Video Group Humanist Community meeting for 17 Aug, 7 PM
We are currently holding our meetings online via Zoom. If you wish to join us, please go to https://www.meetup.com/humanistcommunity/, click on Video Meeting and sign up for the meeting. You will then be shown the Zoom link to the meeting.
We have also shifted to showing various videos on a variety of topics of interest to Humanists and Progressives. We select topics to watch and specific videos on specific topics we select the week before.
=== Current Videos ======
Join us in viewing videos and discussing them afterward.
We are watching:
We are watching:
Crash Course Sociology – Why is there Social Stratification?: Crash Course Sociology #22 – 10:23
As we get into our unit on stratification, we inevitably return to our old friends, the three sociological paradigms. How to structural functionalism, social conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism each think about stratification? How does ideology and help stratification reproduce itself? What did Marx and Weber have to say about all of this? And at the micro level, how does stratification work in everyday life?
Be Skeptical But Not Cynical: Advice From a Media Professor – 39:11 – 2nd half
In the latest episode of “Debate Without Hate: Elections 2024” on the 12 Geniuses podcast, media expert Geoffrey Baym talks about news media, social media, and our toxic divides. He discusses how to think about media literacy during this contentious presidential election.
Baym, professor of media studies and director of the PhD program in Media and Communication at Temple University, makes the case for embracing skepticism — and avoiding the temptation to be cynical. When we reject information simply because we perceive the person or outlet sharing it as “not being on our team,” that’s a problem. It leads to a fracturing of narratives, where we try to fit complex issues into us-versus-them buckets. We must try to be as skeptical of information shared by our political peers as we are of information shared by our political opponents.
We’ll watch a 2nd half
Will AI-generated media lead to political chaos? Can we stop it? – 28:34
In the latest episode of “Debate Without Hate: Elections 2024,” Jesús Mantas talks about what it will mean to live in a world where we can’t easily separate fact from fiction. With AI-generated media growing more and more realistic, what chaos and dysfunction might AI-generated propaganda and deceptions lead to? And how might we prepare for those risks?
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Previous Videos
19 Sept
Crash Course Sociology – Deviance: Crash Course Sociology #18 – 9:0
Daniel Lubetzky TED Talk: Replacing “Us vs. Them” with a Movement of Builders – 12:58 (Michael)
Crash Course in Jewish History IV: Contemporary Jewish History – 1:04:43 (Oded, Scott)
3 May – They Chose Freedom – Ep.01: Society Against the State
Crash Course Sociology
How We Got Here: Crash Course Sociology #12
4 April – Richard Dawkins On God, Sex, Race – 41:34
A lovely chat with the famous atheist and evolutionary biologist.
21 Mar Crash Course Sociology
Crash Course Sociology Preview – 1:19
What Is Sociology?: Crash Course Sociology #1 – 9:41
4 Jan – FAILURE AT THE FENCE
28 Dec NETANYAHU, AMERICA & THE ROAD TO WAR IN GAZA – 1:25:31 (Jerry)
14 May 23 – Robert Reich’s 2023 UC Berkely Lectures on “Wealth and Poverty in America”
29 Dec 22 – Language Families of the World. In Language Families of the World, Professor John McWhorter of Columbia University takes you back through time and worldwide, following the linguistic trails left by generations of humans that lead back to the beginnings of language. Utilizing historical theories and cutting-edge research, these 34 astonishing lectures will introduce you to the prominent language families of the world and their many offspring, including a variety of languages that are no longer spoken but provide vital links between past and present……. from The Great Courses notes
15 June – 1177 B.C.: When Civilization Collapsed | Eric Cline – 1:31:29 (Greg, Michael)
In the 12th century BCE, the great Bronze Age civilizations of the Mediterranean—all of them—suddenly fell apart. Their empires evaporated, their cities emptied, their technologies disappeared, and famine ruled. Mycenae, Minos, Assyria, Hittites, Canaan, Cyprus—all gone. Even Egypt fell into a steep decline. The Bronze Age was over.
The event should live in history as one of the great cautionary tales, but it hasn’t because its causes were considered a mystery. How can we know what to be cautious of? Eric Cline has taken on the mystery. An archaeologist-historian at George Washington University, he is the author of “1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed.” The failure, he suggests, was systemic. The highly complex, richly interconnected system of the world tipped all at once into chaos.
“1177 B.C.: When Civilization Collapsed” was given on January 11, 02016, as part of Long Now’s Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world’s leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand.
We’ll watch the second half
12 May – Lukashenko: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) – 18:40 (Scott) 5,902,807 views, Sep 12, 2021, John Oliver discusses the longtime leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and the many reasons his country’s citizens have not to like him.
UNPACKING PUTIN’S WAR IN UKRAINE (Zem)
America’s New Great-Power Competition with China
Chapter Two: Global Hotspots and Great-Power Rivals with Condoleezza Rice
7 Apr – Video We Watched – Why is Ukraine the West’s Fault? Featuring John Mearsheimer – 1:14:15
John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in Political Science and Co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, assesses the causes of the present Ukraine crisis, the best way to end it, and its consequences for all of the main actors. A key assumption is that in order to come up with the optimum plan for ending the crisis, it is essential to know what caused the crisis. Regarding the all-important question of causes, the key issue is whether Russia or the West bears primary responsibility.
