In this episode, recorded at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, Elizabeth Oldfield chats with Sam Kimbriel about how nature shapes his worldview, the growing loneliness epidemic, and the power of vulnerable friendships. Discover why philosophy is more than just an academic exercise—it’s a tool for thinking deeply and living fully. Sam Kimbriel is a political philosopher, author, and founding director of Aspen’s Philosophy & Society Initiative. 🎙️ Follow The Sacred: linktr.ee/sacredpodcast 📖 Follow Elizabeth Oldfield: www.elizabetholdfield.com/ 💡 Produced by the ‪@thinktanktheos‬ www.theosthinktank.co.uk/ ✨ Find out more about @aspeninstitute here: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/

Dear Sacred Podcast listeners, We are growing and we need your help! Whether you're a long-time listener or a new follower, we would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the podcast. Take the survey here👇 https://biblesociety.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0V8qbAgA8S3MIw6 A massive thank you for being here from Elizabeth and The Sacred Team 🌿🤍

Elizabeth Oldfield, writer and host of The Sacred podcast, alongside The Sacred producer Daniel Turner introduce a brand new series of The Sacred. Themed around her latest book ‘Fully Alive’, Elizabeth speaks about finding steadiness in our turbulent times, community and the desperate need for a rebranding of the word ‘sin’. She also discusses her hopes and fears for the release of her book. 🎙️ Follow The Sacred: www.linktr.ee/sacredpodcast 📖 Follow Elizabeth Oldfield: www.elizabetholdfield.com/ 💡 Produced by the Theos Think Tank: www.theosthinktank.co.uk/

Mark is a psychotherapist who writes, lectures and broadcasts on philosophy with a focus on insights that illuminate our inner lives. He was formerly a priest in the Church of England and has written books on friendship, agnosticism, consciousness and love. His most recent book is ‘A Secret History of Christianity’ which is based upon the ideas of Owen Barfield. In this episode he speaks about why he left the Church of England, his time as ‘nearly an atheist’, and how he found his way back to experiencing the presence of the divine.

Myriam Francois is a journalist, filmmaker and senior fellow at the Centre for Global Policy, an American think tank working on the intersection of American foreign policy and Muslim geopolitics. She has made radio and television documentaries for the BBC, Sky and others, and presented a range of programmes related to religion. She is currently running the website and podcast ‘We need to talk about whiteness’. In this episode she speaks about the process which led to her embracing Islam after university, her experiences as a white woman in a headscarf, and why she will no longer take part in debates which she calls religious bear–baiting.

Ed is a journalist. He’s worked on Nuts Magazine, The Catholic Herald and as a columnist for The Telegraph and The Spectator. He’s currently deputy editor at Unherd and the author of a recent book called ‘Small Men on the Wrong Side of History: The Decline, Fall and Unlikely Return of Conservatism’. In this episode he speaks about his diverse career in journalism, his Catholic upbringing, why he thinks we are on a trajectory to greater progressivism and what he would like people to understand about conservatism.

Willie Jennings is a theologian and associate professor of systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale University. He’s an ordained Baptist minister and the author of ‘The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race’, ‘Acts: A Commentary’ and many other titles. His next book is entitled ‘After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging’ and is out later this year. In this episode he speaks about his love for the seasons, growing up with a racially divided church, why anger can be a force for good and why and how to understand the concept of whiteness.

Adam is a human rights barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, a visiting professor at Goldsmiths University, Chair of the human rights charity EachOther, and host of the Better Human Podcast. In this episode he speaks about why he is nervous of the concept of the sacred, his Jewish religious practice, how human rights frameworks temper our worst selves, and why he is still a fan of Twitter.

Mary is a writer and columnist for Unherd. She writes about how we navigate family life in an age of radical individualism, the emerging backlash against the regressive left and the crisis in modern democracy. In this episode she speaks about the influence of her Steiner school, the negative impact of post-modernism on her mental health, the challenges of speaking about motherhood in public, and what drew her to post-liberalism.

