Humanize Me

Before recent events in Israel and Palestine, Bart Campolo had this conversation with Salwa and Gerard of an organization called Military Court Watch in Jerusalem. In it, we hear about Salwa's experiences growing up in the region, and what drew Gerard to working there as an attorney. There are no easy answers about the conflict there, and we don't offer any in this episode. But human rights, humanist ideas and a focus on children are highlighted in a very insightful way.

Bart and John discuss the a question from a listener called Paolo about believing in miracles. Even though he has many issues with the rational case for Christianity, Paolo's own experiences make him inclined to hold onto his faith. And let's be honest, we live in a world where weird things sometimes happen. Do you believe in miracles?

Johann Hari is an international best-selling author, journalist and thinker who has written two books we especially love: Chasing the Scream (about drugs and addiction) and Lost Connections (about what produces depression). So he may be one of the most fitting guests we've had. In this conversation with Bart Campolo, Johann talks about the purpose of pain, the value of community, understanding despair, how people learn social skills and friendship, why our intuitions on addiction may bewrong and our intuitions on depression may be right, the psychological poisons in our culture, releasing shame as an antidepressant, and much more. All things Johann can be found at JohannHari.com.

...in the nicest possible way. On a recent episode, Bart Campolo casually referred to a bar full of people you might like to strike up a conversation with, saying, "There's a woman, there's a man, there's a woman who used to be a man." A trans woman called Rya wrote us an email, in the process giving us the perfect model for how to address someone you disagree with. It was so perfect we thought we'd share it. Also on this episode, the music of New Tycoon (a song called Ancient from the album Wholiness).

How do we recapture political nuance, thoughtfulness and open-mindedness at a time when alternative media has hooked us on politics and broke our democracy? Claire Potter is a Professor of History and co-Executive Editor of Public Seminar at The New School for Social Research in Greenwich Village, New York City. In this conversation, she and Bart Campolo talk about the state of our political discourse and the attitudes that can promote the change we all want to see. Claire's website can be found at ClairePotter.com.

Bart talks to Joe Blankholm, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who with his colleagues is conducting a survey of secular communities across the United States. Take the survey at http://secularcommunities.com/scs

From a listener: "I left my faith about 14 years ago. It has been a lonely experience, especially since back then, there wasn't the same connections through the internet that there are now. It seems like deconstruction is almost pop culture now, and being talked about everywhere. Anyways, I appreciate what you're doing and I'm inspired by your vision. I still 'feel' like a pastor in a lot of ways and like how you are helping people take the good parts of church and recreate them in a new context. I have been thinking about getting connected to others in the same boat as me. People who have left Christianity and are looking for community. I am from Kitchener, Ontario and I wondered if you had any connections to groups that I could connect with up here. I’m looking for a way to just talk about my experience of leaving faith and the lonely place it can be. If you don't have any recommendations, I'd love any tips or suggestions for getting likeminded people together, online right now because of COVID. I know that

How can we learn to have our disagreements across ideological divides more constructively and respectfully? David C. Smalley may be something of an expert at this point, having conducted hundreds of long-form conversations - many of them with Christians - on his podcast for the last 11 years. In this episode with Bart Campolo, David talks about how he approaches these on-air disagreements, and what allows him to stay friends with many of his guests after they hang up the phone. Some takeaways: Keep watch over the temperature of a conversation, break anger with kindness, see insecurities for what they are, understand they see you as a victim of bad ideas, cultivate patience, ask lots of good questions and let them talk (which is actually thinking out loud), 'put on' their ideology for the conversation to explore it with them, be a tourist in their world with genuine curiosity. Subscribe to the David C. Smalley podcast in your favorite podcast app, and connect with him at his website, DavidCSmalley.com.

Bart and John share thoughts about the Inauguration of President Biden, the emotions it raises, what is entailed in turning the page as a nation, how to begin to bring Trump's most fervent supporters back into conversation, the importance of rituals like this, the Inauguration as a civic religious ceremony, and the actual religion in the ceremony including the biggest bible we've ever seen. Amanda Gorman's poem: When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade We've braved the belly of the beast We've learned that quiet isn't always peace And the norms and notions of what just is Isn't always just-ice And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it Somehow we do it Somehow we've weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken but simply unfinished We the successors of a country and a time Where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find hersel

What does it take to cope in a high-pressure, competitive environment... without falling into harmful behavior? Ali Tamposi is a grammy-nominated songwriter who has written for some of the biggest names in pop music: Kelly Clarkson, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, John Legend, Ozzy Osbourne and many others. She's also Bart Campolo's daughter-in-law-to-be.In this conversation, Bart and Ali talk about what it's like to be in a songwriting session, how high-pressure, competitive environments can bring out everyone's insecurities, the better of her two coping strategies, how gender plays a role, how a good key relationship can make all the difference, and how you can't always change the room but rather what you bring to it.—Follow this podcast to stay up-to-date:Twitter: @HumanizeMePodInstagram: @HumanizeMePodcastFacebook Group: Facebook.com/Groups/1772151613053280Check out Patreon.com/HumanizeMe! Support the podcast there for the cost of a cup of coffee once a month and get extra content for it. That amount won’t ma

Bart joins Konrad Benjamin, host of the Australian podcast Ideas Digest, to talk about why he isn't a progressive Christian but rather a secular humanist, and to assert that they ALWAYS become atheists.Subscribe to Ideas Digest wherever you listen to podcasts! Follow the podcast on Instagram: @ideasdigest

A coronavirus story, Bart’s contention that Christmas should be once every 4 years, and a reminder that life isn’t ‘supposed to’ be perfect.—Follow this podcast to stay up-to-date:Twitter: @HumanizeMePodInstagram: @HumanizeMePodcastFacebook Group: Facebook.com/Groups/1772151613053280Check out Patreon.com/HumanizeMe! Support the podcast there for the cost of a cup of coffee once a month and get extra content for it. That amount won’t matter to you, but it means everything to us and makes the podcast happen! (Includes access to the monthly bonus podcast, ‘Why It Matters’, where we discuss the show and read listener feedback, and the ‘Campolo Sessions‘, long-form conversations between Bart and his dad Tony Campolo.)Humanize Me is hosted by Bart Campolo and is produced by John Wright at JuxMedia.com.

