Being Human · A College for the Culture

What do we owe each other?

Being Human is a college for the culture — a public education platform teaching moral inquiry to everyday people, hosted by philosopher Dr. David Kyuman Kim. Season One arrives this fall as a podcast — the first of what will grow into live seminars, courses, and more.

Season One: Forgiveness · Fall 2026

Booking an event? Invite David to speak →

“David Kyuman Kim is the leading philosopher of religion and culture of his generation.”

Cornel West — Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair, Union Theological Seminary

Global Philanthropy Forum · “We Are Each Other's Harvest” · May 2026

What Being Human Is

A college for the culture.

The containers that used to hold moral learning — religious community, the liberal arts, civic life — have weakened. The hunger for it has not. Being Human is building the platform to meet it: starting with a podcast, growing toward seminars, courses, and live gatherings.

Questions that outlast the moment

Each season takes up one perennial question — the kind that admits no easy resolution and illuminates far beyond the news cycle.

Thinking done together

A host, a small group willing to think in public, and a destination arrived at together — never announced in advance. The viewer isn't overhearing. They're being inducted into a way of thinking.

A practice, not a position

Being Human builds the capacity for moral judgment — formed through the practice of inquiry itself, not by receiving someone else's conclusions.

Dr. David Kyuman Kim speaking at the Global Philanthropy Forum, May 2026

Live at the Global Philanthropy Forum · San Francisco, May 2026

Season One · Fall 2026

A Season of Forgiveness

Why does forgiveness feel impossible right now — and what would it take to build a culture capable of repair? Five episodes, one sustained inquiry.

EP 01

Why Can't We Forgive?

The cultural conditions that make forgiveness feel impossible right now.

EP 02

What Unforgiveness Costs

The personal, relational, and civic price of carrying a wound indefinitely.

EP 03

Forgiving Yourself

Why self-forgiveness is the harder, more interior form of the question.

EP 04

What Forgiveness Is

Precisely named: what it is, what it isn't, and why the confusion matters.

EP 05

Why It Matters Now

The moral and civic case for a culture capable of repair.

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Watch & Listen

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Keynote · May 2026

We Are Each Other's Harvest — Global Philanthropy Forum

TEDx Talk

Radical Love

Sizzle Reel · Being Human

An Introduction

Speaking

Invite David to speak.

A select number of keynotes, public forums, and conversations each year — on love, justice, race, democracy, and what moral imagination demands of us.

Love, Justice & the Moral Imagination

Building a culture of love and justice — not as sentiment, but as practice.

Being Human: Asking Better Questions

Moral inquiry as a civic and cultural practice in an age of crisis.

Race, Belonging & the Covenant We Keep

On diversity, inclusion, and the deeper question of what we owe each other.

Forgiveness, Repair & Moral Culture

Why the capacity to forgive is not weakness — and what it demands of institutions.

Philanthropy & the Moral Life

For foundations and civic leaders: what does generosity require of us now?

About

Dr. David Kyuman Kim

A philosopher, political theorist, and public intellectual whose work sits at the intersection of love, justice, race, and democracy. He served as Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies at Connecticut College for nearly twenty years, with appointments at Brown, Union Theological Seminary, Penn, the Graduate Theological Union, the SSRC, and Stanford.

He is the author of Melancholic Freedom (Oxford University Press), Founder and Host of Being Human, and Senior Advisor to the Global Philanthropy Forum. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and beyond.

Global Philanthropy Forum · Royal Society of Arts · Skoll World Forum · Stanford · Brown · Northwestern · Royal Society of Edinburgh

“A voice that consistently finds the moral clarity the rest of us are reaching for.” Ellen McGirt — Editor, Design Observer · Founder, Fortune raceAhead

“An architect of change.” Maria Shriver — Author, Journalist, and Social Activist

Founding Support

Help shape what Being Human becomes.

Being Human is at its founding moment. Early supporters help shape the questions it takes on, the voices it gathers, and the communities it reaches. Request the founding supporter brief to see how.

Current support from · Levi Strauss Foundation · Henry Luce Foundation