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Studs Terkel on Life, Faith, and Death (November 13, 2008)

Thu, Nov 13 Listen

We remember Studs Terkel, who recently died at the age of 96. The legendary interviewer chronicled decades of ordinary life and tumultuous change in U.S. culture. We visited him in his Chicago home in 2004 and drew out his wisdom and warmth on large existential themes of life and death. A lifelong agnostic, Studs Terkel shared his thoughts on religion as he'd observed it in his conversation partners, in culture, and in his own encounters with loss and mortality.

SOF EXTRA (audio) | Unedited Interview with Steve Waldman

Thu, Nov 6 Listen

In this edition of SOF Unheard Cuts, Krista interviewed Steve Waldman, journalist and founder of Beliefnet, for "Liberating the Founders." Listen to their complete, unedited conversation. Here's your chance to observe the editorial process and let us know what you think.

Getting Revenge and Forgiveness (November 6, 2008)

Thu, Nov 6 Listen

Professor of psychology Michael McCullough describes science that helps us comprehend how revenge came to have a purpose in human life. At the same time, he stresses, science is also revealing that human beings are more instinctively equipped for forgiveness than we've perhaps given ourselves credit for. Knowing this suggests ways to calm the revenge instinct in ourselves and others and embolden the forgiveness intuition.

SOF EXTRA (audio) | Unedited Interview with Vashti McKenzie

Mon, Nov 3 Listen

In this edition of SOF Unheard Cuts, Krista interviewed Vashti McKenzie, first female bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, for "African American. Woman. Leader." Listen to their complete, unedited conversation. Here's your chance to observe the editorial process and let us know what you think.

Liberating the Founders (October 30, 2008)

Thu, Oct 30 Listen

With the presidential election approaching, we return to an evocative, relevant conversation from earlier this year with journalist Steven Waldman. He's done an unusual study investigating how the culture wars have skewed contemporary Americans' sense of how we came to have religious liberty in the first place. He understands why 21st-century struggles over religion in the public square spur passionate disagreement and entanglement with politics at its most impure.

African American, Woman, Leader - Meeting Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie (Oc

Thu, Oct 23 Listen

The 2008 U.S. presidential election has illustrated how gender, race, and religion can become lightning rods, and seen as potential stumbling blocks to leadership. Vashti McKenzie is a pioneering figure on all these fronts; when she became the first woman bishop of the oldest historic black church in America, she declared: "The stained glass ceiling has been pierced and broken." We offer her story, her wisdom, and her good humor as an edifying lens on the American past, present, and future.

Being Autistic, Being Human (October 16, 2008)

Thu, Oct 16 Listen

One of every 150 children is now diagnosed to be somewhere on the mysterious spectrum of autism. We step back from the controversies about the causes and cures of autism and explore one family's experience with an autistic child. Jennifer Elder, an artist, and Paul Collins, a literary historian, have unearthed a vivid history of people grappling with autism, before it had a name. And they share what all of this is teaching them about what it means to be human.

SOF EXTRA (audio) | Unedited Interview with Amy Sullivan

Mon, Oct 13 Listen

In this edition of SOF Unheard Cuts, Krista interviewed Amy Sullivan for the first part of our series "The Faith Life of the Party." She's a national corresponent for Time magazine, an Evangelical Christian, and an observer of the Democratic Party. Here's your chance to observe the editorial process and let us know what you think.

The Faith Life of the Party - Part II, The Right (October 9, 2008)

Thu, Oct 9 Listen

For second part of our examination of religious energies below the surface of the 2008 presidential campaign, our guest is conservative columnist Rod Dreher. Dreher is an outspoken critic of mainstream Republican economic and environmental ideas and the conduct of the Iraq war, but he voted for George W. Bush twice. We explore the little-known story of religiously-influenced impulses within the conservative movement that diverge from the Religious Right.

The Faith Life of the Party - Part I, The Left (October 2, 2008)

Thu, Oct 2 Listen

We begin a refreshing, thought-provoking two-part conversation on politics and religion below the surface of the current U.S. presidential campaign. I speak with two counterintuitive yet influential voices. This week, national correspondent for Time magazine, Amy Sullivan, and next week, conservative columnist for the Dallas Morning News, Rod Dreher. Sullivan is a political liberal, an Evangelical Christian, and a savvy observer of the Democratic Party's complex relationship with faith over...