Jay is an award-winning transgender performance poet, speaker and educator. Alongside his writing and regular performances he teaches in schools and speaks at events and conferences on the importance of transgender inclusion and rights. This year Jay contributed a chapter to 'The Book of Queer Prophets' a collection of 21 essays on the intersection of LGBT+ identity and religious faith, curated by previous guest Ruth Hunt. In this episode Jay speaks about why poems give us permission to really feel things, why he thinks debates about transgender issues are currently so fraught and how he found faith after swearing at God in a cathedral.

Alistair is a British politician who served as MP for his native Bury North in Greater Manchester from 1983 until 1997 and for North East Bedfordshire from 2001-2019, when he was one of the 20 Conservative MPS to have the party whip withdrawn by Boris Johnson. He was Minister of State for the Department of Health in 2015-2016 and Minister of State for the Middle East at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office from 2017-2019. In this episode Alistair speaks about the dangers of polarisation, his Christian faith and why he thinks being a moderate isn’t just a cop out.

Our next episode of The Sacred Reflections is with Shadi Hamid. Shadi, who was our guest on episode 31 of The Sacred, is a political scientist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, in their Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World in the Center for Middle East Policy. In this episode he speaks to Elizabeth about how this pandemic is revealing our individual and national characters, and how full obedience to an enforced lockdown would feel almost impossible for the American public character. This episode also features a short reflection from Iona on the difference between knowledge and wisdom. We would love to hear how you are processing this season, if this crisis has crystallised or even changed what you hold sacred, and what it might tell us about our collective sacred values. You can send us your thoughts in a voice note to 07778160052 or you can email us at sacredpodcast@gmail.com and we may use your reflections at the end of an episode. Please keep your responses to under a minute and a half if you can.

Glynn was former Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Bristol where he was also a practising psychiatrist. He is a past President of the International Federation of Psychiatric Epidemiology and acted as an advisor to the WHO. He is also the author of ‘A Better Story: God, Sex and Human Flourishing’ and ‘The Big Ego Trip: Finding True Significance in a Culture of Self–esteem’. In this episode he speaks to Elizabeth Oldfield about his career in psychiatry, his concerns about the self–esteem movement and what Christians can learn from the sexual revolution. During the pandemic we are releasing short extra episodes called ‘The Sacred Reflections’ in response to the strange times we are living through. Former guests are returning to reflect on how they are processing this season, if this crisis has crystallised or even changed what they hold sacred, and what it might tell us about our collective sacred values. We would love to hear your responses to these same questions. You can send us your thoughts in a voice note to 07778160052 or you can email us at sacredpodcast@gmail.com. Please keep your responses to under a minute and a half if you can.

This series of The Sacred Elizabeth spoke with eight fascinating individuals about their core values, and how the messages, philosophies and experiences from their childhood shaped them into the people they are today. She spoke with Greg Wise, Clementine Morrigan, Chris Packham, Katherine May, Freddie Sayers, Elizabeth Alker, Sunder Katwala and Jonathan Haidt. In this reflection episode, Elizabeth takes a look back at all these conversations and dwells on a couple key threads that were prominent throughout. ***** The Sacred is a podcast produced by the think tank Theos. Be sure to connect with us below to stay up-to-date with all our content, research and events. CONNECT WITH THE SACRED Twitter: https://twitter.com/sacred_podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sacred_podcast/ CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH OLDFIELD Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESOldfield Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethsaraholdfield/ Substack: https://morefullyalive.substack.com/ Pre-order her book Fully Alive: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fully-Alive-searching-twenty-first-Turbulent/dp/1399810766/ref=asc_df_1399810766/ CONNECT WITH THEOS Theos monthly newsletter: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/E9E17CAB71AC7464 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Theosthinktank Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theosthinktank LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theos---the-think-tank/ Website: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/ CHECK OUT OUR PODCASTS The Sacred: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-sacred/id1326888108 Reading Our Times: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/reading-our-times/id1530952185

Claire Fox is the director of the Academy of Ideas and a writer, broadcaster and panellist on the BBC’s “Moral Maze.” She has also served as an MEP for the Brexit Party, a position which ended in January. She was our guest on episode 14 of The Sacred. In this episode Claire speaks about the importance of free–thinking at this time and how you can have different views to someone while still having something in common with them. We apologise for the lower sound quality at the beginning of the episode (the downside of recording remotely) but it improves after a couple of minutes. This episode also features a short reflection from a listener on the sacredness of her own space. We would love to hear how you are processing this season, if this crisis has crystallised or even changed what you hold sacred, and what it might tell us about our collective sacred values. You can send us your thoughts in a voice note to 07778160052 or you can email us at sacredpodcast@gmail.com and we may use your reflections at the end of an episode. Please keep your responses to under a minute and a half if you can.

