This I Don’t Believe: A Fulfilling Life without Meaning

Join us this Sunday, either in person or online, as Robert Jensen meets with us over Zoom to discuss his new book, This I Don’t Believe: A Fulfilling Life without Meaning. Jensen, an Emeritus Professor in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin, is the author of a dozen books on politics and culture.

This I Don’t Believe confronts the common fear that life has no intrinsic meaning, and then describes one path to fulfillment without it. Mixing memoir and philosophy, Jensen invites readers to ponder the possibility of life without transcendence. Rejecting common sources of meaning—belief in God, spirituality, Nature mysticism, and free will—need not leave us stuck with nihilism. Drawing on his work as a journalist and professor, Jensen suggests that a life of thinking and work—joyful inquiry into a wonderfully complex world, coupled with a practice of ordinary labor—is enough to create a fulfilling life.

Bio:
Robert Jensen is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin. His latest book is This I Don’t Believe: A Fulfilling Life without Meaning, published by Blue Ear Books in 2026. Jensen is also the author of It’s Debatable: Talking Authentically about Tricky Topics (Olive Branch Press, 2024), and coauthor with Wes Jackson of An Inconvenient Apocalypse: Environmental Collapse, Climate Crisis, and the Fate of Humanity (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022). He can be reached at [rjensen@austin.utexas.edu](mailto:rjensen@austin.utexas.edu). More information at [https://robertwjensen.org/](https://substack.com/redirect/31f96192-9e3a-4d88-9838-b90839df955b?j=eyJ1IjoiMTM1ZjMifQ.fzkMSXkzuFA-l4p_BX5mqtBK_3yh2peRTxJlxbwKEE0 "Original URL: https://substack.com/redirect/31f96192-9e3a-4d88-9838-b90839df955b?j=eyJ1IjoiMTM1ZjMifQ.fzkMSXkzuFA-l4p_BX5mqtBK_3yh2peRTxJlxbwKEE0. Click or tap if you trust this link.").

Jensen draws on a variety of critical approaches to social and environmental crises. He has analyzed pornography and the radical feminist critique of sexuality and men’s violence, and addressed questions of race through a critique of white privilege and institutionalized racism. Jensen's recent work has focused on the multiple cascading ecological crises. He writes for popular media, both alternative and mainstream. His opinion and analytic pieces on such subjects as foreign policy, politics, economics, and ecology have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and websites all over the world.

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📍Attend in Person
Join fellow Humanists in the Old Mill Clubhouse, 49 Showers Dr, Mountain View, CA 94040. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation.

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🎤 Attend Online
Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
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You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smartphone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

Join the meeting by phone: +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
Find an international phone number to call:
here.
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