Connect & Refresh with the Civic Values & Culture Team
2025-05-27 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Zoom video conferencing
Tuesday, May 27
12:00 – 1:00 pm PT / 3:00 – 4:00 pm ET

Join our Civic Values & Culture Team as we pause from our activism and release our serious concerns during this challenging year. Once again, we will come together to enjoy our virtual and restorative community. We will reaffirm the values that guide our collaboration:

Integrity & Authenticity
Deep Listening with Openness, Curiosity and Presence
Appreciation of Differences

Register below to receive the Zoom link. Email event host Therese Flaherty at theresef@eldersaction.org with any questions.
register

Book Study Group
2025-06-09 09:00 - 2025-08-04 10:30, 2025-06-23 09:00 - 2025-08-18 10:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Currently reading:
How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion
By David McRaney (2022)
What made a prominent conspiracy-theorist YouTuber finally see that 9/11 was not a hoax? Can you finally have a productive conversation about politics with your uncle at the next family gathering? How does an ordinary person find the courage to leave a cult? Can widespread social change only take place when a generation dies out?
Inspired by curiosity and underpinned by diligent research, How Minds Change is an expansive, big-hearted journalistic narrative for our divided times, told with David McRaney’s trademark humor, compassion, and scientific inquiry. In engaging chapters built around eye-opening interviews and anecdotes—featuring psychologists and neuroscientists, and also former cult members, conspiracy theorists, and political activists—McRaney shows why illusions like The Dress captivate (and break) the internet; how conversational techniques can crack hardened attitudes; and what miracles are possible when we show up with open minds and a better understanding of how the human brain works.
Reaching surprising and thought-provoking conclusions, How Minds Change demonstrates that the ability to uncover our own motives and beliefs—and understand those of others—may be the greatest persuasive tool of all.
Schedule:
May 26 through July 21, 2025
Every other Monday for 90 minutes
9:00 am PT / 10:00 am MT / 11:00 am CT / 12:00 pm ET
more info & register

Welcome to Elders Climate Action Monthly Session
2025-06-13 15:00 - 16:00, 2025-07-11 15:00 - 16:00, 2025-08-08 15:00 - 16:00, 2025-09-12 15:00 - 16:00, 2025-10-10 15:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York)
Welcome to Elders Climate Action! We are a community of elders who care about preserving our planet for our grandchildren, future generations and all life. As a new member we would like to invite you to a special Welcome Session where you can hear more about who we are, what ECA has been doing, our plans for the future, and how you can get more involved.
2nd Friday, Monthly
3 pm Eastern, 12 Noon Pacific
REGISTER NOW
Please register to receive a link to join the call. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. We encourage you to join by computer so you can see the presenter’s slides. If you are unable to attend this Welcome Session, don’t worry, plan to join next month! We offer a Welcome to Elders Climate Action Session on the 2nd Friday of each month. Watch for our next call bulletin or announcement in the upcoming newsletter or check our website for the event listing.
We look forward to meeting you!

Elders for Sound Democracy Community Meeting
2025-06-18 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Wednesday, June 18, 10:00 – 11:30 am PT / 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET
The ESD Leadership Team recognizes the serious threat that disinformation poses to our democracy. The Disinformation Action Team has diligently researched the techniques and amplification methods that drive disinformation across social media platforms to address this challenge. Our mission in this first campaign is to empower social media users, particularly those in the 18 to 35-year-old group, to think critically about the information they encounter.
Join us on June 18 to learn about the launch of the ESD Disinformation Action Team’s social media campaign! Hear about and contribute ideas for our strategies to counter disinformation and discover ways you can get involved in this critical movement.
Let’s take action to combat disinformation and protect the integrity of information in our communities and beyond. Together, we can make a difference.

register

After registering, you will receive an email from Zoom (no-reply@zoom.us) with a unique link to join the event. Please check your email inbox.

Resilience and Acceptance in the Face of Collapse
2025-06-18 16:30 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
We are offering a course for people to gather and learn, to grieve, to plan, and have the space to speak our truths together. It focuses on inner resilience, adaptive responses, collective acceptance of the climate crisis and provides a worldview pertaining to a new and different future.

