What we’re about
Are you seeking a community of thoughtful, action-driven people who care deeply about truth, ethical leadership, and making a positive difference?
Welcome to the Free Thinker Institute Meetup.
We are a group of diverse individuals with curious minds committed to growing ourselves and serving others. Together, we build a community where meaningful conversations lead to real-world change.
Why Join Us?
🤝 Belong: Connect with people who share your values and encourage your growth.
🧠 Learn & Grow: Expand your leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills.
🌎 Make an Impact: Work on meaningful projects that benefit your community and beyond.
🎯 Align with Purpose: Live out the values of truth, service, respect, and sustainability.
💡 Be Inspired: Share ideas and learn from others who are walking the same path.
Our Six Intentions in priority order (Our Community Values):
- Always seek to be polite, Self-improve, seek truth, be fair
- Transparently share our ideas with others and listen with an open mind to what they say
- Hone our critical thinking skills so we can better discern fact from fiction and wisdom from folly
- Prevent significant unnecessary harm for everyone
- Increase happiness & decrease harm for everyone we can influence
- Eager to give, receive, and reciprocate love
What We Do:
- How to apply the 6 intentions into our life to live a better life
- Workshops on purpose-driven entrepreneurship and innovation
- Collaborating with each other to help each member achieve their goals
- Meaningful networking—without the sales pitches
- Open discussions on life’s biggest questions and challenges
Upcoming events
4
•OnlineFTI: The Impact of Oral Health on Systemic Health: A Vital Connection
OnlineWe will examine how periodontal disease, an infection of the gums, can, by spreading inflammation throughout the body, cause disease in the heart, lungs, brain and other organs, contribute to cancer, autoimmune disease and dementia.
Speaker: Michael Strassberg
Note: social time for our community 15 minutes before the presentation.
To get familiar with our past events, feel free to check out our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmixGB9GdrptyEWovEj80zgAfter registering via zoom, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We publish our event recordings on our Youtube channel to offer our help to anyone who would like to but can’t attend the meeting, so we need to give this clause. If you don’t want to be recorded, just remain on mute and keep your video off.
Here’s our legal notice: For valuable consideration received, by joining this event I hereby grant Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns, the irrevocable and unrestricted right to use and publish any and all Zoom recordings for trade, advertising and any other commercial purpose, and to alter the same without any restriction. I hereby release Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns from all claims and liability related to said video recordings.
2 attendees
•OnlineFTI: Fireside Chat: The Power of Words in the Age of Human–Machine Futures
OnlineJoin the Free Thinker Institute for a thought-provoking fireside chat exploring how language shapes our shared future at the intersection of humanity and technology. Words carry immense power: they can either accelerate division, fear, and collapse—or spark trust, creativity, and breakthroughs that uplift society.
In this dialogue, we’ll explore:
Why now is the critical moment for rethinking how we communicate with each other and with machines
How narratives, framing, and collective meaning influence the direction of AI and human collaboration
The dual possibilities ahead: technology as a catalyst for crisis—or as the foundation of a more connected, thriving world
This session invites deep reflection and open conversation on how we can use words intentionally to guide the blended future of humans and machines toward unity and prosperity.
A little about our host:
Garrett is a programmer turned award-winning software inventor turned entrepreneur ([PlateRate.com](http://platerate.com/) is his company). His hobby is writing and discussing practical philosophy, and he does life coaching on request to help people live happy, moral lives. He is also the executive director of The Free Thinker Institute ([FreeThinkerInstitute.org](http://freethinkerinstitute.org/)), which aims to create a community that helps members increase happiness and decrease harm for themselves and those they can influence.Format: Lecture and discussion
Note: social time for our community 15 minutes before the presentation.
To get familiar with our past events, feel free to check out our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmixGB9GdrptyEWovEj80zgAfter registering via zoom, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We publish our event recordings on our Youtube channel to offer our help to anyone who would like to but can’t attend the meeting, so we need to give this clause. If you don’t want to be recorded, just remain on mute and keep your video off.
