59. 2025 in Humanism - Deconstruction, Collaboration, Resistance & TikTok

As Humanism Now wraps up 2025, host James Hodgson is joined by familiar voices from across the UK humanist movement to reflect on the year just gone and look ahead to 2026. Together, they explore community-building, youth engagement, activism, collaboration, and why humanism continues to resonate in uncertain times.

Guests & Links

Lola Tinubu – Association of Black Humanists (ABH)

• Association of Black Humanists – https://www.meetup.com/association-of-black-humanists/
• Festival of Freethinking 2025 – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/festival-of-freethinking-2025-tickets-1755211267149/
• Secular Sankofa podcast – https://secularsankofa.buzzsprout.com/2532796/follow
• ABH on TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@assoc_of_black_humanists

Mark Agathangelou – Central London Humanists (CLH)

• Central London Humanists – https://www.centrallondonhumanists.org.uk/
• CLH on Meetup – https://www.meetup.com/central-london-humanists/
• What Humanism Means To Me Event - https://www.meetup.com/central-london-humanists/events/310597525/

Nicole Shashar – Leicester Humanists & Young Humanists

• Leicester Humanists – https://humanists.uk/local-group/leicester/
• Young Humanists – https://humanists.uk/community/young-humanists

Looking Ahead: Major 2026 Events

Humanists UK Convention & Festival 2026 – https://humanists.uk/events/festival2026/

World Humanist Congress 2026 – https://humanists.international/event/world-humanist-congress-2026/

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Panel Intro
• 1:09 Association of Black Humanists Highlights And Outreach
• 3:15 Central London Humanists’ Big Year
• 6:12 Leicester Humanists Grows And Young Humanists Update
• 8:17 Why More Young People Are Turning to Humanism
• 11:22 Deconstruction, Social Media and Real Community
• 18:28 Civil Rights & Activism in Action
• 20:29 Activism And Humanist Values
• 22:25 Closing Reflections And CTA
• 24:22 Interfaith Dialogue & Inter-Group Collaboration
• 30:34 Looking Ahead To 2026
• 35:05 Changing Minds

Transcript

James Hogson: 0:01

Welcome to the Humanism Now podcast. I'm your host, James Hodgson. And as this is our final podcast of 2025, we thought we'd go back to our uproots here at Humanism Now and invite some friends and frequent contributors to the podcast in its early days to have a bit of a review of the year and look ahead to 2026. So joining us this week, I'm delighted to welcome back Lola Tanoubu from the Association of Black Humanists, Mark Agatangelou from the Central London Humanists, and Nicole Shashar from Leicester Humanists and the Young Humanists, part of Humanist UK. Thank you all so much for joining us. Very much looking forward to the conversation. I thought what we could do, similar to what we've done in previous years, is have a bit of a review, share some of the highlights from the past year, both in our local groups and wider, and then look ahead at some of the hopes and ambitions for 2026. So, Lola, I'd love to come to you first. I know it's been a big year for the Association of Black Humanists. So what have been some of the highlights for you and the group?

Lola Tinubu (ABH): 1:09

I think a few highlights, but I will say for me, number one, is the festival of free thinking that we had in October in collaboration with Central London Humanists. It was a great event. It was very exciting, particularly to see a lot of young black people that we haven't otherwise come across in many years that have been a humanist. So it was so nice to see a good turnout of especially young black people. So that was very encouraging. And it's a great pleasure to have done it with our Central London humanists. Another highlight for me is the Pan-African book club that we started this year. We are reading from different writers from the Caribbean and from the continent, Africa. So that's been very exciting. So we are looking forward to more of that in 2026. And um we attended for not so good reasons, anti-racist matches this year and also climate change protest. Those two they are not for good reasons, but we are happy to have been part of the mattress.

