Sacred & Profane: Season 4

Between Heaven and Earth

  • E1: The Letter of the Law

    Doctrine of Discovery and climate change.

  • E2: Holy oil with Dochuck

    US Christianity and the oil industry with Darren Dochuk.

  • E3: Alternative Energy

    New Age religion with Susannah Crockford.

  • E4: Make the Desert Bloom

    Mormons transform the desert with Kathleen Flake.

  • E5: Church in the Wilderness

    Christian theology and American environmentalism with Evan Berry.

  • E6: Planet B

    Living on Mars with Kelsey Johnson and Mary-Jane Rubenstein.

  • E7: Ad Astra

    The night sky and our place in the universe with Kelsey Johnson.

  • E8: A Church, an Ashram, and a Pipeline

    Reported by Molly Born.

  • E9: The Food That Grows on the Water

    Wild rice (Manoomin) and the Anishinaabe with Joseph LaGarde and Michael McNally.

  • E10: What the Future Holds

    How religion can help us envision our future with Mariama White-Hammond.


Sacred & Profane: Season 3

  • E1: A Dictionary of All Religions

    The study of world religions in early America.

  • E2: “Black and Beautiful”

    Dr. Renita Weems reveals how translations of the Bible disclose views on race and gender.

  • E3: The Devil’s Advocates

    How American Satanists are challenging ideas of religion, pluralism, and the separation of church and state.

  • E4: We Hold These Truths

    The challenges of regarding the Constitution as “sacred.”

  • E5: On a Robot and a Prayer

    How the use of robots in religious spaces challenges what it means to “be religious.”

  • E6: Sites of Memory

    How the memory of slavery in Charlottesville is reshaping its public spaces and giving rise to new rituals.

  • E8: When Verse Goes Viral

    If you had to guess one of the best-selling poets in America, a long-dead Sufi mystic named Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī might not be at the top of your list

  • E9: American Iconoclasm

    Over the last few years, Americans have removed statues from public spaces at what might be a record clip.

  • E10: No Country is a Shangri-La

    We traveled to Bhutan to experience first hand how a country with lofty Buddhist ideals–and a reputation to match–is responding to climate change.


Sacred & Profane: Season 2

  • E1: A Lotus Blossoms Above Muddy Waters

    "The mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII is not only a tale of injustice; it is a moving account of faith." -Duncan Ryūken Williams, author

  • E3: To Move the Passions

    In 1902, a young American headed to the Vatican to record a voice unlike any other: Alessandro Moreschi, the last known castrato.

  • E5: La Santa

    Santa Muerte. Holy Death. Dr. Jessie Marroquín joins us to explore the complex history of a so-called "narco-saint."

  • E7: What’s So Great About Cyrus?

    A look at two very different rulers who have become associated with the Biblical king Cyrus the Great: the last Shah of Iran, and President Donald Trump.

  • E9: The Breath of Our Neighbor

    We spoke with our colleague Larycia Hawkins about the power—and the price—of embodied solidarity.

  • E11: American Idols

    With our colleague Professor Jalane Schmidt, we explore an often-overlooked aspect of Confederate monuments: religion.

  • E12: Render Unto Q

    The assault on the U.S. Capitol is the biggest story about religion, race, and democracy in 2021.


Sacred & Profane: Season 1

  • E1: A Common Thread

    Over 2,000 years ago, the Indian emperor Ashoka Maurya wrote a code of ethics that drew on faiths and philosophies across his vast empire.

  • E2: A New Life, Together

    2019 marks the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, when close to a million people were killed in just 100 days. Can Rwandans trust each other again?

  • E3: What Would Krishna Do?

    When extraction companies come asking to buy your mineral rights, do you take the money? That’s the question the residents of New Vrindaban, WV have to answer.

  • E4: Consider Hassan

    Is there a place for refugees in Austria?

  • E5: I Sent The Gods Back

    A victorious army marched into the the mighty city of Babylon in 536 BCE. Soon after came a decree: all the conquered peoples in the city could return home.

  • E6: Set Apart

    What happens when a religious idea like sanctuary is transformed into a secular and bureaucratic one?