Humanist Forums

link to our entire video library (started Nov 2009)

blurbs for 2011 Forums

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Jan 2: The Evolution Institute
The Evolution Institute utilizes science as a vehicle for achieving a secular and healthy society. Dr Jerry Lieberman is co-founder/director of the Evolution Institute and president of the Humanists of Florida Association. He will discuss (1) the Institute’s goals, which are designed to understand and improve the human condition, (2) what the Evolution Institute has done, and (3) its future plans. See www.evolution-institute.org

Jan 9: Humanist Chaplains at Harvard AND Stanford?
Jonathan Figdor will speak about his work at the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard, and the challenges and successes that he has seen there. He will also talk about his vision for a Humanist Chaplaincy at Stanford, which would work extensively with the Humanist Community in Silicon Valley. John will explain what sorts of services, programs, and events he would seek to create/promote at such a chaplaincy, what small groups he would seek to create/promote, and how he would market the Humanist Community to others. Finally, John will talk about his vision for how a Humanist Chaplain at a prestigious University such as Stanford can lead to a new "renaissance" of humanism in the Northern California area, so that Northern California will become just as much a Mecca of Humanism as Boston is.
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Jan 16: Meet Returning Humanist Community Board Members, and Candidates for the Board
This is the Community’s chance to meet face-to-face with our Board candidates and our returning Board members. Ask questions and give input that you’ve always wanted to share in a public meeting. What’s our vision for the future? What other subjects should we cover in our Forums? Will we ever afford our own building? Where and why is our money being spent? Should we do better at publicizing and educating the SF Bay Area about Humanism?

Jan 23: What Makes Humanist Ethics Humanist?
Jason Smick, a lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at Santa Clara University, and Humanist Community member Bruce Boston will explore foundational ethical principles that inform the lives of humanists.
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Jan 30: The Acumen Fund
The Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. They seek to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Their investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches. Rusmin Dirgantoro, an Acumen Ambassador, will discuss their efforts. See www.acumenfund.org

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Feb 6: The Palo Alto Green Energy and Compost Initiative
Peter Drekmeier, a long-time environmentalist and Palo Alto’s mayor in 2009, will discuss the Palo Alto Green Energy and Compost Initiative. The initiative aims to bring an anaerobic digestion facility to Palo Alto that would utilize microorganisms in enclosed containers to convert the city’s 60,000 tons per year of organic waste (yard trimmings, food scraps and sewage sludge) into clean, renewable energy and high quality compost. The facility would produce enough biogas to power 1,400 homes, and would reduce Palo Alto’s greenhouse gas emissions by 20,000 tons per year. It also would save the city $1 million per year.
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Feb 13: Celebrating Darwin Day 2011
Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859. 152 years after its first appearance, Darwin’s master work remains a source of tremendous insight and enduring controversy. The intervening years have seen an explosion of discoveries and observations and the development of powerful scientific methodologies including the advent of molecular biology. This talk will explore why Darwin’s idea has continued to hold our attention and inspire formative research after so much time. Once again, Darwin captures the essence of the argument with his assertion that “There is grandeur in this view of life…”. Robert Siegel, Associate Professor at Stanford Medical School, with appointments in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, the program in Human Biology, and the Center for African Studies, will discuss these issues.
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Feb 20: One Person’s Perspective on Afghanistan
Zarin Malekzada is co-founder of Afghanistan Education for a Better Tomorrow, which provides health care and education for people in Afghanistan. She grew up in Kabul, but came here when she was about 9. She will discuss conditions in Afghanistan now, her work to improve those conditions, and some of her own history.
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Feb 27: Thoughts on Interpersonal Interactions
Dr Michael R Edelstein, in conversation with Humanist Community member Brian Davis, will discuss specific ways that you can improve your interpersonal interactions with others. Dr Edelstein has an in-person and telephone therapy practice in San Francisco. He is the author of Three Minute Therapy, a self-help book for overcoming common emotional and behavioral problems, for which he was awarded Author of the Year by the National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists. In his practice, Dr Edelstein specializes in the treatment of anxiety, depression, relationship problems, and addictions, and is one of the few practitioners of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in the Bay Area. His website is ThreeMinuteTherapy.com .
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Mar 6: An Update from Haiti
Kelly Kobza, a native Palo Altan who has spoken to us before on Serving the Greater Good in Haiti, will give us an update (with photographs) of the projects she has been working on in her new location in Haiti, as well as the general state of the situation since a massive earthquake hit Haiti on Jan 12, 2010. Come and be inspired by her tremendous humanitarianism. See www.greatergoodhaiti.org .

