Featured Speaker(s)

Sheila Beckford and E. Michelle Ledder Anti-Racism 4REALS: Real Talk with Real Strategies in Real Time for Real Change Using the concept of “racial positionality” as the entry point for engaging anti-racist work, Beckford and Ledder offer concrete tools to confront racism and bring about real change in real time in their first book, Anti-Racism 4REALS. Written by two ordained women - one Black Latina, one white - this straight-talk, practical workbook provides 137 ways to be truly anti-racist, including scripts and other practices for interrupting and dismantling racism.

Jasmine Wang What Makes Us Human? An Artificial Intelligence Answers Life's Biggest Questions What Makes Us Human? is the result of a profound experiment:

What happens when an AI is prompted with the world’s great spiritual, philosophical, and literary works that have formed the basis of human belief - and then answers humanity’s most pressing questions about life?

Internationally bestselling poet Iain S. Thomas and globally recognized prodigious researcher and innovator Jasmine Wang set out to do just that. They prompted the world’s most advanced AI, GPT-3, with a wealth of humanity’s most cherished works, from the Bible and the Tao Te Ching, to the poetry of Rumi and Sappho, to the words of modern-day mystics. Then they posed it thousands of questions.

Contained in this trailblazing book are the conversations and exchanges that followed.

What Makes Us Human? serves as a contemporary exploration of spirituality that will inspire you, move you, and give you a new understanding of what makes us humans, humans. Jasmine Wang is a technologist and philosopher and is a 2020 Thiel Fellow and 2019 Interact Fellow. She has worked with the Partnership on AI, the Future of Humanity Institute, OpenAI, Microsoft Research, and the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms.

Kathy Klaus Wild Ride: Women's Stories and Life Lessons Inspired by a whimsical sculpture by the same name, Wild Ride began as part of a workshop at the Humor Academy in Alberta, Canada. Kathy Klaus collected stories from fifty-five women reflecting on an event or stage of their life. These guest Storytellers responded with authentic stories and life lessons that cover a wealth of topics from city to farm, travels abroad and everyday family life. Without filters for age, topic or writing experience, these stories capture the authentic voice of each woman and include a piece of advice they would offer their younger self.

Flowing from the stories, the Surrounded by Story Retreat component of the book includes four Keynotes that illuminate the relationship of story, memory, emotion and gratitude and provide the results of research, personal account and commentary. Combined with the insights from the Storytellers, Breakout Rooms with writing prompts to encourage the Reader to record their own thoughts and emotions, providing them an opportunity to consider their own memories and the realization that our lives are made of stories from which we can benefit when we more closely integrate them into our lives. Kathy Klaus is a lover of stories--everyday anecdotes, travel escapades, and finding the funny wherever it lives.