James Hogson: 2:40

Yeah, there's definitely a big increase in activism and presence. And I had the pleasure of attending the Festival of Free Thoughts, or Festival of Free Thinking, I think it was, event as well, and a really impressive, fantastic event. And as you mentioned, wonderful to see many new faces, a lot of younger people attending. So we'd love to dig a bit more into how you've been expanding the group over the course of the year. But since you mentioned the Central London Humanists, it probably makes sense, Mark, to come to you next. I know always extremely busy with CLH, but what are some of the things that have stood out for you from 2025?

Mark Agathangelou (CLH): 3:15

Yeah, I just quickly also mentioned that we I think we all want to learn Lola's secret when it comes to attracting young people to humanist events. That's something that she has to share with us. Yeah, we've had a we've had another very busy year, as many people will know. Central London Humanists is a very active group with which runs multiple events. I think the record I think is about nine in one month on one occasion, but it's certainly around about the six or seven mark on a regular basis. And so yeah, we I think it's a triumph that we've been able to carry on doing our regular events and having them well attended. The walks, the book club, the evening social in the week, discussion groups, and a full slate of talks, including an excellent talk with Peter Tatchell, which was a collaboration also with LGBT humanists. So that was a an excellent event. Yeah, but in addition to that, we've also put on some new events or we've embedded some new events, so we were sort of adding and expanding to our Rostra. James organized this along with AJ, I think this Global Roots of Humanism series of talks. I think we have three or four talks on that this year on that, which was excellent. Our sci-fi group is now a regular fixture this year. I think it started last year, but it's really got going this year. And we've also now got regular weekend socials, which is something we we didn't have before. So that's been excellent because it means different people attend that because there are those who can't make it in the week. So that's developed its own momentum as well. And as as you mentioned, the activism side of things, we've had more activism events, collaborations often with other groups like ABH. So that's all been excellent. I think, yeah, I think probably for me the highlight for a personal reason of what humanism means to me that we staged in September because partly because I was very much involved in organising that, but it was just nice to see a really good turnout and just have a very happy sort of event. It's a different type of event, it's a talk where we have several different speakers who just speak quite briefly about their experiences of humanism, but in a way which is very sort of personal and passionate, and then we have entertainment and we have free food and drink, and it's just a lovely evening, which I think everybody enjoyed. So that was great. I would also have said the same event as as Laura as well, which we were involved with, but I don't want to steal credit for that one because that was very much ABH's event, which we were delighted to participate in.

James Hogson: 5:32

What humanism means to me is always a highlight, even though many of us know lots of the speakers already. Hearing people's personal stories and views is something always very special about that, and you that's always a great opportunity to learn. And I think it's one of those things we return to a lot here on the podcast and in the events that we organise. That still what humanism is and what it means to people is is not a static and university-agreed concept. So it's nice to also get reminded of the different uh benefits and views that people have. No, thank you. It's a tremendous amount of work, Mark, as well. So well done. Congratulations. And um thank you for everything. And Nicole, wonderful to see you back again.

Nicole Shasha (LH & YH): 6:11

Yes, lovely to be.

James Hogson: 6:12

I learned just before we started that Leicester Humanists is now two years old, a growing, burgeoning group. How has everything been going there? And also some highlights from the young humanists as well.

Nicole Shasha (LH & YH): 6:23

Yeah, absolutely. Locally, everything's been going really well. See it. We're just just over two years old now as a group, and it's been really wonderful to see it kind of settle into what it is at the moment. Um, because you know the first year is very much testing the waters. You don't know how what kind of people will turn up, how people will respond, what they want to do, what they don't want to do. But especially in the last few months, it's really felt like a proper community. Like it's loads of people who all know each other, and then new people are still coming all the time and getting involved. And it's really lovely. I feel like, particularly in this year, we've become very accepted as a part of the city, um, which is really nice. A lot of our local haunts know us and have started seeing us be at things, um, and we've been involved in more slightly more civic things, like I got to lay a wreath as part of the um remembrance service in here in Leicester. So that's very good on behalf of the humanist community. And stuff like that's been really wonderful, and particularly in terms of um interfaith stuff as well, being accepted as part of the fabric of the interfaith of the city, which particularly in Leicester is a really big thing and has been really wonderful to do. And then partly related to that, and then also with the young humanists, we have been getting more young people, which is great, especially locally, a few people who are at university, and that's always great because then you know, a way more into um even more young people. And it's something that we're developing with Humanists UK some better links about how to get more young people into each local committee because for young people or for anyone, but to feel really involved, actually having kind of roles and things like that realize is really important, not just oh, you can turn up. So um, that's something we've started doing this year that's been really successful and is only going to go up and up.

