Ministry of Ideas

Genealogies of Modernity Episode 8: The Enemy of Morality Is Not Modernity, It’s Me Dec 20, 2023

The great English essayist and linguist Samuel Johnson was writing during the Enlightenment – the period some historians identify as the beginning of the modern age. American author and philosopher David Foster Wallace worked more than two centuries later, in the “post-modern” style. But these two writers shared a common problem: once modernity fractured society’s sense of shared moral norms, how could you write persuasively about morality? This episode looks at how Johnson and Wallace attempted to solve this problem; what struggles plagued their solutions; and why our modern, pluralistic landscape makes their work more valuable than ever.

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Kirsten Hall Herlin

Featured Scholars:

Walter Jackson Bate (1918-1999), Professor of English, Harvard University
Matt Bucher, Managing Editor, The Journal of David Foster Wallace Studies
Jack Lynch, Professor of English, Rutgers University
D. T. Max, Staff Writer, The New Yorker

Special thanks: Dutton Kearney

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

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Genealogies of Modernity Episode 7: A Genealogy of Gun Violence Dec 13, 2023

The problem of gun violence is as old as guns themselves. According to historian Priya Satia, America’s present epidemic of gun violence has its roots in the industrial revolution. Satia tells the story of British gun-maker Samuel Galton, Jr., who was called to task by his Quaker community for manufacturing rifles. As a professed pacifist, Galton had to wrestle with the large-scale uses to which his weapons were put. So where do we look for answers about how to regulate guns? Some claim the answer has to lie in the past, in the nation’s founding documents. Others argue that novel technologies demand novel solutions. Solving the problem of gun violence may be a case where we need to make a strong modernity claim.

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Christopher Nygren, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh

Featured Scholars:

Catherine Fletcher, Professor of History, Manchester Metropolitan University

Priya Satia, Professor of History, Stanford University

Special thanks: James DeMasi, Chloé Hogg, Jonathan Lyonhart, Pernille Røge, Jennifer Waldron, Catherine Yanko.

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

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Genealogies of Modernity Episode 6: A Medieval Anti-Racist Dec 06, 2023

What if racism shared an origin with opposition to racism? What if the condemnation of injustice gave rise both to an early form of anti-racism and to the racial hierarchies that haunt the modern era? Rolena Adornol, David Orique, María Cristina Ríos Espinosa tell the story of how Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican missionary to New Spain, came to racial consciousness in the presence of slavery. His intellectual rebellion spurred slavery’s apologists to more strident and sinister modes of defense – but also laid a lasting Christian groundwork for the fight against racial injustice.

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Terence Sweeney, Assistant Teaching Professor, Honors College, Villanova University

Featured Scholars:

Rolena Adorno, Sterling Professor Emerita of Spanish, Yale University

María Cristina Ríos Espinosa, Professor of Arts, Humanities, and Culture, University of Sor Juana’s Cloister, Mexico City

David Orique, Professor of History, Providence College

Special thanks: Chiyuma Eliott, Michael Sawyer

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

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Genealogies of Modernity Episode 5: Picturing Race in Colonial Mexico Nov 29, 2023

Race is sometimes treated as a biological fact. It is actually a modern invention. But for this concept to gain power, its logic had to be spread – and made visible. Art historian Ilona Katzew tells the story of how Spanish colonists of modern-day Mexico developed theories of blood purity and used the casta paintings – featuring family groups with differing skin pigmentations set in domestic scenes – to represent these theories as reality. She also shares the strange challenges of curating these paintings in the present, when the paintings’ insidious ideologies have been debunked, but when mixed-race viewers also appreciate images that testify to their presence in the past.

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Christopher Nygren, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh

Featured Scholar: Ilona Katzew, Curator and Head of Latin American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Special thanks: Elise Lonich Ryan, Nayeli Riano, Jennifer Josten

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

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Genealogies of Modernity Episode 4: Jamestown and the Myth of the Sovereign Family Nov 22, 2023

What is the “traditional American family?” Popular images from the colonial and pioneer past suggest an isolated and self-sufficient nuclear family as the center of American identity and the source of American strength. But the idea of early American self-sufficiency is a myth. Caro Pirri tells the story of the precarious Jamestown settlement and how its residents depended on each other and on Indigenous Americans for survival. Early American history can help us imagine new kinds of interdependent and multi-generational family structures as an antidote to the modern crisis of loneliness and alienation.

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Caro Pirri, Assistant Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh

Featured Scholars:

Jean Feerick, Professor of English, John Carroll University

Steven Mentz, Professor of English, St. John’s University

Special thanks: Molly Warsh

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

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Genealogies of Modernity Episode 3: What Is Genealogy? Nov 15, 2023

Genealogy, in Charles Darwin’s terms, is the study of “descent with modification.” Taken as an analogy for the study of history, genealogy can guard against the potential dangers of claiming modernity. Against the effort to erase the past, genealogy asserts that our ancestry will always be with us. Against the effort to master the past, genealogy reminds us that our descendants have the freedom to create new futures. Sociologist Alondra Nelson tells the story of how African Americans have used DNA-informed genealogy to recover African identity despite slavery’s erasure of family history. Genealogical thinking can help us shape a disposition to the past that recognizes the legacy of injustice while also fostering human flourishing in the future.

