In this short update epsiode, we are pleased to welcome back Nathan Stilwell, Humanists UK's Assisted dying Campaign Coordinator, Campaigns and Communications Manager at My Death My Decision and a member of The Assisted Dying Coalition Secretariat.

Nathan explains what has happened since the Assisted Dying Bill passed the House of Commons, why it now risks falling in the House of Lords, and what supporters can do to help ensure it becomes law.

This episode follows Nathan’s first appearance on Humanism Now in November 2024 and offers a timely update on one of the most significant ethical debates in UK politics.

References & further reading

• Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – Publications  
  – UK Parliament, bill text, amendments, and parliamentary documents
• Ask the House of Lords to support assisted dying
  – Humanists UK campaign tool for contacting peers
• 26. Nathan Stilwell on the Need for Compassionate Assisted Dying Legislation & End of Life Care
  – Humanism Now, November 2024.
• MPs back proposals to legalise assisted dying
  – BBC News, 29 November 2024.
• What has happened to the assisted dying bill?
  – BBC News, 12 December 2025.
• Assisted dying bill ‘near impossible’ to pass House of Lords, say supporters
  – The Guardian, 22 January 2026.

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Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

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Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

 “Most people want community, and yet these communities keep disappearing.”

Dr. Darrel Ray is a psychologist, author, and organizational leader who has spent decades helping individuals leave religious belief systems and supporting secular communities around the world. He founded Recovering from Religion and the Secular Therapy Project, wrote influential books such as The God Virus, and recently launched the Institute for Secular Leadership to strengthen secular and humanist organisations through better leadership practices

Register interest in the Secular Leadership Course here.

Dr. Ray's Organisations & Projects

• Recovering from Religion – international nonprofit supporting people leaving religion
• Secular Therapy Project – connects secular clients with vetted secular therapists
• Institute for Secular Leadership – newly launched leadership training for secular organisations 

Books by Dr. Ray

• The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture – Darrel Ray (2009) 
• Sex and God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality – Darrel Ray (2012)
• Teaming Up: Making the Transition to a Self-Directed, Team-Based Organization – Darrel W. Ray & Howard Bronstein
• The Performance Culture: Maximizing the Power of Teams – Darrel W. Ray & Howard Bronstein

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Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

Contact us to get starting in podcasting today at humanise.live or [email protected]

Music: Blossom by Light Prism

Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

"I blame dinosaurs, and I blame London." 

Astrophysicist and science communicator Dr Alfredo Carpineti (IFLScience, The Big Questions; creator of The Astroholic Explains; founder and chair of Pride in STEM) joins Humanism Now  to explore why the cosmos still sparks childlike wonder, how great science communication balances accuracy with storytelling, and why his upcoming book Invisible Rainbows pairs “unseen light” with the human stories too often left out. 

Connect with Alfredo Carpineti

• Website – https://www.theastroholic.co.uk/
• X (Twitter) – @DrCarpineti 
• LinkedIn – Alfredo-Carpineti

Resources & Further Reading

• Book (Invisible Rainbows) – https://www.rarewaves.com/products/9781806770441-Invisible-Rainbows
  Facebook
• Pride in STEM – https://prideinstem.org/
• The Astroholic Explains Podcast – https://open.spotify.com/show/6dbgVUYZDYQ95Uci2RlCFN
• IFLScience: The Big Questions Podcast – https://iflsciencethebigquestions.podbean.com/

Meet Alfredo in London!

• Space and Humanism in Fiction and Reality, with Dr Alfredo Carpineti
  London Humanists | Wednesday, 28 Jan 2026 | 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM GMT | Old Diorama Arts Centre, NW1, London

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Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

Contact us to get starting in podcasting today at humanise.live or [email protected]

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Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

As Humanism Now wraps up 2025, host James Hodgson is joined by familiar voices from across the UK humanist movement to reflect on the year just gone and look ahead to 2026. Together, they explore community-building, youth engagement, activism, collaboration, and why humanism continues to resonate in uncertain times.

Guests & Links

Lola Tinubu – Association of Black Humanists (ABH)

• Association of Black Humanists – https://www.meetup.com/association-of-black-humanists/
• Festival of Freethinking 2025 – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/festival-of-freethinking-2025-tickets-1755211267149/
• Secular Sankofa podcast – https://secularsankofa.buzzsprout.com/2532796/follow
• ABH on TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@assoc_of_black_humanists

Mark Agathangelou – Central London Humanists (CLH)

• Central London Humanists – https://www.centrallondonhumanists.org.uk/
• CLH on Meetup – https://www.meetup.com/central-london-humanists/
• What Humanism Means To Me Event - https://www.meetup.com/central-london-humanists/events/310597525/

