Things Not Seen Podcast

In his new book, The Relevance of Religion, John Danforth argues that the voices of people of faith are needed today in the public square.  Danforth is the former US Senator from Missouri, and he served as both attorney general and US Ambassador to the United Nations. He is also an ordained Episcopal priest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We speak to Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock about the healing after moral injury; Producer Katie Klocksin shares a piece with us about a church struggling with questions of public witness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're revisiting our 2012 interview with Robert Rhodes. In 1995, Robert Rhodes and his family sold most of their possessions ans went to live on the Minnesota prairie in religious seclusion.  Rhodes had gone to live among the Hutterites, a 500 year old religious movement centered on communal ownership of property, radical pacifism, and an intense fervor for the Gospel. By 2002, Rhodes and his fami...

We revisit our 2014 interview with Reza Aslan, author of Zealot, the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Todd Green returns to our show to discuss his new book, The Fear of Islam: an Introduction to Islamophobia in the West. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit our 2013 interview with Christian contemplative, Carl McColman. We talk about his spiritual journey, and his work writing about the mystical tradition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're revisiting a 2012 interview with Tim Beal, author of The Rise and Fall of the Bible. At the time, the title of this episode got us into all kinds of trouble with our sponsors. David Dault talks a bit about that in the introduction to the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a rebroadcast of a 2012 interview with Fr. Cinquegrani. October 11, 2012, marked the 50th anniversary of the opening convocation of the Second Vatican Council. Called by Pope John XXIII, the decisions made at the council affected every aspect of theology and worship within the Church. In the wake of Vatican II, the Catholic Church began to worship in native languages, reaffirmed the centra...

A conversation with noted civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, looking back on 50 years since the marches in Selma, and looking forward to what is yet to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A conversation with noted scholar of religion Martin E. Marty. We discuss religion in America, and look back upon a four-decade career Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit our 2012 interview with Furman University philosophy professor J. Aaron Simmons, to discuss the relationship of Christianity and postmodern thought Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michelle Alexander's work examines the hidden structures of control exerted by our criminal justice system, and the effects this control has particularly on minority populations in America. Hew 2010 book, The New Jim Crow, set the tone of the conversation for understanding recent events in race relations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talk with Nancy Ellen Abrams, author of A God That Could Be Real: Spirituality, Science, and the Future of Our Planet, about new discoveries in cosmology and their profound effect on our understanding of the universe and religion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're rebroadcasting our 2014 interview with Phyllis Tickle. In our conversation we explore the idea that our culture has been shaped by roughly 500-year cycles, which have helped define our major religious traditions for the past two millennia. According to Tickle, our present epoch - referred to by some as "The Great Emergence" - has the potential to yield a new Christianity distinct from Protes...

We speak to biblical scholar Jennifer Grace bird about her new book, Permission Granted: Take the Bible into Your Own Hands Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2012, David Dault interviewed artist, cartoonist, and animator Nina Paley, creator of the 86-minute animated film, Sita Sings the Blues.  We are rebroadcasting the full interview this week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This hour we speak to actor and director Curt Cloninger, who has spent 30 years traveling the country performing thoughtful and thought-provoking one-man shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our host David Dault speaks with award-winning poet, author, and journalist Judith Valente. We discuss her career as a religion reporter, as well as her explorations of modern monasticism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit our 2012 interview with Union Theological Seminary professor John Thatamanil. Theologian and professor John J. Thatamanil discusses the growing field of "religious pluralism" - where the boundaries of "religion" are loosened and faith traditions are encouraged to mix and blend.  While a controversial concept to some, Thatamanil insists that theologies of religious pluralism are simply e...

This week we revisit a 2012 conversation with Jacques Berlinerblau about his book, How to be Secular; Katie Lynn Murphy files a report from China Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A frank conversation about the experience of women in religious communities and in academia with our guest, Dr. Gina Messina-Dysert - one of the founders of the blog Feminism and Religion. Also on the show, Katy Scrogin reviews Ted A Smith's new book, Weird John Brown Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talk with Dr. E.L. Kornegay, founder of the Baldwin-Delaney Institute, about programs to address the sources of violence in our communities Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we go back into the archives to our 2012 interview with Todd Green about the fear of Islam in the west, and Hollis Phelps reviews the new book by Mike Huckabee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Long time Chicago Tribune columnist Barbara Mahany has written a "book of common prayer" for everyday living, celebrating the divinity of everyday moments. The result is Slowing Time: Seeing the Sacred OUtside Your Kitchen Door. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michelle Van Loon has been a writer for more than three decades. With her recent book, If Only: Letting Go of Regret, the author has turned her attention to the important subject of grief and regret, and has written a practical spiritual guide for getting over the feelings of "woulda, coulda, shoulda" that affect us all. Also on the show, our producer-at-large, Natasha Alford, looks at how white p...