Since 2012, the Secular Humanist Society of Peru has been a point of reference for humanism, secularism and human rights in the country. In 2017, it became a Member of Humanists International. Building on the success achieved in 2020 with the radio show “Para-Normales de la Noche”, in 2021 the Secular Humanist Society of Peru aims to scale up its content production with the creation of a humanist online channel called “Marginales TV”.
The mission of the Secular Humanist Society of Peru is to “promote secular humanism and the scientific method in Peruvian community”. To achieve this mission, the organization has used many different strategies: organization of live and online meetings, creation of various online content, publication of scientific and academic books, etc. The Secular Humanist Society of Peru has been one of the most engaged organization since the launch of the Café Humaniste series in 2017, and in April 2020, soon after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was one of the first humanist organizations around the world to quickly shift to online events.
The first Café Humaniste organized by the Secular Humanist Society of Peru on 22 November 2017 in collaboration with Humanists International.
In 2020, £3,500 was awarded to Secular Humanist Society of Peru to support their vodcast on critical thinking in Spanish called “Para normales de la noche“. In 2020 only the Secular Humanist Society of Peru broadcasted 41 episodes for a total of 50 hours live, including an episode dedicated to the protection of humanists at risk around the world with the presence of a panel of different Latin American humanist activists. The program had 184,500 views in total via Facebook and YouTube , with an increase of 1,500 followers on the Facebook page of the show and 900 new followers on the page of Secular Humanist Society of Peru.
“Marginales TV” is a digital video channel with live programs that promotes secular humanism, critical thinking, evidence-based decision-making and constructive conversation between people with different points of view. It has a catchy name and a catchy slogan in Spanish: “Marginales TV – La señal popular que te hace pensar” – “the popular signal that makes you think”.
The origin of the name is a sort of word pun for the Peruvian humanist community. A well-known local journalist and conspiracy theorist defined the radio of the Secular Humanist Society of Peru a “marginal radio” with the intention of discrediting the organization. The Secular Humanist Society of Peru has then taken advantage of the fact that “marginal” in Spanish means also “nonconformist” and “to be outside the conventional norms”, and used this adjective for its new humanist channel.
The team of Secular Humanist Society of Peru.
The aim is to include in this channel some audiovisual programs that are already produced by the Peruvian Secular Humanist Society, such as “Para normales de la noche“, La Manzana Escéptica, La Caja de Pandora, and attract other programs that are produced by members of the organization but who are dispersed in different media. The goal is to unify and gather all together the resources invested in promotion and content creation, and be able to reach more Spanish-speaking countries (especially Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Spain). The target is to have one live program per day.
As of May 2021, the Peruvian Secular Humanist Society has already created two new programs within the Marginales TV schedule:
