’, describes the emergency docket, and why it’s used and what are the concerns it raises.
The second video is What Really Won the Trillion-Dollar Supreme Court Case. In November 2025, Neal Kumar Katyal was asked to do what no litigant had done before: convince the justices of the Supreme Court to strike down a sitting president’s signature initiative. The initiative that imposed tariffs justified by an economic emergency. SCOTUS had not previously questioned what is and is not an emergency. Neal Katyal describes his trepidation and the help he got to prepare himself and his team to face the court.
You can watch the 7-minute video on the shadow docket at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE67nk0w6ZU and the 18-minute video on the Katyal’s trial preparations at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3M3WaixeOw .
Attend in Person:
Join fellow Humanists in the Manzanita Room of the Los Altos Community Center, 97 Hillview Ave, Los Altos, CA 94022. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation.
Attend Online
Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smartphone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634
Join the meeting by phone: +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
Find an international phone number to call: here.
Join us this Sunday, either in person or online, as we discuss Harari and Tegmark on Humanity and AI.
This Sunday we will watch and discuss Harari and Tegmark on Humanity and AI, a video in which Yuval Noah Harari and Max Tegmark discuss human agency, governing AI and the future of humanity with Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua at Bloomberg House in Davos on the sidelines of the 2026 World Economic Forum.
Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli Historian, Philosopher, and the Bestselling Author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. His many published works examine themes of free will, consciousness, intelligence, happiness, suffering and the role of storytelling in human evolution.
Max Tegmark is a Swedish-American physicist, machine learning researcher and author. He is a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He co-founded and leads the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit focused on reducing global catastrophic risks from advanced technologies.
Francine Lacqua is an Italian and British journalist, television anchor and editor-at-large for Bloomberg Television. She anchors “The Pulse with Francine Lacqua” every weekday, and features program “Leaders with Lacqua” where she interviews top leaders in business, politics and finance.
You can pre-watch this 32-minute video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGAA59JTBtg
Attend Online
Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smartphone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634
Join the meeting by phone: +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
Find an international phone number to call: here.
Join us this Sunday, either in person or online, as we discuss Language. Language is a distinctly human ability that allows us to communicate with more precision than any other animal. This Sunday we will watch two TED talks on this wonderful talent. In the first video, The Origin and Evolution of Language, Michael Corballis discusses the evolution of speech centers of our brains from the grasping centers of monkeys and the probable development of language. Michael Corballis was an Emeritus Professor of cognitive neuroscience and psychology at the University of Auckland. His research spanned brain asymmetry, handedness, mental imagery, memory, and the evolution of language. He is the author of over 400 papers and 14 books. You can watch this video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd5cklw6d6Q
In the second video, Both Not Half: How language shapes identity, Jassa Ahluwalia describes growing up torn by two identities. His mother was British and his father Punjabi and he grew up immersed in both languages. Jassa Singh Ahluwalia is a British actor, writer, filmmaker, and radio presenter known for roles in BBC Three’s Some Girls, ITV’s Unforgotten, Ripper Street, and Peaky Blinders. Of British-Indian heritage and fluent in Punjabi, he created the #BothNotHalf campaign on mixed identity, delivered a TEDx talk, and fronted the award-winning BBC One documentary Am I English?. You can watch this video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP0bAQ8J6C0
Attend Online Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here. No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smartphone, and then enter: Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712 Passcode: 250634
Join the meeting by phone: +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose) Find an international phone number to call: here.
Join us, either in person or online, as we watch and discuss three short videos on Mother’s Day.
On this Mother’s Day, it’s not enough to superficially celebrate motherhood. Let’s examine a couple of different aspects.
We could start by thinking of a couple of the Humanist commitments.
“Altruism is the unselfish concern for the welfare of others without expectation of reward, recognition, or return.” Sounds pretty much like what we expect of mothers 24/7.
And
“We human beings are capable of empathy, the ability to understand and enter imaginatively into another living being’s feelings….” Yes, and moms again are supposed to do this 24/7.
We probably think of Humanist commitments as aspirational because we aren’t perfect. But we have higher expectations of mothers.
A whole Mythology around motherhood pervades our thinking. Some believe “natural” maternal instincts and emotions are present in all females simply from their hormones. We likely blame and shame the individual woman who doesn’t live up to this stereotype.
Before the concept of the nuclear family, a large family, even community, would share the raising of children. The burden wasn’t likely to fall entirely on the mother. We often fail to recognize the toll on her health that giving birth takes. At her weakest, still recovering from the physical cost her body has undergone, she is expected to be on duty 24/7 to respond to the needy newborn waking every few hours.
I was shocked at the statistic that in the United States in 2024, 32.4% of live births were Cesarean deliveries. So 1/3 of new mothers were recovering not just from birth but major surgery. At the least this should bring home the idea that becoming a mother is a serious health issue.
However, expectations that she can do it alone do seem to be changing. There is much more understanding that parenthood is a shared responsibility. We now see plenty of fathers out pushing baby carriages.
Also this Mother’s Day, reproductive rights are important. . For how many mothers is motherhood not a free choice? No matter how much a mother may love her child, It needs to be her choice as to when she bears this child, financially and emotionally. Not all mothers are equally prepared. Factors such as her youth, health and marital status need to be hers to consider. Even the timing can cause her to sacrifice career goals or other ambitions, and relationships.
Others have no right to blame her for not being willing to bear a child at a time other than of her choosing or of not always putting her child first.
You may be aware of the hypothesis that a couple of decades after the rights to abortions are interfered with, the incarceration rates increase. Whether a woman wants to bear a child affects all of society.
We will view three videos: the first is one about the origins of Mother’s Day and its relationship to peace. Second is a video about how we deny compensations to mothers such as paid leave, or any leave, after childbirth. The third video is about the most recent court ruling to curtail the sending of abortion medication through the mail.
Attend Online Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here. No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smartphone, and then enter: Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712 Passcode: 250634
Join the meeting by phone: +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose) Find an international phone number to call: here.
Join us, either in person or online, as we watch and discuss a video about misinformation and science.
The world is increasingly polarized by ideologies, and acceptance of scientific evidence has become a battleground influencing public and individual perceptions of scientific facts.
By shedding light on the challenges of effectively communicating science in a polarized society, Biomedical Scientist, Andrea Love proposes strategies to bridge the ideological divides. She emphasizes the importance of fostering productive discussions on topics frequently targeted by misinformation campaigns in order to minimize harms to public health and science literacy.
Andrea Love is a Biomedical Scientist who answers questions about pseudoscience on YouTube.
This talk was part of the lineup for CSICon 2024 in Las Vegas. CSICon is the premiere conference for science and skepticism.
Attend Online Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here. No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smartphone, and then enter: Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712 Passcode: 250634
Join the meeting by phone: +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose) Find an international phone number to call: here.
