Sunday September 3rd – [Online] How Complex Life Evolved

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join in to the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

Humanists and atheists often say that they “believe in evolution”; however, they find it hard to describe how the intricate machinery of our cells and our physiology arose from primordial organic ooze, or how complex animals with many coordinated parts evolved out of single cells.

In his presentation, our featured speaker, Dr. Mark Reimers, will describe some recent discoveries in biology that have given us some insight into how these complex systems evolved. He will describe how the complex internal signaling processes in our cells arose, and how the coordinated interactions between our bodily systems were formed, all by blind evolutionary processes.

Dr. Mark Reimers is a quantitative neuroscientist at Michigan State University working to elucidate how dynamic brain activities give rise to mental functions and moods. Dr. Reimers has worked at the US National Institutes of Health, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics.

Please RSVP on meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/295443701/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This meeting has been recorded: GMT20230903-153816_Recording_1920x1080.mp4

Sunday August 27th – [Online] Reclaiming Our Time

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join in to the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be watching and then discussing YouTube video clips featuring Ann Gomez, productivity expert and author of the book: Workday Warrior. This presentation will be curated and introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

Please RSVP on meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/295301474/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

Sunday August 20th – [Online] Wojcicki and We: Good Intentions for Longevity

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join in to the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be watching and then discussing a YouTube video featuring an interview of Anne Wojcicki, founder of 23andMe. The video was suggested and will be introduced by John Shannon, a Toronto Oasis volunteer.

Please RSVP on meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/295152875/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

Sunday August 13th – [Online] The Case for a 4-Day Work Week

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join in to the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be watching and then discussing YouTube videos, including a TED talk, by economist and sociologist Juliet Schor, suggested and introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

Please RSVP on meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/295007821/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

Sunday August 6th – [Online] Spiritual but Not Religious

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join in to the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be watching and then discussing a YouTube video featuring Matt Dillahunty, an American atheist activist and former president of the Atheist Community of Austin. The video was suggested and will be introduced by Dan Cooperstock, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

Please RSVP on meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/294865402/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

Sunday July 30th – [Online] The Value of a Vacation

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join in to the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be watching and then discussing YouTube videos about the value of a vacation. The topic & videos were selected and will be introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

We will also be having live music this Sunday! Our guest musician will be Elizabeth Block.  Elizabeth was born in New York and loves telling people, “I wuz boan in Brooklyn. You gotta PROBLEM wid dat?” She was brought up on Gilbert & Sullivan, Broadway musicals (when they were written for singers), and the songs of Arthur Block – her dad wrote songs. She went to the High School of Music and Art, where she was an art student, but was allowed to sing in the senior chorus in her last year. She was a choral singer for decades, and a church soloist for many years. She joined Toronto’s informal folk song circle in – she thinks – 1984. A few years later she decided she should learn to play the guitar, which she did – not well, but well enough to accompany herself and other people. She knows a lot of songs, some in other languages, many satirical and/or political. She has written new words to existing tunes, and a couple of times tunes to existing words, never an entire song – but there’s still time.

Elizabeth is a potter by trade.  You can check out her pottery work on her website:

http://www.elizabethblockpottery.com/

Please RSVP on meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/294723044/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

Sunday July 23rd – [Online] Churches at War

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join in to the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be watching and then discussing an episode of a CBC podcast that follows an investigative journalist, Jonathan Montpetit, as he reports on an evangelical Christian conference that took place in a church in Windsor. We will learn how this religious group’s rhetoric could be contributing to the current climate of LGBTQ hate. The topic and podcast episode were suggested and will be introduced by Tanya Long, a Toronto Oasis participant.

Please RSVP on meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/294579369/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

Sunday July 16th – [Online] Fast Fashion

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join in to the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be watching and then discussing a YouTube video about the history of the fast fashion industry. The topic and video were suggested by Lola Bradford, a Toronto Oasis participant. Lola will also be providing an intro and outro to the video.

Please RSVP on meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/294431631/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

Sunday July 9th – [Online] How to Make Hard Choices

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join in to the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be watching and then discussing a TED talk by philosopher Ruth Chang. The video was suggested and will be introduced by Dan Cooperstock, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

Please RSVP on meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/291939415/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

Sunday July 2nd – [Online] Tone Policing: Spotting and Stopping It

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm. You can join in to the meeting starting at 10:30 am for our open social. After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour, until 1:00 pm.

We will be watching and then discussing a YouTube video on this topic by Dr. Celia Edell, currently a FRQSC Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of British Columbia. The topic and video will be introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer. Tania will also be presenting an outro after we watch the video to set us up for our discussion segments and invite us to reflect on and discuss how this issue applies to us as a secular humanist community.

Please RSVP on meetup to get access to the Zoom link:

https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/pkdtctyfckbdb/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!