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh; Senior Research Fellow, Beatrice Institute

Featured Scholars:

Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study

Caro Pirri, Assistant Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh

Michael Puett, Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, Harvard University

Special thanks to: Eduard Fiedler, Christopher Firestone, Thomas A. Lewis, Thomalind Martin Polite, Sara Trevisan

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

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Genealogies of Modernity Episode 2: What Is Modernity? Nov 13, 2023

We often think of modernity as a distinct time period in history – one that is said to start at different places, but which always includes us. Yet people have been claiming to be modern since at least the third century BC. Harvard scholar Michael Puett takes us back to ancient China, when a series of emperors laid claim to modernity in order to consolidate their rule. Puett argues that modernity is best understood not as a period on a timeline but as a claim to freedom from the past. By recognizing how “modernity claims” try either to erase the past or to master it for our own uses, we can appreciate what is at stake in our own invocations of “modernity."

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh; Senior Research Fellow, Beatrice Institute

Featured Scholar:

Michael Puett, Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, Harvard University

Special thanks: Travis DeCook, Rokhaya Dieng, Gina Elia, Thomas A. Lewis

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, visit https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/season-ii.

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Genealogies of Modernity Episode 1: Climbing the Mountains of Modernity Nov 09, 2023

We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be “modern”? This episode comes at the question through the test case of mountain climbing and rock climbing. Claims to becoming modern through climbing often point back to Italian humanist Francesco Petrarch’s ascent of Mt. Ventoux in 1336, a climb that made him, according to many historians, “the first modern man.” But Petrarch was by no means the first person to climb Mt Ventoux, and his own account is, if anything, counter-modern. By surveying evidence of much earlier climbing in Europe and pre-contact North America, the episode argues that humans have always been climbing mountains and scaling cliffs for a wide variety of reasons. Only recently did they start to think of these achievements as making themselves “modern.” It turns out that to claim to be modern is one of the most modern things you can do.

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh

Featured Scholars:

Shannon Arnold Boomgarden, Director of Range Creek Field Station, University of Utah

Larry Coats, Career-line Associate Professor of Geography, University of Utah

Peter Hansen, Professor of History, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Dawn Hollis, Independent Historian

Special thanks to: Jake Grefenstette, John-Paul Heil, Jason König, Michael Krom, Michael Puett

Media and scholarship referenced:

Hansen, Peter. The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2013.

Hollis, Dawn. “Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Genealogy of an Idea.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 26:4 (2019): 1038-61.

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, visit https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/season-ii.

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Illuminations Episode 10: Universal Knowledge Aug 02, 2023

At the dawn of European exploration, the Renaissance polymath Francis Bacon dreamed of resurrecting the Garden of Eden. Driving this vision was a relentless quest to fully understand—and catalog—God's created order.

Guests

Lorraine Daston, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Ann Blair, Harvard University

Rebecca Bushnell, University of Pennsylvania

Staffan Müller-Wille, University of Cambridge

James Rosindell, Imperial College London

Amy Tigner, University of Texas at Arlington

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Illuminations Episode 9: Rituals for a Dying World Jun 22, 2023

Absorbing the full reality of climate change will require more than a scientific approach. Some American Jews are showing how religious ritual can help us metabolize catastrophic grief while also pointing towards a future rebirth.

Guests:

-Jennie Rosenn, Founder & CEO of Dayenu

-Andrue Kahn, Central Synagogue

-Malkah Binah Klein, Community leader

This episode was produced by Liya Rechtman.

Zachary Davis is the host of Ministry of Ideas and Writ Large and the Editor-in-Chief of Wayfare Magazine.

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Illuminations Episode 8: Watching Heaven May 16, 2023

The story of Galileo has long been cited as evidence the Catholic Church is inherently opposed to scientific research. But in fact, astronomy has been built into the history of the Catholic Church – sometimes built literally into the churches themselves.

Guests

Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory

Ann Blair, Harvard Professor of History

John Heilbron, Historian of Science Emeritus, University of Berkeley

Stephen Barr, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Delaware

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Illuminations Episode 7: Mirrors of Morality Apr 19, 2023

Scientific origin stories promise to tell us who we really are. But that deepest question of human existence can never fully be answered by science.

Guests

Erika Milam, Princeton University

Cecilia Heyes, Oxford University

This episode was produced by Simon Brown and Maria Devlin McNair.

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Illuminations Episode 6: Manifest Mars Mar 20, 2023

A sense of divine destiny drove Americans to expand West. A similar spirit is behind the modern quest to conquer space.

Guests

Lois Rosson, Bergruenn Institute (Los Angeles)

Catherine Newell, University of Miami

Joni Kinsey, University of Iowa

Episode produced by Liya Rechtman.

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Illuminations Episode 5: Moveable Feasts Mar 16, 2023

God, we know, is outside space and time. But the need to date one faith’s most sacred feast drove a cutting-edge technological quest to accurately locate ourselves in time.

Guests

Simon Brown

Philipp Nothaft

Robert Poole

Producers

Simon Brown

Maria Devlin McNair

Voice Talent

Blair Hodges

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Illuminations Episode 4: Quantum Buddhism Mar 15, 2023

What’s the spiritual significance of quantum mechanics? One answer comes from the Dalai Lama - a surprising but genuine lover of scientific investigation.

Guests

Jose Perillan - Associate Professor of Physics and Science, Technology and Society and the Pauline Newman Director of Science, Technology, and Society at Vassar College

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Illuminations Episode 3: Divine Technology Mar 14, 2023

It’s common to feel that technology removes the magic of the world, but Hindu worshippers in Bangalore have shown that it's all in the approach.

