A richly cinematic and compelling look at priest-politicians in Brazil and their religious and secular entanglements, Vote of Faith: Democracy, Desire, and the Turbulent Lives of Priest Politicians (Fordham UP, 2024) explores the complex intersection of democracy, patriarchy, and religiosity in Brazil. For over a hundred years, Catholic priests have been run ... Show More
Apr 2025
Amy Zhang, "Circular Ecologies: Environmentalism and Waste Politics in Urban China" (Stanford UP, 2024)
After four decades of reform and development, China is confronting a domestic waste crisis. As the world's largest waste-generating nation, the World Economic Forum projects that by 2030, the volume of household waste in China will be double that of the United States. Starting in ... Show More
1h 7m
Yesterday
Sarah Hoiland, "Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club" (Temple UP, 2025)
A righteous sister identifies herself as a biker. She might wrench, or maintain, her own bike, and she prefers to ride with other righteous sisters. Righteous Sisterhood: The Politics and Power of an All-Women's Motorcycle Club (Temple UP, 2025) is Dr. Sarah Hoiland’s insightful ... Show More
44m 53s
Nov 19
Christina Jerne, "Opposition by Imitation: The Economics of Italian Anti-Mafia Activism" (U Minnesota Press, 2025)
For more than 150 years, Italy has been home to a resilient and evolving resistance against the pervasive influence of mafias. While these criminal organizations are renowned for their vast international business enterprises, the collective actions taken to oppose them are less k ... Show More
56m 40s
Sep 2023
Alda Balthrop-Lewis, "Thoreau's Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism" (Cambridge UP, 2021)
Balthrop-Lewis's Thoreau's Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism (Cambridge UP, 2021) presents a ground-breaking interpretation of Henry David Thoreau's most famous book, Walden. Rather than treating Walden Woods as a lonely wilderness, Balthrop-L ... Show More
41m 16s
Dec 2024
Mukulika Banerjee, "Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India" (Oxford UP, 2021)
Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India (Oxford UP, 2021) by Dr. Mukulika Banerjee offers a groundbreaking rethinking of democracy, moving beyond its institutional frameworks to focus on its lived, everyday dimensions. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in ... Show More
1h 4m
Aug 2024
Carole Ammann, "Women, Agency, and the State in Guinea: Silent Politics" (Routledge, 2020)
Women, Agency, and the State in Guinea: Silent Politics (Routledge, 2020) examines how women in Guinea articulate themselves politically within and outside institutional politics. It documents the everyday practices that local female actors adopt to deal with the continuous econo ... Show More
1h 30m
May 2024
The Bishops, the Billionaires, and the Catholic Far-Right
NAR WATCH: a monthly episode on the New Apostolic Reformation with Dr. Matthew Taylor debuts on the SWAJ feed THIS week. Become a premium member to get full access! https://axismundi.supercast.com/
Brad speaks with Mary Jo McConahay, who tells the story of how the United States C ... Show More
37m 53s
Sep 2023
David B. Wong, "Moral Relativism and Pluralism" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
Today I talked to David B. Wong about his book Moral Relativism and Pluralism (Cambridge UP, 2023).
The argument for metaethical relativism--the view that there is no single true or most justified morality--is that it is part of the best explanation of the most difficult moral di ... Show More
1h 3m
Jan 2025
Alex O'Connor Explores the Mysteries of God
Alex O’Connor ( @CosmicSkeptic ), known for his nuanced critiques of religion and discussions on morality, reflects on why the Bible captivates him as an atheist, the historical resonance of Jesus, and the philosophical limits of materialism. Alex recently participated in a Jubil ... Show More
1h 11m
Apr 2022
Christopher Tounsel, "Chosen Peoples: Christianity and Political Imagination in South Sudan" (Duke UP, 2021)
On July 9, 2011, South Sudan celebrated its independence as the world's newest nation, an occasion that the country's Christian leaders claimed had been foretold in the Book of Isaiah. The Bible provided a foundation through which the South Sudanese could distinguish themselves f ... Show More
50m 30s
Nov 13
Would St. Thomas Baptize and Extraterrestrial? – Dr. Edmund Lazzari
<p>Dr. Edmund Lazzari uses Thomistic philosophy and sacramental theology to analyze whether extraterrestrial intelligences could be baptized, exploring questions of nature, the soul, salvation, and God’s freedom to grant grace beyond the human species.</p><p><br></p><p>This lect ... Show More
43m 9s
Nov 11
Does AI Have a Soul? – Dr. Edmund Lazzari
Dr. Edmund Lazzari’s lecture critically assesses claims that artificial intelligence systems might possess souls, arguing from Thomistic philosophy and computational neuroscience that AI lacks genuine abstraction, intentionality, and the ontological requirements for immaterial in ... Show More
47m 44s
Aug 24
Nick Spencer, "The Landscapes of Science and Religion: What Are We Disagreeing About?" (Oxford UP, 2025)
The relationship between science and religion has long been a heated debate and is becoming an ever more popular topic. The scientific capacity to manipulate and change humans and their environment through genetic engineering, life extension, and AI is going to take a huge leap f ... Show More
38m 48s