Complexified
by Institute of Religion Politics and Culture, Amanda Henderson, Iliff School of Theology
Latest episode
The Right to Refuse AI: When Thinking for Yourself Is a Religious…
The Right to Refuse AI: When Thinking for Yourself Is a Religious…
About this podcast
For too long we have avoided talking about religion and politics. But the truth is, religion and politics are about daily life. When we avoid the hard topics connected to religion and politics, we become stuck in the status quo. On Complexified we dive into the places where religion and politics collide with real-life, so we can get unstuck- so we can make real change. We dive into our most entrenched problems to better understand the hidden histories and experiences of real people on the front lines. We look at the ways religion has shaped our systems - and the ways we see ourselves and others– from there, we work together to imagine new paths forward.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 117 episodes
- The Right to Refuse AI: When Thinking for Yourself Is a Religious Belief · 22 minA University of Kentucky employee asked to be excused from using artificial intelligence at work. He said it violated his beliefs as a humanist. The university granted him a…
- When Cruelty Stops Shocking Us · 44 minRussell Moore on the death penalty, sacred life and political belonging In Texas, Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad. Earlier this month…
- Pastors, Pews and Power: Religion in the Midterms · 27 minReligion has always been part of American politics. What changes from cycle to cycle is where it shows up and what it looks like. This year it’s turning up in some unexpected…
- The Very American Rise and Fall and Rise and Death of Jim Bakker · 35 minTelevangelist Jim Bakker is dead at 86. And whatever else can be said about him, he was a true American original. In the ’70s and ’80s, millions of Americans welcomed Jim and…
- Spiritual Readiness, Pentagon-Style: Who Measures a Soldier’s Soul? · 36 minSoldiers are trained for physical combat. But war also confronts them with death, killing, grief, guilt and questions of meaning. The military has long employed chaplains to…
- The Rise Of The Jim Crow Theobros · 33 minAcross YouTube, podcasts and church conferences, a new group of pastors and influencers is promoting an openly racist and baldly antisemitic vision of Christian America. They…
- The Texas Sharia Panic: How a Rallying Cry Became a Curriculum · 35 minRepublican leaders across Texas are repeatedly warning that Sharia is an urgent threat to the state- making it a rallying cry as we head into the midterm elections. The Muslim…
- Bratwurst and Beer: How the Far Right Replaced Germany's Churches · 25 minA state in Germany has seen the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party win nearly 44% of the vote—making it the state’s largest party and bringing it within three…
- The 9/11 Generation: 25 Years Later · 59 minTwenty-five years after 9/11, the attacks' aftershocks — surveillance, suspicion, identity — continued to shape how young Muslim Americans saw themselves and their country. With…
- Erika Kirk’s Turning Point · 28 minOne year after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, his widow, Erika, is leading Turning Point USA — appealing to young women through a message of faith, forgiveness and biblical…
- Saint, Sinner, Superstar: Dolly Parton’s Complicated Christianity · 31 minDolly Parton was loved by evangelical Christians, queer fans, atheists and nearly everyone in between. Some saw her as a model of Christian living. But Dolly’s own relationship…
- How One City Became an American Flashpoint · 27 minIn Springfield, Ohio, a small Rust Belt city where thousands of Haitian immigrants had settled… America’s fights over work, migration, race, religion and belonging stopped being…
- High Church on Chicago’s South Side · 27 minPope Hats, Hot Dogs and Holy Ground: Baseball has long been called a kind of church. It has its own calendar and rituals, its sacred places and inherited traditions. Its…
- Put on a Pedestal, Kept Out of Power: How The LDS Church Is Losing Women · 45 minThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says it is bringing in new converts at an extraordinary rate. Its practicing members are among the most religiously engaged people…
- The “Pastors In Name Only”: The New (Old) Fight Over Who Counts As Christian · 38 minWhy Democratic pastors are being attacked for their faith, not merely their politics. Pastors, seminarians and other faith leaders are running for office as Democrats across the…
- Data Centers, Dark Money: The Interfaith Group That Won't Disclose Anything · 27 minWho's behind a mysterious mass-text that invoked faith and economic justice to promote data centers? A few weeks ago, residents of Prince George’s County, Maryland, received a…
- $438 Million Later, What Does This Faith-Tech Company Actually Do? · 34 minRNS reporter Bob Smietana on Gloo, the faith-tech company chasing a one-stop IT/AI solution for churches. Nearly half a billion dollars, gone, over thirteen years. That's how…
- The Catholics Who Broke With Rome. Again. · 32 minWhen Tradition Becomes Trouble On the side of a mountain in Switzerland, in the shadow of the Alps, a fanciful event attracting a small but ardent group of Catholic…
- Spiritual Technology for the 21st Century · 31 minPhilip Reed-Butler, Black AI, and the future of healing For the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about artificial intelligence. We’ve talked Vatican positioning, Silicon…
- The Business of Being Good · 36 minAnthropic, the Vatican, and the Moral Branding of AI Imagine you're an engineer at one of the most powerful AI companies in the world. You've built a system that can write…
