Ministry of Ideas
104 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 months ago - ★★★★★ - 146 ratingsA podcast about the ideas that shape our lives. Hosted by Zachary Davis and produced at Harvard Divinity School.
Learn more at ministryofideas.org
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Episodes
Making Meaning Episode 4: Weaving the World Together
February 07, 2023 09:00 - 13 minutesMeaning is less a secret to discover than an emergent property, a byproduct of engaging with the world. Through experimentation and an orientation of openness, we can weave ourselves into a broader cloth of coherence. Guest: Michael Steger is the Founder and Director of the Center for Meaning and Purpose, and Professor of Psychology at Colorado State University. He also serves as an Extraordinary Professor by North-West University in South Africa. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Macal...
Making Meaning Episode 3: The Weight of the World
February 06, 2023 09:00 - 7 minutesThe ideology of capitalism, which drives us to find happiness in endless exertion and economic gain, dulls our emotions and blinds us to the source of our most abundant meaning—relationships and solidarity with other people. Guest: Kathryn Lofton is a scholar of religion and has written extensively about capitalism, popular culture, and the secular. She’s the author of three books: Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon; Consuming Religion; and Woman’s Work: An Anthology of African-American Women’s Hi...
Making Meaning Episode 2: A Fortunate Coalescence
February 05, 2023 09:00 - 10 minutesWe’re often given the following choice: either there’s a cosmic, eternal purpose to our lives or nothing matters at all. But perhaps the meaning of life is the meaning in life—witnessing the dance of light on leaves or the catching of a perfect wave. Guest: Aaron James is philosophy professor at UC Irvine and the author of Surfing with Sarte: An Aquatic Inquiry into the Life of Meaning. Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaning...
Making Meaning Episode 1: You Don't Have To Be Special
February 04, 2023 09:00 - 10 minutesFeelings of meaninglessness often are caused by how we understand ourselves. If we change how we think about our worth, we’ll discover radiant meaning can be found in even the most ordinary aspects of our lives. Guest: David Burns is a leading psychiatrist and a pioneer of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. His best-selling book, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy has sold over 4 million copies and is the book most frequently “prescribed” for depressed patients by psychiatrists and psychologists ...
Introducing Making Meaning
February 03, 2023 09:00 - 4 minutesWhen I was 25, the world I had known ended. I no longer believed the religion I was raised in was true, and I found myself having to build a new foundation of meaning. Show Description Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explores how life can be lived more meaningfully. Featuring meditations by some of the world’s most sensitive and insightful thinkers, Making Meaning will give you fresh perspective and encouragement to live with greater intention and fullness. Ma...
Border Lines
February 02, 2023 09:00 - 24 minutesClimate change and war have flung millions of people on the move, who often seek safe harbor in the very countries responsible for their displacement. But despite the lofty ideals and supposed simplicity of international refugee law, it turns out borders are not really the fixed lines on a map we imagine them to be. Guests: Deborah Anker is Clinical Professor of Law and Founder of the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC). Celeste Cantor-Stephens is a musician,...
Anger Management
February 01, 2023 09:00 - 20 minutesWe live in a time of anger. Yet most of us feel guilty for getting angry, wishing we could stay calm and turn the other cheek. But though anger can never be fully morally pure, we still need it because it alerts us to injustice and catalyzes change. Guests: Agnes Callard is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago and a columnist at The Point. Myisha Cherry is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. This episode was produce...
Out of TIme
January 31, 2023 09:00 - 28 minutesMany of the earliest time technologies were used to mark sacred time -- time set apart for the divine. But with the Industrial Revolution, efficient time use became its own sacred value. We now live in the age of capitalist time, where time is money and must be spent as productively as possible. As we struggle with a global pandemic, it’s time to rethink what we hold sacred. Guests: Ahmed Ragab, Richard T. Watson Associate Professor of Science and Religion, and affiliate associate professor ...
