Sacred & Profane
35 episodes - English - Latest episode: 18 days ago - ★★★★★ - 70 ratingsWe may imagine that the sacred is set apart from life, but religion is involved in every aspect of our day-to-day world. How we live together and apart. How we argue. How we flourish. The sacred is the profane.
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Episodes
Ad Astra
April 08, 2024 13:00 - 19 minutes - 22.3 MBMillions of Americans are traveling hundreds of miles for a chance to witness 2024’s total solar eclipse. As many eyes turn towards this rare event, we’re turning our attention to another wonder, one we sometimes take for granted: the night sky. Humans have a relationship with the moon and stars stretching back for millennia. Observing the night sky has given us practical things, like calendars and ways to navigate; but they also give us a sense of awe and wonder that can't be replicated. We’...
Planet B
March 26, 2024 19:00 - 24 minutes - 28 MBAs the climate crisis on Earth worsens, some Americans — including the world’s richest man, Elon Musk — have begun to think about a plan (and planet) B. They dream of escaping an increasing polluted Earth in favor of creating an advanced society on our nearest neighbor, Mars. To investigate the roots of our fascination with Mars, we headed to Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona with our colleague Kelsey Johnson. Lowell has been the site of all sorts of important discoveries about our un...
Church in the Wilderness
March 12, 2024 19:00 - 16 minutes - 165 MBIn 2021, the Biden administration laid out a goal of conserving 30% of the United States’ land and seas by 2030. That number comes from a UN agreement that urges member countries to protect at least a third of their land and marine environments from human development in order to promote biodiversity and fight climate change. But historically, environmental conservation in the United States was less about preserving ecosystems and biodiversity and more about creating a relationship between hu...
Make the Desert Bloom
February 27, 2024 20:00 - 19 minutes - 193 MBBrigham Young lead his followers west in 1846, fleeing religious persecution. Young was looking for a place that his fellow Americans would consider too inhospitable to follow -- a place that would transform believers into a new people, where they could "blossom as the rose." But it was also clear as much as the desert would transform the church, the church would have to transform the desert. Only hours after scouts arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, they built a dam and irrigated a field of ...
Alternative Energy
February 13, 2024 20:00 - 17 minutes - 176 MBEnergy vortexes and the climate crisis collide in Sedona, Arizona, where New Age practitioners are drawn to a stunning but swiftly changing landscape. We spoke with scholar Susannah Crockford about her own time spent in Sedona, and the tension between a movement that may love the landscape but prioritizes individual healing over collective action. And our hosts headed to Sedona to experience first hand how New Age practices acknowledge a rapidly changing landscape. On this season of Sacred &...
Holy Oil
January 30, 2024 20:00 - 20 minutes - 207 MBOn this season of Sacred & Profane, we explore how religions have shaped the climate crisis -- and how they offer ways to imagine a different future. In the United States, Christianity and oil have been entangled since the industry's beginning. Our guest Darren Dochuk says Pennsylvania's oil fields gave rise to "two gospels of crude;" competing versions of Christianity that would have a profound effect on politics in the U.S. and around the world. But both versions viewed the prosperity oil ...
The Letter of the Law
January 16, 2024 20:05 - 25 minutes - 259 MBOn this season of Sacred & Profane, we explore how religions have shaped the climate crisis -- and how they offer ways to imagine a different future. Scholars and climate activists increasingly point to European colonization of the Americas as a kind of tipping point in not only human history, but climate history as well. Colonialism created a legal and cultural framework that prioritized private ownership of land and resources, giving rise to extractive industries that have weakened and des...
No Country is a Shangri-La
June 06, 2023 18:17 - 5 MBBhutan is a small country in the Himalayas with a long Buddhist tradition, and a more recent reputation for embracing careful development and cultural preservation. Many of the visitors who are willing to pay the $200 a day tourist visa to come to Bhutan are drawn to a beautiful landscape that's seen as largely untouched by the problems facing more industrialized nations. But of course, no country is a Shangri-La. We spoke with people across Bhutan about the real choices and challenges that...
