National • News & Public Affairs
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.
Inspired (formerly Interfaith Voices) 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.
That’s why Inspired matters.
We believe interfaith understanding is more than hollow jargon. It is integral to being informed and engaged citizens in the most religiously diverse country on earth. Polite society might try to avoid talking about religion and politics, but Inspired believes that we must talk about both – together.
We strive to:
- educate the public about the religious and ethical issues behind the news
- explore the mystery of spiritual experience
- invite guests and listeners from a wide diversity of traditions, including those with no religion
- promote dialogue, especially on contentious moral topics
- present many faith traditions and points of view – faithfully, clearly and compellingly
Inspired does not preach or proselytize, and is not affiliated with any religious organization. We are an independent public radio program.
May 28, 2023 National, News & Public Affairs
The Rise of the “Spiritual not Religious” in the 20th Century.
Stephen Prothero's book God, the Best Seller examines the role of Eugene Exman, the former head of Harper and Brothers' religious book department, in publishing some of the most important religious books of the 20th century, arguing that Exman was partly responsible for the current trend towards the “spiritual but not religious”. Then Dr. Linda Mercadante shares her research on the growing number of Americans identifying as spiritual but not religious, finding that they reject the word "God" but still believe in something bigger than themselves.
ListenMay 21, 2023 National, News & Public Affairs
The Sacred Obligation of the Salmon People
This week the Run for Salmon takes listeners to a walking meditation where native and non-native people gather to bless the fish as they return from the wild to head back to the waters where they were born. Producer Judy Silber and indigenous scholar Dr. Lyla June Johnston review the struggle and recent successes of indigenous activism. Then we hear from Lummi nation elder Darrell Hillaire. The formal tribal council leader founded Setting Suns Productions to use the indigenous tradition of storytelling and song to educate the world about his people and their plight to fulfill a sacred obligation to protect the water.
ListenMay 14, 2023 National, News & Public Affairs
Chaplains: Climbing The Mountain (encore)
We look back at the first episode of our Chaplains series at a senior care facility where Oksana Chapman helps Russian-speaking residents fan the embers of a spiritual life.
Read MoreMay 7, 2023 National, News & Public Affairs
“A Prayer for Salmon” continues, and “‘Scared to Life” in Tennessee
This week we listen to the fourth episode of A Prayer for Salmon, and talk with a religion reporter for The Tennessean about the shifting faith and political alliances in the aftermath of the Covenant School shooting.
Read MoreApril 30, 2023 National, News & Public Affairs
The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War
Journalist Jeff Sharlet has covered religion and the far right for two decades. In his latest book, The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War, he outlines a new era in "the Trumpocene" - an age of martyrs and civil war. He describes a cross-country road trip he made among Trump supporters, election deniers, white supremacists, so-called "Incels," militant Christians, and more, looking for the American soul. What he finds is a "haunting" of the ghost of Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old woman shot and killed while storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Sharlet describes how Babbitt has become "a powerful symbol" for the far right, and one the rest of Americans ignore at their peril.
Read MoreApril 23, 2023 National, News & Public Affairs
Plant Time: Inside a Psychedelic Church
At Sacred Garden Community Church in Berkeley, California, services and sacraments are centered on entheogens -- a chemical produced naturally by some plants that, when ingested, can sometimes lead to a heightened sense of spiritual or religious enlightenment. Some call these hallucinogens or psychedelics. They include ayahuasca, mescaline, peyote cacti, and psilocybin mushrooms – all known by indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Psychedelic congregations like Sacred Garden are one of the fastest-growing faith communities in the U.S. and beyond and are taking root in Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and non-denominational settings. But how sustainable is this model of worship? Is it another form of cultural appropriation? What is the future – if any – of so-called “psychedelic churches?”
Read MoreApril 16, 2023 National, News & Public Affairs
A Prayer for Salmon Continues… Part 3
This week we continue with episode three of A Prayer for Salmon, the audio documentary from The Spiritual Edge. The U.S. government has proposed raising the height of the Shasta Dam in Northern California by 18.5 feet to increase water storage capacity. But this move would flood sacred cultural sites and disrupt the rituals of the Winnemem Wintu people who argue the change would their cultural heritage and way of life.
Read MoreApril 2, 2023 National, News & Public Affairs
The Ramadan-Passover Conjunction
This year Passover and the month of Ramadan will overlap – an occurrence that won’t happen again for 31 years. So Deena Grant and Aida Mansoor from Hartford International University for Religion and Peace decided to do something unique – blend two traditional meals into one. What emerged was a Model Seder-Iftar. In designing the special evening these colleagues had to navigate a host of constraints from food restrictions that honored both the Halal and Kosher needs of each community to negotiate the timing of when a meal could be served and what would be said during the ritual meal. The effort led to the creation of a unique Haggadah and more. Later in the episode, reflections on gun violence and faith from Pardeep Kaleka whose father was murdered 10 years ago in the deadliest attack on a Sikh Temple in the United States.
Read MoreMarch 26, 2023 National, News & Public Affairs
Islamic Relief USA and Ramadan with Anwar Khan
This week Anwar Khan, a humanitarian leader runs Islamic Relief USA and is actively working to raise more during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He joins to talk about their work and mission. Then Dr. Tricia Bruce describes why most Americans fall into the messy and confused middle when it comes to abortion and how few spaces exist for people to sort and struggle with their feelings and beliefs. And a profile of American Muslim theologian Dr. Amina Wadud from reporter Hana Baba of the Spiritual Edge at KALW.
Read MoreMarch 19, 2023 National, News & Public Affairs
The Rise of the “Spiritual not Religious” in the 20th, and 21st centuries.
Stephen Prothero's book God, the Best Seller examines the role of Eugene Exman, the former head of Harper and Brothers' religious book department, in publishing some of the most important religious books of the 20th century, arguing that Exman was partly responsible for the current trend towards the “spiritual but not religious”. Then Dr. Linda Mercadante shares her research on the growing number of Americans identifying as spiritual but not religious, finding that they reject the word "God" but still believe in something bigger than themselves.
Read More