Every month, at our main event—the Sunday Assembly celebration—we have a guest speaker. Their topic might make us Wonder More, or tell us how we can Help Often, or Live Better.
Over the years, we’ve heard many wonderful and fascinating speakers.
Some examples of past speakers:
Nick Pilch
Nick is an elected member of the Executive Committee for the Bay Area Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Nick will be giving a brief overview of the Bay Area Chapter and discussing Alternative Transportation and Electrification.
Julie Bongers
Julie Bongers has been hearing many stories of how little-known and unrecognized indigenous peoples across the California bio-region are finding unique means to reclaim their heritage waters, lands, and cultures. To survive, many tribes — Esselen, Tubatulabal, Northern Chumash, Tongva, Ohlone… — have hidden and some have been considered extinct for a century or more. All these are now daylighting their identities, and alongside small federally recognized tribes such as Wiyot, are reawakening relationships with heritage waters and lands.
To survive, many let their songs, stories, spiritual practices, languages, and visible participation in indigenous ecological knowledge go to sleep. Now, even when lacking casino wealth, these tribes are visibly exhibiting the creativity through which they survived, embracing new paths via traditional practices for building good relations, and thereby establishing unique and inspiring models for lands and waters-back.
For family-related reasons, Julie Bongers has been involved with the Native American community in the East Bay and beyond since about 2005. She recently completed an MA in Ecology and Native American and Himalayan Religions at UCSB. Her primary professor there, Dr. Inés Talamantez, was a Mescalero Apache who shared Julie’s concern for the wellbeing of the earth and her waters.
Veda Hlubinka-Cook
The Sunday we meet this month, November 20th, is the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Sunday Assembly East Bay takes this opportunity to raise visibility for transgender people and address some issues the community faces, while also celebrating that we all Live Better when everyone can be their true selves. Veda Cook will speak on the empathetic future we might anticipate with our increasingly transfriendly culture.
Veda Hlubinka-Cook is a computer scientist, programmer, and co-founder of Metaweb (which became Google’s Knowledge Graph), mother of two, and the wife of SAEB member Michelle Hlubinka. Early in her career, she programmed video games. She came out as transgender in 2017.
Mayra Lopez-Thibodeaux
Our guest speaker this month is Mayra Lopez-Thibodeaux , Skyline College Instructor in Astronomy and Physics. Mayra grew up in Mexico, and moved to San Francisco as a young adult. She is a former Skyline College student who transferred to San Francisco State University (SFSU) to earned a B.S. in Astrophysics.
She started doing research in dark matter in her second year at SFSU and continued doing so for the next three years after graduation at Berkeley’s Space Science and Berkeley-Lawrence National Laboratories. She has a Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from San Jose State University and really enjoys teaching at Skyline College where she gets the opportunity to help a large population of unrepresented and disadvantage students to thrive in their lives.
Regina Beatus
Our guest speaker this month is Regina Beatus from the League of Women Voters. Her presentation will explain the 7 state ballot propositions on the November 2022 ballot, including pros and cons, the arguments for and against, and what organizations are providing financial support. The League has been providing their non-partisan information to the community for over 100 years.
Alicia Bogart
Our guest speaker this month is Alicia Bogart.
After living in Thailand for the worst parts of Covid, SASV member Alicia will share highlights of her experience and what we can all learn from Thai culture: how to slow down, how not to take things too seriously, and how to show up for each other (and have fun doing it!).
Alicia is a San Jose native. She considers herself a lifelong learner with a passion for psychology, philosophy, cosmic education, and can’t-we-all-get-along-ness. Once a painfully shy kid, Alicia found her voice through the power of books, the internet and a 10-year practicum in food service. She now works as a teacher. It is there that Alicia has the privilege and joy of encouraging the quietest and loudest students (and everyone in between) to cultivate a love for learning and a sense of possibility. In her free time, Alicia practices yoga, doodling, vegan cooking, and loves to spend time outdoors. She considers herself a “professional human.”
James Croft
Our speaker this month is James Croft, Senior Leader of Ethical Society of St. Louis, one of the largest Humanist congregations in the world. With an MA from University of Cambridge and an EdD from Harvard Graduate School of Education, James is a gay Humanist and a human rights activist. He is also currently co-authoring a book called “Lifefulness” with Sunday Assembly Co-Founder, Sanderson Jones.
