This year is a special one for the American Humanist Association – it marks 75 years since our founding. To celebrate, our annual conference returns to the AHA's original home of Chicago this May 26–29 with lots to do for everyone.

In addition to being AHA's Director of Development and Communications, Maggie Ardiente also organizes AHA's annual conference. She took time this week out of her busy schedule to talk to us about the history of the conference, what attendees can expect, how to make the most of your conference experience, and the kinds of political considerations that go into creating a conference like this.

The Humanist Hour #194: American Humanist Association’s 75th Anniversary Conference

The Humanist Hour (HH) Audio Podcast is a monthly one-hour talk show produced by the American Humanist Association. Every episode of the HH Audio Podcast explores a different area of humanist thought, from politics to pop culture.

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We act sometimes as though we think women are new to the freethought movement, to atheist and humanist leadership. We're not. We've been here all along, and we've never gone away. Our history has just sat in boxes, disregarded where it hasn't been thrown away altogether. Our stories have gone untold.

This week's guest, Vickie Stangl, did something about that. In her book, Etta Semple: Kansas Freethinker and "Ideal" Woman, she took that history out of the archives and made it live. Etta Semple was the founder of the Kansas Freethought Association and a leader of both that organization and the American Secular Union. She started the Freethought Idea newspaper to challenge the ideas of a nation and managed to do it so successfully that she received death threats and a probable attempt on her life.

Semple is far too interesting to be lost to history. This week, Vickie Stangl joins Peggy Knudtson to talk about the book and about what we need to know to protect Semple's legacy.

The Humanist Hour #218: Vickie Stangl on Etta Semple

The Humanists of Houston are American Humanist Association's largest local chapter and they're on pace to become the largest secular movement Meetup group very shortly. They've achieved that growth largely through reaching out to groups that we don't often see at humanist meetings, through executing strategies that some people try to tell us will drive people away.

This week, Vic Wang, president of Humanists of Houston, and Benita Malone, volunteer coordinator, join the Humanist Hour to talk about embracing diversity and social justice, making meetings and volunteer opportunities welcoming to younger members, implementing a code of conduct, and adopting a transparency that's radical for local groups.

The Humanist Hour #217: Vic Wang and Benita Malone on Humanists of Houston

We tend to think of the process of converting from one religion to another as a religious experience, but how much of that reflects the outlook of the people who usually talk about conversion? When author Susan Jacoby set out to explore conversion from the perspective of an atheist, she found, by contrast, that many if not most religious conversions are undertaken for frankly pragmatic reasons. From politics to position in society, she details many of the reasons people convert in her latest book, Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion.

This week, she joins Peggy Knudtson to talk about the book and what the current political season tells us about the influence of religion on the hearts, minds, and ballots of Americans.

The Humanist Hour #216: Susan Jacoby on "Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion"

"Interfaith" is not a word that comes easily to all humanists. Even more difficult for some is the idea of partnering with religious leaders and believers to work together on the world's problems. However, a panel composed of humanist minister Rebecca Armstrong, past American Humanist Association president Mel Lipman, former AHA board member Paula Rochelle, and former AHA regional coordinator Ben Wade came together at the AHA's national conference in Chicago this past May to argue that we should. They tell us that interfaith work is both an opportunity and responsibility that at least some humanists should pick up. 

This podcast features audio from that panel presentation.

The Humanist Hour #215: What Humanists Can Bring to Interfaith Dialogue?

If anyone in today's secular movement should require no introduction, it's Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder and now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). Fresh off a speech this past weekend at the Women in Secularism conference about her mother, Anne Nicol Gaylor, Annie Laurie joins us to talk more about her mother's accomplishments. She talks to us about how feminism requires secularism and how FFRF is carrying on Anne Nicol's outspoken legacy.

The Humanist Hour #194: American Humanist Association’s 75th Anniversary Conference

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