Rainn Wilson is an American actor, comedian, writer, director and producer. He is best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the American version of The Office. In 2008 he set up the creative agency Soul Pancake which makes content on a range of platforms and explores life’s big questions. In this episode Rainn speaks about how he grew up and returned to the Baha’i faith, the existential crisis he experienced after finding fame and riches, why he believes creativity is an expression of the divine, and his experience of the love of God. Over the coming weeks we will be releasing short extra episodes in response to the strange times we are living through. Former guests will be returning to reflect on how they are processing this season, if this crisis has crystallised or even changed what they hold sacred, and what it might tell us about our collective sacred values.We would love to hear your responses to these same questions. You can send us your thoughts in a voice note to 07778160052 or you can email us at sacredpodcast@gmail.com. Please keep your responses to under a minute and a half if you can.

Chine McDonald is the former media and PR lead and now head of community fundraising and public engagement for Christian Aid, one of the world’s largest and best known non profit organisations. She was our guest on episode 25 of The Sacred. In this episode Chine talks about how we have more in common than what divides us and how kindness becomes central in times of crises. This episode also features a short voice memo sent in by Andrew about using our lives as a means to others’ ends. We would love to hear how you are processing this season, if this crisis has crystallised or even changed what you hold sacred, and what it might tell us about our collective sacred values. You can send us your thoughts in a voice note to 07778160052 or you can email us at sacredpodcast@gmail.com. Please keep your responses to under a minute and a half if you can.

Satbir is the CEO for The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and previously spent time developing campaigns and political strategies for the people’s movements and working as an advisor to the UN and the World Bank. He studied at Oxford, SOAS and as a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia. In this episode he speaks about his mobile childhood, how his mother’s Sikh faith has formed him, and why rabble rousing and reconciliation are both necessary for change. Over the coming weeks we will be releasing short extra episodes in response to the strange times we are living through. Former guests will be returning to reflect on how they are processing this season, if this crisis has crystallised or even changed what they hold sacred, and what it might tell us about our collective sacred values.We would love to hear your responses to these same questions. You can send us your thoughts in a voice note to 07778160052 or you can email us at sacredpodcast@gmail.com. Please keep your responses to under a minute and a half if you can.

Teresa was our guest on episode 22 of The Sacred. She is Associate Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Oriel College. In this episode Teresa talks about how Oxford is being affected by the pandemic, whether acknowledging uncertainty is a form of knowledge, and if wisdom and knowledge are the same thing. This episode also features a short voice memo sent in by Tom, one of our listeners. We would love to hear how you are processing this season, if this crisis has crystallised or even changed what you hold sacred, and what it might tell us about our collective sacred values. You can send us your thoughts in a voice note to 07778160052 or you can email us at sacredpodcast@gmail.com. Please keep your responses to under a minute and a half if you can.

Bim Afolami is Conservative MP for Hitchin and Harpenden since 2017. Before he became an MP he worked as a corporate lawyer in the city. In this episode Bim speaks about what he means by one-nation conservatism, his Nigerian heritage giving him a sense of the importance of politics, and his sacred value of equality of opportunity. Over the coming weeks we will be releasing short extra episodes in response to the strange times we are living through. Former guests will be returning to reflect on how they are processing this season, if this crisis has crystallised or even changed what they hold sacred, and what it might tell us about our collective sacred values. We would love to hear your responses to these same questions. You can send us your thoughts in a voice note to 07778160052 or you can email us at sacredpodcast@gmail.com. Please keep your responses to under a minute and a half if you can.