James Hogson: 8:08

Fantastic. And congratulations as well and developing both groups. Let's um dive into this theme that came out from a lot of these answers in more young people attending events. And certainly I can say from experience both around London and attending events online and internationally. I have seen that there's been a bit of a generational shift in attendees. We're seeing a lot more new younger people. And interestingly, when I interviewed Andrew Cobson on the podcast, you know, at our 50s episode with Andrew earlier this year, and one of the things he mentioned is that it does tend to come in waves with interest in humanism. Now, there's a big wave, obviously, around early 2000s, with a lot of the literature which was out at the time. There tends to be a bit of a lull. So I wonder if potentially there is something now which is inspiring more young people to engage with these ideas at least. So, Lola, as mentioned, you had a fantastic turnout at the festival which you organized. I met so many new members, most of them, as I said, younger people, graduates, people in their 20s and early 30s. Do you think there are particular methods for approaching people or advertising events which is attracting people, or there's something in the ideas which is particularly attractive at this time?

Lola Tinubu (ABH): 9:15

I think this year, social media is the key. And it's not just us talking about maybe as a black humanist or any particular organization on social media. You know, I had to do my algorithm in such a way that it was bringing me, it was showing a lot of young black people on my feed. And then I made it a duty to befriend the one that I'm, you know, speaking to. Because, yeah, I think having that friendship online on social media really helped me to connect. And then they were, I was connecting with some um individuals, and then I was through them, I was also linking with their friends as well. And I think more so this year than other year, I don't know whether I was not paying attention, but the word deconstruction was a big, it's a big word this year, people deconstructing their religion. And that is more powerful, I think, for me, my in my experience, than the word atheism or even humanism, so that I was able to connect with people where they are. If they are asking questions about their religion and trying to deconstruct, I was in it with them. So I think befriending people is a lot of work because you have to befriend each person. It's not like um a thing that, or maybe I don't have that kind of following, so I have to do it that way. So it's not about publishing something online and then expecting people to just follow you or be interested in what you are saying. I think it's about being in that journey with them, whatever confusion or whatever they don't disagree with, exploring things with individuals and then building community from there.

James Hogson: 11:22

That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, the approach of deconstruction was a real strong theme in the Festival of Free Thinking. And again, this is a way in which probably before this year, this is not an approach which I really taken or considered. And I think it's the authenticity of approaching people, meeting them, connecting with them to create that community, but then the listening as well. So thank you for that. And Nicole, is that similar to what you found in terms of how people found the group and what sort of reasons have they given when younger people have decided to join and engage with humanism?

Nicole Shasha (LH & YH): 11:55

Yeah, I think a lot of the people who've joined locally recently have people who've just left religion. In some cases, literally three days before turning up, which is always really impressive. But yeah, and I think it's part of it that for whatever reason they were deconstructing their ideas, what they'd been brought up with, and maybe they never really believed in that religion. It was just that their family told them they were, and then you know, they're at university, they have the time and the space to think about those things and realize actually no. But yeah, and the but what keeps them in and keeps them engaged and keeps them involved in the movement is connection. Because like Lois said, you can find stuff online that's oh yeah, this is interesting. But the thing that changes it from, oh, this is like something that's interesting online, but it's not a huge part of my life, to this is a really big part of my life and being part of these communities is knowing people and making friends in it and making connections. And I think those can definitely start online and even sometimes be very beneficial almost entirely online, which is a great thing of the internet. But then also I think a lot of young people are quite sick of everything being online. And so for them to be able to is like here's obviously you can find the events online, it's very useful, but ultimately we're a bunch of people who will spend time together in the real world. But yeah, it's the connection, you know, when you actually connect with people when they turn up, they're like, Oh, great, people are interested in me, I'm interested in them. It's a really important thing.

