Bay Area 2026
Conversations worth having.
- Where
- San Francisco Bay Area
- When
- October 18–23, 2026
The Festival of Thought brings credible industry leaders like Dr. Francis Collins, Dr. Os Guinness, Dr. Meghan Sullivan, Trae Stephens, Ilaria Chan, Matt Ridenour, and others to dozens of events across the Bay Area, in churches, neutral venues, tech companies, and college campuses, for conversation on meaning, faith, science, and work. While many of the week’s events are private, the events below are open to the public. Bring a friend and continue the conversation.
Public events
18
SundayOctober 18
Sunday, October 18
Parenting in the AI Age: Raising the Next Generation with Wisdom, Discernment & Purpose
Matt Ridenour (Google DeepMind), Kelsey Sobomehin (Salesforce AI Research), and Suren Arutyunyan (OpenAI)
Three parents who work in AI on how to prepare children for a future shaped by it, while forming the qualities no machine supplies: wisdom, character, creativity, empathy, and real relationships. Bring your questions, then stay for a happy hour with food, drinks, and other parents. For parents of young children and teenagers, and anyone curious about what AI means for the next generation. Space is limited.
Hosted by Connect Silicon Valley with KingdomHaus.
Connect Silicon ValleyAddress shared when you register.
Register on Luma19
MondayOctober 19
Monday, October 19, 6:00 PM
AI, Ethics, & Economics: A Christian Conversation on Common Good
Dr. Meghan Sullivan and Dr. Lyndon Drake
A Notre Dame philosopher and an Oxford AI researcher on what artificial intelligence is doing to our work, our markets, and our moral lives, and what a Christian account of the common good has to offer the city that is building it.
Reality SFSan Francisco
Register with Reality SF20
TuesdayOctober 20
Tuesday, October 20, 7:00 PM
America 250: A Republic at War with Itself
Dr. Os Guinness in conversation with Dr. Vince Vitale
Free societies are rare. Lasting free societies are rarer still. In the year America turns 250, Os Guinness, who has watched and loved this country as an outsider for decades, talks with philosopher Vince Vitale about how we arrived here and what it would take to renew a free society that can last.
Fox Theatre2215 Broadway, Redwood City
Register on LumaTuesday, October 20
The Good Life Is Not an Algorithm
A conversation with Notre Dame professor Dr. Meghan Sullivan
We live in a world increasingly devoted to optimization. We measure our productivity, track our health, curate our relationships, and look to technology to help us make better decisions. But can the good life really be engineered? For years, Notre Dame philosopher Meghan Sullivan has invited students to wrestle with some of life’s oldest and most important questions through her course, God and the Good Life. What makes a life worth living? What should we love? What do we owe one another? And what, if anything, does God have to do with living well?
Tillage1410 Irving St, San Francisco
Register on Luma21
WednesdayOctober 21
Wednesday, October 21, 5:30 to 8:30 PM
America 250: A Foreign Admirer’s View of a Republic in Crisis
Dr. Os Guinness
Is the Republic headed for redemption or for ruin? Free societies are rare, and lasting free societies are rarer still. Os Guinness explores the foundations of America’s free society and the state of those foundations 250 years later. At the heart of America’s success lies a paradox: its liberal democratic order relies on pre-liberal values that American liberalism itself cannot replenish: truth-seeking, the dignity of the individual, love of neighbor. Our institutions could only have been created in the fertile soil of those values, but now they often stand against them. San Francisco is a city investing enormous intellectual and economic effort into remaking those institutions, aided by unprecedented technological prowess. This lecture explores the moral foundations that such a transformation may first require.
Organized by the Cypress Society, which is devoted to reviving the Western tradition of the public lecture and offers a rigorous exploration of ideas in the public interest, open to all and at no cost.
San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts CenterSan Francisco. Address shared when you register.
