PATRIOTISM: “We Are America” / Love Has No Labels / John Cena / Ad Council PSA ☮

To love America is to love all Americans. John Cena takes a break between dropping body slams to drop some truth – that patriotism is more than pride of country, it’s love beyond labels. 

While the vast majority of Americans consider themselves unprejudiced, many of us unintentionally make snap judgments about people based on what we see – whether it’s race, age, gender, religion, sexuality, or disability. The Love Has No Labels campaign challenges us to open our eyes to our implicit, or unconscious, bias and work to stop it in ourselves, our families, our friends, and our colleagues. Rethink your bias at: www.lovehasnolabels.com

PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY: “Who are You, Really? The Puzzle of Personality” / TED TALK Vancouver, BC / February 2016 / Brian Little ☮


What makes you, you? Psychologists like to talk about our traits, or defined characteristics that make us who we are. But Brian Little is more interested in moments when we transcend those traits — sometimes because our culture demands it of us, and sometimes because we demand it of ourselves. Join Little as he dissects the surprising differences between introverts and extroverts and explains why your personality may be more malleable than you think.

SETHIAN GNOSTICISM: “Gospel of Judas: What Does it Really Say?” / ReligionForBreakfast / Andrew Henry ☮

The Gospel of Judas caused a huge stir when National Geographic published it back in 2006. But to this day, misconceptions about this text abound. Who wrote this text? And what does it really say?

PBS Podcast: Ancient Text Discovery Depicts Judas as a Loyal Disciple

BOOK READING AND DISCUSSION: “Thinking in Public with Neil deGrasse Tyson” / Waking Up with Sam Harris Podcast #37 / 06.07.2016 ☮

In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about the public understanding of science, his career as an educator, political atheism, racism, artificial intelligence, alien life, and other topics.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is the head of Hayden Planetarium in New York City and the first occupant of its Frederick P. Rose Directorship. He is also a research associate of the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. His research interests include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way. Tyson is the recipient of nineteen honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award given by NASA to a non-government citizen. He holds a degree in physics from Harvard and a PhD in astrophysics from Columbia.

Tyson has served on several Presidential commissions and government advisory councils. He has written ten books, including The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist and Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, and Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier.

Recently, Tyson served as executive editor, host, and narrator for Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, the 21st century continuation of Carl Sagan’s landmark television series. The show began in March 2014 and ran thirteen episodes in Primetime on the FOX network, and appeared in 181 countries in 45 languages around the world on the National Geographic Channels. Cosmos won four Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, two Critics Choice awards, as well as a dozen other industry recognitions.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES: “Would Alien ‘First Contact’ Destroy Religion?” / ReligionForBreakfast / Andrew Henry ☮

As NASA continues to discover thousands of new exoplanets, humans have increasingly asked: “Are we alone?” If other intelligent species exist in our universe, do they practice religion too? If so, how would human world religions react to the possibility of first contact with extraterrestrial life?