Guest

Tulasi Srinivas, associate professor of anthropology at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College. Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Indian Sociological Society. Author of Winged Faith: Rethinking Globalization and Religious Pluralism, among other books.

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Illuminations Episode 2: Beyond Belief Mar 13, 2023

Do scientists ever reject science? Research data on the controversial topic of extraterrestrial life has met with resistance from some in the scientific community and openness from communities of faith.

Guests

Avi Loeb, professor of astrophysics and cosmology at Harvard University, where he serves as the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science. Author of Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth.

Kate Dorsch, associate director of Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania .

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), longtime U.S. Senator (1987-2017) from the state of Nevada and former Senate Majority Leader (2007-2015. *The Senator died in December 2021.

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Illuminations Episode 1: Experimental Methods Mar 12, 2023

Have faith and science always been enemies? The story of Robert Hooke, a revolutionary working in the Scientific Revolution, exemplifies the ways in which Christianity has actually provoked scientific inquiry.

Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.

Patricia Fara, director of studies and affiliated lecturer at the University of Cambridge’s Department of the History and Philosophy of Science.

Jim Bennett, Keeper Emeritus at the Science Museum, London and professor emeritus of the history of science, University of Oxford.

Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory and president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.

Stephen Barr, professor emeritus at the University of Delaware’s department of physics and astronomy.

This episode was produced by Rosalind Rei and Maria Devlin McNair.

Illuminations is supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

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Illuminations Introduction Mar 11, 2023

Illuminations is a limited series that reveals the untold friendship of religion and science. Through interviews and stories drawn from a range of cultures, faiths, and eras, this series reveals the unknown and unexpected histories of how religion and science have been entangled across time. We hear why the Dalai Lama loves quantum mechanics; why the Mormon faith inspires a search for extraterrestrial life; why the Scientific Revolution was catalyzed by a religious quest to uncover divine craftsmanship. These surprising narratives explode the myth that faith and science are destined to be enemies and reveal how they worked as mutual inspiration.

Illuminations is produced by Zachary Davis, Maria Devlin McNair, Liya Rechtman and Nick Andersen. Script editing by Galen Beebe. Sound Design by Stephen Larosa. Artwork by Dan Pecci.

Illuminations is supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

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Illuminations Teaser Mar 10, 2023

Illuminations is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that reveals the untold friendship of religion and science. Through interviews and stories drawn from a range of cultures, faiths, and eras, this series reveals the unknown and unexpected histories of how religion and science have been entangled across time.

We hear why the Dalai Lama loves quantum mechanics; why the Mormon faith inspires a search for extraterrestrial life; why the Scientific Revolution was catalyzed by a religious quest to uncover divine craftsmanship. These surprising narratives explode the myth that faith and science are destined to be enemies.

Illuminations is produced by Zachary Davis, Maria Devlin McNair, Liya Rechtman and Nick Andersen. Script editing by Galen Beebe. Sound Design by Stephen Larosa. Artwork by Dan Pecci.

Learn more at ministryofideas.org/illuminations and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Measure for Measure Episode 8: Star Ladder Mar 09, 2023

Scientists discovered that some stars have heartbeats and that some of them can be used to measure the longest distances that exist.

This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya Rechtman.

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Measure for Measure Episode 7: Kinsey Mar 08, 2023

Scientist Alfred Kinsey tried to differentiate human sexualities on a seven-point scale. In so doing, he brought us the basics of bisexuality. But the scale leaves a lot to be desired. Instead of a spectrum, Special Guest Kate Sisk leads us into a gay fog.

GUEST

Kate Sisk (she/they/he) is a professional stand up comedian, amateur drag king, and co-host of the award-winning podcast, We’re Having Gay Sex.

This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya Rechtman.

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Measure for Measure Episode 6: IQ Mar 07, 2023

The Intelligence Quotient is a measure of intelligence that has life-or-death consequences. Should we trust it?

GUEST

Alan Gouddis is a Partner with Sherman & Sterling. He was recognized by The Legal 500 as a “Leading Lawyer” in M&A Litigation Defense in 2021.

This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya Rechtman.

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Measure for Measure Episode 5: Scoville Mar 06, 2023

Taste is a subjective experience. We know this because eggs pickled in human urine, cheese with live maggots living in it, fertilized and mostly-developed duck eggs, rotten shark, calf blood and cheese whiz are all delicacies somewhere. But there is a flavor that we can measure and compare objectively. Kind of.

This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya Rechtman.

Special thanks to our taste-testers: Brian Sexton, Daniel Siegel, Grace Gouddis, Gregory Fredle, Lois Rosson, Maiya Zwerling, Michelle Tigchelaar, Simon Brown, and Val McGraw.

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Measure for Measure Episode 4: Movies Mar 05, 2023

We’d rate today’s episode a ten out of ten, five star, certified fresh, two thumbs up. But we can’t speak for its IMdB score.

This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya Rechtman.

Measure for Measure is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas.

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Measure for Measure Episode 3: Mohs Mar 04, 2023

We’re hitting up against the very nature of measurement: How can we best describe the world around us, in its infinite complexity, with finite measures? In other words, how hard are rocks?

This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya Rechtman.

Measure for Measure is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas.

