September / October 2009

The HUMANIST Interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ahead of this Sunday's premiere of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, TheHumanist.com revisits our 2009 interview with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, winner of that year's Isaac Asimov Science Award at the American Humanist Association's 68th Annual Conference. Tyson's reboot of Cosmos follows Carl Sagan's wildly popular original. Watch the premiere on Sunday, March 9...

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Features

Up Front

Humanism and the Burqa Bugaboo

The recent burqa controversy, plaguing France has produced yet another headache for liberals, humanists, and lovers of democracy who feel themselves trapped between conflicting principles. While the term “burqa” (a head-to-toe covering) is commonly used in...

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Columns

Reviews

Elsewhere in the Humanist:

Faith, Authority, and the Lure of Certainty

THE RISE OF THE NAZI PARTY did not emerge from a cultural vacuum. It was enabled by a psychological and social environment receptive to hierarchy, obedience, mythic identity and the moral elevation of the in-group. While Nazism was not a religious movement,...

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Elsewhere in the Humanist:

When They Speak of Our Time

Speech delivered at the No Kings protest at the Lexington Common, MA, October 18, 2025. Good morning to all. My name is Regie Gibson and I am the Inaugural Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I always feel it necessary to...

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Elsewhere in the Humanist:

By Conscience Alone

We are here today to present the American Humanist Association’s Humanist of the Year award to Jelani Cobb. The award was established in 1953 to recognize a person of national or international reputation who, through the application of humanist values, has made...

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Elsewhere in the Humanist:

The Future of Civic Power

At this moment in history, we have a clear challenge and opportunity. There is the long-term challenge of educating for expansive civic engagement, and there is the immediate challenge of responding to growing attacks on the very structure of democracy and an...

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