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Every Sunday at 3:00amAbout the Show
Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
This week we start with a look at the Georgia midterm elections and then hear from an environmental advocate who is raising awareness about the dangers of eco-anxiety and her belief that action is key to combating hopelessness, and then a scientist reflects in a new memoir her journey leaving Christianity and then rediscovering it during a period of isolation in Alaska where she was studying the effects of methane on the climate.
“When the People Vote, the People Win”
Reverend Timothy McDonald, III is the senior pastor of First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta and a leader in Faithworks, a new voter mobilization campaign to increase voter participation in the state of Georgia. He describes the multi-faceted initiative that includes a new social media campaign to organize and engage multi-faith leaders around the state. McDonald describes the efforts as intended to combat efforts to suppress the vote of African Americans and people of color.
“SAGES are the Faith Leaders Are Critical To this Movement”
Veteran environmental advocate Heather White talks about her new book, One Green Thing: Discover Your Hidden Power to Save the Earth. Combatting eco-anxiety – a chronic fear of environmental doom – impacts young people in ways most older Americans may not see or recognize. She cites three factors – hyper-awareness of ecological and climate change, chronic loneliness, and a rise in generalized anxiety. White urges everyone to consider taking a self-assessment profile and take the 21-day challenge. She shares the profiles of three faith leaders who she describes in her book as “sages” and explains why they are critical to fostering an intergenerational movement.
“Grappling with the Seeds of Doubt”
Producer Kimberly Winston interviews Dr. Katey Walter Anthony, author of “Chasing Lakes: Love, Science and the Secrets of the Arctic,” about how science and faith intersect in her life. Raised as a Christian, Dr. Anthony became an atheist, but when she felt the pull of faith again, she worried it could affect how her peers in science view her. Dr. Anthony is a “limnologist,” someone who studies lakes, and has been named a National Geographic “Emerging Explorer.” She is currently a professor at The University of Alaska in Fairbanks.