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Measure for Measure Episode 2: Olives Mar 03, 2023

Jews are ritually obligated to eat matzah during Passover. But how much matzah? Well, that depends on your views on the size of an olive.

This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya Rechtman.

Special thanks to Rabbi Natan Slifkin, founder of RationalistJudaism.com for his work on olives and biblical measurements.

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Measure for Measure Episode 1: Fathom Mar 02, 2023

We love a good chart or graph but we think measurement is more complex and interesting than the data points. The fathom is a measure of depth from the surface to the ocean floorwhich is critical for navigating the Mississippi River and the Suez Canal. The fathom also shows us what’s beyond measurement: The unfathomable.

This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya Rechtman.

Measure for Measure is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas. The show is executive produced by Liya Rechtman, created by Andrew Middleton, and sound engineered by Greg Fredle.

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Measure for Measure Episode 0: Birds Mar 01, 2023

Could you pick a white-breasted nuthatch out of a lineup? We explore the value - and limits - of birdwatching, categorization, and measurement.

This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya Rechtman.

Measure for Measure is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas. The show is executive produced by Liya Rechtman, created by Andrew Middleton, and sound engineered by Greg Fredle.

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Introducing Measure for Measure Feb 28, 2023

Introducing Measure for Measure, a new limited series from Ministry of Ideas.

We love a good chart or graph but we think measurement is more complex and interesting than data points. In each episode of the Measure for Measure, we look at a different unit of measure as a fundamental grammar of our lives.

Learn more at ministryofideas.org/measure

PRODUCTION TEAM

Liya Rechtman is Executive Producer and co-host of Measure for Measure and Managing Producer of Ministry of Ideas. She is a climate activist and Jew about town.

Andrew Middleton is Creator and co-host of Measure for Measure and a Producer of Ministry of Ideas. He is a cartographer, diver, and the founder of Open Dive Sites.

Greg Fredleis Sound Engineer for Measure for Measure. He is a freelance filmmaker and audio producer.

Zachary Davis is Executive Producer and Host of Ministry Ideas, Writ Large and Making Meaning; advisor to Measure for Measure.

Tyler Morrisette is the art director for Measure for Measure.

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Making Meaning Episode 24: The Shining Surface Feb 27, 2023

It's common to equate meaning with depth, but the surface of things, with its wild and rapturous beauty, can coax us into life.

GUEST

Stephanie Paulsell is the Susan Shallcross Swartz Professor of the Practice of Christian Studies in the Harvard Divinity School and served as the Interim Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church from 2019 to 2020. An ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), she is the author of Religion Around Virginia Woolf, (2019), editor (with David Carrasco and Mara Willard) of Goodness and the Literary Imagination (2019), and a regular columnist in The Christian Century.

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness.

Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 23: Limits and Love Feb 26, 2023

We are finite creatures who struggle to accept our finitude. But if we can learn to embrace our limits, we will find that our relations with one another, the created world, and God allow us to experience a love so exquisite, it need not last forever.

Guest:

Matthew Ichihashi Potts is Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University. He studies the thought and practice of Christian communities through attention to diverse literary and theological texts.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 22: Head and Heart Feb 25, 2023

Meaning paradoxically has to be both made and discovered, an inescapable entanglement of the singular and the universal. And though the fruit of such wrestling may not be uncomplicated happiness, it often leads to a deeper awareness of the sweetness of existence, the holiness of an hour.

Guest:

Zohar Atkins is the Founder of Etz Hasadeh, a Center for Existential Torah. He is a Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. He holds a DPhil in Theology from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and semikha from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was a Wexner Graduate Fellow.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 21: Throbbing with Life Feb 24, 2023

Science often draws a picture of the world as a giant machine, a meaningless mechanical clock ticking and tocking forever. But religion and poetry offer a different view, one that is teeming with life and overflowing with spirit.

Guest:

Michael Ruse is a British-born Canadian philosopher of science who specializes in the philosophy of biology and works on the relationship between science and religion.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 20: Love, Work, and Play Feb 23, 2023

Though life’s ultimate meaning may be elusive, the goods of love, work and play are so deeply rewarding that for most people they are sufficient for creating a happy life. And with new advances in neuroscience, we increasingly understand why that is at a molecular level.

Guest:

Paul Thagard is a philosopher, cognitive scientist, and author of many interdisciplinary books. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo, where he founded and directed the Cognitive Science Program.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 19: Mysteries and Metaphors Feb 22, 2023

There is a deep mystery to the existence of the universe. And although a final answer to the question of meaning is not possible, it is our highest responsibility and greatest hope to seek one.

Guest:

Francis J. Ambrosio is Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at Georgetown University. Dr. Ambrosio’s teaching interests are in the areas of Plato, Dante, Existentialism, and Postmodernism.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 18: Unfolding Narratives Feb 21, 2023

Meaning is less an objective thing to be discovered than a life-project, a narrative that unfolds over time. This doesn’t mean that every detail of our life fits a perfectly coherent plot, but rather we forge a beautiful expression of our deepest values.

Guest:

Todd May is Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of Philosophy at Clemson University and the author of A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 17: Remaking the World Feb 20, 2023

We inherit a world that is already made, full of stories and structures and significance. But all of us have the capacity to remake the world and the meanings available in it.

