Religion in the American Experience

The country’s 250th anniversary is almost here, and the National Museum of American Religion is working overtime to shed light on religion’s role in the founding of the American republic. One Christian denomination that looms large in the American founding is the Congregationalists of New England. The Congregational Library and Archives in Boston has put together an exhibit entitled “Sacred Rebell...

Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the National Museum of American Religion, which is dedicated to telling the story of what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion. Scholarly support provided by Dr. Lauren Turek , Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Technical audio and video assistance provided by Dr. Randall Step...

In two days, on Wednesday, May 7, the Catholic Church will begin the conclave to choose the next pope. This episode is about that process. There are more than 50 million Catholics in the United States. The film “Conclave”, released in the fall of 2024, features the Catholic church’s process of electing a new pope, which process is called a conclave. In the fictional movie , the cardinal in charge...

The Making of US: Lived Religion in America is a subseries of the podcast Religion in the American Experience. In these episodes we explore the role religion has played in the lives of everyday Americans, reminding us that while religion exerts a significant influence on the events and movements of the American project, religions primary work and where it has the most influence, is in the everyday...

We deeply appreciate Kenneth Woodward taking time to speak with us and share stories and perspectives on religion in the latter half of 20th-century America. This will help each of us better understand what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion, equipping us to more successfully buttress the fragile and meaningful American experiment is self-government. Kenneth Woodwar...

Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the National Museum of American Religion, which is dedicated to telling the story of what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion. Scholarly support provided by Dr. Lauren Turek , Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Technical audio and video assistance provided by Dr. Randall Step...

Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the National Museum of American Religion, which is dedicated to telling the story of what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion. Scholarly support provided by Dr. Lauren Turek , Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Technical audio and video assistance provided by Dr. Randall Step...

Welcome to another episode of “The Making of US: Lived Religion in America”, a subseries of the podcast “Religion in the American Experience.” In this subseries we explore the role religion has played in the lives of everyday Americans, reminding us that while religion exerts a significant influence on the events and movements of the American project, religions primary work and where it has the mo...

Dr. Ali is an assistant professor of religion and politics at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University at St. Louis. Dr. Ali’s research interests include Islam and gender, race and religion, and Muslims in popular culture. Her first book, The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority & Community in US Islam was published in 2022 with NYU Press, and analyzes how...

As part of our multi-episode series about Pentecostalism – a relatively unknown and perhaps misunderstood, fast growing, and very large part of Christianity, we will be talking with Darrin Rodgers and Ruthie Oberg from the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center in Springfield, Missouri.   The Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (FPHC) is the largest Pentecostal archives in the world. Located in the Nat...

Lodged firmly in the American psyche and a bedrock part of American and personal family histories, is the Great Depression. Beginning with the stock market crash in October of 1929 - the market losing 50% of its value in weeks - and lasting more than a decade, it was the worst calamity to hit the United States since the Civil War. At its worst one out of every four workers was unemployed. Farms we...

Lodged firmly in the American psyche and a bedrock part of American and personal family histories, is the Great Depression. Beginning with the stock market crash in October of 1929 - the market losing 50% of its value in weeks - and lasting more than a decade, it was the worst calamity to hit the United States since the Civil War. At its worst one out of every four workers was unemployed. Farms we...

In this sub-series “The Women and Men of American Religion” we explore the women and men who, fueled in large part by their religion, have made significant and broad contributions to the American tapestry. This helps immensely in understanding better what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion. Previous episodes include Billy Graham, Elizabeth Seton, Joseph Smith, and F...

Another episode in the subseries "The Making of US: Lived Religion in America", our effort to document everyday Americans' religious histories. Today Kathleen Wall of Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico shares with us her own deep, rich personal religious history.

Lodged firmly in the American psyche and a bedrock part of American history, is the Great Depression. Beginning with the stock market crash in October of 1929 - the market lost 50% of its value in weeks - and lasting a decade, it was the worst calamity to hit the United States since the Civil War. Unemployment soared, many lost hope, hunger stalked individuals and families, farms went under, long...

Another episode in the subseries "The Making of US: Lived Religion in America", our effort to document everyday Americans' religious histories. Today Arshan Khalid of Washington, D.C. shares with us his own deep, rich personal religious history.

Lodged firmly in the American psyche and a bedrock part of American history, is the Great Depression. Beginning with the stock market crash in October of 1929 - the market lost 50% of its value in weeks - and lasting a decade, it was the worst calamity to hit the United States since the Civil War. Unemployment soared, farms went under, long bread lines formed, people up and left their homes for a...

Another episode in the subseries "The Making of US: Lived Religion in America", our effort to document everyday Americans' religious histories. Today Andy Berger of Cincinnati, Ohio shares with us his own deep and rich personal religious history.

As part of our multi-episode series about Pentecostalism – a relatively unknown and perhaps misunderstood, fast growing, and very large part of Christianity, we will be exploring Pentecostalism and its support of Donald Trump between 2016 and 2022. Valerie Cooper is associate professor of religion and society and black church studies at Duke Divinity School. Using historical and theological method...

Another episode in the subseries "The Making of US: Lived Religion in America", our effort to document everyday Americans' religious histories. Today Debbie Richard Johns of Loudoun County, Virginia shares with us her own deep and rich personal religious history.

Lodged firmly in the American psyche and a bedrock part of American history, is the Great Depression. Beginning with the stock market crash in October of 1929 - the market lost 50% of its value in weeks - and lasting a decade, it was the worst calamity to hit the United States since the Civil War. Unemployment soared, farms went under, long bread lines formed, people up and left their homes for a...

Who is Thomas Jefferson? He is the author of the Declaration of Independence, third president of the United States, founder of the University of Virginia, slaveholder, has a monument in Washington DC and his face on our five-cent coin, and is one of the four presidents carved in stone at Mt. Rushmore – along with George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. He has also been called the...

Iowa is lodged firmly in the American psyche as a place of traditional American values – hard work, family, and religion. Iowa is an important player in the United States’ vaunted agricultural industry, having been ranked first in the country in soybean production, corn production, and pork production. America has also slowly learned over the past decade, with ICE raids and COVID, is that a signif...

Martin Luther King is a larger-than-life character in the American narrative, playing a pivotal role in the nation’s mid-twentieth-century Civil Rights Movement. His “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC in August of 1963 as part of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is an integral part of Americans’ understanding of him and the Civil Rights Movement. However,...

We are at that time of year when the Charlie Brown Christmas Special arrives in the public square and perhaps more pervasively in the psyche of millions of Americans. In this unique and quite secular television program, first aired at 7:30pm on December 9, 1965, viewers hear Linus recite from the Bible - Luke chapter two verses eight through fourteen – the Christmas story. As this story might sugg...