This is a free, nine-session online course starting on Wednesday, June 18 at 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET. Registration will begin on May 14.
After the course attendees will be able to:

Define collapse.
Articulate their own understanding about the Great Unraveling and at what stage of awareness they are.
More freely navigate their emotional responses to a collapse.
Name and put into practice several tools for inner resilience.
Describe and weigh out the benefits of localization for outer resilience.
Live in greater balance and harmony with all the spirits which create and support life.
Identify the benefits of acceptance most pertinent to them and their life circumstances.
Meetings are 1 ½ hours. Preparation: 2-3 hours a week

REGISTER (Maximum 25 participants)

Message From the Course Developers
“With great sadness and great love, we are convinced that this is a time of unraveling…biodiversity loss, ocean degradation, urban flooding, political strife, climate crisis and migrations, economic and political instability, food shortages, wildfires, soil degradation.
We have two choices: turning away or turning toward. For a long time, we have learned to turn our eyes away and live as we have always lived.
With these moving thoughts from the Developer’s in mind: We believe that closing our eyes has not served us. It’s time to turn towards—wake up and see what is happening in the world and in ourselves, in the ways we relate to the entire Community of Life. Turning toward takes courage, honesty and love.”
This course is not about traditional resilience solutions. Instead, the course leads participants through a process of opening their eyes in awareness and turning towards what-is with ever-deepening acceptance, through wise responses to our predicament.”

Elders for Sound Democracy - Youth Civic Engagement Action Team
2025-06-24 11:00 - 12:00, 2025-07-22 11:00 - 12:00, 2025-08-26 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Youth Civic Engagement Action Team
For three years, Elders from EAN and ESD have supported the programs of The Civics Center by writing letters and postcards (over 55,000 to PA and AZ parents in 2024), researching, and helping to connect high schools across the country with the free resources offered by The Civics Center.
If you would like to learn more or consider getting involved, join us on Tuesdays, June 24, July 22, and/or August 26 at 11:00 am PT / 2:00 pm ET.
For more information, email Therese at: theresef@eldersaction.org
REGISTER
After registering, you will receive an email from Zoom (no-reply@zoom.us) with a unique link to join the event. Please check your email inbox.

Elders for Sound Democracy - A Conversation for Democracy
2025-06-25 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-07-23 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-08-27 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
10:00 – 11:00 am PT / 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET
What Can I Do to Make a Difference?
Join with like-minded elders in “A Conversation for Democracy”
As Cory Booker reminded us: “I do not know what John Lewis would have… done [if he were here]. I do know he would have done something….” This Spring, many of us are trying to figure out what [and/or what else] we can do to make a difference.
Several of us who have been active in Elders for Sound Democracy want to:

Welcome elders who are exploring ways to support democracy
Share a number of ways in which we are trying to support democracy
Brainstorm together for new ideas and approaches to support democracy

register

After registering, you will receive an email from Zoom (no-reply@zoom.us) with a unique link to join the event. Please check your email inbox.

Elders for Sound Democracy Community Meeting
2025-07-16 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Wednesday, July 16, 10:00 – 11:30 am PT / 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET
Our internal research following the November election suggested a sentiment among voters that underweighted core democratic values, and we concluded that disinformation and political corruption were key factors in the results, which were largely unfavorable to democracy. In our last two community meetings, we’ve focused on disinformation, including the work of our Disinformation Action team.
At our July meeting, the Countering Political Corruption team will highlight major problems related to political corruption in our democracy and suggest some potential solutions. For issues needing a rapid response, our Defend Democracy Now team will outline its strategy. We’ll discuss actions each of us can take to help restore integrity and work toward a government that’s more of, by, and for the people, as our founders envisioned.
Please join us to hear about our research and plans, contribute your ideas, and discover ways you can get involved in this critical moment. Together, we can make a difference.

register

After registering, you will receive an email from Zoom (no-reply@zoom.us) with a unique link to join the event. Please check your email inbox.

