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TuneIn Day two in Ottawa: quickfire conversations on humanist chaplaincy, local community, humanist politics and resisting the normalisation of dehumanisation.
Support Humanism Now & Join Our Community! Part two of our dispatches from the World Humanist Congress 2026 in Ottawa. On the second and final day, James Hodgson caught up with more attendees, from the humanist chaplains bringing secular pastoral care into the Canadian Armed Forces, to the local Ottawa organisers who hosted the event, an Icelandic politician on humanist values in turbulent times, and two returning Humanism Now guests reflecting on the movement's past and future.
Across every conversation the theme of the Congress, humanism as resistance, keeps surfacing: resisting the erosion of truth, the normalisation of dehumanising rhetoric, and the complacency that assumes rights won can never be lost.
"It just takes one person in a room to change a whole conversation and change the course of history." — Roslyn Mould
Featured in this episode
- Silvana Morales-Boiardi, humanist chaplain with Humanist Canada, training as a military humanist chaplain in the Canadian Armed Forces
- Buela Nokutubo, member of Humanist Ottawa
- Dr Richard Thain, Humanist Ottawa, long-time humanist and recipient of a service award at the Congress
- Arndís Anna Kristínardóttir Gunnarsdóttir, President of Siðmennt (the Icelandic Humanist Association) and former member of Iceland's parliament
- Chris Cameron, historian and author, representing the Association of Black Humanists
- Roslyn Mould, of Accra Atheists and outgoing Vice President of Humanists International
Highlights
- Building humanist chaplaincy in the Canadian Armed Forces, and how the first humanist military chaplain opened the door for the next generation
- Why local groups matter: Humanist Ottawa on community, and Dr Richard Thain on four decades in the movement
- Arndís Anna on resisting the normalisation of dehumanisation, and Roslyn Mould reflecting on stepping down after years of leadership at Humanists International
CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
01:06 Silvana Morales-Boiardi, Humanist Canada, humanist chaplaincy in the Armed Forces
08:12 Buela Nokutubo, Humanist Ottawa, finding community
13:50 Dr Richard Thain, Humanist Ottawa, four decades in the movement
20:17 Arndís Anna Kristínardóttir Gunnarsdóttir, Siðmennt, humanist politics as resistance
29:02 Chris Cameron, Association of Black Humanists, humanism and history
35:15 Roslyn Mould, reflections on leaving the Humanists International board
Support Humanism Now & Join Our Community!
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Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live, a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe. Contact us to get started in podcasting today at humanise.live or hello@humanise.live.
Music: Blossom by Light Prism
Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.
World Humanist Congress, Humanists International, humanism, resistance, Ottawa, humanist chaplaincy, military chaplaincy, Humanist Canada, Humanist Ottawa, Siðmennt, Arndís Anna Kristínardóttir Gunnarsdóttir, Chris Cameron, Association of Black Humanists, Roslyn Mould, Accra Atheists, secularism, Humanism Now
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Professor of History, UNC Charlotte | Author, Black Freethinkers
Christopher Cameron is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is a founder of the African American Intellectual History Society, the author of To Plead Our Own Cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the Making of the Antislavery Movement and Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism, and a coeditor of New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition.
President, Accra Atheists | Former Vice President, Humanists International
Roslyn Mould is a Ghanaian humanist leader and President of Accra Atheists. She served on the Board of Humanists International from 2019 and as Vice President from 2023 to 2026, the first African Board member to hold the role. She was previously Secretary and Chair of the Young Humanists International African Working Group from 2014 to 2019.
She has been a member of the Humanist Association of Ghana since it was founded in 2012 and held several positions, including President from 2015 to 2019. She is the Coordinator for the West African Humanist Network, an Advisory Board member of the FoRB Leadership Network (UK), and a former Board member of LGBT+ Rights Ghana. She is a recipient of the Distinguished Service to Humanism award and holds a bachelor's degree in Linguistics and Modern Languages.