Podcasts and Resources on the Contemporary Social-Scientific Study of Religion
Hosted by Dan Runde, William A. Schreyer Chair and Director, Project on Prosperity and Development, Building the Future explores topics at the intersection of global development, foreign policy, and national security. In each episode, Dan sits down for a discussion with a leading expert from government, the private sector, and international organizations to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the world today.
B'H/Blessed is Our Creator!!! S.O.U.L. S.=Seven O.= Original/Oldest U.=Universal L.=Laws A show produced and hosted by Don Zusya Goodman, a Rabbinical College of America Graduate with a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Religious Studies has been a member of the Chabad Lubavitch Chassidic educational movement for the past 30 years. 1. Fuses Torah/Biblical Rabbinical Learning with prior secular training in radio-communications-newspaper skills. 2.T.C.I. Therapeutic Crisis Intervention formerly cert ...
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The Religious Studies Project


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Understanding Evangelical Opposition to Climate Action
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It has long been assumed the Evangelical opposition to climate activism was rooted in apathy caused by pre-millennialism. Robin Veldman‘s research says otherwise and locates climate skepticism within the broader trope of “embattlement.” Rooted in religious discourses that began in the 1970s and in America’s Culture Wars, Evangelical discourse has w…
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Building the Future: Freedom, Prosperity, and Foreign Policy with Dan Runde

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Transparency and Accountability to Build a Better Future
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In this episode, Dan Runde is joined by Michael Jarvis, Executive Director of the Transparency and Accountability Initiative, a donor collaborative working to expand the impact and scale of transparency, accountability, and participation interventions. Dan and Michael kick-off their conversation by talking about the importance of transparency and a…
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The Religious Studies Project


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On the Tantracization of Jain Ascetic Rituals
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What is tantra? Why are some practices classified as tantric while others are not? How might we rethink this term and its application? To begin answer these questions, Dr. Ellen Gough (Emory University) joins Andie Alexander to discuss her forthcoming book, Making a Mantra: Tantric Ritual and Renunciation on the Jain Path to Liberation (University …
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The Religious Studies Project

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Human Rights in Australia: Discourse! March 2021
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In this March 2021 episode of Discourse! we have a University of Sydney reunion with Professor Carole Cusack, Dr. Breann Fallon, and Ray Radford. Covering current affairs in Australia the Usyd team discuss three recent news items. The first item is framed around civil religion and nationalism: it’s the controversial upgrade of Australian Tennis Pla…
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Building the Future: Freedom, Prosperity, and Foreign Policy with Dan Runde

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Religious Liberty: A Cornerstone of Modern Democratic Governance
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In this episode, Dan Runde is joined by Christos Makridis, a Digital Fellow with the Initiative on the Digital Economy at MIT and a Research Assistant Professor at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Dan and Christos sit down to discuss Christos’ article, “New Research Shows Religious Liberty Drives Human Flourishing — An…
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The Religious Studies Project

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The U.S. Military Chaplaincy and Twentieth-Century Society
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Dr. Ronit Y. Stahl is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California Berkeley. As a historian of modern America, Dr. Stahl focuses on pluralism in American society by examining how politics, law, and religion interact in spaces such as the military and medicine. Her first book, Enlisting Faith: How the Military Chaplaincy Shaped Rel…
What do Muslims, Mormons, and Satanists have in common? They’ve all been minoritized in America through accusations of sexual abuse says Megan Goodwin. Focusing on the idea of “contraceptive nationalism,” Goodwin argues that allegations and instances of sex abuse have been used as markers of religious difference to present some groups as a threat t…
In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde is joined by Doreen Bogdan-Martin, the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), to discuss the ITU’s critical role in increasing access to global digital connectivity. Dan and Doreen first provide an overview of the history of the…
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The Religious Studies Project


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Following the Objects: Seeing Religion in Egypt and Syria
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In this episode, Richard McGregor discusses his new book, Islam and the Devotional Object: Seeing Religion in Egypt and Syria with Candace Mixon. Why do scholars of religion have such a variety of incomplete and messy tools to “follow the objects”? Find out with the curious stories of devotional objects from Cairo and Damascus. Two rationales inspi…
At the height of the Jim Crow era in Chicago, Noble Drew Ali founded the Moorish Science Temple of America. Using the language of Islam, he articulated a new religio-racial identity that subverted the racially oppressive lens of “negro” that had been used for decades as a powerful legal tool to subvert the rights of people of color after the Civil …
In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde is joined by Leo Li, the Director of the Content Lab at the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA). They discuss how Taiwan’s creative industries have adapted in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the increasing importance of 5G and digital technology, and potential avenues of collaboration between Ta…
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The Religious Studies Project


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Religious Climate Activism: Discourse! February 2021
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Environmental issues take center stage in this month’s episode of Discourse!, hosted by Michael Munnik with guests Suzanne Owen and Daniel Gorman Jr. How is the media covering the intersection of religion and the latest environmental issues? Listen and find out! First the groups speaks on some of the differences in major news publications and their…
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The Religious Studies Project


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Beyond Ecological Essentialism: Critical and Constructive Muslim Environmentalisms
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Religious studies approaches to the environment have long privileged Western ecological frameworks. Anna Gade’s work, Muslim Environmentalisms reframes this area, both critiquing and building upon the tools of religious studies (RS) and environmental humanities (EH). Religious studies, for its part, has privileged Jewish and Christian understanding…
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Building the Future: Freedom, Prosperity, and Foreign Policy with Dan Runde

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A Post-Covid U.S. Development Strategy for the Indo-Pacific
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In this episode of Building the Future, Dan Runde is joined by Gloria Steele, Acting Administrator for USAID, to discuss the future of global development strategies in the Indo-Pacific region. Dan and Gloria start off by discussing Gloria’s time spent in the Philippines and the specific challenges the country continues to face in its development tr…
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The Religious Studies Project


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Myth-making, Environmentalism, and Non-Religion
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What is a myth? What might we mean by myth-making? What can an approach to how people make myths and tell stories in their everyday lives bring to the study of ‘religion’ and ‘non-religion’? And what might Gandalf and Captain Picard have to do with any of this? Joining Chris to discuss myth-making and its role among non-religious people, and climat…
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The Religious Studies Project


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Sacred Trees: Belief, Mythology, and Practice
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In this episode, RSP co-editor Breann Fallon sat down with long-time friend of the podcast, Professor Carole Cusack of the University of Sydney to discuss sacred trees. Cusack has published widely on the topic including her 2011 monograph The Sacred Tree: Ancient and Medieval Manifestations (Cambridge Scholars Publishing) and a recent special volum…
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Building the Future: Freedom, Prosperity, and Foreign Policy with Dan Runde

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How Should President Biden Counter Digital Authoritarianism?
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Digital authoritarianism presents overlapping and expanding challenges within autocracies and democracies. In the past year, CSIS produced a policy brief that examined this ever-evolving challenge and determined a new, strategic approach to confront authoritarian actors who seek to use digital tools to subvert human rights and democratic principles…
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The Religious Studies Project


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Politics and Conspirituality: Discourse! January 2021
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Back in 2011, Charlotte Ward and David Voas published an article addressing the synthesis of New Age spirituality with conspiracy thinking as “conspirituality.” A decade later, their analysis seems critical for understanding figures like the QAnon Shaman, widespread anti-vaccine and COVID-19 disinformation campagins, and, more broadly, the rapid sp…