Public Thinking
January 30, 2023 09:00 - 29 minutesWe have usually relied on public intellectuals to provide facts, ideas, and cultural leadership--though not all have lived up to the ideal of “speaking truth to power.” Today, however, online networks and social media mean we are all public intellectuals, and we have new responsibilities that come with this role. Guests: Cornel West, professor at Union Theological Seminary and author of, among other works, Black Prophetic Fire. George Scialabba, author of What Good Are Intellectuals Good Fo...
Above the Veil
January 29, 2023 09:00 - 37 minutesThe work of Ibram X. Kendi distinguishes between two forms of racism: segregationism and assimilationism. Segregationists argue that some groups are inferior by nature; assimilationists, on the other hand, argue that some groups are inferior by 'nurture,' but can overcome this inferiority if they conform to another group's cultural standards -- in America, always a White cultural standard. Black leaders past and present have challenged these racist assumptions while revealing the liberatory p...
Dissecting Morality: Part II
January 28, 2023 09:00 - 27 minutesLinking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn’t ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests: Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, associ...
Dissecting Morality: Part I
January 27, 2023 09:00 - 30 minutesLinking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn’t ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests: Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, associ...
Virtually Violent
January 26, 2023 09:00 - 23 minutesDuring the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerable communities have been hit especially hard by disruptive online attacks. But calling these attacks "violent" could jeopardize the future of disruptive protests designed to protest those same communities. Guests: Erica Chenoweth, professor of human rights and international affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and author of Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs To Know. Dr. Joan Donovan, research director of the Shorenstein Cente...
Welcome to Valhalla
January 25, 2023 09:00 - 29 minutesHeathenry, a modern movement drawing on pre-Christian pagan religions, has become associated with the violent, racialized politics of the alt-right. Less well known is the fight to make heathenry — and the progressive values it can promote — inclusive and open to all. Guests: Robert Schreiwer, Heathen activist, founder of the Heathen tradition of Urglaawe, Manager of Huginn’s Heathen Hof and Heathens Against Hate, and Steer of the Troth (2016-2019 and again in 2020). Founder of In-Reach Pris...
Stealing the Canon
January 24, 2023 09:00 - 31 minutesLiterary canons have come under fire for perpetuating privilege and exclusion. But some artists — including William Shakespeare and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda — show us how canons can actually build community and democracy. Guests: Stephen Greenblatt, Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University and editor of the Norton edition of Shakespeare’s works and the Norton Anthology of English Literature. Oskar Eustis, artistic director of New York City’s Public Theatre. J...
Climate of Denial
January 23, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutesHuman-caused climate change is real and growing in impact. Yet many Americans see climate change as a belief that they can opt out of. Two belief structures are to blame: American Protestantism and postmodernism. Guests: Tanya Luhrmann, professor of anthropology and psychology at Stanford University and author of When God Talks Back. Gary Aylesworth, professor emeritus of philosophy at Eastern Illinois University. Lee McIntyre, Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Sc...
Progressive Souls: Part II
January 22, 2023 09:00 - 24 minutesReligious people have played an important role in progressive politics in the US for its entire history. Contemporary leftists should look to build bridges and include religious voices in the pursuit of a more just and sustainable society. Guests: Elizabeth Bruenig, Washington Post columnist EJ Dionne, Washington Post columnist and Professor at Georgetown University Dan McKanan, Professor at Harvard Divinity School Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Progressive Souls: Part I
January 21, 2023 09:00 - 27 minutesReligious people have played an important role in progressive politics in the US for its entire history. Contemporary leftists should look to build bridges and include religious voices in the pursuit of a more just and sustainable society. Guests: Elizabeth Bruenig, Washington Post columnist EJ Dionne, Washington Post columnist and Professor at Georgetown University Dan McKanan, Professor at Harvard Divinity School Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Myth of Modernity
January 20, 2023 09:00 - 34 minutesMany think modernity is about the rise of science, the spread of democracy and capitalism, or the decline of religion or superstition. But those stories ignore the bigger picture about colonialism and race. Guests: Mayra Rivera, professor of Religion and Latinx Studies at Harvard University. Jared Hickman, professor of English at Johns Hopkins University. Author of the book, Black Prometheus: Race and Radicalism in the Age of Atlantic Slavery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...