Sarah was our guest on episode 49 of The Sacred. She is a DPhil researcher in the Department of Politics in Oxford and the Head of Content at The School of Life. In this episode Sarah talks about adapting to life in lockdown and how her sacred value of learning is guiding her through this time. This episode also features a short voice memo sent in by Tom, one of our listeners. We would love to hear how you are processing this season, if this crisis has crystallised or even changed what you hold sacred, and what it might tell us about our collective sacred values. You can send us your thoughts in a voice note to 07778160052 or you can email us at sacredpodcast@gmail.com. Please keep your responses to under a minute and a half if you can.

Ruth was the Chief Executive of Stonewall from 2014 to 2019 and worked there in various roles previously. She is now co–director of Deeds and Words and sits in the House of Lords as Baroness Hunt of Bethnal Green. She is also the curator of The Book of Queer Prophets which will be released in May this year. In this episode she speaks about the joy her relationship with God brings her, her love of the Bible, leading Stonewall through a change in its position on trans issues and why defensive anger doesn’t get you very far. Over the coming weeks we will be releasing short extra episodes in response to the strange times we are living through. Former guests will be returning to reflect on how they are processing this season, if this crisis has crystallised or even changed what they hold sacred, and what it might tell us about our collective sacred values. We would also love to hear your responses to these same questions. You can send us your thoughts in a voice note to 07778160052 or you can email us at sacredpodcast@gmail.com. Please keep your responses to under a minute and a half if you can.

Over the coming weeks we will be releasing short extra episodes in response to the strange times we are living through. Former guests will be returning to reflect on how they are processing this season, if this crisis has crystallised or even changed what they hold sacred, and what it might tell us about our collective sacred values. In this episode, Elizabeth reflects on who we value and what we owe each other. We would also love to hear your responses to these same questions - has this time changed or crystallised what you hold sacred, and/or what can this time tell us about the values we share? You can send us your thoughts in a voice note to 07778160052 or you can email us at sacredpodcast@gmail.com. Please keep your responses to under a minute and a half if you can, and if you need somewhere quiet to record, we recommend under a duvet! Finally, in case you missed it, our filmmaker Emily Downe created this short film based on the poem Pandemic by Lynn Ungar, which Elizabeth read in a previous episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU65FsVDcKc.

Rabbi Sacks is an international religious leader, moral philosopher and author. He was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth for 22 years, and has written books that have been formative for many including ‘The Dignity of Difference’ and ‘Not in God’s Name’. His most recent book is called ‘Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times.’ In this episode he speaks about the twin threads of his life in religious leadership and academic moral philosophy, and how those two things have worked together, what his own religious practice looks like, and why the Holocaust makes him doubt humans but not God.

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist, author and professor at New York University Stern School of Business. He is the author of a number of highly influential books including The Happiness Hypothesis (2006), The Righteous Mind (2012), The Coddling of the American Mind (2018), and The Anxious Generation (2024). Jonathan spoke about the importance of truth, his atheism, experiences of using psychedelics, and why he thinks we are over protecting children in the physical world and under protecting them and in digital and online spaces. Read the full transcript here: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2024/03/27/jonathan-haidt-on-religion-psychedelics-and-the-anxious-generation Learn more about The Anxious Generation here: https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/ Buy The Anxious Generation here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/9780241647660?sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=117976&awc=3787_1711364129_0b812600adff731b0dbd345a0ad86d49&utm_source=117976&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=Penguin+Books Subscribe (for free) to his Substack After Babel here: https://www.afterbabel.com/ Follow Jonathan on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/JonHaidt ***** The Sacred is a podcast produced by the think tank Theos. Be sure to connect with us below to stay up-to-date with all our content, research and events. CONNECT WITH THE SACRED Twitter: https://twitter.com/sacred_podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sacred_podcast/ CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH OLDFIELD Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESOldfield Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethsaraholdfield/ Substack: https://morefullyalive.substack.com/ CONNECT WITH THEOS Theos monthly newsletter: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/E9E17CAB71AC7464 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Theosthinktank Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theosthinktank LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theos---the-think-tank/ Website: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/ CHECK OUT OUR PODCASTS The Sacred: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-sacred/id1326888108 Reading Our Times: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/reading-our-times/id1530952185

In this short bonus episode Elizabeth Oldfield reflects on how peace building practices can help us in this unprecedented public health crisis, and offers some possible reasons for hope. She also reads Pandemic, by Lynn Ungar, which can be found here: http://www.lynnungar.com/

Charles is a journalist, columnist and former editor of The Spectator, The Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. He’s also the authorised biographer of Margaret Thatcher. In this episode Charles speaks about his sacred value of orthodoxy, his conversion to Catholicism, and why he thinks a good adversarial argument is one way to the truth.