American Iconoclasm
April 18, 2023 20:19 - 5 MBOver the last few years, Americans have removed statues from public spaces at what might be a record clip. In 2022, we spoke with art historian Erin Thompson and our colleague Jalane Schmidt about why these demands by average Americans to control their public space are a departure from much of American history. But they're not without precedent -- and they're definitely not so unusual considering humanity's very long history of destroying statues of kings, gods, and other public figures who ...
When Verse Goes Viral
April 04, 2023 18:54 - 5 MBIf you had to guess one of the best-selling poets in America, a long-dead Sufi mystic named Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi might not be at the top of your list. And yet, his poetry has found a wide audience in the U.S. -- centuries after his death, and thousands of miles from his home. You can find Rumi quotes everywhere, from Pinterest boards to Brad Pitt's underarm. But are these inspirational snippets of poetry missing a key element of Rumi's work? Our hosts speak with translator Muhammad Ali...
Field Notes: War on Christmas, Peace on Christmas
December 21, 2021 18:51 - 19 minutes - 197 MBHere in the States, it's become an annual tradition for conservative commentators to bemoan the "war on Christmas." That's the idea that Christmas is being pushed out in favor of non-Christian holidays or more secular winter celebrations. But as our fellow Jue Liang tells us, in China, the government is actually cracking down on Christmas and many other holidays as the ruling party looks to the calendar as a way to promote Han Chinese identity.
Sites of Memory
October 27, 2021 21:16 - 22 minutes - 226 MBThe Confederate monuments around Charlottesville’s county courthouse have all been removed, and a new kind of public memory is emerging in Charlottesville’s Court Square. The streets around the courthouse were the site of hundreds of slave auctions over Charlottesville’s history. The descendants of the people who were bought and sold in the square are at the center of a movement to bring their stories to the forefront — in essence, to create a new civil religion. Our colleague Jalane Schmidt...
On a Robot and a Prayer
October 19, 2021 16:00 - 16 minutes - 166 MBWe're living in an era where robots are increasingly common in our factories and our homes. So maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that robots are also finding a place in religious spaces, too. Professor Holly Walters joins us to discuss how robots are finding a home in some Buddhist and Hindu temples. Some see temple robots as a simple continuation of religious technology like prayer wheels or church bells, but they also raise radical questions about what it means to be religious at all.
We Hold These Truths
July 01, 2021 18:04 - 23 minutes - 240 MBEach year, Americans celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks, parades, and barbecues. Celebrating July Fourth is part of what some scholars identify as America’s civil religion. And like any religion, civil religion is built in part upon foundational myths and symbols that Americans, regardless of their religious faith, believe in and rally behind. Those symbols include documents like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. There are many Americans who view those two docum...
The Devil's Advocates
June 08, 2021 17:42 - 23 minutes - 236 MBThe media often cover the Satanic Temple as an elaborate prank, pulled off by a group of dedicated trolls trying to rile conservative Christians. But despite those public perceptions, in 2019 the IRS recognized the Satanic Temple as a tax exempt religious organization. And even though many do not see them as a "real" religious movement, Satanists play an important role in American religious and political life, showing us how ideas about religion, pluralism, and the separation of church and s...
Black and Beautiful
June 01, 2021 20:49 - 20 minutes - 211 MBRenowned Biblical scholar Dr. Renita Weems joins us to discuss how the translation of one particular word can profoundly change the meaning of a well-loved book of the Hebrew Bible — and what translation choices can reveal about race and gender in the modern world, as well as the ancient one.
A Dictionary of All Religions
May 25, 2021 17:24 - 23 minutes - 240 MBToday on the show, we dive into one the best-selling books in the early United States: a massive compendium of world religions. It's a work that's incomplete, and sometimes incorrect, but also one that shows how the first generation of Americans were exploring ideas about faith, tolerance, and religious pluralism. And almost as interesting as the book itself is its author, a woman who lived and died in greater Boston, but never stopped thinking of a much larger world.