Spiritual Machines
January 19, 2023 09:00 - 30 minutesEver since early scientists began experimenting with immortality elixirs in the middle ages, religion has been influencing transhumanism. Now, we’re beginning to see transhumanism influencing religion. Guests Calvin Mercer, Professor of Religious Studies at East Carolina University Meghan O’Gieblyn, writer Blaire Ostler, Director and Former President of the Mormon Transhumanist Association Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Shifting Blame
January 18, 2023 09:00 - 27 minutesWe claim to judge people for what they intentionally do, but accidents often influence our judgments. In our justice systems, people can be harshly and unfairly blamed for bad luck—but in our personal lives, taking on blame isn’t always a bad thing. Guests Fiery Cushman, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University Daniel Statman, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Haifa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nothing Matters
January 17, 2023 09:00 - 27 minutesBetween the Buddhist doctrine of ‘emptiness,’ the Jewish idea of Ayin, and the quantum mechanical zero-point energy of a vacuum, it turns out there’s quite a lot to be said about Nothing. Guests Janet Gyatso, Professor of Buddhist Studies at Harvard Divinity School Daniel Matt, Scholar of Jewish Mysticism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tomorrow, Today
January 16, 2023 09:00 - 26 minutesWorld’s fairs were created to celebrate industry, technology, imperialism, western supremacy, and progress; but they also led to unexpected critiques and movements that challenged those very purposes. Guests Evander Price, PhD Candidate in American Studies at Harvard University Robert Rydell, Professor of History at Montana State University Abigail Higgins, Harvard University, Class of 2017 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apocalyptic Politics
January 15, 2023 09:00 - 29 minutesEvangelical voters made up a significant portion of Donald Trump’s base in the 2016 presidential election. Their political agenda may not be peace or prosperity, but instead bringing us closer to the end of time. Guests Matthew Sutton, Graduate Studies Director, Washington State University History Department Katharine Hayhoe, Director, Climate Science Center, Texas Tech University Liya Rechtman, Harvard Divinity School student Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Consumed
January 14, 2023 09:00 - 24 minutesCannibalism has been used for centuries to define the lowest form of humanity, but the story isn't as straightforward as it may seem. Turns out, there may be a logic - or even a love - to eating people. Guests Emily Anderson, Curator of “Cannibalism: Myth & Reality” Bill Schutt, Author of Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Child's Play
January 13, 2023 09:00 - 29 minutesWe shouldn’t be dismissive of the popularity of children’s literature among adults, as it is often in these works of fiction that powerful themes such as death, love, and virtue are most deeply and imaginatively explored. Guests Christina Phillips Mattson, Scholar of Children’s Literature Casper ter Kuile, Ministry Innovation Fellow at Harvard Divinity School and co-host of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text MG Prezioso, Contributing writer for Harvard Political Review Learn more about you...
Forbidden Fruit
January 12, 2023 09:00 - 29 minutesContemporary diet culture is only the latest manifestation of a long history of religious fervor about food. Guests Isabel Foxen Duke, health coach Alan Levinovitz, Professor of Religious Studies at James Madison University Corrie Norman, Associate Director, Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Enlightened Cynicism
January 11, 2023 09:00 - 20 minutesTrust in government, media, organized religion, businesses and even democracy is at historic lows. But what if the answer to declining faith in institutions isn’t more hope, but more cynicism? Guests Sharon Stanley, Professor of Political Science at the University of Memphis and the author of The French Enlightenment and the Emergence of Modern Cynicism. David Mazella, Professor of English at the University of Houston and the author of The Making of Modern Cynicism Learn more about your ad...
