Podcasts by Sacred
We 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.
Further podcasts by The Religion, Race and Democracy Lab at the University of Virginia
Podcast on the topic Religion
All episodes
No Country is a Shangri-La from 2023-06-06T14:17
Bhutan 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 ...
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American Iconoclasm from 2023-04-18T16:19
Over 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 Thomp...
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When Verse Goes Viral from 2023-04-04T14:54:44
If 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 ...
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Field Notes: War on Christmas, Peace on Christmas from 2021-12-21T13:51:09
Here 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 h...
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Sites of Memory from 2021-10-27T17:16:35
The 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 cou...
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On a Robot and a Prayer from 2021-10-19T12:00
We'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. Profe...
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We Hold These Truths from 2021-07-01T14:04:40
Each 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...
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The Devil's Advocates from 2021-06-08T13:42
The 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 th...
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Black and Beautiful from 2021-06-01T16:49:37
Renowned 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 tr...
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A Dictionary of All Religions from 2021-05-25T13:24:15
Today 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 o...
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Field Notes: In the Halo of a Moment from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
"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 archi...
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Render Unto Q from 2021-01-28T18:00
We'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 elect...
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American Idols from 2020-07-20T15:49:01
There 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 ...
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Field Notes: Liberté, Egalité, Contrôle d'Identité from 2020-07-06T13:10
On 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 Frenc...
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The Breath of Our Neighbor from 2020-06-09T01:59:39
Across 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 Ha...
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Field Notes: Sticky Situation from 2020-06-01T12:00
Graduate 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 unsustaina...
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What's So Great About Cyrus? from 2020-05-18T14:00
Last 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...
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Field Notes: #BlackLivesMatter from 2020-05-11T13:00
We'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 t...
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Field Notes: European Disunion from 2020-04-27T13:00
Months 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 mod...
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To Move the Passions from 2020-04-20T13:03
In 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 o...
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A Lotus Blossoms Above Muddy Waters from 2020-04-06T13:01
In 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 ...
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I Sent The Gods Back from 2019-09-02T12:00
Over 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 — ...
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Consider Hassan from 2019-08-26T11:00
When 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 leder...
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What Would Krishna Do? from 2019-08-19T12:57
West 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 extractio...
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A New Life, Together from 2019-08-12T10:15
2019 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 ...
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A Common Thread from 2019-08-01T14:46
In 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 ...
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