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Brian Doak and Leah Payne
Weird ReligionEpisodes
Brian Doak and Leah Payne
Weird Religion
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Episodes of Weird Religion
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One of the biggest religious storylines of 2023 has been: the huge number of people leaving their faith communities. Because Christianity is the #1 by volume religion in America, the loss has been felt heaviest there. Why has this been happenin
Beware, lest ye try to convict others in court, that ye have never sinned! We review some recent weird religious news with an eye toward non-obvious stories. From dreams of living forever to Taylor Swift promoting witchcraft: while away this t
We prepare to engage in the yearly ritual of scholars in our field: the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), abbreviated AAR-SBL…or is it SBL-AAR? The order makes all the difference.
Gather ‘round for an episode recorded in front of a LIVE AUDIENCE in Portland, Oregon! We take a piece of listener (e)mail and answer the call: to talk about books that have been deeply impactful for our lives and research—books that anyone cou
The aftermath of the July 2023 Congressional UFO hearing has been fascinating, infuriating, mysterious, and ominous. We get you caught up, and present a chilling conspiracy theory about what has become already one of the most famous airplane di
Let Halloween feelings shower over you as you listen to this, our Halloween episode. One of us loves the horror genre on TV and movies, and the other absolutely does not. One of us can barely handle even watching the trailer for one of these fi
What would it be like to grow up in a household guided by the principles of Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy? We talk to Things Not Seen radio host Dr. David Dault, of Loyola University Chicago, about being expoed to the ideology of Ayn Rand a
As longtime Weirdo Listeners know, we don’t always have guests—but when we do, they win awards. Or they should. New York Times contributor Sam Kestenbaum won a 2023 Wilbur Award this past spring and now an AAR Journalism Award for a captivating
Rebroadcasting a popular season finale from several years ago. Aliens are the quintessential sci-fi topic. Leah admits she used to watch Alf. Brian watched Alf too! We all did. Was The History Channel ever really respectable? The true utopian t
To celebrate what appears to be a departure of people of some amount from “Twitter” (now “X”?!), we run to the new “Threads” app and find dueling weird religious stories to share: (1) Leah finds a joke that leads to rumination on “premillennial
Rebroadcasting because we are jonesing for a new season of Stranger Things. Monsters, the 1980s, neon clothes, loaded memories of teenage drama, and a time when malls ruled supreme over the lives of adolescents. We talk about the Cold War and t
HEY. Tune in for musings on the definition of a mustache, a profound application of 1 Corinthians 6:12, and a note on our episode rhythm during what’s left of July and on into August and September. In short: we’ve worked to create content this
This week we’re reviewing recent religion news in order to: explore the location of falling gold dust of God’s presence…discuss the latest UFO surprises…get specific how about AI will kill us…be shocked that Silicon Valley is trying to build Go
This rebroadcast revisits an unfortunately still-timely topic. We begin with a throwback to the Cold War of the 1970s and quickly arrive at the current war instigated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What are the demographics of religion in Rus
111 THE PARENTS (what does sociology tell us about whether kids carry on with the faith of parents?)
What do we know, based on social scientific data, about what it takes for children to carry on with the faith of their parents? We dive into a new book by two noted authors on the topic. The results are strange, shocking, exciting, depressing,
Do we have a more favorite topic than the definition of a “cult”? Hardly. This is part two of a two-part episode swap with our friends at Saved by the City. They interview award-winning religion writer Sam Kestenbaum about a crucial question: W
Has the rise of the personality test replaced traditional faith narratives as a way to explain our own lives? How does one pronounce the word “Enneagram”? We investigate. With a powerful excursus into the purpose of work meetings (= to control
This week, Weird Religion presents: an “episode swap” with a pod we think you’ll love called “Saved by the City.” We’re playing two of their episodes on our feed this month, and they’re playing two of ours. They are kindred spirits. And they ha
We’re here this week to discuss potentially shocking revelations in the UFO “disclosure” community, and get you fully caught up on what has been said recently about aliens and such things. Brian went to a UFO festival and heard a specialist tal
The News Roundup is back: bringing back the dead, briefly; robbing a piece of hair from your fav celeb to have a baby with them; Elizabeth Holmes is finally in jail; Silicon Valley woo; and the Pope’s exorcist. A brief interaction with your dec
We’re rebroadcasting an early episode this week—to us, a classic, and perhaps as good as new to newer listeners. What happens when a movie series becomes not just your favorite or your religion, but literally forms the basis for all of your thi
We give in-the-moment commentary on a surprising spoken word track on Lana del Rey’s new album. The material is delivered by the famous and hip Churchome pastor Judah Smith. With Lana del Rey cooing in the background. Some deep moments, some we
It’s the end of the semester, which means it’s time for a chance hallway encounter that leads to a strange memory and then to reflections on the theological meaning of the proliferation of the codex (i.e., our modern physical book form). Matchb
The paperclipsalypse has arrived, as AI comes to destroy or save the world. Was AI there all along and we just now “discovered” its weird and eternal life? The “paperclip maximizer” thought experiment: https://nickbostrom.com/ethics/ai Eliezar
Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News. To solemnly mark the end of this reporting dynasty, we rebroadcast one of our TOP 10 most popular Weird Religion episodes of all time: The 2020 election and inauguration came and went, leaving the predictions
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