The Hopeful Humanist Cafe

Welcome to another episode of The Hopeful Humanist Cafe. It has been awhile ... A quick correction In this episode I refer to nine protocols on a few occasions - there are ten. This was simply a lapse in memory. The protocols developed gradually over time, and in the moment I was recalling an earlier stage of that process rather than the completed list. The full ten protocols are below. This episo...

Welcome to The Hopeful Humanist Cafe. In this one-take, unedited episode, I look at this thing I call "Intrapersonal Drift" and the eight dynamic questions of self. If someone has drifted from one's self, how can one come back to one's self? I look at just one of many possible options. Maybe it will work for you! In the episode, I share ideas from Henry David Thoreau, Gabor Mate, Brene Brown, Stev...

Welcome to a windy day walk alongside the might Saugeen River near Denny's Dam in southern Ontario. In this episode, I cast an idea that I hope might catch your interest! Here, I propose a different name than the placeholder name Generation Beta for the generation after Gen Alpha. Who wants to be second to anyone else? For the next generation, that still has of yet to step onto the scene, I propos...

Join me in episode 85 where I talk about hopes best companion effort! There are four directions we can apply effort for our wellness. A starting point is to ask the questions: 1) Why do I say what I say when I say it? and 2) Why do I do what I do when I do it? These questions allow one to "get conscious" so we can start to think about the different directions we can start to apply deliberate effor...

Welcome to another episode of The Hopeful Humanist Cafe. In this episode I attempt to tie a number of threads together from some of the pitfalls of self-care to the importance of hope, openness, and compassion for a healing or recovery journey.  Quotes: 1) "Hope" is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all -   And sweetest...

In this episode, I provide articles for listeners to access who might be interested in learning the unwritten rules of etiquette for Pickleball. I then suggest that pickleball itself might be the meaning of life and offer ideas about what might constitute the good life.  Quote: 1)  "Pickleball is cheaper than therapy" - unknown  2) "Pickleball is the meaning of life -- why not?" - Hopeful Humanist...

How well do you do with managing being wrong? Are you able to recognize internally when you are wrong? Are you able to acknowledge being wrong and take ownership for your thoughts and actions? Is there a difference between being wrong and making a mistake? Join me in this tip-of-the-iceberg conversation about one thread of the so many conversations that could take place on being wrong.  At the end...

Welcome to another unedited, blithering episode of the Hopeful Humanist Cafe. In this episode, I share with you a leisure project I have been experimenting with on X (formerly Twitter) and Minds.  I believe that everyone has within them one book to write. Having said that, however, it should be noted that writing is something that requires time, energy and talent. It is hard work.  Reluctantly, I...

Salutations and welcome to episode 80 of the Hopeful Humanist Cafe. This episode starts with a question from Danielson about the Hero's Journey - How far must one travel from one's home before it is fair to call the experience a journey?  Can simply stepping outside one's door of one's home constitute a journey? Furthermore, can framing the challenge of "getting through" a physical or mental illne...

This episode talks about an essential ingredient and starting point for being a "good mentor" for Dawn, the-every-young person-becoming-young-adult.  Before sharing one's wisdom, one must know who one is sharing one's wisdom with.  Hence the question, "Who is Dawn?"  Only after activating the empathetic sensibility and stepping into Dawn's worlds can one open the treasure chest to share the collec...

Many of us have so much on our plates and have been pulled in too many directions by the various greedy institutions in our lives that we might have lost sight of the fact that SPRING IS HERE.  It is time to step outside and do some savouring.  T-shirt Idea: "One Good Book" or "One Good Poem." Delving into our "internal spring," and finding a moment to savour the blessings of spring newly arrived,...

What is the "Hard Case" for self-care?  Why do we so often, when helping others, try to get to offering solutions instead of just being there to honour and validate another person's reality.  Sometimes the first step in the change process is just taking time to notice.   Quote for the year: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and s...

In this episode, I invite the listener to join me as I provide a summary account of a virtual, two-day training workshop that I attended about a therapeutic counselling modality called, "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" - otherwise known as ACT.  The total listening experience includes six audio segments. Each of the two days of training includes an introduction to the day and two summary module...

