The Stage at C3

C3 Presents: Foster aka Autopilot

C3 Spiritual Community — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This week’s Gathering brings our third Guest Teacher for October, Foster aka AutoPilot, who is one of the co-founders and a teaching artist with The Diatribe, one of Grand Rapids’ premier arts and culture non-profit organizations. He is a professional orator whose work is infused with joy and humor.

The Practice of Becoming Happier

C3 Spiritual Community — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 10:58:09 +0000

What do you really, really want? For many of us, somewhere beneath the goals, plans, and ambitions is a simple hope: we all would like to be happier.

The Space Between: From Desire to Reality

C3 Spiritual Community — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 10:56:00 +0000

What do you want? And how do you even know? Desire is easy. Everything after it is the hard part. The gap between wanting and making it real is a strange, wobbly stretch of time. It's where desire turns into a wound or an engine, where things stall, fall apart, or quietly begin. Part science, part story, part honest confession. Let's talk about wanting, and laugh a bit along the way.

The Undeniable Cost of Convenience

C3 Spiritual Community — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 14:09:58 +0000

In our final Empire of Screens talk, Brad puts on his futurist hat and looks ahead to offer some informed predictions about what might come next.

*This is a partial recording due to live cast issues.

AI Discourse

C3 Spiritual Community — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 10:47:56 +0000

Guest Teacher Dr. Ezekiel “Zeke” Leo joins us for the first time to share his expertise in computer science in a continuation of the series, Empire of Screens Part II.

What Would the Implications of a “Conscious” AI Be?

C3 Spiritual Community — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 11:08:15 +0000

Core Teacher Michael DeWilde is back this week as we continue the series Empire of Screens Part II.

We’ll look at some of the arguments – and evidence – for and against the notion that certain AI systems could be, or become, “conscious.” How might that even be possible? What would it look like? What would the implications of a “conscious” AI be?

Synthetic Certainty

C3 Spiritual Community — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 11:08:20 +0000

This week in Empire of Screens, we’ll look at the uneasy space between hype and outright distrust. From AI-generated research slipping through peer review to systems that can ace difficult tests and still stumble over basic context, we’ll examine AI terms like "jagged intelligence," hallucinations, and the widening verification gap.

Artificial Intelligence

C3 Spiritual Community — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 11:54:31 +0000

This opening talk offers a plain-language explanation of what AI is, what it isn’t, and why it matters even to people who never plan to chat with a bot. We’ll trace the shift from hidden algorithms that sort our lives to generative tools that make things alongside us.

Pilgrimage

C3 Spiritual Community — Sun, 23 Aug 2026 11:34:24 +0000

Reverend Ginny Mikita returns to C3 this week to share her insights on pilgrimage. Pilgrimage is supposed to be about finding your way. But some of its greatest gifts come from getting a little lost.

Nothing Useful

C3 Spiritual Community — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 11:49:55 +0000

Celebrate unhurried attention, simple pleasures, and idle moments that don’t need to justify their existence.