James Hogson: 13:15

Yes, I definitely agree. That seems to have really changed in the last couple of years as we get further away from the pandemic and also more of what's online is AI generated. I think that authenticity and connection seem to be the key themes that are coming out. Mark, does that ring true what you've seen? I know we've had a big increase in attendance at our in-person events with CLH this year. And I wondered if finding this people are giving the same reasons.

Mark Agathangelou (CLH): 13:38

Yeah, I think there are some common patterns, and I do think I'd agree very much with what Lola and Nicole say is about that personal connection and making sure you talk to people and get to know them, make them feel welcome. I think that's a really important thing. But obviously, go beyond that in terms of uh actually making events attractive to everybody, including younger people. And I think we have done that over the last few years, and we've been quite successful in doing that. And I'd give a lot of credit to you, James, for maybe as as a organizing many of our talks and events. That's been and you know, having a younger person such as yourself, and then we've got AJ and we've got Assile, having younger people involved in organizing the group, and then both sort of presenting that face, having a younger look where people turn up, and also choosing events and speakers and approaches which resonate. Yeah, I feel as if maybe it's interesting this idea that humanism, like probably almost everything else, goes in waves, and perhaps maybe one of the issues at the moment is it because it is a sort of stressful, difficult time, and there are a lot of challenges in the world of politics and culture, that I have a sense that people are looking for something. And you know, one of the big advantages that humanism has, we don't have, you know, we don't have a lot of money and we don't have a massive organization and we don't have a lot of media support, etc. But we do have something which is very appealing, which is the sort of core message and values and ideas that we have. And I think that when people hear those or discover them more than they as uh we've said recently, people say over and again, oh, that's what I believe in, that's what I am. I just hadn't realized it. So I think we've always got that. And once people engage with us, as long as we do it in a way which is say very human and we make the effort to connect, then I think that's a real strength. But we do need to try to shape our events so they appeal to everyone and not just to the people we already have, which has tended to be certainly nationally with humanist groups, it tends to be a slightly older demographic.

James Hogson: 15:32

Yeah. I I think I want to follow up on that and come back to the point on the sort of politics of the year. I think we should definitely cover that. But I wonder if we should wrap up on young people, the sort of attract new people's side first. So let me let me redo that in a better way. Yes, definitely. I do think the political environment that we're in, and I guess again, the amount of how online communities are running is leaving people searching for community and searching for values. And it's interesting how a lot of the time when those certain ideas, in terms of standing up against ideas that we don't like, and people are presenting those on TV or on other mediums, you know, how it sounds the resistance to that very often sounds like humanism, but people are not putting the label and the word on it. So I do think having those, building those communities, running the events, explaining to people, a lot of our most popular events, again, the Festival of Free Thinking, what humanism means to me, the Christmas event that we had, a lot of them were just people explaining what they believe and offering a soft landing, an easy way in to people and saying this is what humanism is, and you're welcome to connect if you wish. I do want to have one more question just on the attracting people to the groups as well, because you mentioned Lola at the start about social media and reaching out to people. And I think one of the things I've realized over the course of this year is actually when we talk about social media and the social media that people are more active on now, a lot of those platforms have changed even in the last five years. So just for you know audience members who may be looking to engage more, which channels have you found to be the most productive in terms of reaching new people?

