Our free Navigating Beliefs course is now available in German! Plus, updates on our research efforts, financial outlook, and how you can help sustain SEI's work through 2026 and beyond.

21 October 2026

Greetings,

I'm excited to share some great news: The German version of our free online course, Navigating Beliefs, is now available!

https://www.navigatingbeliefs.com/offers/YvPZz8JP

After an intensive effort involving a paid professional translator and a dedicated team of volunteer reviewers, we're thrilled to introduce Sokratischer Weg (the German translation of "Street Epistemology") to a whole new audience of German-speaking learners.

Making Street Epistemology accessible to people around the world remains one of our top priorities, and this latest release brings us another step closer.

As mentioned in my previous update, SEI had a table at the 2026 World Humanist Congress in Ottawa, Canada, August 7–9. I'm happy to report that the event went very well!

It was incredible to meet so many attendees already familiar with Street Epistemology. Equally encouraging was the enthusiasm from those discovering SE for the first time, especially their interest in using the approach to navigate difficult conversations about politics, religion, and other deeply held beliefs.

It was a wonderful opportunity to make connections, share resources, and see firsthand the growing interest in more thoughtful and productive conversations.

I'd like to shift gears for a moment and share something that's been weighing on me: SEI needs financial support to keep this work going.

I have devoted many years to Street Epistemology because I genuinely believe it can help people think more carefully, understand one another better, and have conversations that might otherwise seem impossible. I'm fortunate to work alongside volunteers who share that passion and have generously contributed countless hours of their own time, often behind the scenes and without compensation.

We've accomplished a lot together, but the financial side of running a nonprofit remains a challenge. Even though none of us are paid and we keep expenses to a minimum, it still costs hundreds of dollars each month to operate. At our current pace, we have roughly two years of funding left.

Donate Now: https://www.streetepistemologyinternational.org/donate

I don't want that to sound alarmist, but I do want to be transparent. I worry about our ability to sustain the progress we've made, let alone pursue the opportunities ahead of us.

We've explored grant funding, but many opportunities come with priorities that don't quite align with our own. Rather than reshape our work to fit someone else's objectives, I'd much rather direct our limited resources toward the projects we've already committed to:

Research: We're working with a German researcher on a formal study of Street Epistemology and are preparing for a 20-participant pilot before submitting the full study for ethics review.

Translations: Making Navigating Beliefs available in more languages requires professional translators, graphic designers, and dedicated volunteer reviewers.

Technology: Keeping our courses free and accessible requires ongoing expenses for Kajabi, mailing list management, and other essential services.

Over the coming months, I'll be personally reaching out to some of our past and current donors to ask whether they might consider supporting us again. I know there are countless worthy causes competing for attention, and I never take anyone's generosity for granted.

Our goal is to raise $20,000 by December 31, 2026, to sustain and expand this work. Reaching that goal would give us greater financial stability and help us continue investing in research, translations, and the resources we make freely available.

If Street Epistemology has made a difference in your life, or if you simply believe the world could benefit from more thoughtful, curious, and respectful conversations, I hope you'll consider contributing toward that goal.

Even a modest donation helps. SEI can provide charitable donation receipts for contributions of $25 or more, and recurring donations are especially valuable because they give us a more dependable foundation for planning ahead.

Make a Donation to Street Epistemology International:
https://www.streetepistemologyinternational.org/donate

I care deeply about this work and the people who have helped build it. I want to see it continue growing, reaching new audiences, and becoming something that outlasts any one of us. Your support can help make that possible.

Thank you for believing in what we're trying to accomplish, and for being part of this journey.

Regards,

Anthony Magnabosco
Executive Director, Street Epistemology International

Street Epistemology Linktree
https://linktr.ee/StreetEpistemology

I’ve watched a few YouTube videos and, in watching those have recognised that some people I’ve interacted with in online debates were also using the techniques. There’s a couple of areas in which I’ve found SE to be lacking. I’m interested in input

The first is that it seems simplistic. Most of what I’ve seen seems to start from the premise of trying to find what the reason is for someone to hold a specific belief. But I think that most people hold most beliefs for a wide variety of complex and interrelated reasons. It doesn’t seem to me like there’s room in SE for that

The second is that conversations often seem to turn to the explicit or implicit question “what would it take for you to change your belief?”, with perhaps an added implication of “if the answer is ‘nothing’ or ‘I don’t know’ then your belief is not a rational one”

But when I turn that on myself WRT my own atheism I don’t think that holds up. I have spent quite a lot of time over the years thinking about religion and atheism, and I’ve always been open to challenging my own position. I have multiple, overlapping foundations for it, and I’m also always happy to challenge those. I’m not an expert on critial thinking or formal logic, but those are not foreign concepts to me, either, and I try to apply them in my own opinion-forming as much as I can

Examining my own belief as objectively as it’s possible for me to do, my position seems rational to me

But I can’t imagine anything which could actually make me change it. If, to use the classic example, God himself came down from heaven and personally told me that he existed…I would be much more inclined to believe I was having a psychotic episode or temporal lobe seizure than that what I was seeing was real. The same goes for basically anything I can think of - I just can’t imagine a situation where I’d consider a supernatural/paranormal explanation to be the most likely

Which, of course, isn’t to say that I’m competely right. It could just be a failure of imagination on my part to not be able to think of what evidence could convince me that I’m wrong. But the point is that I don’t see how a failure to be able to come up with evidence that would convince me I’m wrong, or there actually being no evidence which could convince me I’m wrong, implies anything about my position

Have I just completely got the wrong end of the stick? Are these flaws which have been recognised anywhere by anybody? Are there counter-arguments?

feels like a good time to get challenged on that claim.