The second of two classic installments of this podcast that we’re posting on the topic of better conversations. Last week, we heard about the method called 'street epistemology'. This time, we're hearing about 'deep canvassing', used by our guest David Fleischer of the Los Angeles LGBT Center to change votes.We hope it’ll help you think about how to engage with people more productively, and enable some good interpersonal outcomes!Note: This is an edit comprised of TWO separate conversations with David, which originally appeared in episodes 423 and 429.

In a reprise of this classic conversation with Anthony Magnabosco, we talk about a conversational tool which can change the course - and productivity - of those most difficult exchanges, the ones between people who disagree on fundamental things in life. Anthony is an advocate of 'street epistemology', and it could be a very useful idea in these divided times.This is the first of two 'classic' episodes we're posting on the topic of better conversations. We hope it'll help you think about how to engage with people more productively, and enable some good interpersonal outcomes.--Humanize Me is now available on Spotify! Subscribers can listen right inside the app. Open Spotify, search for 'Humanize Me', select it under Podcasts and press 'Follow'.Got a question for Bart to answer in a future show? Call the ‘Q Line’ at (424) 291-2092.Enjoy the podcast? Support it at Patreon.com/HumanizeMe and get extra content for it! Please review us on iTunes (it really helps). And join almost 1000 other listeners on the show’s

Bart gives a stream-of-consciousness update from under his rock, including stark thoughts about the recent attempted suicide of a close friend, an unexpected gift from another, and an attempt to recenter around gratefulness. The classic article on chess Bart mentions (circa 1992) can be found at https://vault.si.com/vault/1992/03/02/the-child-is-the-master-playing-a-young-chess-prodigy-rekindled-the-authors-love-for-the-game

This week we air Bart's interview on the podcast Re-Enchantment with host Daniel Shkolnik. We don't do this often, but we liked this interview a lot, and Daniel is a guy committed to the ideas we share so passionately. Subscribe to Re-Enchantment wherever you listen to podcasts, and at ReEnchantmentPod.com.

Bart and John attempt to answer a listener question whose family, despite practically compatible values, insists on framing everything with respect to their religious beliefs. This is causing contentious conversations, and the listener wants to know how to handle it.

John Engle, known for his work with Haiti Partners, joins Bart to answer the question, "What have you learned from your work in Haiti that may be relevant to the tough times we're going through here in the United States this year?"—Follow this podcast to stay up-to-date:Twitter: @HumanizeMePodInstagram: @HumanizeMePodcastFacebook Group: Facebook.com/Groups/1772151613053280Check out Patreon.com/HumanizeMe! Support the podcast there for the cost of a cup of coffee once a month and get extra content for it. That amount won’t matter to you, but it means everything to us and makes the podcast happen! (Includes access to the monthly bonus podcast, ‘Why It Matters’, where we discuss the show and read listener feedback, and the ‘Campolo Sessions‘, long-form conversations between Bart and his dad Tony Campolo.)Humanize Me is hosted by Bart Campolo and is produced by John Wright at JuxMedia.com.

Bill Deresiewicz is an award-winning essayist and critic who has written a new book. The book warns that the art we all love - music, books, films and much more - is in jeopardy. Based on his own deep research and interviews with artists and content creators, Bill is worried that the digital economy isn't supporting that art that sustains our souls, and that we are in the middle of a big transformation.In this conversation with Bart Campolo, Bill talks about art as a secular religion, "humanities-based spirituality", the "Darwinian attention derby", the mythology of the artist as lazy or entitled, the discouragement many creators face against pursuing their art, the small percentage of artists who are making a true living at it, the death of the arts as a harbinger of a larger death, of dignified work and the middle class, how the big tech platforms make money from artists' creations, how fixing this problem could help address some of our other problems like a lack of diversity and representation, and the ide

A scandal for the ages has emerged about of one of the most prominent evangelical Christian leaders of the Trump era. In this episode, Bart and John attempt to answer the question, "What would make a humanistic response to the situation with the Falwells?"—Follow this podcast to stay up-to-date:Twitter: @HumanizeMePodInstagram: @HumanizeMePodcastFacebook Group: Facebook.com/Groups/1772151613053280Check out Patreon.com/HumanizeMe! Support the podcast there for the cost of a cup of coffee once a month and get extra content for it. That amount won’t matter to you, but it means everything to us and makes the podcast happen! (Includes access to the monthly bonus podcast, ‘Why It Matters’, where we discuss the show and read listener feedback, and the ‘Campolo Sessions‘, long-form conversations between Bart and his dad Tony Campolo.)Join the email list HERE.Humanize Me is hosted by Bart Campolo and is produced by John Wright at JuxMedia.com.