Lola Tinubu (ABH): 17:01

Um, reaching new people for me is TikTok. When I first got on TikTok, I felt like, what am I doing here? But then it needs a bit of patience because it's different from Facebook, the traditional social media, because with Facebook or probably Twitter, you start with your friends and the friends of your friends, and then you build it up. Whereas with TikTok, you are in a wilderness, you don't know anybody in that sense. So it's very impersonal. So how do you then you take your time and then you have your uh on the side what you are you put you type in humanism, atheism, free thinking, and over time, I have to say to build it to where I am now, it took about three, four years. So it wasn't quick for me on TikTok. But then I realized it started becoming quick if I identify certain people that are saying what, especially deconstructing their religion, and then I you know start defriending them. I will send them personal messages, most of them will not respond, some of them will respond. Yeah, there is something though that I didn't mention when we were talking about maybe achievements, and that's apart from meeting people online, we also do the footwork. So we've been very big on pan-Africanism and civil rights more than other years, particularly this year. So we've attended events, many pan-Africanist civil rights events, and you find that it's so strange. I find that a lot of people, and then you find some young people in this movement as well, and then the common thing is there, I think for black people, civil rights is at the heart of why many people started distributing the Bible, especially the Bible, and leading religion. The history about slavery, history about colonialism. So attending this event is linking us with people that are frustrated with religion to begin with. So for black people, you cannot separate civil rights movement politics of race from humanism. They come together. So it's not just the social media, but also footwork attending this event and meeting people and connecting with people that way as well.

James Hogson: 19:56

Definitely, yeah. And thank you for sharing that on about TikTok, I think. That as we said, the social media landscape has changed and is changing a lot. I mean, the spaces that I've heard have been particularly successful, not just with the groups on the call here, but speaking with other groups. TikTok, Discord, Reddit are the areas which are more, and the latter two in particular are more focused on community rather than social media posting side of things. But it's very interesting that TikTok is also, and you know, meeting a lot of people that came to those events, they said they found the event through TikTok. So I think that's a really interesting lesson. And thank you for bringing us back as well to the point about it's been a big year for activism, I think. And I've certainly seen more humanist groups and individuals within the groups that I'm involved in want to be more politically active and want to use our combined efforts as humanists to support causes that we believe in and stand against those, which we don't. Mark, maybe I'll come back to you and just say, what have you taken in terms of you obviously you mentioned about it's been a challenging year. I think we can all agree on that. Where have you found what's the word? How do you think the humanist community has responded to a lot of the challenges that we've been facing in 2025 and where can we do more going forward?

Mark Agathangelou (CLH): 21:04

Yes, I think to reiterate what Lola's already mentioned, so I think we've done some collaborations here, getting more involved in uh standing up to racism and really identifying this rise of more hard-right, far-right politics in the country, which is clearly inimical to humanist values. I think that's been a bit of a rallying point, and it was both a concern and also a challenge, I suppose, the fact that humanism was specifically identified as being something which was a a target for those groups, something they identify as being what they oppose. So that's one issue. And then there's always the issue of climate change and environmental action, which again we've been involved with. So those have been probably the big two. But of course, the assisted dying topic has continued to sort of rumble through Parliament in quite slowly now, I think, with all the uh filibustering. But yeah, that that was something probably we focused on a bit more last year to try and get it through those initial stages and early this year as well. But I think it looks, it feels as if the political environment is shaping it up in such a way that it's something where we as humanists I think there's this sense of resistance and rallying to the cause to really promote our values in the teeth of some quite sort of strong opposition and and countervailing forces.

James Hogson: 22:22

Yeah, and that humanism as resistance is the theme of the Humanist International Convention in 2026, and I think it's incredibly well-timed, and you put it very well there as well. I wonder, Nicole, from your point of view, working particularly with the young humanists, do you find when a lot of younger members join that they are that there is more of a desire to be more politically active rather than these be social meetups?