David is a comedian, screenwriter, author and television presenter. He’s written novels for children and adults, the play ‘My Family: Not the Sitcom’, and the film ‘The Infidel’ among many other things. His most recent play, ‘God’s Dice’, is about science, religion and quantum theory, and he’s currently touring with a new comedy show ‘Trolls: Not the Dolls’. In this episode David speaks about his sacred value of truth, growing up only knowing Jewish people, why he’s an atheist who quite likes religion, and how he uses his public voice.

Beth is a novelist and the author of WHSmith's book of the year The Flatshare. She studied English at Oxford and worked in publishing before leaving to write full time. Her next novel, out in April, is called The Switch. In this episode she speaks about which novels and which writers we take seriously and why, the experience of suddenly having a public voice and the power of fiction to make us feel better.

Sameer is Managing Editor for Arts and Books at Prospect Magazine, and has been a judge for the Costa Poetry Book Prize, the Forward Prize for Poetry and the Orwell Prize for non-fiction. He is also the author of Asghar and Zahra, a novel about a young couple born into the same British Muslim community and their first year of marriage. He speaks about his religious childhood, loving his time studying English literature at Cambridge, his evolving Muslim faith and why the true history of our religions will always be just out of reach.

In this episode you’ll hear our very first episode with a married couple, Richard and Lydia Ayoade (Lydia is also known as Lydia Fox). Richard will be familiar to many of you as an actor, director, writer and comedian, known for his role in The IT Crowd, directing films ‘Submarine’ and ‘The Double’, presenting Gadget Man, Travel Man and The Crystal Maze as well as numerous comedy panel shows. Richard is married to Lydia who has worked as an actress, and is the daughter of actor James Fox and has two acting brothers, Lawrence and Jack. We spoke why it’s hard to depict faith on film, if we can ever know what we hold sacred and why we shouldn’t want to know personal details about celebrities.

Daniel is Baron Finkelstein, a Member of the House of Lords, and has a column in The Times newspaper. He is a former executive editor of The Times and advisor to John Major and William Hague. In this episode he speaks about the impact of the holocaust on his Jewish family, what drew him to politics and how he thinks about the moral responsibility of the political decisions in public life.

Welcome to a special second birthday episode! This week we have turned the tables and former guest, Ian Dunt, has come in to interview host Elizabeth Oldfield. After putting her guests through their paces for the last two years, Elizabeth takes her turn at answering some of the big questions sharing some of her own story. In this episode she talks about her sacred value of relationships, working for the BBC and her reflections from 2 years on The Sacred. We are really grateful to Ian Dunt, whose episode is still one of our most listened to, for hosting this special podcast. Ian is a British journalist and editor of the political news website, politics.co.uk. We are going to be taking a little break over Christmas so this will be our last episode for about a month. We’ll be back in the New Year with our interview with Danny Finkelstein, and our re-recorded episode with Richard Ayoade and Lydia Fox.

This week’s episode features a speech from our Annual Lecture given by actor Sally Phillips. You may recognise her name from Smack the Pony, Veep, Clare in the Community, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Green Wing, and more. Motivated by her experiences raising a son with Down syndrome, Sally fronted a BBC2 documentary called ‘A World Without Down Syndrome,’ exploring the ethics of pregnancy screening for Down syndrome—and its availability on the NHS. She explores some of these same themes in the lecture.

This week, instead of a normal episode, we will be releasing the recording from tonight’s Theos Annual Lecture with Sally Phillips - actress, comedian, campaigner and former Sacred guest. We hope to share the recording with you in the next few days. In the meantime, enjoy Elizabeth reading this short poem by Wendell Berry.