Render Unto Q
January 28, 2021 23:00 - 17 minutes - 181 MBWe'll be returning with a third season soon. But we couldn't ignore the biggest story about religion in 2021 - the pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol hoping to overturn a democratic election. Journalist and author Sarah Posner joins us and charts decades of racist, anti-government rhetoric and conspiracy theories from the religious right to explain how white evangelical Christians came to be a key part of the violent mob at the U.S. Capitol earlier this year.
American Idols
July 20, 2020 19:49 - 25 minutes - 23.1 MBThere are hundreds of Confederate memorials across the U.S. With our colleague Jalane Schmidt, we explore an often overlooked part of their history: religion. Not only are these monuments often steeped in religious symbolism, white Christian communities also helped to build and maintain them. And we hear from a group of Christians here in Charlottesville wrestling with that legacy today.
Field Notes: Liberté, Egalité, Contrôle d'Identité
July 06, 2020 17:10 - 29 minutes - 299 MBOn paper, France is an egalitarian society. The republican ideals of liberté, égalité and fraternité are carved into public buildings across the country. And formal equality is carved into French laws in other ways, including a policy that makes it illegal to collect information on residents’ race, ethnicity, or religion.That “colorblindness” has made it difficult for people of color to prove to the state that systemic racism and police brutality exist in a supposedly equal country.In our on...
The Breath of Our Neighbor
June 09, 2020 05:59 - 8 minutes - 12.1 MBAcross the country, protestors are putting their bodies at risk from police violence and the COVID-19 pandemic, with the hope of creating radical change. We spoke with our colleague Larycia Hawkins about the power—and the price—of embodied solidarity.
Field Notes: Sticky Situation
June 01, 2020 16:00 - 20 minutes - 28 MBGraduate student Kevin Stewart Rose brings us the story of a Christian community dedicated to creating a more environmentally sustainable future, but unable to extract itself from our unsustainable present. Part of "Field Notes," our ongoing series dedicated to highlighting documentary work from students at UVA.
What's So Great About Cyrus?
May 18, 2020 18:00 - 25 minutes - 34.9 MBLast season. we explored the impact of an ancient artifact with Biblical connections: the Cyrus cylinder. Cyrus's proclamation may be ancient, but it has a lot of resonance in modern discussions of religious freedom, immigration, and national identity. Perhaps then it shouldn't come as a surprise that Cyrus himself has become a political symbol, as well. We're looking at two very different leaders who have become closely associated with Cyrus: the last Shah of Iran, and President Donald Trump.
Field Notes: #BlackLivesMatter
May 11, 2020 17:00 - 13 minutes - 12 MBWe're returning to our ongoing series Field Notes, featuring documentary pieces from students here at UVA. Jason Evans explores how black women—leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement since the beginning—are shaped by their faith, even as they question many aspects of the traditional black church.
La Santa
May 04, 2020 16:00 - 24 minutes - 22.5 MBSanta Muerte. Holy Death. To outsiders, she's become a symbol of cartel driven violence in Mexico—a "narco-saint," worshiped only by traffickers, and venerated at crime scenes. To her followers, she's a protector with roots stretching back to the pre-Hispanic past. Dr. Jessie Marroquín joins us to explore the complex history of the saint, now one of the fastest growing religious movements in Mexico and the Southwestern U.S.
Field Notes: European Disunion
April 27, 2020 17:00 - 27 minutes - 282 MBMonths before COVID-19 closed borders across Europe, the EU was already facing serious divisions. Evan Sandsmark sent us this report last summer on the cracks showing in the foundations of modern Austria—especially religion, which continues to be a fault line in European politics. Plus, we check in with Evan about what Europe looks like under lockdown today.