Mar 13: Applying Humanistic Ethics to Everyday Life
Jason Smick, a lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at Santa Clara University and new electee to the Humanist Community Board, and Humanist Community member Bruce Boston will follow up on their Jan 23, 2011 talk entitled What Makes Humanist Ethics Humanist? with a talk discussing how humanistic ethics can be applied in everyday life.
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Mar 20: Applying Evolutionary Theory to Early Childhood Development and Other Social Sciences
Nancy Martin, a retired venture capitalist, business executive and Professor of Computer Science will present the ten principles proposed at the Evolution Institute’s Workshop on Early Childhood Development. In addition, as there seems to be no written consensus, she will begin a discussion on what it means to develop and/or apply evolution theory to social sciences. She will use evolutionary religion as an example in addition to the Early Childhood Development Work.

Mar 27: The Humanism of Julia Child, America’s French Chef
In honor of Women’s History Month, come celebrate the wit and wisdom of the author, cook, and television star who changed the way Americans ate and thought about food (and who was portrayed by Meryl Streep in the recent film Julie and Julia). Child stated publicly, “I hate organized religion.” She revered instead people, ideas, and the joys of eating and cooking. She was passionate about butter, cream…and Planned Parenthood. Santa Clara University history professor Nancy C Unger will present in words and images the life and philosophy of this American icon.
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Apr 3: The Uniformity of Nature: Is That Truly All There Is?
Arthur M Jackson, a longtime Humanist Community member who has been deeply involved in humanism since 1962 when he first learned about the American Humanist Association, will discuss his newly published book, How to Live the Good Life: A User’s Guide for Modern Humans. This book starts with the basic assumption that the natural world is all that there is, and everything about humanity fits into that realm, including values.
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Apr 10: The Global Health Research Foundation
Dr Erica Weirich will discuss the Global Health Research Foundation (GHRF), which combines health development and respect for culture with Silicon Valley technology and resources. GHRF deploys information technology tools for rapid outcomes access and data utilization, to support sustainable health development in medically underserved areas. GHRF solutions have improved efforts to identify outbreaks, and treat and control disease. Using medical and technology assessments, and tools and business strategies for rapid cycle testing, GHRF is working to ensure that functioning solutions are made sustainable, scalable and transferable. Dr Weirich is the founder and director of Global Health Research Foundation, a practicing physician in Los Altos, and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.
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Apr 17: Questioning the Historicity of Christ
Why would anyone think Jesus never existed? Most secular thinkers rightly reject the supernatural elements of the traditions surrounding Jesus Christ, and reasonably accept that he was an actual first century figure, albeit obscured by successive legendary accretion. But is it possible that even that modest stance is untrue? Historical writer Dave Fitzgerald, author of Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed at All thinks so, and drawing upon evidence gathered from historians all across the theological spectrum, shows how the New Testament itself points to a Jesus Christ created solely through allegorical alchemy of hope and imagination; a messiah transformed from a purely literary, theological construct into the familiar figure of Jesus – in short, a purely mythic Christ. Copies of Dave’s book will be available for purchase and signing.
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Apr 24: Bertrand Russell’s View of the Effects of Diverse Religious Backgrounds
The famous British philosopher and humanist, Bertrand Russell, wrote that freethinking people of different countries and diverse backgrounds show a stark difference between those of Catholic versus Protestant and Jewish origins. Also, that this difference exists no matter how much they feel they had thrown off the theology that they were taught in their youth. So, just what does this difference consist of? Dr Darlyne Elliott from the Humanist Club at The Villages in San José will lead us in a self-exploration and discussion of this topic.

