Speaker 1: Understand the thinking atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,
an idea.
Speaker 2: The population of atheists this country is going through the.
Speaker 1: Rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If I
tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth, not because.
Speaker 3: I put my hand on a book and made a.
Speaker 1: Wish and working together for a more rational world.
Speaker 4: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness.
Truth Usian wisdom will come to you that way.
Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the
Thinking Atheist podcast hosted by Seth Andrews.
Speaker 4: Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, has said
empathy is a problem.
Speaker 2: Oh no, is.
Speaker 4: Empathy part of the woke lib agenda to somehow ruin
the world. I don't think so, and neither does Fish Stark,
who was the executive director of the American Humanist Association.
Fish joins me, now, hey, brother, how you doing?
Speaker 3: Hey, Seth, good to be here, and thanks so much
for having me.
Speaker 4: I got to do my due diligence and make you
answer the question that you've answered a squillion times. Your
first name is Fish? What's that about?
Speaker 3: Oh so, no, my parents did not name me that.
Speaker 2: Most people in the movement know.
Speaker 3: My dad Pete Stark, the first open atheist in Congress, but.
Speaker 2: His name wasn't Pete either.
Speaker 3: Actually, my name is Fortney Hellman Stark the third and
his name was Fortney Hellman Stark Junior. A name like
Fortney Hillman Stark the third is a liability. In elementary school,
I got beat up a lot in the first grade
for a lot of reasons. I was a you know,
I was I was too good at school and too
bad at sports, and a little sort of emotional and
all of those things. And then having a name that
sounded like Courtney. In the early two thousands, the word
for that kid was gay, and I got beat up
a lot.
Speaker 2: And so there was a point in first grade where
I was.
Speaker 3: Like, well, I can't change a lot of the things
that are getting me beat up, but I can't change
my name. And so I took my initials, which were
FHS Fortneyhillman Stark the third, and I was like, that
looks a little bit like Fish. That is hip, that's cool,
that's edgy. I bet a kid named Fish doesn't get bullied,
which was wrong. But I took on the name and
I lived into it and I was like it it
felt like me, and so I've been everyone's called me
Fish since I was six years old.
Speaker 4: I think it sounds like royalty, and you say it
that way, it almost sounds like money, like old money.
You know, if you're British, you could have played on
that for the rest of your LEA could have faked
it at least I don't know.
Speaker 3: So it's so interesting, right because like it sounds like
an aristocratic name. And I didn't know the real origin
of the name Fortny until I went to Germany this
last summer, where my great grandparents immigrated from two hundred
years ago. And these were like not rich immigrants, right,
Like they came over and they like worked in a
sugar mil Milwaukee and you know, worked their way up.
And the name for everyone called my great great great grandfather,
who was on a very ironically named Christian Stark, they
called him Forte, which is the German word for gate,
because he lived next to the gate of the town.
Speaker 4: So my name, Yes, everything's got a story, everything's got
a backstory. Fish. One more piece of you know, housekeeping.
American humanist? Do you have to describe humanism for people?
Like it's not as bad as secular. When I try
to explain what secular is. But when you say atheists,
they kind of get it. When you say religious, they
kind of get it. With humanist, how do you approach that.
Speaker 3: Humanism is for anyone who believes that science tells us
what's real and that the tells us what's right. It
is for people who believe in the Golden Rule, but
not in God. So if you believe that truth and
power and morality don't come from some abstraction or some
myth or some external source, but come from us, come
from democracy, come from the needs of our neighbors, then
you're a humanist. And so that's you know, we are
building a movement that we think reflects the values of
forty six million Americans, and we are looking to bring
them in and work for the kind of country we
believe we should have.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think the religious nuns andnees represents one
of the largest of not the largest, single demographic in
this country. Right, No, it's not represented that way in Congress.
Roughly ninety percent of our elected officials say they're Christian
or believe in the Christian God, which I'm like, how
does a representative government represent an increasingly secular population. Right,
I'll do.
Speaker 2: You one better.
Speaker 3: Thirty percent of Americans have decided religionism working for them,
including fits fifty percent of young Americans.
Speaker 2: This is the biggest.
Speaker 3: Representation gap in the country. Thirty percent of Americans are
non religious. Zero point six percent of Congress is non religious.
Speaker 2: It's it's insane.