To Move the Passions
April 20, 2020 17:03 - 20 minutes - 18.7 MBIn 1902, a young American headed to the Vatican to record a voice unlike any other. His subject was Alessandro Moreschi—the last known castrato. That is to say, a man castrated in childhood in order to preserve a high singing voice. Castrati's high, yet powerful, voices were in constant demand in both sacred and secular spaces across Europe for centuries. We talk to UVA's Bonnie Gordon about how the interpretation of a single biblical passage helped launch that demand, and how their otherwo...
Field Notes: In the Halo of a Moment
April 13, 2020 16:47 - 10 minutes - 14.3 MB"He was a time-traveler and a translator. Or more precisely, the act of translating enabled Mira ji to time-travel." As we work to get our remote studio up and running, we're dipping into our archives to bring you some excellent short audio documentaries by students here at the University of Virginia—including this piece on the Urdu poet Mira ji, whose poetry refused to be confined by religion, gender, or time.
A Lotus Blossoms Above Muddy Waters
April 06, 2020 17:01 - 26 minutes - 37 MBIn 1905, a young Zen priest named Nyogen Senzaki arrived in San Francisco from Japan. He was convinced that America, with its long tradition of religious freedom, was fertile ground for the spread of Buddhism. And he slowly built a diverse new community of Buddhist practitioners in California. But everything changed when the U.S. entered World War II. Beginning in 1942, the United States government incarcerated roughly 120,000 people of Japanese descent—including Senzaki—in remote camps acro...
Set Apart
September 16, 2019 18:07 - 28 minutes - 39.7 MBIn 1872, an act of Congress transformed newly acquired territory in the American west into Yellowstone National Park. The act declared that the land was "hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States...and set aside as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people."And while it was our first national park, Yellowstone draws on much older thinking about sanctuaries. We often use the word sanctuary to talk...
I Sent The Gods Back
September 02, 2019 16:00 - 26 minutes - 24.3 MBOver 2,500 years ago, a victorious army marched through the open gates of the mighty city of Babylon. Soon after came a decree: that all the conquered peoples who had been brought to the city — the people who helped build its magnificent temples, gardens, and palaces — could return to their homelands, to worship their own gods as they saw fit.In the many years since it was written, the edict has been interpreted in many ways: as a sign from God; as the first declaration of human rights; as a...
Consider Hassan
August 26, 2019 15:00 - 22 minutes - 20.3 MBWhen Americans think about Austria, it’s easy to fall back on quaint stereotypes — the home of Mozart and The Sound of Music, where people climb and ski the snow-capped alps and still wear lederhosen and dirndls. But Austria, like everywhere else, is much bigger and more complicated than its postcard version. Like many of its neighbors in the European Union, Austria is home to a large number of new refugees from across the Middle East. The new arrivals — and questions of whether they can ble...
What Would Krishna Do?
August 19, 2019 16:57 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBWest Virginia has been shaped by resource extraction for hundreds of years. First came timber, then coal. These days, it’s hydraulic fracking. And it’s often difficult to hold out when extraction companies come to your area. When a drilling company showed up on their doorstep, a group of Hare Krishna devotees had to make the choice about whether to allow fracking on their land.
A New Life, Together
August 12, 2019 14:15 - 21 minutes - 29.5 MB2019 marks the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, when close to a million people were killed in one hundred days.UVA’s Larycia Hawkins sits down with Christophe Mbonyingabo, who’s been working to repair the rifts caused by the violence in his home country for over twenty years. He worried that after the genocide, Rwandans would learn to tolerate each other, but not truly forgive or trust one another. And so, he set out to see if it was possible to rebuild that trust — if perpetrator...
A Common Thread
August 01, 2019 18:46 - 20 minutes - 28.5 MBIn the 3rd century BCE, Ashoka Maurya ruled an empire stretching from the Kandahar valley of Afghanistan across most of the Indian subcontinent. It was an incredibly diverse place. His subjects spoke dozens of languages. And their faiths and philosophies were almost as varied: they were Hindus, Buddhists, Stoics, Zoroastrians, and Jains.Eventually, Ashoka began an audacious project: a code of ethics that drew from traditions across the empire, designed to minimize the suffering of both human...