James’s talk is titled “Beyond Religion: Connecting to a Bigger Purpose without God.”
Stuart Diamond
Our guest speaker this month is Stuart Diamond, a Feldenkrais practitioner. Feldenkrais is an amazing form of healing through movement developed by Moshe Feldenkrais. It states that it is NOT your muscles or joints that are causing your pain or discomfort — it’s the mixed messages your brain is giving and receiving as it tries to navigate old wounds, new fears, and constant chemical reactions.
Grace Walcott
Gracie X will be speaking about her ideology as a sex-positive writer and activist. She will be exploring questions such as, I want everybody to have an orgasm–why does this make so many people angry? What does it mean to feel entitled to pleasure? And finally, how does having pleasure intersect with the social justice movement and the evolution of our culture?
Rivka Mason
This month, as we see on the first day of spring, we welcome Rivka Mason, an environmentalist and educator who, in 1994, transformed a piece of Berkeley’s Malcolm X Elementary School play yard into a outdoor classroom.
Using her edenic, lush, nurturing 4,000-square-foot organic garden and ecology center as both setting and learning tool, she teaches nutrition, math, science, social studies, art and history. She’ll answer our questions about small-scale community agriculture. Bring seeds to swap with other attendees!
Stephen Lee
“The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!”
We wish Sherlock Holmes a happy 168th birthday this month by inviting a former prosecutor and journalist to share insights from the world’s most famous detective … who never was! What real-life investigative techniques and strategies did this ever-popular fictional character engage?
Stephen Lee builds on his years of Conan-Doyle fandom and his deep experience as a prosecutor to share advice that Sherlock Holmes would give anyone who wants to be more curious about the world around them. Lee suggests that Holmes created his own version of Wikipedia to help his investigations, and his techniques that could aid investigations of any kind. Make it your “business to know what other people don’t know.”
Annie Goglia
Annie Goglia, yoga instructor, will lead us in doing Laughter Yoga.
You’ve heard the saying, “laughter is the best medicine?” In this interactive session, you’ll get to see if it’s true for yourself! Experience easy laughter and breathing exercises scientifically proven to reduce stress, boost your immune system (we REALLY need that right now!), lower blood pressure, lift your mood, and improve an overall sense of well-being. You will learn fun techniques to simulate and stimulate laughter you can use in everyday life.
Vita Zavoli
A former president of Sunday Assembly East Bay, Vita will be demonstrating how people who are blind use various tools and technology to get through their daily lives including accessible phone apps for reading mail and other documents, bar codes, prescription labels, etc.
Other tools are talking clocks, thermostats, home assistants, screen readers, braille, and more.
Craig Good
Relax and Enjoy Your Food: Save your money, your health, and your sanity by separating fact from flapdoodle. Craig is working on a book, soon to be published, on this topic.
The talk will be a brief overview of how nutrition works and how to fight back against the forces that are trying to frighten you into buying their products. It’s all about the importance of following the science and having a healthy relationship with food.
Mark MacKay
Mark MacKay is a Seattle-based artist and a full-time caregiver for his partner. Mark came out in 1978. He helped found North Shore Lesbian & Gay Alliance, which provided support for a burgeoning queer community near Boston in the 80s through its political action and social functions. In those days it wasn’t uncommon to have pickup trucks with rifle-bearing men driving by their meetings—the location was never secret.
Mark was also a founding member of the Boston Area Gay & Lesbian History Project — researching and lecturing on LGBT people’s lives during Boston’s first 350 years. He worked on marriage equality campaigns with his UU congregation and continues to work on queer social justice issues. On this Father’s Day morning, Mark talks to us about Chosen Families.
Pippa Evans
Co-founder of Sunday Assembly, Pippa Evans, who describes herself as an improvised human, has written a book titled “Improv Your Life.” She will be speaking to us directly from London via Zoom, about the book and her philosophy.
Deborah Malbec
Deborah Malbec, a member of our chapter and travel and science enthusiast, will share some new discoveries about Stonehenge and explain the connection between Stonehenge and the Spring Equinox.