Guest:

Simon Critchley is the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. His work engages in many areas: continental philosophy, philosophy and literature, psychoanalysis, ethics, and political theory, among others. His most recent books include The Problem with Levinas and ABC of Impossibility, though he has written on topics as diverse as David Bowie, religion, and suicide.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 16: Passionate Engagement Feb 19, 2023

Meaning is more than pleasure or even happiness—it is an intense and fulfilling engagement in projects and relationships that bring forth the best within us and disclose mysterious, beautiful worlds of love.

Guest:

Susan R. Wolf is the Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Professor Wolf’s interests range widely over moral psychology, value theory, and normative ethics. Her research has focused especially on the relation between moral and nonmoral values, the nature and conditions of responsibility, and the idea of meaningfulness as a dimension of a good life.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 15: Subjectivity and Significance Feb 18, 2023

We have a tendency to view our lives as meaningful only if we are involved in heroic acts of service, creativity, or achievement. But this is misguided. Even when we are ordinary, we are all, as living creatures, capable of an intense engagement with the world that infuses life with significance.

Guest:

Michael Hauskeller is the head of philosophy department at the University of Liverpool. He is a generalist, trying to come to terms with this "deeply puzzling world" (to borrow an expression of Mary Midgley's), to understand it and to understand our place in it. Philosophy, he says, is about finding out what is actually going on and what we are doing here.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci . Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 14: The Challenge of Choice Feb 17, 2023

The vast range of choices we can make about our lives is one of the great blessings of modernity. But that very freedom makes it hard to know what to believe or where we belong. Even more difficult is that capitalism is constantly shaping our values and perceptions towards its own ethos. Perhaps there is a way out through making our worlds smaller.

Guest:

Paul Froese is a Professor of Sociology at Baylor University and the Director of the Baylor Religion Surveys. He is the author of three books, his most recent is On Purpose: How We Create the Meaning of Life.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 13: Flickers of Light Feb 16, 2023

The realization that our lives are incredibly brief and we are almost certainly not going to be remembered by anyone 100 years from now can cause deep angst—but it can also liberate us to abandon work and activities that smother our spirit and instead embrace the exquisite pleasures of friendship, nature and simply being alive.

Guest:

Wendy Syfret is a Melbourne based writer, editor, and author of The Sunny Nihilist: How a Meaningless Life Can Make You Truly Happy.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 12: Expansion of Life Feb 15, 2023

Experiencing a crisis of meaning, a time when our life and world no longer cohere, is painful and wrenching. But these encounters with the abyss can also be moments of rebirth and expansion, when we lay down our smaller selves and discover deeper and more abundant ways of relating to the earth and one another.

Guest:

Mark Vernon is a psychotherapist and writer, with an interest in ancient philosophy, and a focus on the skills and insights that illuminate our inner lives. His most recent book is Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 11: Living Music Feb 14, 2023

Music is not merely entertainment—it is a living tradition, a connective tissue linking generations together in a shared pursuit of joy and significance. And through those links across time and space, we build a world of meaning, one improvisation at a time.

Guest:

Vijay Iyer is an American composer, pianist, bandleader, producer, and writer based in New York City. The New York Times has called him a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway." Iyer received a 2013 MacArthur Fellowship,a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Grammy nomination, and the Alpert Award in the Arts. In 2014 he received a lifetime appointment as the Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts at Harvard University, where he is jointly appointed in the Department of Music and the Department of African and African American Studies.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 10: Connection in Community Feb 13, 2023

Meaning is more than an abstraction—it is a sense that we matter to one another, woven together with threads of reciprocity. But in those times when we feel lost and cut off from our sources of strength, we may have to simply move forward in faith, holding out hope for renewal and restoration.

Guest:

The Rev. Dr. Stephanie M. Crumpton is a professor of practical theology at McCormick Theological Seminary. Prior to that, she was an assistant professor of practical theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She taught and lectured at Hood Theological Seminary, Chicago Theological Seminary, Candler School of Theology at Emory University and the Interdenominational Theological Center.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 9: Questing Spirits Feb 12, 2023

The experience of existence is one of bewilderment and even anguish. Anguish because we feel that we are incomplete beings longing for completion, mired in immanence yet yearning for transcendence. Often, that questing spirit can lead us on the journey to God.

Guest:

John Cottingham is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading and an Honorary Fellow, St John’s College at Oxford University. He has published over thirty books—including In Search of the Soul and How to Believe.

Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 8: Gifts of Belonging Feb 11, 2023

In music, Kimbra found a way to create and share gifts. And through that gifting, she provides space for others to find deep connection and belonging. But music also offers something more mysterious—a language to wrestle with meaning, an attempt to capture and express the experience of life.

Guest:

Kimbra is a two-time Grammy Award and six-time Aria winner who mixes pop, R&B, jazz, and rock. Some of her most famous singles include “Cameo Lover,” “Belong,” and “Somebody that I Used To Know.”

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 7: Virtuous Stories Feb 10, 2023

The human being is a storytelling animal, and no story is more important to us than our own. But we don’t write that story in a vacuum. We are born in media res and must develop ways of making sense of ourselves if we want to truly flourish.

Guest:

Jennifer Frey is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina and host of the philosophy and literature podcast Sacred and Profane Love. She writes about virtue, action, practical reason, and what it might mean to live well as a human person.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 6: Here and Now Feb 09, 2023

It’s common to look beyond life—to eternity or God—for meaning. But as the experience of seeing a cherry tree in bloom reveals, there is deep value in the immanent, the immediate, the now.

