Shows / The Classical Ideas Podcast
The Classical Ideas Podcast
Simply stated, religion matters. Religion matters not only for personal reasons, but also for social, economic, political, and military purposes. Unfortunately, studies suggest that religious knowledge and cultural literacy for any religious tradition is either in decline or is non-existent in the United States, despite being one of the most religiously diverse nation on earth. Today, religion is implicated in nearly every major national and international issue. The public arena is awash in…
Episodes
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 362: Creating Everyday Ethical Spaces: My Cambodian Mother's Buddhist Practices" w/Dr. Sophea Seng
Sophea Seng is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at California State University, Long Beach, where she teaches courses…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 361: Feeling Buddhism w/Dr. Gwendolyn Gillson
From https://www.gwendolyngillson.com: I am Associate Professor of Asian Studies in the History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion department at…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 360: Inari Origin Stories and Buddhist Public Scholarship w/Dr. Matthew Keller
Dr. Matthew Keller is Public Scholar of Buddhism within the Curatorial Department at the Detroit Institute of Arts! He completed his Ph.D. at the University of…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 359: Longchengpa and Lineage Prayers w/Dr. Renée Ford
Renée Ford, Ph.D. is a Lab Coordinator at the Contemplative Sciences Center, providing support for contemplative research at the CIRCL Lab. Renée's keen…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 358: Buddhist Military Chaplaincy in Korea w/Dr. Jonathan C. Feuer
Jonathan Feuer earned his Ph.D in Asian Languages and Cultures from UCLA in 2023. His current book project is entitled Buddhist Militarism, Violence, and…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 357: Khemethaka Nunnery, Daw Gunawati, and pāramī w/Dr. M.K. Long
MK Long is a historian and ethnographer of Buddhism and gender. Her current project highlights vernacular auto/biographical writings of Buddhist women in…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 356: Buddhism and Experimental Music w/Dr. Julian Butterfield
Julian Butterfield is a scholar of medieval Chinese Buddhist literature with a special interest in how Mahāyāna Buddhist narratives depict and solicit feeling…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 355: Buddhist Charities in Urban Vietnam w/Dr. Sara Swenson
Sara Swenson works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at Dartmouth College. Her current research explores how grassroots charity…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 354: Transforming the American Sangha w/Dr. Nalika Gajaweera
Nalika Gajaweera (Research Affiliate, Walter H. Capps Center, University of California, Santa Barbara; PhD, Anthropology, University of California, Irvine…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 353: Western Esoteric Tradition and "Scientific Progress" with Dr. Tara Isabella Burton
Tara Isabella Burton (DPhil, University of Oxford; Visiting Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University; Visiting Research Fellow, Institutional…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 352: A Perturbed System Religion and Climate Change from the End of a World w/ Dr. Susannah Crockford
A moving study of how religion shapes Western climate discourse. Our ecological system is disturbed, and with it, every other system we've built to inhabit it…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 351: Dr. Ira Helderman on Adverse Meditation Effects
Ira Helderman PhD, LPC (Adjunct Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture, Vanderbilt University; PhD, Religious Studies, Vanderbilt University, 2016)…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 350: The Wounded Church: Tending to the Harm within Catholicism w/Dr. Annie Selak
Dr. Annie Selak (she/her/hers) is an expert in feminist ecclesiology. She studies wounds in the church, or moments where the church fails to live into its…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 349: The YouTube Prosperity Gospel w/Dr. Kaitlyn Ugoretz
Kaitlyn Ugoretz (Lecturer, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Nanzan University, Japan; PhD, East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, University of…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 348: Dr. Kira Ganga Kieffer on "Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America"
Kira Ganga Kieffer is a scholar of American religions, history, culture, and politics with a PhD in Religious Studies from Boston University. She is Visiting…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 347: Beyond Wellness with Liz Bucar
Liz Bucar is a religious ethicist and professor of religion at Northeastern University, as well as a certified intenSati and Kripalu yoga instructor. Her…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 346: Deepak Chopra-Jeffrey Epstein Connections & the Spirituality Industry Crisis w/Dr. Ann Gleig
Ann Gleig (Professor of Religion and Cultural Studies, University of Central Florida; PhD, Rice University, 2010) studies spirituality emerging from the…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 345: Relational Ethics and Indigenous Plant Medicines w/Dr. Natalie Avalos
Natalie Avalos (Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies, University of Colorado Boulder; PhD, University of California Santa Barbara…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 344: Altered States of Consciousness w/Dr. Michiel van Elk