Sunder Katwala is the Director of the think tank, British Future. who have worked on issues such as immigration and identity. He was formerly General Secretary of the Fabian Society, and before that, he was a journalist and a leader writer for The Observer. Sunder spoke about growing up Irish Catholic, why he's broadly optimistic about the trajectory around race and identity in the UK, and why football is so central to who he is. You can buy Sunder's book How to be a Patriot here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Patriot-country-British-culture/dp/0008553866#:~:text=Book%20overview&text=How%20to%20be%20a%20Patriot%20offers%20a%20new%20way%20of,some%20questions%20to%20work%20through. Read the full transcript here: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2024/03/20/sunder-katwala-on-race-identity-and-reimagining-patriotism ***** The Sacred is a podcast produced by the think tank Theos. Be sure to connect with us below to stay up-to-date with all our content, research and events. CONNECT WITH THE SACRED Twitter: https://twitter.com/sacred_podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sacred_podcast/ CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH OLDFIELD Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESOldfield Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethsaraholdfield/ Substack: https://morefullyalive.substack.com/ CONNECT WITH THEOS Theos monthly newsletter: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/E9E17CAB71AC7464 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Theosthinktank Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theosthinktank LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theos---the-think-tank/ Website: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/ CHECK OUT OUR PODCASTS The Sacred: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-sacred/id1326888108 Reading Our Times: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/reading-our-times/id1530952185

Dr Gabriele Finaldi has been director of the National Gallery since August 2015. He was previously Deputy Director for Collections and Research at the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, and prior to that a curator at the National Gallery with a focus on Spanish and Italian paintings. In this episode he talks about his Catholic faith, how to navigate an increasingly visual world, and growing up in South London in an Italian community.

Note: we had some microphone issues with this episode, but we hope you'll listen as we deeply enjoyed the interview. Linda is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University. This year she has been in California at a fellowship at Stanford. From 2007-2012 she was Director of a 12 million pound research programme looking at religion and belief which culminated in the Westminster faith debates. In this episode she reflects on her sacred value of being real, her difficult relationship with the Church of England and her decision to walk away from it, and why it’s so difficult to talk about God in public.

Miroslav Volf is one of our best known contemporary theologians. He is Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture and Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity school. He grew up amidst ethnic tensions in Communist Yugoslavia, and lived through the civil war which pit historically Catholic Croats, Eastern Orthodox Serbs and Bosnian Muslims against each other. Much of his work as a scholar and activist has been trying to make sense of these experiences, including his books ‘Exclusion and embrace’, ‘About reconciliation’, and ‘Allah: A Christian response.’ In this episode he talks about his sacred values of non-violence and freedom to self-determine, what it really takes to love people we perceive as enemies, and what civil war and contemporary British public debates might have in common.

Sarah Stein Lubrano is a DPhil researcher in the Department of Politics in Oxford and the Head of Content at The School of Life. The School of Life, founded by philosopher Alain de Botton, describes itself as a global organisation helping people lead more fulfilled lives. Sarah helped build their 4.5 million subscriber YouTube channel and designs and delivers a range of courses on emotional intelligence related subjects. In this episode she talks about atheism and Judaism, her sacred value of learning through love, how cognitive dissonance drives division in our public debates. Elizabeth and Sarah also discuss their unconventional sexual choices (waiting to have sex until marriage and polyamory respectively) and how difficult they are to talk about well in public.

Tom Holland is a historian, biographer and broadcaster. He is the author of Rubicon, Persian Fire, Millennium and In the Shadow of the Sword among many others. He has just published Dominion, which tells the story of the influence of Christianity on the Western world. In this episode he talks about losing his childhood faith, falling in love with the classical world, and why he’d really like to believe in God.

This episode was recorded at The Cultures of Unbelief Conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in May 2019. The conference marked the end of the major Understanding Unbelief research programme run by the University of Kent and partners over three years involving 22 projects globally. The conference also marked fifty years since another conference convened by the Vatican, called The Culture of Unbelief which was the first academic conference on atheism. The guests are Will Gervais and Penny Edgell. Will Gervais is an evolutionary and cultural psychologist, who is interested in why people believe what they believe about the world, and what this means for them psychologically. Penny Edgell is a cultural sociologist with an interest in the growth of the non-religious in America.