Guest:

Julian Baggini is a philosopher, journalist and the author of over 20 books about philosophy written for a general audience. He is co-founder of The Philosophers' Magazine and has written for numerous international newspapers and magazines. In addition to writing on the subject of philosophy he has also written books on atheism, secularism, and the nature of national identity.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 5: Beyond Happiness Feb 08, 2023

Organizing our lives around the pursuit of happiness—defined as positive feelings—can ultimately leave our souls hungry. Instead, we should try connecting ourselves to deeper things: compassion, community, ritual, and awe.

Guest:

Emily Esfahani Smith is a writer, editor, and speaker in Washington DC. She draws on psychology, philosophy, and literature to write about the human experience—why we are the way we are and how we can find grace and meaning in a world that is full of suffering. Her book The Power of Meaning, an international bestseller, has been translated into 16 different languages.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 4: Weaving the World Together Feb 07, 2023

Meaning is less a secret to discover than an emergent property, a byproduct of engaging with the world. Through experimentation and an orientation of openness, we can weave ourselves into a broader cloth of coherence.

Guest:

Michael Steger is the Founder and Director of the Center for Meaning and Purpose, and Professor of Psychology at Colorado State University. He also serves as an Extraordinary Professor by North-West University in South Africa. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Macalester College, his MS in Counseling from the University of Oregon in 1997, and his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and Personality Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 2005.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 3: The Weight of the World Feb 06, 2023

The ideology of capitalism, which drives us to find happiness in endless exertion and economic gain, dulls our emotions and blinds us to the source of our most abundant meaning—relationships and solidarity with other people.

Guest:

Kathryn Lofton is a scholar of religion and has written extensively about capitalism, popular culture, and the secular. She’s the author of three books: Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon; Consuming Religion; and Woman’s Work: An Anthology of African-American Women’s Historical Writings. Lofton earned her PhD in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005. She has taught at Yale since 2009.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 2: A Fortunate Coalescence Feb 05, 2023

We’re often given the following choice: either there’s a cosmic, eternal purpose to our lives or nothing matters at all. But perhaps the meaning of life is the meaning in life—witnessing the dance of light on leaves or the catching of a perfect wave.

Guest:

Aaron James is philosophy professor at UC Irvine and the author of Surfing with Sarte: An Aquatic Inquiry into the Life of Meaning.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Making Meaning Episode 1: You Don't Have To Be Special Feb 04, 2023

Feelings of meaninglessness often are caused by how we understand ourselves. If we change how we think about our worth, we’ll discover radiant meaning can be found in even the most ordinary aspects of our lives.

Guest:

David Burns is a leading psychiatrist and a pioneer of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. His best-selling book, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy has sold over 4 million copies and is the book most frequently “prescribed” for depressed patients by psychiatrists and psychologists in the United States and Canada.

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci. Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Introducing Making Meaning Feb 03, 2023

When I was 25, the world I had known ended. I no longer believed the religion I was raised in was true, and I found myself having to build a new foundation of meaning.

Show Description

Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness.

Making Meaning is produced by Jack Pombriant and Zachary Davis. Artwork by Dan Pecci.

Learn more at ministryofideas.org and find us on Twitter @ministryofideas.

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Border Lines Feb 02, 2023

Climate change and war have flung millions of people on the move, who often seek safe harbor in the very countries responsible for their displacement. But despite the lofty ideals and supposed simplicity of international refugee law, it turns out borders are not really the fixed lines on a map we imagine them to be.

Guests:

Deborah Anker is Clinical Professor of Law and Founder of the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC).
Celeste Cantor-Stephens is a musician, interdisciplinary artist, writer, teacher and activist.
Chowra Makaremi is an anthropologist and tenured research scholar at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris.
Adrian Rennix is a writer and an immigration attorney practicing near the southern border.

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Anger Management Feb 01, 2023

We live in a time of anger. Yet most of us feel guilty for getting angry, wishing we could stay calm and turn the other cheek. But though anger can never be fully morally pure, we still need it because it alerts us to injustice and catalyzes change.

Guests:

Agnes Callard is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago and a columnist at The Point.
Myisha Cherry is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside.

This episode was produced in partnership with Boston Review.

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Out of TIme Jan 31, 2023

Many of the earliest time technologies were used to mark sacred time -- time set apart for the divine. But with the Industrial Revolution, efficient time use became its own sacred value. We now live in the age of capitalist time, where time is money and must be spent as productively as possible. As we struggle with a global pandemic, it’s time to rethink what we hold sacred.

Guests:

Ahmed Ragab, Richard T. Watson Associate Professor of Science and Religion, and affiliate associate professor of the history of science at Harvard University.
Mary Gray, associate professor of informatics at the University of Indiana at Bloomington, fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research.

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Public Thinking Jan 30, 2023

We have usually relied on public intellectuals to provide facts, ideas, and cultural leadership--though not all have lived up to the ideal of “speaking truth to power.” Today, however, online networks and social media mean we are all public intellectuals, and we have new responsibilities that come with this role.

Guests:

Cornel West, professor at Union Theological Seminary and author of, among other works, Black Prophetic Fire.
George Scialabba, author of What Good Are Intellectuals Good For?, and many other works.