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May 1: Two American Socialists Discuss Their Experiences in China
Ellen David Friedman and Stuart Friedman, Visiting Lecturers at Sun Yat-sen University in China, will discuss their views on “socialist” China, and on China’s social problems, in particular with respect to labor, civil rights, and the values crisis.
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May 8: Rationality vs. Emotions as a Basis for Humanism
The Humanist culture tends to minimize emotions as a basis for Humanism, and has allowed rationalism to become its predominant perspective. “Thinking” as opposed to “feeling” has become our primary identity. Have we depersonalized Humanism and become more of an intellectual club? Frank Friedlander has a PhD in social and organizational psychology, has published widely, and was a Visiting Professor at Stanford University. Prior to this he was a Professor at the Fielding Graduate University for 19 years and at Case Western Reserve for 15 years.
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May 15: Eleanor Roosevelt and the American Worker
Eleanor Roosevelt was a staunch and lifelong advocate for workers and a proud member of the AFL-CIO’s Newspaper Guild for more than twenty-five years. Brigid O’Farrell will discuss her new book, She Was One of Us: Eleanor Roosevelt and the American Worker, which tells for the first time the story of her deep and lasting ties to the American labor movement. See bofarrell.net .
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May 22: The California DISCLOSE Act
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision unleashed unlimited, anonymous corporate spending on campaigns. In California, nearly $200 million was spent on November 2010 ballot measures alone, most by corporations hiding behind misleading committees like “Stop Hidden Taxes.” This hidden spending is subverting our democracy. The California DISCLOSE Act, AB 1148, which is currently being considered in the California Assembly, will require political ads to clearly and prominently disclose who is REALLY paying for them. Humanist Community member Brian Davis will discuss this latest effort to make our political system more fair. See http://www.caclean.org .
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May 29: Robert G Ingersoll: The 19th Century Man with the 21st Century Mind
Don Havis, who has researched Robert G Ingersoll extensively, will outline a series of 10 different ideas which Robert G Ingersoll promulgated in the late 1800s, most of which are now being advanced in the early 2000s — ideas such as the absolutely equal rights of all human beings, and the United Nations. Come and learn more about this remarkable man who lived from 1833 to 1899. He was and is considered the most famous unknown man of the 19th century because of his controversial, forward-thinking ideas.

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Jun 5: The Mission of Medicine: The Assertion and Assurance of the Human Potential
Current medicine does not serve that mission. Next Medicine is the required revolution. Come and hear Dr Walter M. Bortz, author of seven books on health and longevity, and an 80+ year-old marathon runner, discuss his new book Next Medicine: The Science and Civics of Health.

Jun 12: Time, The Mind, Reality, and Critical "TO DOs" to Envision a Flourishing Future for Humanity
What does time measure, how does the human mind work, what is the nature of reality ? I aim to explore these questions and provide some answers to them, and in so doing set a framework of understanding of humanity, civilization, and reality, from which I can explore the next question on my mind. Namely, how is human civilization and life on Earth getting on, in reality, right now ? I'd like to explore this question by first identifying some values by which we might determine how we are getting on, and then suggest the critical actions on Humanity's "TO DO" list for the 21st Century, which can enable us to grow these values and so envision a future where human civilization can survive and thrive, and continue to flourish, into the forseeable future. (Martin Squibbs)
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Jun 19: Cars and Capitalism
In North America, human beings have become enthralled by the automobile: A quarter of our working lives are spent paying for them; communities fight each other for the right to build more of them; our cities have been torn down, remade and planned with their needs as the overriding concern; wars are fought to keep their fuel tanks filled; songs are written to praise them; cathedrals are built to worship them. Yves Engler and Bianca Mugyenyi will discuss their new book: Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay. See http://stopsigns.fairtrademedia.com
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Jun 26: Personal Morality and Group Ethics
This session continues the Forum’s series on Humanist Ethics. As discussed in the previous sessions, the series defines Humanist Ethics as “The Study of Personal Morality, and the Discovery of Group Ethics, in the Pursuit of Greater Human Flourishing.” And, in that pursuit, Humanist Community member Bruce Boston will facilitate some small group discussions of everyday ethical questions.

