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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.
The Secret Life of Muslims
Joshua Seftel, co-creator and founding director of the hit online series “Secret Life of Muslims,” explains the motivation for the project, which was nominated for an Emmy and has been viewed tens of millions of times. Seftel is Jewish and has vivid memories of anti-Semitism directed against his family as he grew up in Upstate New York. More recently he learned that half of Americans have a negative view of Muslims, and thought that as a filmmaker, he had a way to counter this prejudice. Seftel and his crew have made about 20 episodes in the series to date — short audio profiles of American Muslims that portray them as relatable, inspiring and funny.
Joshua Seftel, co-creator and founding director, Secret Life of Muslims
American Muslims – By the Numbers
If anyone has a finger on the pulse of American Muslims, it’s Dalia Mogahed, director of research for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. She shares the often surprising results of her group’s recently-released “American Muslim Poll 2019.” It turns out that Muslims are more optimistic about the future of America than most, that their power at the polls is steadily increasing, and that anti-Muslim attitudes vary markedly among religious groups. Mogahed explains what tends to make a person more prone to Islamophobia, and what can break through anti-Muslim bias.
Dalia Mogahed, director of research, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding
Remembering Rachel Held Evans
Legions of fans are mourning the unexpected death of young Christian writer Rachel Held Evans, who died on May 4 after a short illness. She leaves behind a husband, two young children, and four books about faith. We talk to Diana Butler Bass, a Christian scholar and writer who befriended Evans and watched her devoted following grow. It wasn’t only Evans’ unflinching honesty in critiquing the church that made her stand out, says Butler Bass, but her kindness toward her critics, and her devotion to other writers whom she helped to find an audience.
Diana Butler Bass, religion scholar and author