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Above the Veil Jan 29, 2023

The work of Ibram X. Kendi distinguishes between two forms of racism: segregationism and assimilationism. Segregationists argue that some groups are inferior by nature; assimilationists, on the other hand, argue that some groups are inferior by 'nurture,' but can overcome this inferiority if they conform to another group's cultural standards -- in America, always a White cultural standard. Black leaders past and present have challenged these racist assumptions while revealing the liberatory potential of a cultural engagement based on equality and mutual exchange.

Guests:

Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, contributing writer to The Atlantic and author of "How To Be An Antiracist" and "Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019."
Max Mueller, assistant professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and author of "Race and the Making of the Mormon People."
Dr. Anika Prather, adjunct professor in the Classics Department at Howard University and author of "Living in the Constellation of the Canon: The Lived Experiences of African American Students Reading Great Books Literature."

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Dissecting Morality: Part II Jan 28, 2023

Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn’t ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world.

Guests:

Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College.
Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and bestselling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others.

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Dissecting Morality: Part I Jan 27, 2023

Linking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn’t ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world.

Guests:

Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Ben Allen, associate professor of mathematics at Emmanuel College.
Steven Pinker, professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard University and bestselling author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate, and many others.

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Virtually Violent Jan 26, 2023

During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerable communities have been hit especially hard by disruptive online attacks. But calling these attacks "violent" could jeopardize the future of disruptive protests designed to protest those same communities.

Guests:

Erica Chenoweth, professor of human rights and international affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and author of Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs To Know.
Dr. Joan Donovan, research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University.
Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism.

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Welcome to Valhalla Jan 25, 2023

Heathenry, a modern movement drawing on pre-Christian pagan religions, has become associated with the violent, racialized politics of the alt-right. Less well known is the fight to make heathenry — and the progressive values it can promote — inclusive and open to all.

Guests:

Robert Schreiwer, Heathen activist, founder of the Heathen tradition of Urglaawe, Manager of Huginn’s Heathen Hof and Heathens Against Hate, and Steer of the Troth (2016-2019 and again in 2020). Founder of In-Reach Prison Services.
Michael Strmiska, associate professor in global studies at SUNY-Orange and author of Modern Paganism in World Cultures.
Lauren Crow, co-host of the Heathen History podcast.
Ben Waggoner, co-host of the Heathen History podcast.
Thomas Engelmann, outreach specialist at Life After Hate’s ExitUSA.

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Stealing the Canon Jan 24, 2023

Literary canons have come under fire for perpetuating privilege and exclusion. But some artists — including William Shakespeare and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda — show us how canons can actually build community and democracy.

Guests:

Stephen Greenblatt, Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University and editor of the Norton edition of Shakespeare’s works and the Norton Anthology of English Literature.
Oskar Eustis, artistic director of New York City’s Public Theatre.
John Ray Proctor, actor and drama professor at Tulane University.
Rory Loughnane, senior lecturer in Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent and associate editor of the New Oxford Shakespeare.

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Climate of Denial Jan 23, 2023

Human-caused climate change is real and growing in impact. Yet many Americans see climate change as a belief that they can opt out of. Two belief structures are to blame: American Protestantism and postmodernism.

Guests:

Tanya Luhrmann, professor of anthropology and psychology at Stanford University and author of When God Talks Back.
Gary Aylesworth, professor emeritus of philosophy at Eastern Illinois University.
Lee McIntyre, Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and author of Post-Truth.

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Progressive Souls: Part II Jan 22, 2023

Religious people have played an important role in progressive politics in the US for its entire history. Contemporary leftists should look to build bridges and include religious voices in the pursuit of a more just and sustainable society.

Guests:

Elizabeth Bruenig, Washington Post columnist
EJ Dionne, Washington Post columnist and Professor at Georgetown University
Dan McKanan, Professor at Harvard Divinity School

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Progressive Souls: Part I Jan 21, 2023

Religious people have played an important role in progressive politics in the US for its entire history. Contemporary leftists should look to build bridges and include religious voices in the pursuit of a more just and sustainable society.

Guests:

Elizabeth Bruenig, Washington Post columnist
EJ Dionne, Washington Post columnist and Professor at Georgetown University
Dan McKanan, Professor at Harvard Divinity School

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The Myth of Modernity Jan 20, 2023

Many think modernity is about the rise of science, the spread of democracy and capitalism, or the decline of religion or superstition. But those stories ignore the bigger picture about colonialism and race.

Guests:

Mayra Rivera, professor of Religion and Latinx Studies at Harvard University.

Jared Hickman, professor of English at Johns Hopkins University. Author of the book, Black Prometheus: Race and Radicalism in the Age of Atlantic Slavery.

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Spiritual Machines Jan 19, 2023

Ever since early scientists began experimenting with immortality elixirs in the middle ages, religion has been influencing transhumanism. Now, we’re beginning to see transhumanism influencing religion.

Guests

Calvin Mercer, Professor of Religious Studies at East Carolina University
Meghan O’Gieblyn, writer
Blaire Ostler, Director and Former President of the Mormon Transhumanist Association

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Shifting Blame Jan 18, 2023

We claim to judge people for what they intentionally do, but accidents often influence our judgments. In our justice systems, people can be harshly and unfairly blamed for bad luck—but in our personal lives, taking on blame isn’t always a bad thing.