Nicole Shasha (LH & YH): 22:44

Absolutely, yeah. Because young people today, especially people who are, you know, at university 18, 19, 20, their entire lives, you know, their entire time they've been aware, you know, has been an incredibly volatile time. They haven't really known anything. Five, ten years has just been quite bizarre on the world stage, let's say, and especially more recently. And I think that, yeah, when people start looking for both the word and meaning, but then you know, the mechanisms by which to try and improve the world, and then they see humanism and seeing it as this force for good, yeah, it's a really big thing. And I think that what's lovely about it, and I think what's good about all of our groups, is that while we might specifically do some political action um and that sort of thing, a lot of it's like spurring on other people if they're like, oh, actually, I want to use humanism to set up another subgroup about XYZ issue, and it's like great. If it's if you're meeting other people that can help you do that, or that you know have connections through that, that's wonderful. Yeah, I think because you know, you always meet people who just want to meet like-minded people and have a chat. But I think that there are lots of people who are like, the world is actually we need lots of people doing good and protesting and being seen. So yeah, definitely something that a lot of people are thinking about, both young and not young.

James Hogson: 24:04

Very true, actually. That's not always age-related, is it? I think actually a lot of our more yeah, the the political activism is right across the board. And I think it's been a really good development from all of our groups, done with that sense of inclusivity and done with that sense of keeping humanism front and centre in terms of we're doing this for others. Perhaps before we wrap up, we can talk a little bit about collaboration. I know this has been a big theme for lots of our groups as well. Nicole, I know you've been active in interfaith more over the past year. How have you found that? What have been the main takeaways for you in being more active in interfaith events?

Nicole Shasha (LH & YH): 24:44

Yeah, one thing that well, especially when I started doing it, it always used to surprise me. It now no longer surprises me, but I think it's something that is really beneficial for me to think about how I think about the world and my place in it and my thoughts as a humanist and everything, is just that quite a lot of people have a lot more weird ideas than you think, even if they're there saying I am a Christian, and then I will have these ideas like, okay, that this is what I then think that you believe. I wouldn't say that to them, but in my head. And there's almost nothing that you can really infer from someone's belief, even if they're explicitly saying I am associated with this religion, because I think wasn't there a study, and even it's something like a third of people who call themselves Christians and are C of E and attend church, don't actually believe that Jesus was the Son of God.

James Hogson: 25:31

I would have thought that was a baseline belief, but that's it.

Nicole Shasha (LH & YH): 25:35

I thought that was like actually the thing you had to believe to be a Christian. I thought anything else was kind of optional, but I thought that was the one thing. And especially, I mean, I think it's very interesting doing into faith as a humanist, because what I find is particularly in the kind of unofficial things, when you're just chatting to one person, they will tell me some really interesting things that they personally think, but basically that they're like, Oh, I can't really tell anyone in my community because this is like too weird of a an idea or not mainstream, or they're not sure what they'll think of it, which is always such a shame that they don't feel like they can tell their community or talk about that. But I think it's wonderful that they do have a space to be like, actually, I think this. And I guess, and then in the wider thing, that belief makes you realise, and it's linked back to what you guys were talking about with the CLH event with the what I believe, is like people are endlessly fascinating, and what they think, they how they think, while we can never truly understand someone else's, I think it's such a wonderful insight, and to be given that opportunity to be there to be open and listen to what people have to think and why they think they do and what they have to say is always interesting. And sometimes, and a lot of the time, we have so much in common with interfaith, sometimes people might say something that we massively disagree with, but then it's how can we even start to understand other people if people don't have that opportunity to say something they're like, actually I do massively disagree, but we can understand each other, yeah.

James Hogson: 26:55

Yeah, that's been my experience as well. It challenges all your assumptions and actually hopefully challenges the assumptions of the party as well. And you do find that common ground. And Mark, I know you've been very active in strengthening ties. You mentioned lots of joint events over the course of this year and strengthening ties with other local groups. Do you see collaboration as a theme of the year and something to continue in 2026?