Nicole Shashar – Leicester Humanists & Young Humanists

• Leicester Humanists – https://humanists.uk/local-group/leicester/
• Young Humanists – https://humanists.uk/community/young-humanists

Looking Ahead: Major 2026 Events

Humanists UK Convention & Festival 2026 – https://humanists.uk/events/festival2026/

World Humanist Congress 2026 – https://humanists.international/event/world-humanist-congress-2026/

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Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

Contact us to get starting in podcasting today at humanise.live or [email protected]

Music: Blossom by Light Prism

Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

“[Magical beliefs in childhood] serve an important function.”  - Dr Lois Lee

For our festive special, Dr. Lois Lee, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent and one of the world’s leading scholars of non-belief, joins Humanism Now to explore why atheism spreads culturally and what Christmas reveals about humanist meaning in everyday life.

Connect with Dr. Lee

• University of Kent profile
• Explaining Atheism Profile
• Explaining Atheism Project

Topics we cover

 ✔︎ Why atheism still needs explaining in the 21st century
 ✔︎ Why socialisation and cultural visibility matter more than intelligence or education
 ✔︎ What children’s belief in Santa reveals about evidence, reason, and doubt
 ✔︎ Magical belief as a bridge between childhood and adult worldviews
 ✔︎ Christmas as a modern, child-centred ritual with humanist ethics
 ✔︎ Ritual, meaning, and non-religious culture
 ✔︎ Humanist privilege, school Christmas, and questions of inclusion

Resources & further reading

• Becoming Non-Believers (childhood research) – Dr. Lee & Dr. Anna Strhan
• Towards a Sociology of Irreligion – Colin Campbell (1971)
• A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
• A Visit from St. Nicholas (“’Twas the Night Before Christmas”) 
• The Snowman –  Raymond Briggs
• “Father Christmas Executed” – Claude Lévi-Strauss

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Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

Contact us to get starting in podcasting today at humanise.live or [email protected]

Music: Blossom by Light Prism

Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

“Humans didn’t evolve to believe in gods — we evolved to learn from culture, and sometimes culture points away from gods.”

Dr Will M. Gervais, psychologist and author of Disbelief, joins Humanism Now to examine one of the most persistent puzzles in the study of religion: why a species capable of deep religiosity also produces millions of convinced non-believers. Drawing on cultural evolution, cognitive science, and cross-cultural data, Will shows why belief and disbelief are shaped less by raw rationality than by social signals, security, and learning environments.

Contact & resources;

• Website – http://willgervais.com/
• University profile – https://www.brunel.ac.uk/people/will-gervais
• ResearchGate – https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Will-M-Gervais-16312567
• Disbelief – Gervais (2023) – https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Disbelief-by-Will-M-Gervais/9781633889248
  
  

Topics we cover

• Why humans evolved a capacity for religion, not a destiny to believe
• The twin puzzles of belief and disbelief explained scientifically
• Why comfort-based and “God-spot” theories fall short
• Cultural signals, credible displays, and how communities transmit belief
• Why atheism often emerges where signals are mixed or muted
• Weak and fragile links between analytic thinking and non-belief
• Moral distrust of atheists — and what behavioural data actually show
• Differences in moral style rather than moral behaviour
• Agnosticism as a distinct epistemic position, not a midpoint
• Existential security and why stable societies secularise
• Cultural evolution and the “big gods” hypothesis
• Why scientific self-correction matters more than tribal loyalty

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Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

Contact us to get starting in podcasting today at humanise.live or [email protected]

Music: Blossom by Light Prism

Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

 “Activism is the rent we pay to live on this world.”  Alavari Jeevathol

AJ  board member of Humanists International, founding trustee of the National Multifaith Youth Centre, and National Coordinator of Young Humanists UK — returns to Humanism Now to explore a humanism shaped by South Indian pluralism, UK youth organising, and a lifelong commitment to duty, solidarity, and awe. This conversation traces India’s rationalist heritage, the case for humanistic spirituality, and why resistance must be global, hopeful, and rooted in material realities.

Connect with AJ

• Website – alavari.info
• Instagram – @alavarij
• Facebook – @alavari
• X (Twitter) – @alavarij
• LinkedIn – in/alavari/
• TikTok – @alavarij
• Young Humanists UK
• National Multifaith Youth Centre 

Resources & further reading

• Disenchanting India: Rationalist Criticism and Cultural Politics – Quack (2012) 
• Humanist Society Scotland  Statement on Palestine & Israel (2023) 
• AJ's events & talks
  • Humanists UK Event: “India’s Rationalist Heritage” 
  • CLH Discussions | Gaza: genocide, ceasefire, and future prospects
  • CLH Talk:  Roots of Rationalism in India - Origins of Humanism Series
• Humanists International World Humanist Congress 2026 

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Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

Contact us to get starting in podcasting today at humanise.live or [email protected]

Music: Blossom by Light Prism

Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

 “We will lose a lot before we win — that’s just the reality of starting the race 50 years behind.” — Sarah M. Levin

Sarah M. Levin - strategist, lobbyist, founder of Secular Strategies and co-founder of The Secular Vote, joins us to explore how secular voters are reshaping U.S. politics. She breaks down the real demographics behind the “nones,” why neutrality protects both believers and non-believers, and how church–state separation is at the heart of today’s fights over rights, democracy, and pluralism.