Speaker 3: And when my dad came out as the first open
atheist in Congress, there was only one open non believer
serving in any state legislature anywhere in the country. Now,
through RC four Center for Free Thought Equality, we've identified
over seventy five state legislators. We now have three members
of Congress. We're working to build up, you know, not
just culturally like bringing young people in and new people
into humanism, but our political representation as well, because no
one's ever going to fight for us if we don't
fight for us.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I know a great many American Christians fall under
the Protestant label, but we got six of the nine
Supreme Court justices are Catholic. I mean, someone explain that
to me. I mean, as far as we're representing us,
I know they represent supposedly in theory in a world
that is not insane. They represent the law, but they're
also supposed to be representatives of the United States. Are
six out of every nine of US catholic? I think not.
Speaker 3: Well, here's the thing. The religious right spent decades working
on a concerted strategy. They poured money into building up
leaders from the ground up, right electing them into school
board or getting them into lower judgeships and building them up.
They worked to create their own culture and media. They
worked to build communities where they brought in people who
needed a sense of belonging and then educated them in
the kind of theology and politics they wanted them to have,
and they built power. Thirty years ago, people were laughing
at the kind of legal theories that the Christian right
was advancing. Now they're the law of the land. If
they can play that game, then so the hell can we.
And that's the big bet we're making at the American
Humanist Association. We're doing exactly what the Christian right did
before the secular left. We're investing in content creators. Just
like Charlie Kirk got started because he got ten thousand
bucks from right wing Christian mega donors. We're spending ten
thousand bucks a month to try and find the Charlie
Kirk of the secular left we've got, you know, just
like the religious right worked to build up their bench
of politicians and judges from the ground up. R C
four the Center for Free Thought Equality has a pack
and we support candidates in local and state and federal
elections through that pack, so that we're building a base
of atheist, humanist, agnostic candidates running for office.
Speaker 2: We've got to look at what they.
Speaker 3: Did, and we've got to understand that actually we've got
to replicate that own sense of identity and community and
really rigorous political and legal work.
Speaker 4: I mean, do you get into the hurting cats thing
like me? I will say one thing about the religious right.
They're well organized and well funded. I mean, you know,
they've got the Peter Thiels, they've got the Heritage Foundation,
they've got the echoes of the moral majority, you know,
and then they've got the people who I think are
merely transactional, be the Bezos and the Elon Musks who
are doing it. I think for monetary reasons and for
power reasons. Is it harder on our end to try
to build these coalitions?
Speaker 2: Not if we change our behavior?
Speaker 3: Right, there are pro growth and anti growth behaviors for
every social movement. We've just sort of taken a hard
stand against debate bro culture at the AAH. Nobody wants
to come to another philosophical discussion and be told they
don't know the right terms for things, right, Like, if
we try to teach people new words for stuff, we
deserve what we get. That's why we are talking about
humanism in terms of things like empathy and science that
most Americans are like, oh, yeah, that is how I
make decisions, not by like reading the Bible when I
want to figure out, like what vegetable to buy, and
so I think that there is Ultimately, we spend a
lot of time in the movement doing things like pointing
and laughing at religious people for believing in a story
that made sense to them than saying, hey, here's the
story we believe in, here's the kind of community we
want to build, and here's how we're going to make
people feel the same sense of welcome and belonging and
excitement to believe in humanism that they get when.
Speaker 2: They go to an evangelical church.
Speaker 3: And so we we're seeing massive growth in terms of
I mean, the AAHA staff has grown seventy five percent
in the last year. Donations are up sixty six percent.
We have thirty percent more members in January alone compared
to the prior year. We're running a playbook that is
working to build a humanist movement because now is the
time in America for it. People are pissed off about
what's going on, and they're searching for something to believe in.
That's what we need to give them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've cursed the darkness and awful lot, and I
do as well. I mean, we wake up every morning
damage report and there's always some fresh hell to look at.
But rather than wallow in despair, it does help. I
think it's good medicine to be proactive. I will align
many of my religious you know, Christian friends, even a
few Muslim friends who are not in did it all in
a state church. They don't think that God would want
a religious government. They think it's a personal faith. We
disagree on theology, you know, we can talk about the
Bible and the Koran and all that stuff, but in
terms of human beings, our values align. I also call
those people humanists. I don't know. I mean, I don't
get hung up on labels, but what do you think
of that fish.
Speaker 3: I mean, my best friend is a social justice Catholic
right better person than me pretty much any day of
the week.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to be like him.