Mark Agathangelou (CLH): 27:17

Yes, definitely. I think collaboration is this has been identified, it's a very fruitful way for us to move forward. And I think not having too much concern about labels, but really just finding people who are like-minded who we can do work with is very much the way to go. And so, yeah, we've had a number of collaborations. We've got some more lined up with other humanist groups, and one of the sceptical groups is going to collaborate with Summer Event next year. But I think we see a lot of uh potential for working much more closely with the other London humanist groups, and we will certainly be aiming to stage more joint events with them and potentially even collaborate to the point where we may even combine into one London group. That's certainly something we are thinking about. We see a lot of potential for that to make us more efficient as individual groups by pooling some of the sort of core functions, and then also that we can expand out into some areas of London where humanism has slightly waned, but where there is still a lot of enthusiasm for it. So, yeah, there's a lot of potential for collaboration in 2026.

James Hogson: 28:20

And do you see the same, Lola? Are you finding there's more groups to collaborate with? Because I know for the longest time, Association of Black Humanists was out there on your own and bringing everyone to you, but it it feels like now, from the events that I went to, there are there are more groups popping up now. And uh, as we mentioned, more of these online communities to to work with.

Lola Tinubu (ABH): 28:43

Yeah, historically with ABH, we've always collaborated with other groups. There was a time we used to have a close relationship with the ex-council of Muslims. We haven't done things maybe in the last two years. And I think our biggest collaborators are the Central London humanists, and sometimes we don't know the difference between ABH and CLH. We are almost like the Trinity, the Father, it's God, like we are the same, basically. So we hope to continue to do that, and we will continue to collaborate with different Pan-African groups and um with our friends on TikTok. I have a few friends on TikTok. We hope to strengthen our relationship, and my biggest dream for 2026 is for all these little groups of black groups for us to come together as well and um who knows form a super group. Yeah, so that's my hope for 2026 and beyond because I don't see the point. I know that different groups you know serve certain specific needs, but I think we also need to come together and tackle some things together. I couldn't agree more.

James Hogson: 30:20

And I do hope when that supergroup does form, that you will continue to be the lead singer, Lola. So we look forward to that. Perhaps that's brings us on nicely to wrap up, look ahead for 2026. I'd love to just go around the panel and talk about hopes, really. What hopes and what you're looking forward to in the year ahead. I mean, Lola, I know you mentioned is there anything else you'd like to add for what you're looking forward to in the next year?

Lola Tinubu (ABH): 30:45

I forgot to mention the big one as well, uh, for ABH, which is a podcast. Thanks to you, James. Um, secular Sankofa. I think we've done about at least five or six recordings. Thank you so much for your support with that. And I hope that we continue to work together on secular Sankofa. I hope we get bigger and better in 2026. And we are also thinking of maybe a magazine that's very ambitious, but we never know. But at least maybe we'll start with the newsletter.

James Hogson: 31:26

Thank you very much for your kind words, and it's been a real pleasure. And please do go and listen to the Secular Sankhofa. It's always a wonderful listen. But yes, perhaps this is a good call to action. If anyone listening can help launch a magazine for the Association of Black Humanists or would like to be involved in some way, we'll leave Lola's uh contact her TikTok. Yeah, reach out to Lola on TikTok. That'll be in the show notes. Nicole, or what about for you? What are you looking forward to in 2026?