Connect with Sarah:

• Website: sarahmlevin.com
• Secular Strategies: secularstrategies.com
• The Secular Vote: hesecularvote.com
• X (Twitter): @SarahMLevin
• LinkedIn: sarahmlevin

Topics we cover

 ✔︎ Why Secular Strategies exists
 ✔︎ “Unaffiliated” vs “atheist”: what the data really shows
 ✔︎ Secularism in law and public life
 ✔︎ Media myths about religious “revivals”
 ✔︎ Connecting secular voters with messages that resonate (one life, one world)
 ✔︎ How Christian nationalism drives today’s policy rollbacks
 ✔︎ Relationship-led coalition building across deep differences
 ✔︎ Inside The Secular Vote: correcting media blind spots
 ✔︎ Debunking the “anti-Christian bias” narrative
 ✔︎ State-level wins: transparency for healthcare sharing ministries
 ✔︎ Practical ways to get involved for the long term

Resources & further reading

• “Religious ‘Nones’ in America: Who They Are and What They Believe,” Pew Research Center (2024) – https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/01/24/religious-nones-in-america-who-they-are-and-what-they-believe/
• Presidential Action on “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias” – The White House (2025) – https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/eradicating-anti-christian-bias/
• Religious Liberty Commission – U.S. Department of Justice – htt

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Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

Contact us to get starting in podcasting today at humanise.live or [email protected]

Music: Blossom by Light Prism

Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

“Nursing is the most humanistic of professions — it operationalises the philosophical groundings of humanism.” — Jamie Bourgeois

 “Nurses have 24/7 eyes on the human experience — we see how policy shows up in real people’s lives.” — Melissa Anne DuBois

Jamie Bourgeois and Melissa Anne DuBois are the co-hosts of Nursing the Nation — a podcast giving nurses a national voice in debates that shape health, policy, and our daily lives. Together they explore how an ethic of evidence and empathy can challenge wellness hype, inform better policy, and centre human dignity in every decision that touches a patient’s life.

In this episode Melissa & Jamie discuss the historical erasure of women healers to today’s media blind spots — and what happens when they’re finally heard. They reveal how nursing science quietly powers trauma-informed practice, safer hospitals, and better education. 

Join us to hear how nurses bridge the gap between policy and people and why the world’s most trusted profession must lead public conversations.

Connect with Jamie Bourgeois & Melissa Anne Dubois

• Blog – nursingthenation.substack.com
• Podcast Links – Nursing the Nation
• Instagram – @nursing.the.nation
• LinkedIn – Melissa Anne Dubois
  • Research – ORCID | ResearchGate
  • Writing – Writers Camp

Resources & further reading

• Witches, Midwives & Nurses: A History of Women Healers – Barbara Ehrenreich (1973)
• Ann Burgess – pioneer of forensic nursing, Wikipedia
• Clara Barton & the Geneva Convention – Library of Congress Blog
• Florence Nightingale and

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Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

Contact us to get starting in podcasting today at humanise.live or [email protected]

Music: Blossom by Light Prism

Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

This week we bring we are delighted to share the a guest episode from Sentientist Conversations, a podcast hosted by Jamie Woodhouse (Humanism Now Episode 4). In this episode, Jamie speaks with legendary primatologist Frans de Waal.

Follow Sentientism

• Sentientism.info
• Apple
• Spotify
• YouTube

“You cannot go wrong with compassion” – primatologist Frans de Waal – Sentientist Conversations

Frans (fransdewaal.com) is a primatologist & ethologist. He is Professor of Primate Behavior at Emory University, director of the Living Links Center at Emory & the author of many books including “Chimpanzee Politics”, “Our Inner Ape” & “The Bonobo & the Atheist”. He has featured in TV/radio productions & TED talks viewed by tens of millions of people. His research centers on primate social behavior, including conflict resolution, cooperation, inequity aversion, & food-sharing. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences & the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences.

In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is “evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” The audio is on our Podcast here on Apple and here on the other platforms. ​​​​ You can watch the video here.

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Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

Contact us to get starting in podcasting today at humanise.live or [email protected]

Music: Blossom by Light Prism

Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.