Regina Mason
Black History Month: Regina Mason, Stories from my ancestor. I met Regina Mason when she was the keynote speaker at the Berkeley Martin Luther King Memorial breakfast. Regina discovered that her great, great, great grandfather, William Grimes the Runaway Slave wrote the first fugitive slave narrative in American history. Because Grimes wrote and published his narrative on his own, without deference to white editors, publishers, or sponsors, his Life has an immediacy, candor, and no-holds-barred realism unparalleled in the famous antebellum slave narratives of the period.
Learn more about Regina at her website : https://www.reginamason.com/ where you can also view the film about her research “Gina’s Journey” and purchase a signed copy of her book, Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave.
Pam Young
January 5 is National Bird Day in the US. Pam Young, the executive director of the Golden Gate Audubon Society will talk to us about their activities and how we might participate.
Pam Young is an aviculturist, birding guide, and environmental law specialist who worked for many years as a bird curator at zoos including the Toledo Zoo and Dallas Zoo. Her skills with birds include rescue and rehabilitation, reproduction in captivity for re-population programs, and falconry.
John Beck
Astronomy is the Poetry of the Universe by John Beck. With PhD from UCLA in Astronomy, and experience as Solar Astronomer at Stanford and UCLA, John Beck is currently Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Mission College.
Janet King
This month’s speaker is Janet King, who works at the Native American Health Center in Oakland. She will be telling us about the past and the proposed future of the Emeryville Shellmound. See their website https://shellmound.org for more information.
Lucien Greaves
Lucien Greaves is the founder and leader of The Satanic Temple. The mission of The Satanic Temple Is To Encourage Benevolence And Empathy, Reject Tyrannical Authority, Advocate Practical Common Sense, Oppose Injustice, and Undertake Noble Pursuits. They have publicly confronted hate groups, fought for the abolition of corporal punishment in public schools, applied for equal representation when religious installations are placed on public property, provided religious exemption and legal protection against laws that unscientifically restrict women’s reproductive autonomy, exposed harmful pseudo-scientific practitioners in mental health care, organized clubs alongside other religious after-school clubs in schools besieged by proselytizing organizations, and engaged in other advocacy in accordance with our tenets. See https://thesatanictemple.com/ for more information.
Ainebyona Marium
Nurturing for Future Development is a non-profit in Kampala, Uganda. The goals of the organization are to provide essentials to the people in this community, which especially after covid is being really impacted and daily life is more difficult. There has been a rise in domestic violence, teen pregnancies, HIV, and marrying off girls by age 13. The community is working on setting up a small business, so local residents can make things such as footwear, to be sold in the city, and to raise funds for daily living. Speaker Ainebyona Marium is one of the co-founders and is the executive director.
Hsuan Chen
Hsuan Chen, a member of our local group, will take us on a Virtual Voyage to Taipei, Taiwan, the capitol of the Republic of China.
Roberta Maguire
Roberta Maguire is a retired public school teacher, but she does not let any grass grow under her feet. During the regular school year she works as a substitute teacher in Berkeley. During the summer she often teaches English in schools in various countries. She also runs marathons and climbs mountains. Today she will speak about several of her international sojourns, including her combination adventure in East Africa a few years ago, where she taught English in a village school and also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
“Lev” White
“Lev” White is a love and compassionate activist. He offers mindfulness, coaching, mediation, and diversity trainings as tools for shifting towards more authentic, conscious, and passionate living, for individuals, households, and professional teams. He teaches and writes about how self-love and self-compassion are the ultimate gateways to loving and understanding others. Lev’s work encourages more creative and productive work teams, and on the ground healing for our communities, and planet.
Joel Pomerantz
Joel Pomerantz, is an ecologist and naturalist, the proprietor of Think Walks. He will be speaking to us about WATER! “What clues lead to water locations, and how right or wrong they can be.” Joel will discuss underground creeks and rivers and focus especially on the local region. Join us!
Dave Warnock
Dave Warnock will be speaking this Sunday about his religious life and conversion to a non believer at age 50. He also will be speaking about, “Dying Out Loud,” the fear people have of talking about death and how he has chosen to live out loud, after his diagnosis of ALS, (Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Thank you for joining us!