Exploring Elderhood
2025-07-22 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Session One: Tuesday, July 22
Session Two: Tuesday, July 29
Session Three: Tuesday, August 5
10:00 – 11:30 am PT / 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET
Join us in this journey into what it means to be an Elder in a time of immense change. If you are new to Elders Action Network or want to rediscover your purpose, inner joy, sense of our interconnectedness or where to get into action, this is the journey for you.
We will explore together the redefinition of who is an elder, what it is the earth is calling us to be and why our heart, mind and soul are needed to create a new future for all life on this planet.
You will be introduced to the essence of elderhood, experience processes that will allow what is deep within you to come to the forefront, feel a sense of community and ways to get into action.
This is a three-week journey with each session running 90 minutes. There will be pre-work before each week.
Space is limited, so please register early.
Suggested donation: $55
This is a suggested amount and participants are free to offer more or less depending on their individual financial situation. We do not want financial considerations to be a deterrent to participation, and it is not necessary to make a donation in order to register.
register

Connect & Refresh with the Civic Values & Culture Team
2025-07-22 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Tuesday, July 22
12:00 – 1:00 pm PT / 3:00 – 4:00 pm ET

Join our Civic Values & Culture Team as we pause from our activism and release our serious concerns during this challenging year. Once again, we will come together to enjoy our virtual and restorative community. We will reaffirm the values that guide our collaboration.

Integrity & Authenticity
Deep Listening with Openness, Curiosity, and Presence
Appreciation of Differences

Register below to receive the Zoom link. For more information, email Therese Flaherty at theresef@eldersaction.org.
register

Elders for Sound Democracy Community Meeting
2025-08-20 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Wednesday, August 20, 10:00 – 11:30 am PT / 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET
Join us on August 20 as we welcome back David Pepper—lawyer, author, political activist, adjunct professor of election and voting rights law, and former state party chair. A graduate of Yale University (BA) and Yale Law School (JD), David returns to share insights from the newly released Second Edition of Saving Democracy: A User’s Manual—a practical guide for resisting autocracy and advancing democracy, especially at the local and state levels.
David is also the author of the influential non-fiction book, Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines (2021). He has written four political thrillers: A Simple Choice (2022) The Voter File (2020) The Wingman (2018) The People’s House (2016) In addition to his books, David is an active voice on democracy issues, posting daily on Pepperspectives Substack and regularly appearing on Substack Live in interviews with fellow experts on resisting autocracy. This event will be a timely and important conversation. Join us to discover concrete, practical ways each one of us can help defend and strengthen democracy—starting right in our own communities.
register

After registering, you will receive an email from Zoom (no-reply@zoom.us) with a unique link to join the event. Please check your email inbox.

Connect & Refresh with the Civic Values & Culture Team
2025-08-26 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Tuesday, August 26
12:00 – 1:00 pm PT / 3:00 – 4:00 pm ET

Join our Civic Values & Culture Team as we pause from our activism and release our serious concerns during this challenging year. Once again, we will come together to enjoy our virtual and restorative community. We will reaffirm the values that guide our collaboration.

Integrity & Authenticity
Deep Listening with Openness, Curiosity, and Presence
Appreciation of Differences

Register below to receive the Zoom link. For more information, email Therese Flaherty at theresef@eldersaction.org.
register

Future Design Group
2025-09-10 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Wednesday, September 10
Second Wednesday of each month
4:00 – 5:00 pm PT / 7:00 – 8:00 pm ET
At this meeting, the team will share updates on workshops and projects as well as marketing opportunities and ways you can get involved in spreading the word about Future Design in your area.
Register below to receive the Zoom link. For more information, email Teri Whitehair at teriw@eldersaction.org.
register