This episode is simply a short question. It is an invitation to put one's "self" under the metaphorical microscope.  This can be a hard thing to do, but it is essential for living a deliberate and mindful life.   I anticipate that I will follow-up this question with a future episode where I intend to debrief and unpack the question in order to explore the implications it has in our lives as it poi...

In this very brief episode of the Hopeful Humanist Café, I will showcase what I will simultaneously call a "Sound-Story" & "Audio-Sound-Blot."  The episode is simply a listening experience.  One might just sit back and get comfortable or grab one's journal and open up to the possibility of an imaginative outpouring.    As a "Sound-Story," the invitation is simply to listen to the collection of sou...

Welcome to another spontaneous & unedited blithering at The Hopeful Humanist Café.   When you do not got the motivation to tackle the Mount Everest challenges on your metaphorical life plate, tackle the small stuff. The small stuff can create momentum. For me that was focusing on the backyard shed.  Unexpectedly, while getting some small checkmarks, I discovered that perspective is a big deal.   T...

This episode is from a Substack article I prepared for my news letter, "Hopeful Humanist Cafe Newsletter." The article is called, "What will you do today."  I really enjoyed making the episode and wanted to include it into the library of episodes available on "The Hopeful Humanist Cafe" podcast.   Here is the link for the article: What will you do today? - by Steve the hopeful humanist (substack.c...

Welcome to The Hopeful Humanist Café.  In episode 71, I am joined by Captain Jack and Danielson for an organic discussion and debrief about an episode from "The Psychology Podcast" with Scott Barry Kaufman. The specific episode we talked about is called, "How William James Can Save Your Life," with special guest John Kaag, who is an Existential Philosopher (see link below).  I framed the debrief w...

"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words." - Robert Frost   Episode 70 with Danielson has finally arrived. Another unedited, one take blithering session with "Just Two Ones."  As indicated in the "Antidote Primer for upcoming Episode," Danielson and I will attempt to interpret and relate to six selected Emily Dickinson poems.  The poems discussed include:  1...

Where do thoughts come from?  In episode 69, we turn to a poem from the American Poet Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (Dec. 10, 1830 to May 15, 1886) where she shares her experience of an arising thought.  It is a beautiful poem. The poem provides one with the opportunity to become aware of one's thinking mind and it's relationship to one's observing mind.  As some are more visual learners than others,...

In episode 68, I am joined by Life Coach Sarah Crawte who talks about what life coaching is and is not, her journey toward life coaching, and the benefits of connecting with a life coach.   Maintaining your health is often challenging and, at times, requires reaching out for help. During difficult times, help can be accessed from communities of care that include family, friends, colleagues, spirit...

Join me for a one-take, unedited discussion about the importance of expanding our dashboards of wellness to include mental health and substance use information.  According to the Public Health Agency of Canada "24 626 apparent opioid toxicity deaths between January 2016 and June 2021" were reported.  Did you also know according to an article, "Loneliness and Social Isolation Linked to Serious Heal...

Welcome to another episode of the Hopeful Humanist Cafe.  In episode 66, I will talk about some obstacles, barriers, and constraints to our ability to take care of ourselves.  The invitation will not be to despair about such a reality but to sit with it and "notice" what is happening in our inner world when we are mindful of certain thoughts and feelings that get in our way of taking care of ourse...

Welcome to Episode 65 of the Hopeful Humanist Cafe.  In this episode, I hope to provide a definition of generations, share a cautionary note about the limits and dangers when talking about generations, and raise some questions about the benefits of continuing to talk about these socially-constructed things called "Generations."     Video Resource Library for our discussion Generations: 1) "The Gen...

In this episode, I take the "Ten-Word Description" podcast activity from Eric Nuzum and take it to make my own to "Reclaim my lens for a journey toward my authentic self." Entering into another lockdown during a third wave assault from covid-19 where everything is fixated on a one-pointed conversation about the pandemic, I felt a need to "bee kind" to myself and expand my centre of identification...