Michiel van Elk (1980) is a researcher and writer in the field of psychology, philosophy and neuroscience. Having received his PhD at the Donders Institute…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
Ep 343: Moral Courage for Our Times w/Dr. Laine Walters Young
Laine Walters Young is the Assistant Director of the Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership in the Professions at Vanderbilt University. She received her PhD…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 342: Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny, and the Civil Religion of the NFL
Dr. Lizardy-Hajbi is the author of Unraveling Religious Leadership: Power, Authority, and Decoloniality (Fortress Press, 2024) and co-editor of Explore…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 341: St. Brigid of Ireland w/Dr. Judish L. Bishop
Judith L. Bishop is Associate Professor of History and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the Alice Andrews Quigley Chair in Women's Studies at Mills…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 340: Becoming Neighbors w/Amar Peterman
Amar D. Peterman is a constructive theologian working at the intersection of faith and public life. He is the founder of Scholarship for Religion and Society…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 339: Angela of Foligno and the Lepers of Our Time w/Dr. Mac Loftin
Mac Loftin is a lecturer on theology at Harvard Divinity School. This essay was adapted from his forthcoming book, "In the Twilight of the Christian West: A…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 338: Resting Beside Living Waters W/LJ Williams
LJ Williams (they/she) is a queer African and Jewish ritualist and writer, pursuing an MDiv from Starr King School for The Ministry with a certificate in…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 337: Mappila Muslim Matrilineal Houses: Islam, Architecture and the Indian Ocean w/Azna Parveen
Azna Parveen is a PhD scholar in Architecture at the University of Manchester, UK. Her research explores the socio-cultural translations of Islam in the built…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 336: Deirdre Jonese Austin on Dance and Sacredness
Deirdre Jonese Austin (she/her) is a writer, womanist minister, and Black feminist anthropologist and ethnographer raised in the South and in the Protestant…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 335: Philo and the Therapeuts w/Dr. Jimmy Hoke
Jimmy Hoke is a freelance scholar whose uses their research, writing, and teaching to enact genuine change. Their work engages and creates queer, trans, and…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 334: Womanist Theology w/Samantha Carwyn
Samantha Carwyn is a graduate of United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, where she earned a Master of Divinity with a concentration in Social…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 333: Salvadoran-Middle Eastern Resistance and Shafiq Handal w/Dr. Amy Fallas
Dr. Amy Fallas is a PhD in History at UC Santa Barbara. She holds an MA in History from Yale and her research examines religious difference, charitable…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 332: Nonbinary Biblical Readings of Mordecai and Beyond w/Dr. Esther Brownsmith
Esther Brownsmith (she/her) is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Dayton. Her first monograph, Gendered Violence in Biblical Narrative…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 331: Radical Antiquity w/Dr. Christopher Zeichmann
Christopher B. Zeichmann (he/they) is a contract lecturer at Toronto Metropolitan University, who specializes in the study of the New Testament. His research…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 330: Commodification and Tibetan Buddhism w/Dr. Raj Kumar Singh
Raj Kumar Singh is a PhD researcher in Anthropology at the University of Delhi, currently studying the relationship between religion and economy in Mcleodganj…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 329: Brahma Vidya Mandir Ashram w/Dr. Swasti Bhattacharyya
Swasti Bhattacharyya (PhD, RN) Professor Emerita of Philosophy and Religion, has been researching, writing, and teaching in religious studies and applied…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 328: Christian Disaffiliation and Exiting w/Dr. Tess Starman
Tess Starman (she/they) is a recent PhD graduate in Sociology at Howard University and is an incoming assistant professor at Simpson College. Her research…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP327: Religious Shame and Dieting w/Dr. Rebecca Wolfe
Rebecca Wolfe is a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University. Graduating with a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, San Francisco…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 326: Fertility, Abortion, Reproductive Care, and Islam w/Dr. Celene Ibrahim
Dr. Celene Ibrahim is a multidisciplinary scholar specializing in Qur'anic studies, gender studies and interreligious relations. Her award-winning monograph…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 325: Intersectional Identities of Christian Women in the United States w/Dr. Amanda Hernandez
Amanda Hernandez is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and affiliate faculty member of the Feminist Studies and Race & Ethnicity Studies programs at…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 324: Epic Bollywood: Religion and Representation in Modern Indian Cinema w/Dr. Sohini Sarah Pillai
Dr. Sohini Sarah Pillai (she/her/hers) is Assistant Professor of Religion, Director of Film and Media Studies, and the Marlene Crandell Francis Endowed Chair…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 323: Conversion Therapy & Shame-Sex Attraction w/Dr. Lucas Wilson
