Beyond The Ceremony Podcast Episode 26: The Science of Ceremony, and How to Turn It Into a Career with Char Srahan

Beyond The Ceremony: Modern Celebrancy. Unfiltered. · Sep 23, 2026 · 31m

Here is a question worth sitting with. If religion is declining, why do we still need ceremony? Why do we still gather, still mark the moments, still need someone to stand at the front of the room and hold space for us?

Char Srahan wrote her university dissertation on exactly that. And the answer, backed by anthropologists, neuroscientists, and sociologists, is that ceremony is not a religious invention at all. It is a fundamental human need. It predates organised religion entirely. And in an increasingly secular world, that makes what celebrants do not less relevant, but more important than…