Elders for Sound Democracy’s Defend Democracy Team
2025-09-15 10:30 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Monday, September 15
10:30 – 12:00 pm PT / 1:30 – 3:00 pm ET
Our meetings take place on the first and third Monday of each month.
Topic: Defend Democracy Now!
Our country is at a pivotal crossroads. Which path will we follow?
Our current government is undermining the institutions of democratic self-government, suppressing our freedom to think/speak/learn/and dissent, and restricting people’s right to vote. ESD’s Defend Democracy team plans actions we can take to push back against these authoritarian threats.
History has shown that, if we want to keep our republic, we can’t wait for someone else to do it for us. We must take vigorous action ourselves.
Please join the discussion. Bring your ideas, your energy and your passion. For more information, email Ken Barnes at kbarnes@kenbarneslaw.com.
register

After registering, you will receive an email from Zoom (no-reply@zoom.us) with a unique link to join the event. Please check your email inbox.

Elders for Sound Democracy Community Meeting Co-sponsored by Elders Climate Action
2025-09-17 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Wednesday, September 17, 10:00 – 11:30 am PT / 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET
Co-sponsored by Elders Climate Action
Join us on September 17 for another session of our Democracy Forum Speaker Series, Democracy on the Line: November 2025, featuring leaders of two of our partner organizations—The Center for Common Ground and The Environmental Voter Project (EVP). They will highlight the actions we can take to support their efforts to increase voter turnout among infrequent voters who care about the environment and those who may need information about voting, to make a meaningful difference for this fall’s election and in future. ESD partnered with both of them during the 2024 national elections, and ECA has a history of collaborating with EVP.
Featured Speakers

Andrea Miller, The Center for Common Ground – Reclaim Our Vote

A Black- and women-led, nonpartisan voting rights organization, The Center for Common Ground empowers Black, Indigenous, and other voters of color to overcome barriers to voting. The Reclaim Our Vote campaign dramatically increases voter participation and ensures communities can make their voices heard.

Shannon Seigal, Environmental Voter Project (EVP)

EVP focuses on turning environmental concerns into electoral power. By identifying environmentally conscious but infrequent voters and encouraging them to vote, EVP has a nine-year history of strengthening pro-environment voter turnout to advance environmental policy and justice.
Learn about the impact of these vital efforts—and discover how you can volunteer to help protect democracy this November.
register

After registering, you will receive an email from Zoom (no-reply@zoom.us) with a unique link to join the event. Please check your email inbox.

Resilience and Acceptance in the Face of Collapse
2025-09-23 16:00 - 17:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
A free, nine-session online course starting on Tuesday, September 23 at 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET. It focuses on inner resilience, adaptive responses, collective acceptance of the climate crisis and provides a worldview pertaining to a new and different future.
After the course attendees will be able to:

Define collapse.
Articulate their own understanding about the Great Unraveling and at what stage of awareness they are.
More freely navigate their emotional responses to a collapse.
Name and put into practice several tools for inner resilience.
Describe and weigh out the benefits of localization for outer resilience.
Live in greater balance and harmony with all the spirits which create and support life.
Identify the benefits of acceptance most pertinent to them and their life circumstances.
Meetings are 1 ½ hours. Preparation: 2-3 hours a week

REGISTER (Maximum 25 participants)

Message From the Course Developers
“With great sadness and great love, we are convinced that this is a time of unraveling…biodiversity loss, ocean degradation, urban flooding, political strife, climate crisis and migrations, economic and political instability, food shortages, wildfires, soil degradation.
We have two choices: turning away or turning toward. For a long time, we have learned to turn our eyes away and live as we have always lived.
With these moving thoughts from the Developer’s in mind: We believe that closing our eyes has not served us. It’s time to turn towards—wake up and see what is happening in the world and in ourselves, in the ways we relate to the entire Community of Life. Turning toward takes courage, honesty and love.”
This course is not about traditional resilience solutions. Instead, the course leads participants through a process of opening their eyes in awareness and turning towards what-is with ever-deepening acceptance, through wise responses to our predicament.”