Register on LumaWednesday, October 21, 7:00 PM
Ancient Prompts: Being Human in the Age of AI
Michael Boone (NVIDIA), Dr. Meghan Sullivan (Notre Dame), and Paul Taylor (Faith, Work & Tech)
A technologist, a philosopher, and a theologian on the question underneath the headlines: if a machine can think, create, and even hold a conversation, what is still ours? They take it through three everyday questions about learning, connection, and the purpose work used to give us. No background required.
Co-hosted by Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good and the Center for Ethical Intelligence.
Fox Theatre2215 Broadway, Redwood City
Register on Luma22
ThursdayOctober 22
Thursday, October 22
“Resolved, That Freedom Cannot Survive Without Faith”
Dr. Os Guinness with The Hamilton Society
Can a free society sustain the very conditions that keep it free? Drawing on his “golden triangle of freedom,” in which freedom requires virtue, virtue requires faith, and faith requires freedom, Os Guinness argues that liberty cut loose from its moral and spiritual roots will not last. A lively discussion follows.
The Century Club of California1355 Franklin St, San Francisco
Register on Luma23
FridayOctober 23
Friday, October 23, 2:00 to 5:00 PM
A Calling That Outlasts You: An Evening with Os Guinness
Dr. Os Guinness, with a workshop led by Jess Munro
Os draws on William Wilberforce and his circle of friends to show how a career becomes a calling. Then Stanford d.school instructor Jess Munro leads a hands-on Calling Blueprint workshop. Bring your gifts, your passions, and the impact you hope to have. Leave with a calling statement of your own.
KingdomHausSan Jose. Address shared when you register.
Register on LumaFriday, October 23, 5:00 to 8:00 PM
Humanity in the Age of AI: Who Are We, What Will We Build, and What Is Worth Becoming?
Dr. Francis Collins, Trae Stephens, Matt Ridenour, and Ilaria Chan
Artificial intelligence is quickly expanding what machines can know, create, predict, and decide. The most important questions it raises, though, are not technical ones. They are about human dignity, agency, responsibility, meaningful work, and power, and about what kind of people and institutions we intend to become.
AutodeskSan Francisco. Address shared when you register.
Register on LumaWho you will hear
People who have earned a hearing in their own fields and are willing to be questioned in public.
- Dr. Francis CollinsPhysician and geneticist. Led the Human Genome Project and directed the National Institutes of Health. Author of The Language of God.
- Dr. Os GuinnessAuthor and social critic. Born in China, DPhil from Oxford. More than thirty books, including The Call and A Free People's Suicide.
- Dr. Meghan SullivanWilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame and founding director of its Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. Author of The Good Life Method.
- Trae StephensPartner at Founders Fund. Co-founder and executive chairman of Anduril Industries.
- Ilaria ChanChairperson of the Tech for Good Institute and group advisor at Grab. Formerly an executive director at Goldman Sachs.
- Matt RidenourHead of Startups at Google DeepMind and Labs. Formerly at IDEO.
- Dr. Lyndon DrakeResearch fellow in artificial intelligence at the University of Oxford.
- Michael BooneLeads Trustworthy AI Product at NVIDIA. Began his career as a licensed civil engineer.
- Paul TaylorCo-founder of the Bay Area Center for Faith, Work & Tech, after eighteen years pastoring a Palo Alto church.
- Dr. Vince VitalePhilosopher with a DPhil from Oxford. Has taught philosophy at Princeton. Author of Non-Negotiable.
- Dr. Jo VitaleTheologian with a doctorate from Oxford. Co-host, with Vince, of the Ask Away podcast.
- Kelsey SobomehinAI research strategy and operations at Salesforce. Formerly at Google Research and DeepMind.
- Suren ArutyunyanWorks on compute at OpenAI. Former partner at McKinsey.
- Jess MunroCo-founder of KingdomHaus. Teaches at Stanford's d.school after years at IDEO.
Come curious. Bring someone who disagrees with you.
October 18–23, 2026, across the San Francisco Bay Area. More public events will be added here as they are confirmed.
Presented by Transforming the Bay with Christ, with KingdomHaus, the Bay Area Center for Faith, Work & Tech, Reality SF, The Hamilton Society, and Autodesk.