Religion & Faith

Religion & Faith

episodes
Steven Nadler, "Spinoza, Atheist" (Princeton UP, 2026)

June 2, 2026

Spinoza, Atheist

Steven Nadler
Hosted by Abe Silberstein

In 1656, a young Amsterdam merchant was excommunicated by his Portuguese-Jewish community in the harshest terms it had ever used. Baruch Spinoza…

Kati Curts, "Assembling Religion: The Ford Motor Company and the Transformation of Religion in America" (NYU Press, 2025)

June 2, 2026

Assembling Religion

Kati Curts
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Henry Ford did not just mass produce cars. As a member of the Episcopal Church, reader of New Thought texts, believer in the “gospel of reincarn…

Homes of the Past

June 1, 2026

Homes of the Past

Jeffrey Shandler
Hosted by YIVO Institute

In 1940s New York, immigrant Jewish scholars sought to build a museum to commemorate their lost worlds and people. Among the Jews who arrived in the U…

Joanna Dee Das, "Faith, Family, and Flag: Branson Entertainment and the Idea of America" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

May 31, 2026

Faith, Family, and Flag

Joanna Dee Das

Faith, Family, and Flag: Branson Entertainment and the Idea of America (University of Chicago Press, 2025) examines the history of Branson, Missouri…

Yiddish Ethnography and An-ski

May 29, 2026

Yiddish Ethnography and An-ski

Hosted by YIVO Institute

Sh. An-ski (Shloyme-Zanvl Rappoport, 1863-1920) was a writer in Russian and Yiddish, a revolutionary, a wartime relief worker, and an ethnographer who…

Radio ReOrient 14:9: Racializing the Ummah, with Rhea Rahman, hosted by Saeed Khan and Claudia Radiven

May 29, 2026

Radio ReOrient 14:9: Racializing the Ummah, with Rhea Rahman, hosted by Saeed Khan and Claudia Radiven

Hosted by Radio Reorient

In this episode, Claudia Radiven and Saeed Khan were in conversation with Rhea Rahman to discuss her new book ‘Racializing the Ummah - Muslim Humanita…

H. A. Drake, "The Wisdom of the Ancients: Four Ideas That Changed the World" (Oxford UP, 2025)

May 28, 2026

The Wisdom of the Ancients

H. A. Drake
Hosted by Charles Coutinho

The Wisdom of the Ancients: Four Ideas That Changed the World (Oxford UP, 2025) is about four cornerstones of modern thought that were put in place by…

Frances Kneupper, "Prophecy and the Battle for Spiritual Authority, 1360–1400" (Oxford UP, 2025)

May 28, 2026

Prophecy and the Battle for Spiritual Authority, 1360–1400

Frances Courtney Kneupper
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The end of the fourteenth century was a time of upheaval and contested authority among the traditional institutions of medieval Europe. In response to…

Patrick S. D. McCartney, "Sanskrit-Speaking' Villages, Linguistic Utopias and the Metaphysics of Development" (Routledge, 2026)

May 28, 2026

Sanskrit-Speaking' Villages, Linguistic Utopias and the Metaphysics of Development

Patrick S. D. McCartney
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Sanskrit-Speaking' Villages, Linguistic Utopias and the Metaphysics of Development (Routledge, 2026) is a recollection of the McCartney's journey acro…

Kanika Singh, "The Story of a Sikh Museum: Heritage, Politics, Popular Culture" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

May 27, 2026

The Story of a Sikh Museum

Kanika Singh
Hosted by Harleen Kaur

The Story of a Sikh Museum: Heritage, Politics, Popular Culture, published by Cambridge University Press in July 2025, is a pioneering study on Sikh m…

Damien Van Puyvelde, "The DGSE: A Concise History of France's Foreign Intelligence Service" (Georgetown UP, 2026)

May 27, 2026

The DGSE

Damien Van Puyvelde
Hosted by Luca Trenta

France is a leading intelligence power, but we know very little about its premier intelligence agency: the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieur…

Matthieu Felt, "Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan" (Harvard UP, 2023)

May 25, 2026

Meanings of Antiquity

Matthieu Felt
Hosted by Jingyi Li

Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan (Harvard UP, 2023) is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, record…

Matthew R. Crawford and Aaron P. Johnson, "Cyril of Alexandria: Against Julian: Introduction and Translation" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

May 25, 2026

Cyril of Alexandria: Against Julian

Matthew R. Crawford and Aaron P. Johnson
Hosted by Michael Motia

In 362/363 the Roman emperor Julian composed a treatise titled Against the Galileans in which he set forth his reasons for abandoning Christianity and…

Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America

May 24, 2026

Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America

Sandra Fox and Philissa Cramer
Hosted by YIVO Institute

In the decades directly following the Holocaust, American Jewish leaders debated how to preserve and produce Jewish culture, fearful that growing affl…

Radio ReOrient 14:8: Dutch Islamophobia and Muslim Exceptionalism, with Martijn de Koning, hosted by Marchella Ward and Amina Easat-Daas

May 22, 2026

Radio ReOrient 14:8: Dutch Islamophobia and Muslim Exceptionalism, with Martijn de Koning, hosted by Marchella Ward and Amina Easat-Daas

Hosted by Radio Reorient

In this episode Chella Ward and Amina Easat-Daas spoke with Dr Martijn de Koning about the nature of Islamophobia in the Netherlands and how this sits…

Ruth Balint, "Destination Elsewhere: Displaced Persons and Their Quest to Leave Postwar Europe" (Cornell UP, 2021)

May 22, 2026

Destination Elsewhere

Ruth Balint

In this unique “history from below," Destination Elsewhere: Displaced Persons and Their Quest to Leave Postwar Europe (Cornell University Press, 2021)…

Ellen Levitt, "Former Synagogues of the United States: Looking at Buildings That Once Housed Synagogues, Schools, and Other Jewish Institutions" (Resource Publications, 2026)

May 22, 2026

Former Synagogues of the United States

Ellen Levitt
Hosted by Zalman Newfield

Throughout the United States there are buildings that had been home to Jewish houses of worship, schools, and other institutions. What has happened to…

Shyam Ranganathan, "Moral Philosophy and De-Colonialism: The Irrationality of Oppression" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026)

May 21, 2026

Moral Philosophy and De-Colonialism

Shyam Ranganathan
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Why have moral philosophers largely ignored colonialism? In Moral Philosophy and De-Colonialism: The Irrationality of Oppression (Bloomsbury Academic,…

An-Ting Yi, "From Erasmus to Maius: The History of Codex Vaticanus in New Testament Textual Scholarship" (de Gruyter, 2024)

May 21, 2026

From Erasmus to Maius

An-Ting Yi
Hosted by Amisah Bakuri

Codex Vaticanus is often regarded as a pillar of New Testament scholarship, ancient, authoritative, and decisive. In From Erasmus to Maius: The Histor…

Angharad N. Valdivia and Isabel Molina-Guzmán, "Rebooting Inequality: Critical Takes on Film and Television Remakes" (NYU Press, 2026)

May 20, 2026

Rebooting Inequality

Angharad N. Valdivia and Isabel Molina-Guzmán
Hosted by Pete Kunze

From Ghostbusters to Will & Grace, One Day at a Time to Jurassic Park, the past decade has seen Hollywood reach a new peak in its obsession with reboo…