Days of Awe (September 25, 2008)

Thu, Sep 25 Listen

We'll delve into the world and meaning of the approaching Jewish High Holy Days -- ten days that span the new year of Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur's rituals of atonement. Sharon Brous, a young rabbi in L.A., is one voice in a Jewish spiritual renaissance that is taking many forms across the U.S. The vast majority of her congregation are people in their 20s and 30s, who, she says, are making life-giving connections between ritual, personal transformation, and relevance in the world.

The Origins and Impact of Pentecostalism (September 18, 2008)

Thu, Sep 18 Listen

Pentecostalism has appeared as a force on both sides of the current presidential campaign. News coverage of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's Pentecostal background has overshadowed the fact that senior leaders of the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Convention are Pentecostal too. In 2006, Pentecostals from all around the globe traveled to the birthplace of this tradition -- Azusa Street in Los Angeles. We were there to cover the centennial celebration -- and now we bring...

Yoga. Meditation in Action with Seane Corn (September 11, 2008)

Thu, Sep 11 Listen

Yoga studios are cropping up on street corners across the U.S., and there are now yoga classes at YMCAs, law schools, and corporate headquarters. This 5000 year old spiritual technology is converging intriguingly with 21st century medical science and with many religious and philosophical perspectives. Seane Corn takes us inside the practicalities and power of yoga, and describes how it helps her face the darkness in herself and the world.

Stress and the Balance Within (September 4, 2008)

Thu, Sep 4 Listen

The American experience of stress has spawned a multi-billion dollar self-help industry. Wary of this, Esther Sternberg says that, until recently, modern science did not have the tools or the inclination to take emotional stress seriously. She shares fascinating new scientific insight into the molecular level of the mind-body connection.

Fishing with Mystery (August 28, 2008)

Thu, Aug 28 Listen

James Prosek is a 33-year-old artist, writer, and fly-fisher who has always, as he puts it, found God "through the theater of nature." From a young age he has been fascinated by trout, and now eel -- which he sees as "mystical creatures" -- and he's captured them physically and artistically, by way of both angling and paint. We explore the sense of meaning and ritual James Prosek developed along the way, including his concern with how we humans limit our sense of other creatures by the names...

Rick and Kay Warren at Saddleback (August 21, 2008)

Thu, Aug 21 Listen

Evangelical leader Rick Warren is in the news for bringing John McCain and Barack Obama together at his Saddleback Church in California. This two-hour event, broadcast live on CNN, is just one sign of the cross-cultural authority Warren and his wife Kay have achieved in a handful of years. We revisit Krista's conversation with them at Saddleback last year -- exploring who they are and what motivates them.

The Power of Eckhart Tolle's Now (August 14, 2007)

Wed, Aug 13 Listen

Host Krista Tippett creates a certain kind of space in her interviews, and this conversation is no exception. Tolle shares his youthful experience of depression and despair -- suffering that led him to his own spiritual breakthrough, and ultimately, freedom and peace of mind. He also explicates his view of what he calls "the pain body" -- the accumulated emotional pain that may influence us and our relationships in negative ways. And Tolle talks about spirit and God, and what those concepts...

Living Vodou (August 7, 2007)

Thu, Aug 7 Listen

Vodou is the African-based spiritual world of the people of Haiti, a living religion wherever Haitians are found. It involves dramatic rituals and drumming, trances and dreaming, and belief in a spiritual realm that mirrors the physical world and interacts with it. But contrary to popular notions, it has nothing to do with sticking pins into dolls. With Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, a scholar who is also a Vodou priest, we explore its practices and metaphysics.

The Business of Doing Good (July 31, 2008)

Thu, Jul 31 Listen

The news has been marked in recent years, at regular intervals, by the moral and practical downfall of prominent businesses. Jonathan Greenblatt is among a new generation of entrepreneurs who want to lead a fundamental shift in corporate culture as well as philanthropy -- a merger between making a profit and doing good. We explore his way of seeing the world and his economics of "ethical brand architecture" and "fiercely pragmatic idealism."