Guests

Fiery Cushman, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University
Daniel Statman, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Haifa

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Nothing Matters Jan 17, 2023

Between the Buddhist doctrine of ‘emptiness,’ the Jewish idea of Ayin, and the quantum mechanical zero-point energy of a vacuum, it turns out there’s quite a lot to be said about Nothing.

Guests

Janet Gyatso, Professor of Buddhist Studies at Harvard Divinity School
Daniel Matt, Scholar of Jewish Mysticism

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Tomorrow, Today Jan 16, 2023

World’s fairs were created to celebrate industry, technology, imperialism, western supremacy, and progress; but they also led to unexpected critiques and movements that challenged those very purposes.

Guests

Evander Price, PhD Candidate in American Studies at Harvard University
Robert Rydell, Professor of History at Montana State University
Abigail Higgins, Harvard University, Class of 2017

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Apocalyptic Politics Jan 15, 2023

Evangelical voters made up a significant portion of Donald Trump’s base in the 2016 presidential election. Their political agenda may not be peace or prosperity, but instead bringing us closer to the end of time.

Guests

Matthew Sutton, Graduate Studies Director, Washington State University History Department
Katharine Hayhoe, Director, Climate Science Center, Texas Tech University
Liya Rechtman, Harvard Divinity School student

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Consumed Jan 14, 2023

Cannibalism has been used for centuries to define the lowest form of humanity, but the story isn't as straightforward as it may seem. Turns out, there may be a logic - or even a love - to eating people.

Guests

Emily Anderson, Curator of “Cannibalism: Myth & Reality”
Bill Schutt, Author of Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History

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Child's Play Jan 13, 2023

We shouldn’t be dismissive of the popularity of children’s literature among adults, as it is often in these works of fiction that powerful themes such as death, love, and virtue are most deeply and imaginatively explored.

Guests

Christina Phillips Mattson, Scholar of Children’s Literature
Casper ter Kuile, Ministry Innovation Fellow at Harvard Divinity
School and co-host of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text
MG Prezioso, Contributing writer for Harvard Political Review

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Forbidden Fruit Jan 12, 2023

Contemporary diet culture is only the latest manifestation of a long history of religious fervor about food.

Guests

Isabel Foxen Duke, health coach
Alan Levinovitz, Professor of Religious Studies at James Madison University
Corrie Norman, Associate Director, Religious Studies at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison

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Enlightened Cynicism Jan 11, 2023

Trust in government, media, organized religion, businesses and even democracy is at historic lows. But what if the answer to declining faith in institutions isn’t more hope, but more cynicism?

Guests

Sharon Stanley, Professor of Political Science at the University of Memphis and the author of The French Enlightenment and the Emergence of Modern Cynicism.
David Mazella, Professor of English at the University of Houston and the author of The Making of Modern Cynicism

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Demeritocracy Jan 10, 2023

Total faith in meritocracy leads to the dangerous belief that all social winners and losers are wholly deserving. Instead, we need an economy of grace.

Guests

Victor Tan Chen, assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy
Thomas Frank, author of What’s the Matter with Kansas? and Listen, Liberal

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Secular Salvations Jan 09, 2023

The decline of organized religion in the West has opened up new paths for individuals to pursue what once was once understood to be salvation.

Guests

Craig Calhoun, President of the Berggruen Institute and author of Rethinking Secularism
Sean Kelly, Professor of Philosophy of Harvard University and author of All Things Shining
Angie Thurston, fellow at On Being and author of How We Gather

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21st Century Citizenship Jan 08, 2023

What does it mean to be a citizen in America today?

Guests

Danielle Allen, Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics and University Professor at Harvard University
Erhardt Graeff, PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab Center for Civic Media
Shanelle Matthews, Director of Communications for the Black Lives Matter global network

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Mirror Image Jan 07, 2023

16th-century glass mirrors and 21st-century camera phones actually share a lot in common; they both are technologies that shaped new forms of the self.

Guests

Ian Mortimer, historian and author of Millennium: From Religion to Revolution: How Civilization Has Changed Over a Thousand Years
Ilan Stavans, professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College and author of I Love My Selfie

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White Balance Jan 06, 2023

Understanding race in America requires understanding its relationship to class.

Guests

Joshua Bennett, writer and poet
Julian Bourg, Professor of History at Boston College
Nancy Isenberg, author of White Trash

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(In)efficiency Jan 05, 2023

Efficiency has moved from a technique for measuring machines to a widely held moral value. But at what cost?

Guests

Jennifer Alexander, Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota and author of The Mantra of Efficiency: From Waterwheel to Social Control
Tom Hodgkinson, founder and editor of The Idler

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Generation Why? Jan 04, 2023

Who gets to define generational cohorts and do they obscure more than illuminate?

Guests

Neil Howe, author of Generations
Tony Tulathimutte, author of Why There’s No ‘Millennial’ Novel

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Seriously Funny Jan 03, 2023

What happens when politics becomes comedy and the jester becomes the king?

Guests

Emily Nussbaum, television critic for The New Yorker
Avi Steinberg, writer
Kwesi Mensah, comedian

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The Shape of History Jan 02, 2023

The way we think about history can affect our belief that we can change it.

Guests

Jo Guldi, Associate Professor at Southern Methodist University and author of The History Manifesto
Amber Morningstar Byars, artist and Standing Rock protestor

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Introducing Ministry of Ideas Jan 01, 2023

Introducing Ministry of Ideas, a podcast that explores the ideas that shape our lives.

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