Formerly the Justice, Equity, and Transformation Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Calgary, Lucas is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Toronto…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 322: Ramy, Dubai Bling, and Muslim Matchmaker w/Dr. Tazeen Ali
Tazeen M. Ali (she/her) is assistant professor of Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research and teaching focus on Islam and…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 321: Ezekiel 24:15-27 and Divine Dissociation w/Dr. Alexiana Fry
Alexiana Fry (she/her/hers) is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen at the Faculty of Theology for a project entitled "Divergent Views of…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 320: Gender and the Quiet Power of Interfaith Food-Sharing w/Peach Hoyle
Peach (they/them) is a PhD student at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge and the Woolf Institute. They are conducting ethnographic research into…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 319: Land Is Kin w/Dr. Dana Lloyd
Dana Lloyd is assistant professor of Global Interdisciplinary Studies and affiliated faculty at the Center for Peace and Justice Education at Villanova…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 318: Engendering a Culture and Climate of Sexual Safety w/Dr. Aisha Lovens
Aisha R. Lovens (she/her/hers) is a PhD student in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric at Christian Theological Seminary. She is a dynamic…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 317: Post-Evangelical Feminist Communities on Digital Media w/Kelsey Hanson Woodruff
Kelsey Hanson Woodruff is a PhD candidate in Religion at Harvard University. Her dissertation is a historical and ethnographic study of digital communities of…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 316: Pagan Religions w/Dr. Angela Puca
Dr Angela Puca is an academic and a university lecturer who has taught at several universities worldwide and has been based at Leeds Trinity University since…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 315: Is the Black Church Dead? w/Dr. Shaonta' Allen
Shaonta' Allen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Dartmouth College. She also holds affiliations with the African and African American…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 314: Liminal Spaces of Indian American Christianity and Indian Flag at the Capitol Insurrection w/Binu Varghese
Binu 'Ben' Varghese is a PhD student in religion and society at Princeton Theological Seminary. His research focuses on intersections of race, politics, and…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 313: Misreading Calvin, Settler Colonialism, and Theology w/Dr. Suejeanne Koh
SueJeanne Koh is the Graduate Futures Program Director of the Humanities Center at the University of California, Irvine. She develops programming for…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 312: Faith and Food Networks: Muslim women's acts of resistance and resilience in the American Diaspora with Dr. Farha Ternikar
Farha Ternikar (Ph.D., Sociology, M.A. Religious Studies) is the director of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at Le Moyne College, Syracuse. Her current…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 311: BLACK DISABLED BODIES AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE w/Robert Monson
Robert Monson is a writer, musician, and scholar that looks closely at Black and womanist theologies as well as Black disability theology. His work engages…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 310: Indigenous Plant Medicines w/Dr. Natalie Avalos
Natalie Avalos is an assistant professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies in the Ethnic Studies department at University of Colorado Boulder. She is…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 309: Queer Activism in India w/Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson is a Ph.D. candidate in the Islam subfield of the Department of Religion at Princeton University. They are also pursuing a graduate certificate…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 308: Afro-Futurism, Afro-Pessimism, and Black Joy as Resistance with Dr. Michael Brandon McCormack
Dr. Michael Brandon McCormack is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Pan-African Studies, Associate Professor of Comparative Humanities , and…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 307: Coptic Orthodox Christianity with Phoebe Farag Mikhail
Phoebe Farag Mikhail is a Coptic Orthodox Christian and the author of Putting Joy into Practice: Seven Ways to Lift Your Spirit from the Early Church…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 306: Black Women's Maternal/ Reproductive Health w/Dr. Ashlyn Strozier
Dr. Strozier is a lecturer at Georgia State University. She is continuing her research in the areas of religion, gender, sexuality, and health focusing the…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 305: Swāmīnī Vāto in the Swaminarayan Sampraday w/Dr. Bhakti Mamtora
Bhakti Mamtora (Ph.D., Religion, University of Florida) is Assistant Professor of South Asian Religions in the Department of Religious Studies and Classics at…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 304: The Racism of People Who Love You w/Dr. Samira Mehta
Samira Mehta is an Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies and Jewish Studies at CU Boulder. Her research focuses on the intersections of religion…
- The Classical Ideas Podcast
EP 303: The Divine Institution: White Evangelicalism's Politics of the Family w/Dr. Sophie Bjork-James
Sophie Bjork-James (Ph.D., Cultural Anthropology, City University of New York) is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University. She has over…