Singing the same song is a central part of the worship practice for members for the Cherubim and Seraphim Christian Church in Lagos, Nigeria. Vicki L. Brennan reveals that by singing together, church members create one spiritual mind and become unified around a shared set of values. She follows parishioners as they attend choir rehearsals, use musical media— ... Show More
Mar 22
Martha Feldman, "Castrato Phantoms: Moreschi, Fellini, and the Sacred Vernacular in Rome" (Zone Books, 2026)
Around 1830, opera houses stopped using castrati, and Rome and the Vatican became home to their glorious singing, engineered by surgery and intensive vocal training. Castrati were long mired in secrecy, obfuscations, and lies about their origin and conditions, not least the last ... Show More
42m 40s
Mar 21
Mike Huguenor, "Elvis Is Dead, I'm Still Alive: The Story of Asian Man Records" (Clash, 2026)
Sourced from over a hundred hours of interviews with musicians, producers, booking agents, label owners, writers, fans, employees, volunteers, friends and family, Elvis is Dead, I’m Still Alive: The Story of Asian Man Records tells the singular story of Asian Man Records. In its ... Show More
52m 19s
Mar 16
Jewface: “Yiddish” Dialect Songs of Tin Pan Alley
With his fake beard, putty nose, and thick Yiddish accent, the “stage Jew” was once a common character in vaudeville, part of a genre that mocked immigrants and minorities. Essentially a variant of blackface minstrelsy, the music that accompanied these “Jewface” performances was ... Show More
1h 18m
Apr 2025
Anna Maria Busse Berger and Henry Spiller, "Missionaries, Anthropologists, and Music in the Indonesian Archipelago" (U California Press, 2025)
Although the history of Indonesian music has received much attention from ethnomusicologists and Western composers alike, almost nothing has been written on the interaction of missionaries with local culture.
Missionaries, Anthropologists, and Music in the Indonesian Archipelago ... Show More
1h 6m
Mar 2024
Cristina Rocha, "Cool Christianity: Hillsong and the Fashioning of Cosmopolitan Identities" (Oxford UP, 2024)
When did Christianity become cool? How did an Australian church conquer the world and expand into Brazil, a country with its own crop of powerful megachurches?
In her exciting new book, Cool Christianity: Hillsong and the Fashioning of Cosmopolitan Identities (Oxford UP, 2023), ... Show More
1h 4m
Aug 2025
The Cult of Christian Pop Music
Bless up, culties. We descend from the heavens in tandem with the reign of Backflippin’ Benson Boone and Ordinary Alex Warren to share with you an episode to lift your spirit and put music in your soul! But not just any music, these tunes must be self deprecating, they’ve gotta b ... Show More
1h 15m
May 2023
Sebanti Chatterjee, "Choral Voices: Ethnographic Imaginations of Sound and Sacrality" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
Sebanti Chatterjee's book Choral Voices: Ethnographic Imaginations of Sound and Sacrality (Bloomsbury, 2023) is about sacred and secular choirs in Goa and Shillong across churches, seminaries, schools, auditoriums, classrooms, reality TV shows, and festivals. Voice and genre emer ... Show More
55 m
Oct 2022
Ep 77 - Tauren Wells: Laying Down Your Dreams, Success After Surrender and The High Notes of Fatherhood
<p>This week Paula is one-on-one with Platinum-selling recording artist and songwriter, Tauren Wells for a conversation all about the wonders of music, marriage and fatherhood. There’s a pretty big chance you know and love Tauren’s music… because his songs, like “Hills and Valley ... Show More
34m 39s
Nov 2025
How My African Ancestors LOST ISLAM and Came Back | Ustadh Mustafa Briggs
<p>From the coasts of Senegal to the streets of London, Shaykh Mustafa Briggs shares a journey that weaves together ancestry, faith, and identity. Raised in a Christian household by his Gambian grandmother, he later discovered Islam through the deep spiritual traditions of West A ... Show More
2h 1m