Demeritocracy
January 10, 2023 09:00 - 25 minutesTotal faith in meritocracy leads to the dangerous belief that all social winners and losers are wholly deserving. Instead, we need an economy of grace. Guests Victor Tan Chen, assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy Thomas Frank, author of What’s the Matter with Kansas? and Listen, Liberal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Secular Salvations
January 09, 2023 09:00 - 21 minutesThe decline of organized religion in the West has opened up new paths for individuals to pursue what once was once understood to be salvation. Guests Craig Calhoun, President of the Berggruen Institute and author of Rethinking Secularism Sean Kelly, Professor of Philosophy of Harvard University and author of All Things Shining Angie Thurston, fellow at On Being and author of How We Gather Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
21st Century Citizenship
January 08, 2023 09:00 - 15 minutesWhat does it mean to be a citizen in America today? Guests Danielle Allen, Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics and University Professor at Harvard University Erhardt Graeff, PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab Center for Civic Media Shanelle Matthews, Director of Communications for the Black Lives Matter global network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mirror Image
January 07, 2023 09:00 - 15 minutes16th-century glass mirrors and 21st-century camera phones actually share a lot in common; they both are technologies that shaped new forms of the self. Guests Ian Mortimer, historian and author of Millennium: From Religion to Revolution: How Civilization Has Changed Over a Thousand Years Ilan Stavans, professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College and author of I Love My Selfie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
White Balance
January 06, 2023 09:00 - 13 minutesUnderstanding race in America requires understanding its relationship to class. Guests Joshua Bennett, writer and poet Julian Bourg, Professor of History at Boston College Nancy Isenberg, author of White Trash Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
(In)efficiency
January 05, 2023 09:00 - 16 minutesEfficiency has moved from a technique for measuring machines to a widely held moral value. But at what cost? Guests Jennifer Alexander, Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota and author of The Mantra of Efficiency: From Waterwheel to Social Control Tom Hodgkinson, founder and editor of The Idler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Generation Why?
January 04, 2023 09:00 - 13 minutesWho gets to define generational cohorts and do they obscure more than illuminate? Guests Neil Howe, author of Generations Tony Tulathimutte, author of Why There’s No ‘Millennial’ Novel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Seriously Funny
January 03, 2023 09:00 - 14 minutesWhat happens when politics becomes comedy and the jester becomes the king? Guests Emily Nussbaum, television critic for The New Yorker Avi Steinberg, writer Kwesi Mensah, comedian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Shape of History
January 02, 2023 09:00 - 12 minutesThe way we think about history can affect our belief that we can change it. Guests Jo Guldi, Associate Professor at Southern Methodist University and author of The History Manifesto Amber Morningstar Byars, artist and Standing Rock protestor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Introducing Ministry of Ideas
January 01, 2023 21:00 - 1 minuteIntroducing Ministry of Ideas, a podcast that explores the ideas that shape our lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Introducing Illuminations
October 26, 2022 14:27 - 8 minutes - 8.24 MBIlluminations is a limited series that reveals the untold friendship of religion and science. Through interviews and stories drawn from a range of cultures, faiths, and eras, this series reveals the unknown and unexpected histories of how religion and science have been entangled across time. We hear why the Dalai Lama loves quantum mechanics; why the Mormon faith inspires a search for extraterrestrial life; why the Scientific Revolution was catalyzed by a religious quest to uncover divine cr...
Measure for Measure Episode 3: Movies
August 09, 2022 10:00 - 16 minutes - 14.7 MBWe’d rate today’s episode a ten out of ten, five star, certified fresh, two thumbs up. But we can’t speak for its IMdB score. This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya Rechtman. Measure for Measure is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas.
Measure for Measure Episode 3:
August 02, 2022 15:18 - 10 minutes - 9.92 MBWe’re hitting up against the very nature of measurement: How can we best describe the world around us, in its infinite complexity, with finite measures? In other words, how hard are rocks? This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya Rechtman. Measure for Measure is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas.