Nicole Shasha (LH & YH): 31:53

Yeah, I'm just really looking forward to um building community even more, helping get everybody where they need to be in terms of because lots of people join because that we were saying, want to do activism, but look, we want to become school speakers or just do something. So it's been really nice to help people to do that sort of thing and get to know all these different people in the city is really wonderful. So the world is in a bit of a tricky place at the moment, and there's lots of bad things going on. And I think that offering, first of all, a community is really important, a community of like-minded people, because like we were saying, having all this online stuff and then the online space now being dominated by AI and lots of other very damaging and worrying things, um, offering a place just to have like-minded community can really make people feel really better, but then also helping people to realize that I think it's very easy nowadays to we look at all of the ills in the world and think how could we possibly solve all of these? And of course, the answer is that we can't as individuals, but all of us can solve, you know, do what we can on our little patch and in our little community. And I think that's something really wonderful to see locally, is like the small change that we might make to people locally, and I think that just carrying on with that and helping other people to see that, because I think it's something that can really put our minds at ease. We look at all this awful stuff, and it's okay, let's just do what we can locally rather than trying to fix the world.

James Hogson: 33:13

That's a really nice course of action, and yeah. And I guess it comes back to the point about responsibility, I think, and that that is in the definition of humanism with humanist international that we have the right and responsibility. But uh yeah, it's taking action in the spaces that we can. Thank you very much, Nicole. And Mark, what are your hopes for 2026?

Mark Agathangelou (CLH): 33:34

Well, I I think there's a huge potential in London and in other parts of the country as well, but particularly on our patch to really expand humanism and raise its profile. At the moment, I think Humanist UK have a couple of thousand members in London, which is good. A city of 10 million, one feels somehow. It should be slightly higher, or it would be nice if it could be made higher. And that may be one measure of of success that if we were able to do that. I think to some extent it's down to just doing the sort of hard work as Lola identified. It's about doing the footwork and uh raising one's profile on social media. I think that's we can do it, we can do some more in that. And I think just also we've got a lot of people who are interested in volunteering with us to to get involved with things, and we can I've been saying for several years now that I will I'll take it, make an effort to try and help us get that better organised. And so that's probably the first thing I really want to do going forward. And we had a stall last year at a sort of a local fair, and I attended that, and it was really good fun, and I think that's something we could do more of to really raise the profile of humanism in London, because there's probably a couple of hundred such fairs across London. If we can attend five of those, then that would be a great start.

James Hogson: 34:41

Yeah, I agree. I think that would be an excellent sort of continuation of kind of the community engagement and activism that's being developed by lots of our proactive members in the group. Thank you all for coming back on Humanism Now. It's great to have the band back together. Before we go, we do still have our standard closing question. And Lola, I think you've been nominated. So what is something which you've changed your mind on? And you've got all of 2025 to choose from.

Lola Tinubu (ABH): 35:08

Okay. I think the big one for me, I don't know whether it's a change of yeah, it is a change of mind. Earlier this year, I was having problems with my knees. So I couldn't walk up the stairs, I couldn't do much. I was in crutches, and then I was referred to do physiotherapy, and I thought, I'm in so much pain. What do you mean, physiotherapy? And then I saw the physiotherapist, and then she was moving my leg in a particular and I thought, no, this is not happening. And then I said no. But then I think the doctors kept persuading me, and then I thought, okay, let me give it a go. And then to my surprise, I don't know why I'm surprised, but if it there is a miracle, I found that that exercise, and I've learned so much about exercise in the year, the connection between pain and exercise, I would never have put them together. I would never have thought that exercise can cure pain. And yeah, so I didn't believe it, and now I'm a believer. I'm a believer in exercise. It's almost like a miracle. If I didn't believe in a miracle before, now I believe in the miracle of exercise.

James Hogson: 36:32

On that bombshell. Thank you all so much for joining us. It's really great to see everyone. Congratulations on everything that's been achieved, and I'm really excited to see what everyone's gonna be building and everything that's gonna be achieved in 2026. Hopefully, we'll see you all on the podcast again, and also if not, at the Festival of Humanism in June, perhaps at the Humanist International Convention later in the summer. There's gonna be a and if you are ever happen to be in London or in Leicester or even joining us online, please do come along to one of our events with any of the groups that you met here today. So, to my panel, thank you so much for joining us on Humanism Now.

Humanise Live: 37:13

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