Question 1

What are the benefits of joining Hearth?

Accepted Answer

Better mental, emotional, and spiritual health!

Question 2

Does Hearth actually work?

Accepted Answer

Our pilot results speak for themselves—after just two Hearth sessions, attendees reported a 46% average boost in openness and connection to other people, 26% boost in sense of belonging, and 25% boost in feelings of calm and peace in life.

Question 3

What exactly is the structure?

Accepted Answer

Every Hearth member is part of a Circle - a group of ~10 members who meet twice per month. One of these monthly meetings is centered around a living-room wisdom discussion, facilitated by a trained host. These discussions focus on an important life topic or question—for example, coping with grief & loss, how to cultivate stronger friendships, or how to love better—rooted in the exploration of ideas outlined in one or more curated sources of wisdom (e.g. a reading, video, and/or music clip). The other monthly meeting centers around an activity designed to foster deeper connections among Circle members. These may include card games designed to help players get to know each other better, group challenges that take Circle members on mini-adventures to bond and/or learn something new together, group volunteer and service opportunities, or even group dinners! Both types of meetings start with short grounding exercises (meditation, silence, or written reflection) and peer-to-peer life check-ins. During check-ins, Circle members are invited to share recent highs and lows in their lives with each other and, if desired, offer deeper context on a particular work or life challenge they would like help with from the group -- e.g., for feedback, advice, or just to know a group of friends is there to listen and support. Finally, Hearth runs monthly inter-Circle socials, open to all Hearth members across the city! These include but are not limited to open mic nights, dinners, game competitions, and more.

Question 4

What is the cost to join?

Accepted Answer

Hearth has a one-month free trial to anyone over age 18. After this period, you may become a member through a pay-what-you-can model with a sliding scale suggested donation of $25 / $50 / $75 per month, based on your personal financial capacity to pay relative to others. We ask that you contribute at a level you can reasonably afford at this point in your life, but you may join with a contribution of any monthly amount over $5.

Question 5

Who counts as a younger adult?

Accepted Answer

Hearth is primarily for adults in their 20s, 30s, and early 40s. We do not enforce a rigid age cutoff, but Hearth is focused, for now, on building a community of people in similar life stages.

Question 6

Is Hearth for-profit or non-profit?

Accepted Answer

Non-profit, with 501(c)3 status pending.

Question 7

Where does the money go?

Accepted Answer

Part of it goes to cover food, drinks, and printing (yes, we print discussion packets), and the rest helps cover the cost of building an excellent team & organization to further our mission.

Question 8

What is your mission?

Accepted Answer

To fight meaninglessness in society.

Question 9

What is Hearth fundamentally about? Are there any underlying, unifying ideas?

Accepted Answer

Hearth is a community for those who share the premise—or who are at least open to exploring the premise—that a fulfilling, ethical, coherent, and awesome life does not require divine authority.

Hearth does have one axiom, or baseline shared commitment: that it is good for people to flourish. Beyond that, we welcome disagreement, questioning, and exploration, including of what flourishing means and what it asks of us.

Finally, Hearth has five values that reflect what we emphasize and prioritize in service of that flourishing:

We're better together
- Life is better when our relationships are stronger, and being in conversation with others helps us refine our thinking and see ourselves more clearly.

Stay curious
- About ideas, and about each other.

Help each other flourish
- At Hearth, and outside.

Practical over theoretical
- Theory is great, but doing something about it is better.

Play more
- Because life should be more fun :)

Hearth recognizes that many of us hold different starting points about what matters or is fundamentally true in life—sometimes those values are simple to identify; sometimes they take many years to uncover. Part of Hearth's purpose is to bring together helpful secular perspectives on life's biggest questions so that we can better clarify what matters to us, live by it, and challenge and support one another along the way.

Hearth believes that living nonreligiously requires, at times, both courage and humility in the face of uncertainty. We exist to help members take on this important work together.

Question 10

What is your vision for Hearth?

Accepted Answer

We want Hearth to become a new decentralized, secular layer of social infrastructure that helps people everywhere build and sustain more meaning, connection, and wisdom in their lives.

Question 11

I'm in high school, and I would love to join something like this. Why can't those under age 18 join yet?

Accepted Answer

This should be a temporary restriction—we hope to open this up soon to at least older high school students!

Question 12

Where can I join Hearth?

Accepted Answer

Hearth is launching first in New York City with plans to expand to other regions soon. Please join the waitlist to be notified once Hearth is available near you.

Question 13

How does Hearth define 'religion' and 'secular'?

Accepted Answer

We consider religion to be faith-based spiritual systems that ground meaning and morality in external or transcendent revealed scripture. We consider secular to be anything nonreligious.

Question 14

May I join if I'm religious? What if I'm agnostic, atheist, theist, or deist?

Accepted Answer

Plenty of our members believe in a God, spirit, or higher power; some are agnostic, and some are atheists. What they share is that they're not looking to organized religion to ground their meaning and morality. Hearth is a secular community, so it's not the right fit if you follow an organized religion — a faith system built around revealed scripture (see how we define this above). If that's your path, it's already doing for you what Hearth is here to do for people who don't have it. If you believe in God but don't follow an organized religion, or you're somewhere in between and still exploring, you may well find a home here. Only you can say where you land.

Question 15

Is Hearth politically left or right?

Accepted Answer

Neither. Reasonable people can and do disagree on a wide range of policy positions, even when sharing common starting values. While we welcome and encourage members to take political action in their private lives, Hearth intentionally does not do so itself, with rare exceptions.

Question 16

I have another question. How do I contact Hearth?

Accepted Answer

Send an email to hello@discoverhearth.org!

IRL community
for people seeking
something more

Hearth is a secular community for younger adults to explore wisdom, support each other, and have fun. Like the best parts of religion, without anyone telling you what to believe.

Built around your Circle

Learn and share wisdom

Assist and challenge one another

Help your community

Have a good time :)

Join the waitlist

Why Hearth?

Meet Ray

Moments from
the hearth.

FAQs

Come sit with us by the fire (ok, it's actually just a candle)

IRL communityfor people seekingsomething more