Video of Programs (search and sort)

Discrimination Against Atheists
07/28/2013
Maggie Ardiente

Full Title: “Atheist Discrimination: The Strange (and Serious) Ways Nonbelievers Are Mistreated.” Studies show that atheists are the least trusted minority group in the United States. As a result, humanists and other nonbelievers have been subject to various forms of discrimination, from bullying in classrooms to loss of jobs. Maggie Ardiente of the American Humanist Association (AHA) highlights such mistreatment by citing cases that range from the strange to the serious and she argues that the right to be “without a god” is the new civil rights movement. Maggie Ardiente is the director of development and communications at the AHA.

The Politics of Biblical Translation
06/30/2013
David Reis

The full title is: “Sexting the Text: Ancient Masculinity, Pauline Morality, and the Politics of Biblical Translation”. This presentation by David Reis explores issues surrounding the sexual language found in 1 Cor 6:9 and 1 Tim 1:10. The discussion positions these verses within their ancient social context, outlines the variety of ways biblical translators have approached these passages, and examines these translations in light of modern views of sexual (im)propriety. More broadly, the issues raised in this presentation illustrate the difficulties inherent in thinking of the Bible as either God's word or divinely inspired. David Reis has a Ph.D. in Religion from Claremont Graduate University. He teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Oregon. He specializes in the study of the social and cultural dimensions of the ancient Mediterranean world, particularly the history of early Christianity.

A Mexican-American Oral History
06/09/2013
Joyce Lackie

“I Don't Cry, But I Remember: an Oral History”  -- Last year Joyce Lackie published an oral history of an elderly Mexican-American woman who immigrated undocumented to the United States in 1946. Based on interviews and years of research, the book records the migrant experience from a woman's point of view. Beyond the story of one woman's struggles against poverty, illiteracy, abuse, and discrimination, all oral history involves questions of social justice, family privacy, and the accuracy of perception and memory. To what end do we research the stories of others? Joyce grew up in the midwest thinking that its culture and climate were the only ones around. She has taught at several universities. Studying Spanish to meet a language requirement for the Ph.D. led to Joyce's friendship with an elderly Mexican-American immigrant and the book that came out of it—an oral history. She and husband John Hendricks, a Chicagoan, will celebrate twenty-five years of marriage this month.

Healthcare Reform
04/28/2013
Dr. Samuel Metz

This is a presentation by Dr. Samuel Metz. The United States needs health care reform. Our health care is the world’s most expensive. It is near the bottom of the industrialized world, and -- unlike that of other industrialized countries -- it is bankrupting families and businesses.Real reform should provide universal access, reduce costs, and improve health. The Affordable Care Act achieves none of these goals.If the U.S. wants to change our health care system to provide better care to more people for less money, we should model ourselves on systems that already succeed, not on dysfunctional models. Metz is an anesthesiologist who lives in Portland and works at hospitals and surgery centers in the Willamette Valley. He is a founding member of “Mad As Hell Doctors” which advocates publicly funded universal health care. His opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, and the Oregonian among other places.

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