Speaker 3: Whether he believes in God or not doesn't make the
world any better. And he was actually the person who
encouraged me more than anyone else to take this job,
because he said, yeah, the sense of values and community
and grounding I get from Catholicism that pushes me to
be a better and more liberal person and fight for
the rights of other people. We need that for people
who don't believe too, So go build it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I think ultimately there are lots of partnerships to be
built between humanists and religious folks think that difference between
humanist and a religious person with good values is what
was best articulated by John Dietrich, who founded the AJA
almost one hundred years ago. He said, the humanist is
not much interested in the God ideal, except for the
fact that it's a distraction from the work that we
have to do right now. In other words, the humanist
answer to is there a God is less hard no,
and more who cares?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Like I always say, if God manifested himself in front
of me right now and presented incontrovertible scientific proof of
his existence. I would no longer be an atheist, but
I would still say, what gives you the right to
boss me around? I wouldn't accept his claims as true
just because he said them. I wouldn't let him tell
me to discriminate against other people. And that's what makes
me a humanist, because our morality and our truth comes
from humanity, not from an external authority.
Speaker 4: Okay, so let's talk about this empathy project. What's the
war on empathy about? Like, you know, I know, we
live in a culture of cruelty. It's bizarre fish to
watch these, you know, the same believers, the maga Christian
and they go in and you know, there Jesus said,
love one another, right, Blessed are the meek, turn the
other cheek, don't take vengeance, don't commit adultery, don't lust,
don't bully, don't do all these things. And they have
then not only supported, but in many cases worship somebody
who's who's a literal anti Christ.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I mean, when you think about the war
on empathy, ultimately, what you've got running our country right
now is an alliance of billionaires, bishops, and bigots. I
call it the axis of nonsense, right. And the one
thing they can agree on, because they don't agree on
h one b visas, and they don't agree on abortion,
and they don't agree on all these other things, the
one thing they can agree on is that we have
to be more exclusive around who counts and who matters.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: The billionaires think that their wealth gives them the right
to rule, The bishops think their worship gives them the
right to rule, and the biggots think their whiteness gives
them the right to rule. And together what they can
agree on is we should be crueler to more people.
And so they're working together to advance this idea that
empathy is toxic, empathy is suicidal. You hear it from
Elon Musk, who's saying on Joe Rogan that empathy is
the weakness of Western civilization, and you hear it from
right wing religious pastors who are saying things like empathy
is evil because it tells people to abandon God for
the sake of the neighbor. Which anything that is telling
you to abandon your neighbor is not a theology worth believing.
Speaker 4: In.
Speaker 2: Let's just say that upfront.
Speaker 3: The reason they're doing it. They're not doing it because
this is a popular position. Right eighty percent of Americans
think empathy is a core American value and that we
need more of it. The reason they're doing it is
because they can't get what they want. They cannot enact
their political project without cruelty towards other people. And what
they need to win is for us to turn away
from each other, to look away when we see cruelty
and say not my problem. And so they're trying to
bully and shame us into saying not my problem. When
they gun people down the streets in Minneapolis, when they
rip healthcare away from seniors and working families, when they
kidnap five year olds off the street and shove them
into tention centers like Liam Ramos. Humans are naturally wired,
evolutionarily wired to care about the survival of our fellow
humans because we recognize that if we look out for them,
they'll look out for us. They're trying to repress that
human instinct in us because it's the only way they
can hoard more wealth and power for themselves. It's frankly
a stupid tactic because again, you look at America right now,
most reasonable people are saying, my god, empathy is toxic. No,
we don't have enough of it. We all ought to
look out for each other more and treat each other better.
That's the problem. And this is good news for human
because again we don't have We don't believe morality comes
from stone tablets or voices in the sky, right We
believe morality comes from understanding the needs of our neighbors.
If science points the way to what is true, empathy
points the way to what is good. We believed that
for centuries, and so it's a great opportunity for us
to say, hey, not only are they wrong, but if
you want to believe in something that says, actually, empathy matters,
and it's how we understand what our obligations are.
Speaker 2: Humanism might be for you.
Speaker 4: The perception of strength as I don't know, breaking things
and smashing things and conquest. You know, the bullies of
the world. I mean, I guess they're strong in a
specific sense, but it's actually a much more noble strength.
I think it's a much more solid strength when you
are using your abilities to protect and to build. I mean,
anybody can burn a house down, but to construct one
that takes real strength, I think, and that's not really
the attitude at least into America from the top down.
It just seems like I've got to go in and
wipe things out and remake it in my own image.
I mean, anybody can smash the window, but to actually
form and fabricate and place the glass that takes a
lot more care.
