YaleUniversity

A conversation with Maureen Meister about her new book

In this tender and powerful episode, Leader’s Way host Brandon Nappi interviews Nelba Márquez-Greene, a devoted advocate for survivors of gun violence and someone who has been named one of the “Ten Women Changing the World,” according to People Magazine’s October 2019 issue. A Community Scholar at the Yale School of Public Health, Nelba also hosts the “Shared Humanity” podcast and video series, w...

YJBM Science News is back with Part 1 of our very first Special Episode! Join Hanna, Majo, and Roxanna as they sit down with Dr. Diyendo Massilani, a researcher and professor at Yale investigating evolutionary genetics. We’ll hear from Dr. Massilani about the challenges and ethical considerations of working with ancient DNA, as well as the incredible doors it has opened to what we can interrogate...

Socio-cultural anthropologist Todne Thomas, Associate Professor of Divinity and Religious Studies at Yale Divinity School, discusses researching a 2015 arson of a predominantly Black church in Tennessee, what it says about humanity, and why in-depth study of American religious life is critically important. https://divinity.yale.edu/news/2025-12-12-what-a-2015-church-burning-reveals-about-race-reli...

If you’re considering applying to Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, this episode is for you! It’s the SEMINARIAN TAKEOVER episode of The Leader’s Way Podcast. Berkeley Divinity School at Yale students Whitney Kimball Coe ’26, Misty Krasawski ‘26, and Jae Kirkland Rice ’27, pull back the curtain on what it’s like to be at seminary and divinity school. Our seminarians tell stories about how they mad...

In today’s episode, I talk with a truly special group of scholars, Candace Borders, Alison Kibe, and Jeania Ree Moore. They met as Graduate Writing Fellows and connected by giving each other feedback on their writing. While they share academic fields and methodologies, their ethics of care and investment in each other’s work allowed them to try out a new form of peer-review group, as “group consul...

What does “community” actually mean? Is community something we achieve or is it something we practice? Claire Brown and Austin Sauerbrei are partners, parents, and community practitioners, living and working in small town rural America. Claire is the rector of a small Episcopal church and Austin is a community organizer with the 50+ year-old statewide nonprofit, SOCM. Their daily lives are a whirl...

Joseph Yoo was baptized, raised, and ordained in the United Methodist Church, and is now an Episcopalian priest and the planter of Mosaic Episcopal Church located in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. Joseph is the author of When the Saints Go Flying In: Stories About Faith, Life, and Everything in Between and is known for his dynamic presence on Instagram and TikTok, where he reflects on everything f...

Fashion historian Hilary Davidson on the dress of the Regency period

In this episode, we'll learn more about the work that the Anti-Eugenics Collective at Yale (AECY) dedicates itself to. Our host, Stella Park, sits down with Modupe Karimi and Hanifah Ouro-Sama, Yale College seniors and student members of AECY, to discuss their work in the collective, particularly on AECY's undergraduate biology curriculum project and their recent anti-eugenics workshop in London w...

Omid Safi was raised in a Muslim family where mystical poetry, particularly “love” poetry, and spirituality, were the currency of daily life. Poetry still “perfumes” Omid's social interactions, intellectual pursuits, and his curiosity about the ways religion, love, and justice intersect. Safi is a professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. He specializes in the study of Islamic mysticism and...

In anticipation of the 7th Yale International Symposium on Olive Oil and Health, to be hosted at Yale from December 4–7, Yale Global Health Insights podcast host Dr. Sharon Chekijian sits down with Dr. Tassos Kyriakides, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health and Director of the VA Cooperative Studies Program Coordinating Center. A scientist, researcher, and certi...

We practice meditation because the present moment is the only place where we can truly find ourselves, love others, and be loved by the divine. This is why we gather, why we sit, why we breathe together. We practice surrendering to what lies beyond our control and responding rather than reacting to life's challenges. We cultivate curiosity about what's arising within and around us, learning to do...

What do we do with our pain? It’s an important spiritual question, and one that Brandon Nappi explores with James Kimmel, Jr., JD, on this episode of Within, a contemplative segment of The Leader's Way Podcast, that explores the convergence of mental health, art, and spirituality through authentic conversations across traditions about personal and collective transformation. James Kimmel is a viole...

Lauren Jackson is a religion columnist for the New York Times where she is the associate editor and writer for The Morning, the Times's flagship daily newsletter. Over the past year, she has been deeply involved in reporting on belief. Lauren developed 'Believing,' a project that explores how we experience religion and spirituality in contemporary times. Lauren's thought-provoking columns delve in...

In this special episode of the Yale University Press podcast, Jennifer Banks, Senior Executive Editor in Religion and the Humanities, talks with Anthony T. Kronman about his latest book, True Conservatism: Reclaiming Our Humanity in an Arrogant Age.

In this episode, Ji Li discusses her book, At the Frontier of God’s Empire with Chloë Starr. The book tells the story of French missionary Alfred Caubrière who before his murder in 1948 left behind some 800 letters to his family, as well as 13 volumes of transcripts of everyday conversations in the local dialect among villagers in Santaizi, Manchuria. The episode discusses the life of Caubrière an...

Loretta Ross is a public intellectual, professor, activist, and author of Calling In, a collection of stories from five remarkable decades working in social justice movements, including reproductive justice, white supremacy, and women of color organizing. Loretta and Leader’s Way host Brandon Nappi go deep into conversation about why calling people in—inviting them into conversation instead of con...

Yale University Professor of History and Religious Studies Carlos Eire discusses evolving Protestant and Catholic views on miracles, the history of near-death experiences, and ‘hot button issues’ including the celibacy rule for Catholic priests.

Dwight Zscheile is a professor of congregational mission and leadership at Luther Seminary, and his wife, Blair Pogue, is a priest and canon for vitality and innovation in the Episcopal Church in Minnesota. They join Leader’s Way host Brandon Nappi for a conversation about their joint passion for engaging the innovative ways the Church is renewing its commitment to community and communion by meeti...

Poet and priest Spencer Reece joins Leader’s Way host Brandon Nappi for a moving conversation about the power of poetry as an act of remembrance, as a response to violence, and as a culture maker and culture keeper. Listen to Father Reece offer spontaneous recitation and remind us of the ways poetry can bring us closer to the Divine. Host: Brandon Nappi Guest: Spencer Reece Production: Goodchild M...

A conversation with science writer Philip Ball about his new illustrated history of alchemy

In this episode, Joseph Ho discusses his book, Developing Mission: Photography, Filmmaking, and American Missionaries in Modern China with Chloë Starr. The conversation ranges from camera technology in the interwar years to the documentation of disease in mission hospitals and circulation of missionary films documenting Japanese war crimes. If the creation of new types of images (such as baptism p...

We are growing in our understanding of the long-term effects trauma and moral injury can have on bodies and spirits, including those within our own congregations. In this important and tender episode, Brandon and Whitney talk with former Army Chaplain and Episcopal priest David Peters about the ways faith communities can lean on Jesus’s life story to respond with love and care to these wounds. Dav...

Hannah and Mark interview Jimmy Hatch, a recent Yale graduate and 26-year US military veteran who is the host of the new podcast, The Ivy League Insurgent. As a former Navy SEAL, Purple Heart recipient, and nonprofit founder, Jimmy became Yale’s oldest freshman at the age of 52. In their interview, Jimmy reflects on his remarkable story, the importance of connecting with those who are different, a...