Play, Spirit, and Character (July 24, 2008)

Thu, Jul 24 Listen

Stuart Brown, a physician and director of the National Institute for Play, says that pleasurable, purposeless activity prevents violence and promotes trust, empathy, and adaptability to life's complication. He promotes cutting-edge science on human play, and draws on a rich universe of study of intelligent social animals.

Joe Carter and the Legacy of the African-American Spiritual (July 10, 2008)

Thu, Jul 10 Listen

The spiritual is celebrated in American culture and beyond. It is the source from which gospel, jazz, blues and hip-hop evolved. It was born in the American South, created by slaves, bards whose names history never recorded. The organizing concept of this music is not the melody of Europe, but the rhythm of Africa. And the theology conveyed in these songs is a potent mix of African spirituality, Hebrew narrative, Christian doctrine, and an extreme experience of human suffering.

The Ethics of Eating (July 3, 2008)

Thu, Jul 3 Listen

Author Barbara Kingsolver describes an adventure her family undertook to spend one year eating primarily what they could grow or raise themselves. As a citizen and mother more than an expert, she turned her life towards questions many of us are asking. Food, she says, is a "rare moral arena" in which the ethical choice is often the pleasurable choice.

Presence in the Wild (June 26, 2008)

Thu, Jun 26 Listen

Kate Braestrup is a writer, mother and a chaplain to game wardens on search-and-rescue missions in Maine. She is called in when children disappear in the woods and when snowmobilers disappear under the ice. There, she says, the rubber meets the road theologically. And her sense of life, death, and God is formed by what happens between and among people.

Sustaining Language, Sustaining Meaning - an Ojibwe Story (June 19, 2008)

Fri, Jun 20 Listen

Novelist and translator David Treuer is helping to compile the first practical grammar of the Ojibwe tongue of his tribe -- one of the 90 percent of human languages that could be endangered in this century. Treuer describes an unfolding awareness of aspects of his personality, of a sense of what brings him joy, an understanding of what makes him human -- that the Ojibwe language distinctly conveys.

Pagans Ancient and Modern (June 12, 2008)

Thu, Jun 12 Listen

An environmentalist who pursued the ecological impulse of Paganism, from its ancient roots to its modern revival in Europe and North America, discusses his observations about the spirit of Paganism and its influence on everyday Western culture -- and even on old-time religion.

The Spiritual Audacity of Abraham Joshua Heschel (June 5, 2008)

Thu, Jun 5 Listen

Heschel was a mystic who wrote transcendent, poetic words about God. At the very same time, he marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and organized religious leadership against the war in Vietnam, embodying the extreme social activism of the biblical prophets he studied. We explore his teachings and his legacy for people in our day.

Quarks and Creation (May 29, 2008)

Thu, May 29 Listen

Science and religion are often pitted against one another; but how do they complement, rather than contradict, one another? We learn how one man applies the deepest insights of modern physics to think about how the world fundamentally works, and how the universe might make space for prayer.

Approaching Prayer (May 22, 2008)

Thu, May 22 Listen

Americans are religious and non-religious, devout and irreverent. But in astonishing numbers, across that spectrum, most of us say that we pray. We open up the subject of prayer and explore how it sounds and what it means in three different traditions and lives.

The Spirituality of Addiction and Recovery (May 15, 2008)

Fri, May 16 Listen

Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson once said that the program he helped create is, "utter simplicity which encases a complete mystery." We explore the spiritual foundations of addiction and recovery with authors Kevin Griffin and Susan Cheever. Griffin reflects on the consonance of Buddhist teachings and the 12 Steps; Cheever tells her personal story and that of her father, the late fiction writer John Cheever.

The Freelance Monotheism of Karen Armstrong (May 8, 2008)

Thu, May 8 Listen

Karen Armstrong speaks about her progression from a disillusioned and damaged young nun into, in her words, a "freelance monotheist." She's a formidable thinker and scholar, but as a theologian she calls herself an amateur -- noting that the Latin root of the word "amateur" means a love of one's subject. Seven years in a strict religious order nearly snuffed out her ability to think about faith at all. Here, we hear the story behind Armstrong's developing ideas about God.

Speaking of Faith (Religion)