What If Meaning Was A Public Service? Scaling Humanism with Urtė Žukauskaitė-Zabuke

Sign up for the Humanists International Newsletter https://humanists.international/sign-up-for-the-newsletter/ Leon reports back from Berlin and a visit to HVD, one of the world's most comprehensive humanist service organisations. He also updates on HI joining the Human Rights and Democracy Network (HRDN), giving HI new access to EU institutions and setting up a December event to highlight humanists and atheists as human rights defenders. Gary and Leon close the pre-interview reflecting on a World Cup moment where the same video of Trump with the Spanish team was claimed as proof by completely opposite political camps. Urtė Žukauskaitė-Zabukė is co-founder and CEO of Humanist Ideas Ambassadors (HIA). She founded HIA in 2016 after her own wedding: unable to find a humanist ceremony in Lithuania, she looked to Poland and thought — why not here? HIA has since married more than 2,200 couples, built a network of 55 celebrants, and grows humanist ceremonies at 15% a year through a social enterprise model. HIA also ran an accelerator for humanist ceremony startups in four countries; Peru — one of the recipients — will present at the World Humanist Congress in Ottawa. In this episode we cover How Urtė's own wedding in 2016 launched Lithuania's humanist ceremony movement The social enterprise model: why selling meaning gives humanist organisations resources to grow Lithuania's statistics paradox: 80% Catholic on paper, 30% church marriages, 50% choosing ethics over religion in schools How Soviet forced atheism poisoned the word "atheist" in Lithuania — and why "humanist" fills the gap The HIA ceremonies accelerator: mentoring humanist ceremony startups in four countries, with Peru at Ottawa Further reading and references Humanist Ideas Ambassadors (HIA): https://www.hia.lt/en/ umanistischer Verband Deutschlands (HVD): https://humanismus.de/en/ Human Rights and Democracy Network (HRDN): https://www.hrdn.eu/ Humanists International joins HRDN (April 2026): https://humanists.international/2026/04/humanists-international-joins-human-rights-and-democracy-network/ European Humanist Services Network (EHSN): https://humanistservices.eu/ Follow Humanist International Sign up for our free Newsletter Support Humanists International Follow our Campaigns About - Humanists International  Freedom of Thought Report This podcast is produced by Humanise Live. Start your podcast today, visit: humanise.live 🎶Music: Horizon by Simon Folwar 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.