Elders for Sound Democracy - A Conversation for Democracy
2025-09-25 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
10:00 – 11:00 am PT / 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET
What Can I Do to Make a Difference?
Join with like-minded elders in “A Conversation for Democracy”
As Cory Booker reminded us: “I do not know what John Lewis would have… done [if he were here]. I do know he would have done something….” Many of us are trying to figure out what [and/or what else] we can do to make a difference.
Several of us who have been active in Elders for Sound Democracy want to:

Welcome elders who are exploring ways to support democracy
Share a number of ways in which we are trying to support democracy
Brainstorm together for new ideas and approaches to support democracy

register

After registering, you will receive an email from Zoom (no-reply@zoom.us) with a unique link to join the event. Please check your email inbox.

Connect & Refresh with the Civic Values & Culture Team
2025-09-25 12:30 - 13:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Thursday, September 25
12:30 – 1:30 pm PT / 3:30 – 4:30 pm ET

Join our Civic Values & Culture Team as we pause from our activism and release our serious concerns during this challenging year. Once again, we will come together to enjoy our virtual and restorative community. We will reaffirm the values that guide our collaboration.

Integrity & Authenticity
Deep Listening with Openness, Curiosity, and Presence
Appreciation of Differences

Register below to receive the Zoom link. For more information, email Therese Flaherty at theresef@eldersaction.org.
register

Elders for Sound Democracy’s Defend Democracy Team
2025-10-06 10:30 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Monday, October 6
10:30 – 12:00 pm PT / 1:30 – 3:00 pm ET
Our meetings take place on the first and third Monday of each month.
Topic: Defend Democracy Now!
Our country is at a pivotal crossroads. Which path will we follow?
Our current government is undermining the institutions of democratic self-government, suppressing our freedom to think/speak/learn/and dissent, and restricting people’s right to vote. ESD’s Defend Democracy team plans actions we can take to push back against these authoritarian threats.
History has shown that, if we want to keep our republic, we can’t wait for someone else to do it for us. We must take vigorous action ourselves.
Please join the discussion. Bring your ideas, your energy and your passion. For more information, email Ken Barnes at kbarnes@kenbarneslaw.com.
register

After registering, you will receive an email from Zoom (no-reply@zoom.us) with a unique link to join the event. Please check your email inbox.

Exploring Elderhood
2025-10-07 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Session One: Tuesday, October 7
Session Two: Tuesday, October 14
Session Three: Tuesday, October 21
10:00 – 11:30 am PT / 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET
Join us in this journey into what it means to be an Elder in a time of immense change. If you are new to Elders Action Network or want to rediscover your purpose, inner joy, sense of our interconnectedness or where to get into action, this is the journey for you.
We will explore together the redefinition of who is an elder, what it is the earth is calling us to be and why our heart, mind and soul are needed to create a new future for all life on this planet.
You will be introduced to the essence of elderhood, experience processes that will allow what is deep within you to come to the forefront, feel a sense of community and ways to get into action.
This is a three-week journey with each session running 90 minutes. There will be pre-work before each week.
Space is limited, so please register early.
Suggested donation: $55
This is a suggested amount and participants are free to offer more or less depending on their individual financial situation. We do not want financial considerations to be a deterrent to participation, and it is not necessary to make a donation in order to register.
register

Elders for Sound Democracy’s Defend Democracy Team
2025-10-20 10:30 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Monday, October 20
10:30 – 12:00 pm PT / 1:30 – 3:00 pm ET
Our meetings take place on the first and third Monday of each month.
Topic: Defend Democracy Now!
Our country is at a pivotal crossroads. Which path will we follow?
Our current government is undermining the institutions of democratic self-government, suppressing our freedom to think/speak/learn/and dissent, and restricting people’s right to vote. ESD’s Defend Democracy team plans actions we can take to push back against these authoritarian threats.
History has shown that, if we want to keep our republic, we can’t wait for someone else to do it for us. We must take vigorous action ourselves.
Please join the discussion. Bring your ideas, your energy and your passion. For more information, email Ken Barnes at kbarnes@kenbarneslaw.com.
register

After registering, you will receive an email from Zoom (no-reply@zoom.us) with a unique link to join the event. Please check your email inbox.
