Evolve

This episode of Evolve was recorded on May 15th, 2026. In this new episode of Evolve, host Jamil Khoury continues “The Re‑Churching of America” with a deeply personal, unapologetically hopeful case for why church matters in a country fraying at every seam. Building on Part One, “Taking It To The Pews,” he connects America’s political, economic, and social unraveling with our dramatic retreat from...

This episode was recorded on December 10th, 2025 This new Evolve collection, “The Re-Churching of America,” begins with a seemingly simple question: Is America re-churching, or are our religious communities and institutions continuing to decline? Surely there are indicators that point in both directions. If there is a resurgence—and that is what this collection is rooting for—what do we want the r...

This episode was recorded on September 19th, 2025. After fourteen years of war, Syrians are pushing for a future that is post-Assad, post-Al Sharaa, post-sectarian—and definitively post-autocracy. In this episode, we lay out a distinctly Syrian path forward: a United Syrian Federation built on federalism, localism, and the right of historic communities to shape their own destinies free of coercion...

This episode was recorded on August 22nd, 2025. " Because in Christendom, all roads lead to Syria” Host Jamil Khoury —Founder and Director of Polycultural Institute at Chicago’s Silk Road Cultural Center—threads personal history and deep scholarship to map a faith that took root in Damascus and Antioch and never stopped shaping the world. From St. Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus to the r...

This episode was recorded on August 1st, 2025. This episode of Evolve marks Part Five of the Rebuilding Syria collection. It examines the role of Syria’s interim president, Ahmad Al Sharaa, in recent sectarian massacres targeting Alawite, Druze, and Christian communities. The episode details documented attacks in Lattakia, Tartus, Damascus, and Sweida—including the killing of civilians, sexual vio...

This episode was recorded on June 18th, 2025. It is important to note that the content presented was written before the June 22nd terrorist attack on Saint Elias Orthodox Church in Damascus and July’s ongoing massacres of Druze communities in Sweida. As a result, Jamil Khoury’s analysis of the situation continues to evolve and will be addressed in the next episode. That said, this episode provides...

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This episode was recorded on April 25th, 2025. Syrians never accepted dictatorship as destiny, but what did they explicitly reject when they rose up against the Assad regime? In Part 2 of Rebuilding Syria, we examine the litany of no’s articulated by the Syrian people, which ultimately led to the regime's demise. The no’s include: * No to an all-powerful strongman * No to a cult of personality * N...

This episode was recorded on March 28th, 2025 EVOLVE Polycultural Institute, the Think-and-Create Tank of Chicago’s Silk Road Cultural Center , is proud to launch its first-ever podcast series, Evolve. Hosted by Polycultural Institute’s Founder and Director, Jamil Khoury , Evolve is a mix of spoken essays and conversations with interesting and exciting thinkers, changemakers, innovators, and disru...