Speaker 3: Right, absolutely, Look, you know, ultimately we've seen this throughout
human history.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: There are people who try to rule through fear and repression,
and they succeed maybe for a little while, they might
kick down some sand castles, but ultimately, the people who
build things that last are the people who lead through respect,
the people who are able to bring people together and
articulate positive values, not give people someone to hate. I mean,
that ultimately is why you know, we see the part
of why the right is so angry is that they've
been sold this bill of goods. Right, the billionaires have
stolen their wealth and they're working longer hours to afford
less and provide less for their families. And then you've
got hacks like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro who are like, oh,
you feel unsatisfied. You feel like you don't have control
in your life. You know what, if you just hate
these people and see yourself as superior to them, then
you can feel like.
Speaker 2: A big shot.
Speaker 3: And people are like, oh, well, that's because it's easy
to hate people, and so, you know, they try it
for a little while, and like Heroin, it feels good
for a little bit, and then you realize it doesn't work,
and so they're just as disempowered and out of control
as they were before, and now they have fewer friends,
so now they're angrier. The truth is right, and I like,
I didn't come to this job as a professional humanist activist.
I studied developmental psychology at Yale and Harvard, and I
spent time working in the mental health field, building programs
that improved mental health for kids. What we know is
that real strength, real courage, real satisfaction in life comes
from knowing what you believe, acting in line with those beliefs,
and helping other people and being part of a community.
And the right can't really give that to people, and
so we can if we're able to articulate that well
and meet that need that a lot of people are
feeling like, God, I'm looking for something and they're sure
as hell not getting it from this administration.
Speaker 4: Short break. More of my conversation with Fish Snark of
the American Humanist Association. Next March seventh, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The
event with myself, Forrest Valcai, and Got Sick Gibbon sold out,
totally sold out, three hundred seats gone. Thank you to
everybody who picked up tickets. I have been asked if
we're going to stream it. No we are not, but
I am taking five cameras to record the event. The
plan is to eventually release all of it online. But
to those who managed to squeak in, so glad you're there.
It's going to be an amazing time this Saturday. Also
on the conference calendar, big events that are happening, the
We Can Reason event Calgary first weekend of May, Baja
Con Sarnia, Ontario, third weekend of August, and Rocket City
Reason and Huntsville, Alabama. A Free Thought event in Alabama.
I just love it. Details on all this and more
at the Thinkingatheist dot com slash events. Talking here with
Fish Stark, the executive director of the American Humanist Association.
We're talking about putting the kind back in humankind God.
That sounds like a Hallmark movie, but I just had
to throw it out there. Right, I'm trying to stay
on message. Tell me about this Empathy project, right, what
are we talking about and how can we get involved?
Give me specifics.
Speaker 3: So the American Empathy Project is our initiative to respond
to the radical religious rights war on empathy. We are
giving out one hundred thousand dollars in grants to Americans
who want to help their neighbors. And on May second,
we're going to have over one hundred American Empathy the
projects across the country that anyone can join. It's our
way of saying to the religious right, hey, actually, empathy
is a core American value. And it's also our way
of saying to the forty six million Americans who believe
in the Golden Rule but not in God. Hey, humanism
is here fighting for you, and it's a community that
you want to be a part of. So we've already
received hundreds of applications for the American Empathy Project. I
hope we get hundreds more before the deadline on March thirteenth,
because ultimately, what we believe as humanist is the world
doesn't change because of Diosex Machina Right, like somebody in
the sky making a decision to make things better. It
changes when we take action to build the world we want.
And so yeah, we need to resist and rail against
all of the authoritarianism that's going on right now. We
also need to show people what the world we want
looks like. And I think it looks like a shared
world where we're all looking out for our neighbors.
Speaker 4: Well, let me jump in real fast fish. I mean,
what are people applying for? You know, you've got to
I'm going to put a link in the description box
of the show. But if I apply, I'm applying for
a grant fleshing out for me.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: If you apply and you're accepted, you'll get one thousand
dollars grant to organize an American empathy project in your community.
That could look like a food drive to help people
who are struggling from this administration's cuts to snap. It
might be a drive for used clothing for LGBTQ centers
so that trans kids who are being bullied by this
administration can have access to gender affirming clothes. It might
look like a community park cleanup. It might look like
hosting a giant potluck so that neighbors can get to
know each other in this time of fear and disinformation.
The only rules are that it has to be something
that anyone in your community can join, and it has
to help people who are being targeted and harmed by
this administration.
Speaker 2: And so we're.