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Jul 3: Humanist Community Talent Showcase
Similar to our successful Poetry Reading Forum on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, this Forum will offer Humanist Community members a chance to perform a song, a musical piece, a reading, a dance, or display arts or crafts that you have created, or any other talent that you’d like to present. A full electric piano will be available for any piano players. Please contact Arthur Jackson at arthurjackson@covad.net to sign up to present something at this Forum, and please indicate about how many minutes you think that your presentation will require.

Jul 10: Attacks on Planned Parenthood
Guadalupe Rodriguez, Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in Silicon Valley, Alameda and San Mateo Counties, will discuss the attacks against Planned Parenthood and the larger social and reproductive justice implications that this has for women and families in low-income communities and for women of color in this country.
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Jul 17: The 2011 AHA Conference in Boston
This Forum will focus on the 2011 Annual Conference of the American Humanist Association which was held in Boston/Cambridge, April 7-10. This was the biggest national AHA Conference yet. There is much to report which will be provided by Humanist Community members who attended — Nancy Martin, Bruce Boston, Frank Friedlander, Hilton Brown, Ed Yates/Min Chang, and Arthur Jackson — with time for questions from the audience. Come and tap into the dynamic energy making Humanism more and more a part of the public and political realm.

Jul 24: Our Baylands History and an Election Initiative to Undedicate Parklands
Emily Renzel and Enid Pearson, both longtime local environmental leaders, parklands and baylands activists, and former longtime Palo Alto City Council Members, will discuss the history of the local baylands, and their opposition to a proposal to undedicate some parklands in the Palo Alto Baylands to allow for their possible use as a site for an anaerobic digestion waste treatment facility.
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Jul 31: How Languages Affect How People are Categorized
An interactive look at how you label/classify/categorize yourself and others. Retired San José State Sociology Professor Meg Bowman explores historical and cross-cultural perspectives of languages and how they relate to various “isms”, stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination, segregation, bigotry, rumors and scapegoats.

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Aug 7: The Development of Ethics in Early Greece
Ethics is part of the evolution of the human mind and this is how it began. Ken Abraham, a member of the Humanist Community in Silicon Valley who is mesmerized by Greek history, will give us his analysis of early Greece and the development of ethics.
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Aug 14: Nuclear Weapons and Humanism
Although society ignores the problem, the research of Martin E. Hellman, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, indicates that a child born today has at least a 10% chance of not living out his or her natural life as a result of our dependence on nuclear weapons. A response is required that fits well with humanism’s affirmation of “our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.” Prof. Hellman will propose a novel approach to solving this problem that depends critically on individual initiative.
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Aug 21: The East Palo Alto Youth Court
This presentation will be on Youth Courts in the U.S. with the specific example of East Palo Alto Youth Court, how it was started and where it is now. Our speaker, Sally Stewart, was one of the founders. Sally has a PhD in microbiology from Stanford and an MA in Whole Systems Design from Antioch. She has served on numerous school boards and was president of the California School Board Association. In 2009 Sally was elected to the San Mateo Women’s Hall of Fame.

Aug 28: CHANGE: Dr Ashford has rescheduled his lecture on Alzheimer’s disease to September.