17 Mar 21 – Watched a video on the Debate on “The Minimum Wage” by two noted economics professors.
We have stopped, for the time being, watching videos from the Teaching company.
Ended Feb 2020 – “Effective Communication Skills, Course No. 9331
Professor Dalton Kehoe, Ph.D., York University
Ended in October 2019 – “The Great Ideas of Philosophy” presented by Daniel N. Robinson.
Ended Sept 2018 “A Brief History of the World” presented by Prof. Peter Stearns
Ended May 2018 “Optimizing Brain Fitness” presented by Professor Richard Restak, M.D.
Ended April 2018 “The Great Ideas of Psychology” with Daniel N. Robinson, Ph.D., , Georgetown University
Ended Sept 2017 “Earth’s Changing Climate”, by Professor Richard Wolfson, Ph.D., Middlebury College.
June 2017 “Great Philosophical Debates: Free Will and Determinism”, Professor Shaun Nichols, Ph.D., University of Arizona
March 2017 “Foundations of Economic Prosperity” by Daniel W. Drezner, Ph.D., Tufts University
Jan 2017 “Effective Communication Skills” by Professor Dalton Kehoe, Ph.D.
York University
Oct 2016 “Art of Public Speaking: Lessons from the Greatest Speeches in History” by John R. Hale, Ph.D., University of Louisville
2016 May “Games People Play: Game Theory in Life, Business, and Beyond”, Professor Scott P. Stevens, Ph.D., James Madison University
2015 November “The Higgs Boson and Beyond”, Professor Sean Carroll, Ph.D., California Institute of Technology DVD
| Timespan | Series title | Lecturer or host | Medium | |
| 2016 Feb / 2015 Dec | Robotics | Professor John Long, Ph.D. University of Oklahoma | DVD | |
| 2015 Aug / Sept | The World Was Never the Same: Events That Changed History | University of Oklahoma, Washington University in St. Louis | DVD | |
| 2013 Jul – Oct 31 | The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins | Anne Curzan | 36 DVD | |
| 2013 Jun – 2013 Jul | Mr. Lincoln: Life of Abraham Lincoln | Allen C. Guelzo | 12 DVD | |
| 2013 Feb – 2013 Jun | The World of Byzantium | Kenneth W. Harl | 24 DVD | |
| 2012 Dec – 2013 Jan | Tocqueville and the American Experiment | William R Cook | 24 DVD | |
| 2012 July – 2012 Nov | Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations | Brian M. Fagan | 36 DVD | |
| 2012 APR – 2012 July | Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language Usage | John McWhorter | 12 DVD | |
| 2012 Mar – 2012 Apr | Experiencing Hubble: Great Images of the Universe | David M Meyer | 12 DVD | |
| 2012 Feb – 2012 Mar | Thinking like an Economist: Rational Decision Making | Randall Bartlett | 12 DVD | |
| 2011 Oct – 2012 Jan | Argumentation | David Zarefsky | 24 DVD | |
| 2011 Aug – 2011 Oct | Great Thinkers, Great Theorems | William Dunham | 24 DVD | |
| 2011 May – 2011 Aug | No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life | Robert Solomon | 24 DVD | |
| 2011 Feb – 2011 May | The Will to Power: The Philosophy of Frederich Nietzsche | Robert Solomon & Kathleen Higgins | 24 DVD | |
| 2010 Dec – 2011 Feb | Origins of Life | Robert M Hazen | 24 DVD | |
| 2010 Sep – 2010 Nov | Buddhism | Malcolm David Eckel | 24 DVD | |
| 2010 Apr – 2010 Aug | Mathematics, Philosophy, and the “Real World” | Judith V Grabiner | 36 DVD | |
| 2010 Mar – 2010 Apr | Science and Religion | Lawrence M Principe | 12 DVD | |
| 2010 Feb – 2010 Mar | Consciousness and its Implications | Daniel N Robinson | 12 DVD | |
| 2009 Oct – 2010 Jan | Understanding Genetics: DNA,Genes, and their Real-World Apps | David Sadava | 24 DVD | |
| 2009 Jun – 2009 Oct | The History of the Supreme Court | Peter Irons | 36 DVD | |
| 2009 Apr – 2009 Jun | Understanding the Fundamentals of Music | Robert Greenberg | 16 DVD, 45 min | |
| 2008 Nov – 2009 May | Understanding Linguistics: The Science of Language | John McWhorter | 36 DVD | |
| 2008 May – 2008 Nov | The Great Ideas of Philosophy | Daniel N Robinson | 50 tape | |
| 2008 Jan – 2008 May | Psychology of Human Behavior | David W Martin | 36 DVD | |
| 2007 Sep – 2008 Jan | Great Scientific Ideas that Changed the World | Steven L Goldman | 36 DVD | |
| 2007 August (3 wks) | A Brief History of Disbelief | Jonathan Miller | 3 tape | |
| 2007 May – 2007 Aug | Passions: Philosophy and the Intelligence of Emotions | Robert C Solomon | 24 DVD | |
| 2007 Jan – 2007 May | The Story of Human Language | John McWhorter | 36 DVD | |
| 2006 Sep – 2006 Nov | Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It | Steven L Goldman | 24 DVD |