Measure for Measure Episode 2:
July 26, 2022 10:00 - 19 minutes - 18.1 MBJews are ritually obligated to eat matzah during Passover. But how much matzah? Well, that depends on your views on the size of an olive. This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya Rechtman. Special thanks to Rabbi Natan Slifkin, founder of RationalistJudaism.com for his work on olives and biblical measurements.
Making Meaning 24: The Shining Surface
June 29, 2022 00:14 - 6 minutes - 8.65 MBDESCRIPTION It's common to equate meaning with depth, but the surface of things, with its wild and rapturous beauty, can coax us into life. GUEST Stephanie Paulsell is the Susan Shallcross Swartz Professor of the Practice of Christian Studies in the Harvard Divinity School and served as the Interim Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church from 2019 to 2020. An ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), she is the author of Religion Around Virginia Woolf, (2019), edito...
Making Meaning 23: Limits and Love
May 03, 2022 10:00 - 10 minutes - 14.3 MBWe are finite creatures who struggle to accept our finitude. But if we can learn to embrace our limits, we will find that our relations with one another, the created world, and God allow us to experience a love so exquisite, it need not last forever. GUEST Matthew Ichihashi Potts is Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University. He studies the thought and practice of Christian communities through attention to diverse literary and...
Making Meaning Episode 21: Throbbing With Life
April 19, 2022 17:21 - 7 minutes - 7.2 MBScience often draws a picture of the world as a giant machine, a meaningless mechanical clock ticking and tocking forever. But religion and poetry offer a different view, one that is teeming with life and overflowing with spirit. GUEST Michael Ruse is a British-born Canadian philosopher of science who specializes in the philosophy of biology and works on the relationship between science and religion. SHOW DESCRIPTION Making Meaning is a limited series from Ministry of Ideas that explor...
Making Meaning Episode 20: Love, Work and Play
April 12, 2022 10:00 - 10 minutes - 9.22 MBThough life’s ultimate meaning may be elusive, the goods of love, work and play are so deeply rewarding that for most people they are sufficient for creating a happy life. And with new advances in neuroscience, we increasingly understand why that is at a molecular level. GUEST Paul Thagard is a philosopher, cognitive scientist, and author of many interdisciplinary books. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo, where he founded and directed the C...
Making Meaning Episode
March 19, 2022 16:10 - 11 minutes - 10.6 MBWe inherit a world that is already made, full of stories and structures and significance. But all of us have the capacity to remake the world and the meanings available in it. GUEST Simon Critchley is the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. His work engages in many areas: continental philosophy, philosophy and literature, psychoanalysis, ethics, and political theory, among others. His most recent books include The Problem with Levinas and ABC of Imposs...
Out Of Time
September 01, 2021 17:40 - 29 minutes - 26.5 MBMany of the earliest time technologies were used to mark sacred time -- time set apart for the divine. But with the Industrial Revolution, efficient time use became its own sacred value. We now live in the age of capitalist time, where time is money and must be spent as productively as possible. As we struggle with a global pandemic, it’s time to rethink what we hold sacred. Guests Ahmed Ragab, Richard T. Watson Associate Professor of Science and Religion, and affiliate associate professor...
Dissecting Morality, Part II
December 18, 2020 18:04 - 27 minutes - 25 MBLinking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn’t ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Author of The ...
Dissecting Morality, Part I
December 18, 2020 17:54 - 30 minutes - 28 MBLinking morality and science can conjure up disturbing histories around social Darwinism, eugenics, and genetically engineered humans. But scientists today are making discoveries that moral agents shouldn’t ignore: how to overcome aggression and tribalism, and how to sustain cooperation in a modern pluralist world. Guests Diane Paul, professor emerita of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and research associate at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Ben Allen, assoc...