Aug 28: Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, including speakers Lois J. Fiedler, Joan Bazar, Shirley Lin Kinoshita, and Joan Wildermann, will discuss these topics: The Global War on Women; Turning Oppression into Opportunity for women worldwide; slavery, human trafficking; honor killings and rape; and maternal mortality. Their program will open and close with songs performed by Raging Grannies, and it will have a visual display, The Clothesline Project, which focuses on domestic violence, particularly its effects on local children. According to Lois Fiedler, "This is the most important cause of the current century."
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Sep 4: Take Back The Power!
In this great country of ours unemployment hovers above 9%, with no serious job program in sight. The top 1% of the population acquires an ever-greater share of the wealth. Police and fire personnel, teachers, librarians, and school counselors are fired to balance the budget. College tuition soars. Hundreds of billions of dollars, thousands of lives, and uncounted resources are squandered on stupid, brutal, unending, unwinnable wars. Whats wrong with this picture? Longtime Humanist Community member Burt Liebert will present his plan to turn the country around and make it once more responsive to the people.
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Sep 11: Rethinking Sovereignty
While all nations may claim to want world peace and security without nuclear weapons, they also value sovereignty. Ironically sovereignty today includes a nation’s power to start wars and the freedom to develop whatever weapons its technology can produce. Dr. Bob Gauntt, founder of the World Peace Education Project, will discuss some questions about sovereignty: What does sovereignty mean? What limitations of sovereignty, if any, are needed to solve the world’s most serious problems? How, in the short or long run, might sovereignty be limited in a way that preserves its benefits while reducing its dangers to humanity?
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Sep 18: Government—And Everything Else—Of the Rich, By the Rich, For the Rich
Over the past generation, the concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny elite in the U.S. has grown at an astonishing rate. Today, a mere 1% of the population controls 70% of the national wealth, an all-time record. This concentration of wealth has also resulted in a concentration of political power, and this concentration of wealth and political power has brought us to what is being called plutonomy: an economy powered solely by and solely for the wealthy. The “average American” consumer no longer exists. In this talk, Paul George, Director of Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, will examine how this concentration of wealth and power came to be. Unsurprisingly, it was not by accident. He will explore what it means for a supposedly democratic society. Finally, he will propose some ways in which we might begin to reverse course. As former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis noted, “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”
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Sep 25: Alzheimer’s Disease, and a Memory Test
Dr J Wesson Ashford, a Senior Research Scientist at the Stanford/VA Aging Clinical Research Center, will discuss Alzheimer’s disease, how to recognize it, what it does to the brain and memory, and current research projects to treat and prevent this disease. As part of his lecture, Dr Ashford will demonstrate a Memory Screening game, MemTrax. This demonstration is anonymous, and after the screening, Dr Ashford and a staff member can review results and discuss concerns.
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Oct. 2:

The United Nations Association Film Festival
The United Nations Association Film Festival (www.unaff.org) celebrates the power of films dealing with human rights, environmental themes, population, migration, women's issues, refugees, homelessness, racism, health, universal education, war and peace. It will be held October 21-30, 2011 in Palo Alto, Stanford University, East Palo Alto and San Francisco. The theme for this year is EDUCATION IS A HUMAN RIGHT. Come and learn about this important film festival from people involved with it, including Jasmina Bojic, film critic and lecturer at Stanford University, and founder and Executive Director of UNAFF.
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Oct. 9:

Health Care for All
Lynn Huidekoper, a Registered Nurse, Co-Director of Health Care for All Californians-Silicon Valley Coalition, and Co-Chair, Santa Clara County Single-Payer Coalition, will discuss the status of efforts to enact universal health care through single-payer financing.
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Oct. 16: Emotions Can Improve Your Life
This talk will focus on the psychological, physical, cultural, and practical aspects of emotion. Emotions play a critical role in our well-being and the ability to express emotions can significantly improve the quality of our lives. Susan Cabrera has her master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Stanford with emphasis on behavior modification. She has worked for the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford and counseled at the former Stanford Institute for Behavioral Counseling. Susan is also the author of two poetry books, The Morning Star and Life in the Fast Lane. She will be available to sell and sign books after her talk.
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Oct. 23: Economic Issues from a Humanist Perspective
Hamid Javanbakht, a student studying service systems engineering and post-industrial economics, will be discussing how incentive-altruism and selfishness need not always be working at cross-purposes. The field of mechanism design seeks to set up compatible incentives which take into account the various preferences of local agents so that their actions not only profit themselves individually but also extend beyond their own interest to serve the global good. He will also be questioning whether morality is always effective at producing desirable behavior in cases where perverse incentives are built into the system such as finance and the military.
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Oct. 30: Getting Help When You are Ready to Die
Compassion & Choices Northern California (www.compassionandchoicesnca.org) board member, Dr. Robert Liner, will discuss the work of Compassion & Choices, which has 3 goals: support individuals and families as they face important end-of-life decisions; educate the public, health professionals, lawmakers and the media on end-of-life issues; and advocate for compassionate end-of-life care in legislatures, in courtrooms and at bedsides. Dr. Liner has been board certified in obstetrics and gynecology for thirty years. Dr. Liner’s experiences with terminally-ill patients motivated him to become active with Compassion & Choices.
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Nov. 6:

Changing the Criminal Justice System: Mission Impossible?
Retired Judge of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County LaDoris Cordell will talk very personally about her experience on the bench and her efforts to change/improve the system. She is looking forward to an interesting discussion with the audience during the Q&A portion of the Forum. Judge Cordell, in addition to serving on the bench for 19 years (where she was the first African American woman to hold that position), also served for 8 years as Special Counselor to the President for Campus Relations at Stanford, has been an on-camera legal analyst for CBS-5 television and Court TV, and was elected to and served on the Palo Alto City Council. She was recently appointed Independent Police Auditor for the City of San Jose after a national search.
click for video of this Forum

Nov. 13:

Wealth, Value and Money — What They Are, Why They Matter, and How We Can Affect Them
What is real wealth? What is of real value? What is money? Humanist Community member Martin Squibbs will explore the meaning of these words, in reality and in truth, as well as the following questions: What differences should we be seeking to make, and what changes should we be seeking to realize? What is, really, a better future, for human civilization? What is the wealth civilization most needs to build, what changes we make now will bring the most value to it, and how does money play a part in growing that wealth, and realizing that value?
—Slides accompanying Martin’s talk are available here.
click for video of this Forum

Nov. 20:

AB 109 — The Criminal Justice Realignment Law
Caitlin O’Neill, from the ACLU of Northern California, will discuss Assembly Bill 109, which passed the State Legislature in June and went into effect on October 1st. As a way to reduce state prison overcrowding, AB 109 mandates that non-violent, non-serious offenders be sent to county-level supervision (as opposed to state prison).
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Nov. 27: Poetry Reading
Audience members are invited to bring and read a poem that you wrote or a favorite poem of yours. After everyone who brought a poem has read it, people will be allowed to read a second poem if they wish. If last year is any judge, we have some very impressive poets in our group, so come and enjoy their great work and their great poetry picks!

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Dec. 4: Four Common Overstatements About Nuclear Weapons
Benoît Pelopidas will discuss the following four statements, which he views as being overstatements: 1. One nuclear explosion will destroy the world. 2. Nuclear weapons preserved the peace during the Cold War. 3. The agenda of global nuclear disarmament is new in the US , and mostly Democratic. 4. Nuclear Arms Reductions and Disarmament have never existed.
Dr. Pelopidas is a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Sciences Po (Paris) and the University of Geneva in 2010. In 2010, he won the "Outstanding Student Essay Prize" from the Doreen and Jim McElvany Nonproliferation Essay Competition and in 2011, he was awarded the "Best Graduate Paper 2010" from the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association.

Dec. 11: On Dec 11 we will meet in the school library, where we have been before. From the north corner of the Student Center (the only corner which has both a ramp and stairs), walk northeast, with the grassy square on your left and the portable classrooms on your right. Because of the event using the Student Center, there may be a parking problem.
Our Improbable Universe
Ever stop to consider how unlikely it is you’re here, now, doing what you are doing? The book Our Improbable Universe by Dr. Michael Mallary shows how "ordinary existence" is really extraordinary. From the most practical point of view, we really are "star children": the iron in the blood of our veins originated in a stellar explosion billions of years ago. How likely is it that all the myriad conditions for life would come together so precisely? Without positing or denying the existence of a Creator behind it all, the answer to that question is humbling and fascinating.
Dr. Mallary received his S.B. degree in physics from M.I.T. in 1966 and his PhD degree in Experimental High Energy Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1972.
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Dec. 18: 10 Keys to Creativity, Inspiration and Innovation
Do you feel like you need to be more innovative to stay competitive in this quickly changing global market? Do you crave a creative outlet in your life? As children we instinctively know how to access inspiration; as adults we can learn to do so again in wise and practical ways. This talk uses fun examples from psychology, eastern philosophies, art, and business to help us shake up our self-limiting beliefs and foster creativity in all aspects of our lives.
Michelle Chappel, Ph.D. (Princeton) was voted "Most Inspirational Psychology Professor" at UC Santa Cruz, but ditched academics to follow her childhood dream to become a successful singer-songwriter. She will be singing several songs for us during the Forum! For the past decade she’s led creativity and innovation workshops and helped thousands of people on the road to personal fulfillment and success.
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Dec. 25: There will be no Forum today.

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