Radio and PodcastRadio and PodcastLive Radio & Podcasts
The Classical Ideas Podcast cover
Religion & Spirituality

The Classical Ideas Podcast

Gregory Soden

Simply stated, religion matters. Religion matters not only for personal reasons, but also for social, economic, political, and military purposes. Unfortunately, studies suggest that religiou...

Episodes

20 of 365 episodes

EP 362: Creating Everyday Ethical Spaces: My Cambodian Mother's Buddhist Practices" w/Dr. Sophea Seng

Sophea Seng is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at California State University, Long Beach, where s...

46:52Oct 29, 2026

EP 361: Feeling Buddhism w/Dr. Gwendolyn Gillson

From https://www.gwendolyngillson.com : I am Associate Professor of Asian Studies in the History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religio...

36:41Oct 19, 2026

EP 360: Inari Origin Stories and Buddhist Public Scholarship w/Dr. Matthew Keller

Dr. Matthew Keller is Public Scholar of Buddhism within the Curatorial Department at the Detroit Institute of Arts! He completed his Ph.D. a...

40:08Sep 25, 2026

EP 359: Longchengpa and Lineage Prayers w/Dr. Renée Ford

Renée Ford, Ph.D. is a Lab Coordinator at the Contemplative Sciences Center, providing support for contemplative research at the CIRCL Lab ....

26:16Sep 3, 2026

EP 358: Buddhist Military Chaplaincy in Korea w/Dr. Jonathan C. Feuer

Jonathan Feuer earned his Ph.D in Asian Languages and Cultures from UCLA in 2023. His current book project is entitled Buddhist Militarism,...

28:01Aug 17, 2026

EP 357: Khemethaka Nunnery, Daw Gunawati, and pāramī w/Dr. M.K. Long

MK Long is a historian and ethnographer of Buddhism and gender. Her current project highlights vernacular auto/biographical writings of Budd...

37:28Aug 10, 2026

EP 356: Buddhism and Experimental Music w/Dr. Julian Butterfield

Julian Butterfield is a scholar of medieval Chinese Buddhist literature with a special interest in how Mahāyāna Buddhist narratives depict a...

55:55Aug 3, 2026

EP 355: Buddhist Charities in Urban Vietnam w/Dr. Sara Swenson

Sara Swenson works as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at Dartmouth College. Her current research explores how grassroot...

33:10Jul 28, 2026

EP 354: Transforming the American Sangha w/Dr. Nalika Gajaweera

Nalika Gajaweera (Research Affiliate, Walter H. Capps Center, University of California, Santa Barbara; PhD, Anthropology, University of Cali...

39:37Jul 7, 2026

EP 353: Western Esoteric Tradition and "Scientific Progress" with Dr. Tara Isabella Burton

Tara Isabella Burton (DPhil, University of Oxford; Visiting Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University; Visiting Research Fellow, Inst...

32:53Jun 30, 2026

EP 352: A Perturbed System Religion and Climate Change from the End of a World w/ Dr. Susannah Crockford

A moving study of how religion shapes Western climate discourse. Our ecological system is disturbed, and with it, every other system we've b...

46:20Jun 23, 2026

EP 351: Dr. Ira Helderman on Adverse Meditation Effects

Ira Helderman PhD, LPC (Adjunct Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture, Vanderbilt University; PhD, Religious Studies, Vanderbilt Un...

37:47Jun 14, 2026

EP 350: The Wounded Church: Tending to the Harm within Catholicism w/Dr. Annie Selak

Dr. Annie Selak (she/her/hers) is an expert in feminist ecclesiology. She studies wounds in the church, or moments where the church fails to...

37:48Jun 1, 2026

EP 349: The YouTube Prosperity Gospel w/Dr. Kaitlyn Ugoretz

Kaitlyn Ugoretz (Lecturer, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Nanzan University, Japan; PhD, East Asian Languages and Cultural Studi...

34:08May 22, 2026

EP 348: Dr. Kira Ganga Kieffer on "Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America"

Kira Ganga Kieffer is a scholar of American religions, history, culture, and politics with a PhD in Religious Studies from Boston University...

41:11May 13, 2026

EP 347: Beyond Wellness with Liz Bucar

Liz Bucar is a religious ethicist and professor of religion at Northeastern University, as well as a certified intenSati and Kripalu yoga in...

41:58Apr 28, 2026

EP 346: Deepak Chopra-Jeffrey Epstein Connections & the Spirituality Industry Crisis w/Dr. Ann Gleig

Ann Gleig (Professor of Religion and Cultural Studies, University of Central Florida; PhD, Rice University, 2010) studies spirituality emerg...

48:30Apr 26, 2026

EP 345: Relational Ethics and Indigenous Plant Medicines w/Dr. Natalie Avalos

Natalie Avalos (Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies, University of Colorado Boulder; PhD, University of California...

51:24Mar 24, 2026

EP 344: Altered States of Consciousness w/Dr. Michiel van Elk

Michiel van Elk (1980) is a researcher and writer in the field of psychology, philosophy and neuroscience. Having received his PhD at the Do...

29:53Mar 4, 2026

Ep 343: Moral Courage for Our Times w/Dr. Laine Walters Young

Laine Walters Young is the Assistant Director of the Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership in the Professions at Vanderbilt University. Sh...

28:03Feb 25, 2026