Here’s our legal notice: For valuable consideration received, by joining this event I hereby grant Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns, the irrevocable and unrestricted right to use and publish any and all Zoom recordings for trade, advertising and any other commercial purpose, and to alter the same without any restriction. I hereby release Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns from all claims and liability related to said video recordings.
2 attendees
•OnlineFTI: Is “Mainstream Media” Misleading Us? How Do We Know Who’s Lying?
Online“Mainstream media” is generally used to refer to left or center leaning media. But is it really mainstream? Actually, most viewers watch right wing media (Fox, OAN, and newsmax). Here are some statistics on what is mainstream media: https://chatgpt.com/s/t_68d868355d908191b62c8d00b3cec21b
In this session we will teach a very easy and objective way to fact-check media (something we should *all* be doing, as there are lots of lies in the media these days: Have your favorite LLM fact check articles. You can have LLMs with various bias check each other’s fact checks and then try to find the primary sources they claim exist.
You can use this prompt to fact check: Please clarify what is accurate, misleading, or outright false in this article: \A little about our host:
Garrett is a programmer turned award-winning software inventor turned entrepreneur (PlateRate.com is his company). His hobby is writing and discussing practical philosophy, and he does life coaching on request to help people live happy, moral lives. He is also the executive director of The Free Thinker Institute (FreeThinkerInstitute.org), which aims to create a community that helps members increase happiness and decrease harm for themselves and those they can influence.Format: Lecture and discussion
Note: social time for our community 15 minutes before the presentation.
To get familiar with our past events, feel free to check out our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmixGB9GdrptyEWovEj80zgAfter registering via zoom, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We publish our event recordings on our Youtube channel to offer our help to anyone who would like to but can’t attend the meeting, so we need to give this clause. If you don’t want to be recorded, just remain on mute and keep your video off.
Here’s our legal notice: For valuable consideration received, by joining this event I hereby grant Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns, the irrevocable and unrestricted right to use and publish any and all Zoom recordings for trade, advertising and any other commercial purpose, and to alter the same without any restriction. I hereby release Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns from all claims and liability related to said video recordings.
3 attendees
•OnlineFTI: Can We Trust Our Government Institutions?
OnlineFrom Congress and the courts to agencies and local offices, government institutions hold immense power over our daily lives. Yet public trust in them has been declining for decades. What makes a government institution worthy of trust? What warning signs show if and when it is failing the people it serves?
This conversation invites us to look deeper into the foundations of democracy, accountability, and transparency. Together, we’ll explore whether our government institutions are living up to their promises—and what it would take to restore trust where it’s been lost.
A little about our host:
Garrett is a programmer turned award-winning software inventor turned entrepreneur ([PlateRate.com](http://platerate.com/) is his company). His hobby is writing and discussing practical philosophy, and he does life coaching on request to help people live happy, moral lives. He is also the executive director of The Free Thinker Institute ([FreeThinkerInstitute.org](http://freethinkerinstitute.org/)), which aims to create a community that helps members increase happiness and decrease harm for themselves and those they can influence.
Format: Lecture and discussion
Note: social time for our community 15 minutes before the presentation.
To get familiar with our past events, feel free to check out our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmixGB9GdrptyEWovEj80zgAfter registering via zoom, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
We publish our event recordings on our Youtube channel to offer our help to anyone who would like to but can’t attend the meeting, so we need to give this clause. If you don’t want to be recorded, just remain on mute and keep your video off.
Here’s our legal notice: For valuable consideration received, by joining this event I hereby grant Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns, the irrevocable and unrestricted right to use and publish any and all Zoom recordings for trade, advertising and any other commercial purpose, and to alter the same without any restriction. I hereby release Free Thinker Institute and its legal representatives and assigns from all claims and liability related to said video recordings.
1 attendee
Past events
17
Group links
Organizers
Members
17