Speaker 3: Hoping that, you know, humanist groups that are already doing
service work will apply and that they'll get new members
because we'll be promoting these projects all over the country.
And we also are seeing a lot of people who
have never done a service project before like this, but
are saying I'm tired of what's going on, I want
to do something about it. And we're so excited to
help those people become leaders in their communities create something meaningful.
Hopefully they'll start humanist groups too.
Speaker 4: So the deadline to apply is in March.
Speaker 3: What was the date, March thirteenth, And if you want
to apply, go to Americanempathy Project dot org and you
put in your email and we'll send you the grant application.
Speaker 4: And then those decisions or the announcement is made or
the actual project date is in May.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we'll get back to people as quickly as
we can certainly before the end of March if you're selected.
Even if you're not selected, if you want to run
a project without the grant, we'll still put it on
our big map of projects and promote it to people
across the country so that people in your neighborhood can
find it and sign up. And then on May second,
we're hosting this groundswell of projects across the country. Americans
helping their neighbors, which is ultimately what humanism believes in.
Speaker 4: I'm guessing you guys are throwing out the info to
media to make sure that what we're doing is being seen.
I mean, I want it seen. Does that make any sense?
Like being in our communities is. It's really important and
people are going to be talking, but it sure would
be nice to get some attention on the major platforms.
I don't know, are you guys pursuing that at all?
Speaker 2: We are, But here's the thing.
Speaker 3: You know, corporate owned media is not talking about these
issues because they're afraid of what the administration is going
to do to them. You've seen the ways in which
CBS and even ABC and Disney have backed down in
response to pressure from the FCC. We have gotten hundreds
of applications from people all across the country without any
corporate media coverage, just by working with influencers like Monty
Mater and you know, Amanda's mild Takes, Andrew McCoy and
you Seth and Andrew Sidell, you know, people who are
putting this out to their community, and people are saying,
holy cow, I didn't know there was something like this.
Speaker 2: I want to sign up and do it.
Speaker 3: I would love for there to be a media ground
swell to say, hey, port empathy. What I'm hoping is
that when people see folks taking action all across the
country on May second, it's going to be impossible to ignore.
Our goal is to have this be bigger than the
reason rally the most people mobilized by the secular community
on any day in American history to take action.
Speaker 4: I guess what I'm saying is, I mean, you're absolutely right.
We can't rely on CBS, Berry, weisse X. You know,
even I think CNN is now in the bubble and compromised, etc. Etc.
Most of the major media platforms in this country owned
by six corporations but with no kings. I mean you
couldn't ignore it, right, I mean they had to cover it.
Holy shit, look at seven million people, the biggest single
march in the history of this country. I'm hoping that
the American Empathy Project is much the same. It's one
of those things where even the people who want to
sweep it under the rug have to say only shit.
I guess it's news, right.
Speaker 3: That's the goal, and our team is working as hard
as we can to make it impossible to ignore. But
the only way it's going to be impossible to ignore
Americans across the country standing up for empathy and helping
their neighbors in the face of cruelty is if the
people listening right now sign up, send in an application,
commit to attending an event themselves, and make sure we
have a massive body count, or donate to support these projects. Ultimately,
it's going to take all of us pitching in.
Speaker 4: Okay, I want to come back. You have a degree
in background in psychology, right, yeah, So I mean, let's
just talk you and me, Because I wake up in
the morning and I struggle, people suck, and everything's on fire,
and then I'm just sad and angry all day and
there are times when I've just given up on people.
You know what I'm saying, and I know logically there
are tens and tens of millions of people who are good,
who are resisting, who are representing humanist secular values, who
want goodness to prevail. I know that up here, but
down in my chest and my gut, I just despair
for the species. Bring the killer asteroid. Let's start again
with the bees and let life try again. Do you
ever go there? And how do you get past it?
I mean, give me the psychology of this fish.
Speaker 3: So the cool thing about humanism is that some of
the best psychologists, the people who actually made psychology work
for us, were humanists. I think about you know, Karl
Rogers is not in the name a lot of people know,
but he was the guy who invented the field of
client centered psychology. If you have a good therapist, thank
Karl Rogers. And he was a humanist. And when he
came on the scene, psychology was this, you know, was
defined by Freud. It was this idea that people are
inherently broken and we got to fix them. And Roger's
big innovation was he was like, whoa, whoa, wait a minute,
people don't grow from shame. Everyone has the ability to
change and grow for the better. But that's only going
to happen if they have a picture in their mind
of an ideal good self that they want to be,
and they've got someone who cares about them, and it's
challenging them to work towards that picture of their best self.
That's what he turned therapy into and it became better
for a.
Speaker 2: Lot of people.
Speaker 3: And so, you know, I get in that place, right,
I get riled up, I get angry. I get so
frustrated people I see making harmful decisions every day and
then I'm like, okay, but that's me sitting in my feelings.
How do people really change? And the truth is, people
really change when we believe it is possible for them
to be a better person, and we challenge them and
we give them opportunities to work towards that positive vision
of who they could be. And so that's what the
American Empathy Project is. We're calling America to be its
best self and that's what drives real change in people.
Speaker 4: That sounds so good, but I really want to shame them.
I mean, do you just think I mean? And I
hate that I've come to this point. I'm the mister
Rogers of the movement. Fish you know I'm saying I'm
a teddy bear, and yet this scar tissue is thick,
but I really do want to hold on to that,
like everybody can be reached, or almost everybody can be
reached fish well.
Speaker 3: And here's the difference between humanism and high control religion, right,
High control religion introduced this idea, socialize, this idea, planted
it deep in our little monkey brains that the way
to make people better is by shaming them, is by
suppressing their humanity, is by looking at people through a
deficit mindset, seeing them as inherently wicked, original sinners, people
to be controlled. And the idea of humanism is that actually,
if we see people as reservoirs of potential, if we
see people's humanity is something to be unleashed, not suppressed.
If we believe not that everybody is good, but that
people can be good, and that society should be about
unlocking people's potential to do good things, not sorting them
into hierarchies and telling them what they can and can't do.
That's how we're going to get a better world. And
so that's why you have humanists, not just Carl Rogers, right,
but the founder of Planned parenthood, the co founder of
Apple Computers, the guy who invented the polio vaccine. The
people who have created the inventions and led the social
movements that gave us more freedom to become our best
selves were humanists. Because that's what we believe.
Speaker 4: Your enthusiasm, it's contagious. It is contagious. I feel a
tinge of optimism, of hope actually is the better word.
I don't know if it's optimism, but you know, maybe
maybe what are we going to do? Give up and
go home? Fish right? I mean, we're just going to
sit in the corner and let him have it. We're
going to let him take every into the playing field.
Hell no, I'm going to go down fighting and I don't.
I'm hoping we don't go down. You know, if we
have mid terms, I am thinking, well, you know, we're
seeing a potential blue wave and Texas, of all places,
you know, can Texas turn blue. We are seeing a
lot of the Republican congressmen and senators who were deciding
not to even run. Part of me is thinking that's
strategic because they see the writing on the wall. We
are seeing a rise and secular politicians, humanist politicians and
of course, the groundswell of people on the I think
the next note Kings is coming up late March, and
if we saw seven million last October, I think it's
going to be ten fifteen. I think after the ice
murders in Minneapolis, etc. Et cetera, Venezuela green wanting to
annex Greenland, and then the Epstein files, I really feel
like we are at this explosive moment where history is
going to be made. And those do give me hope,
and so does the American Empathy Project. I think it's
a wonderful idea. Give me one last slug for it
for anybody who wants to participate or spread the word.
Speaker 3: It was Harvey Milk, a humanistic Jew, who said, you've
got to give them hope, and that's what we're doing.
The American Empathy Project is our bet on the idea
that empathy is a core American value and we need
more of it, not less. So we're giving out one
hundred thousand dollars in grants to Americans who want to
run projects that help their neighbors. On May second, if
you apply at Americanempathy Project dot org, we can give
you one thousand dollars and mobilize people in your community
to help you make a difference, whether it's helping seniors,
helping young people, helping folks in need, helping.
Speaker 2: Clean up the community.
Speaker 3: We're here to show what humanism is all about, which
is we take action. We don't wait for somebody to
solve it for us.
Speaker 4: You're a great communicator. All I got to do is
tee you up and I sit back and just watch
the magic Fish. I mean, you just psyched, almost like
you've done this before a few times. I'm just saying,
so the aha. I've been a big fan for a
very very long time, and I'm excited for you and
the project. What a great proactive way to try to
return us to sanity in this country, to restore our
humanity in this country. And I will link that in
the description box. Fish Stark, thank you so much for
talking to me.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me Seth and hey, what can
I say?
Speaker 3: I learn about good communication from the best, and I'm
so glad we've got you out there, Taz speaking for
our movement, You're very kind.
Speaker 4: Thanks brother.
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