In this episode, you'll hear a conversation with Rhik Samadder, who's a journalist, actor, presenter, and author. He rose to public prominence writing 'Inspect a gadget,' the weekly kitchen-gadget column with a cult following in the Guardian, and now writes weekly about wellness trends. He's also the author of 'I Never Said I Loved You,' a memoir about depression published in August 2019. You'll hear Rhik discuss the impact of childhood racism, taking a non-traditional path into journalism, and the pain and privilege of writing about mental health.

Douglas Alexander served as an MP for 18 years and spent 9 years in government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, holding a range of cabinet positions and serving as UK Governor to the World Bank. He’s now a Senior Fellow at Harvard University and Chair of Trustees at Unicef. In this episode, he talks about his Church of Scotland faith, joining the Labour party in his early teens, why he doesn’t miss the House of Commons chamber and what economics could do to help with our politics of anger.

Tanya Muneera Williams is one half of hip-hop, reggae and spoken work duo, Poetic Pilgrimage. She is an artist, a poet and an activist and regularly appears on BBC Radio 2 to deliver ‘Pause For Thought’. Tanya is of Jamaican heritage and converted to Islam in 2005. In this episode, Tanya talks about her sacred value of allowing alternative stories to be told, her experience moving from Christianity to a spiritual form of Islam and why she still hasn’t found her space within feminism.

Pádraig Ó Tuama is a poet, theologian and peace maker. Until recently he was the leader of the Corrymeela community, which is Ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation organisation. They describe themselves as 'people who seek to engage with the differences of our world... people who disagree with each other on matters of religion, politics and economics and people who wish to name our own complicity in the fractures that damage our societies.' In this episode he spoke about his sacred values of language and encounter, why poetry can help us build our understanding, what keeps him coming back to the story of faith, and how much he loves it when people do unexpected things in situations of conflict.

Elizabeth Alker is a BBC Radio 3 presenter, and previously spent several years working at BBC Radio 6 Music. Elizabeth spoke about growing up with parents who fostered, the role of faith in her life, fairness as a sacred value and her reflections on being northern. Read the full transcript here: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2024/03/13/elizabeth-alker-on-fairness-foster-care-and-accent-stigma ***** The Sacred is a podcast produced by the think tank Theos. Be sure to connect with us below to stay up-to-date with all our content, research and events. CONNECT WITH THE SACRED Twitter: https://twitter.com/sacred_podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sacred_podcast/ CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH OLDFIELD Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESOldfield Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethsaraholdfield/ Substack: https://morefullyalive.substack.com/ CONNECT WITH THEOS Theos monthly newsletter: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/E9E17CAB71AC7464 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Theosthinktank Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theosthinktank LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theos---the-think-tank/ Website: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/ CHECK OUT OUR PODCASTS The Sacred: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-sacred/id1326888108 Reading Our Times: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/reading-our-times/id1530952185

Mim Skinner is the author of ‘Jailbirds’ which contains stories of her time teaching art in a women’s prison. She currently runs the women’s project for the charity Handcrafted, supporting women to connect to community, housing and recovery through creativity. She is also co-founder of Refuse which works to intercept food which would otherwise go to landfill and do some good with it. In this episode, Mim talks about what she learned from working with female prisoners, the positive influence of living in the North East having grown up in the home counties, and why feminism sometimes struggles to accommodate the most vulnerable women.

Hussein Kesvani is a journalist, editor and producer based in London. He is the Europe editor of MEL Magazine, has written for BuzzFeed, Vice, The Guardian, the New Statesman and The Spectator, and is the author of 'Follow Me, Akhi: The Online World of British Muslims,' available from Hurst Publishers. That book is now available for purchase here: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/follow-me-akhi/ In this episode, he discusses his childhood as one of the only Muslim children in his school in Kent, his parents' hidden histories and their expulsion from Uganda in the 1970s, his trajectory from Islam to atheism and back again, and why his online presence is a bit surreal.

Sanderson Jones is a comedian, a social entrepreneur and the co-founder of Sunday Assembly, a worldwide movement of secular congregations. In this episode, he talks about his early experiences of religion, the impact of losing his mum as a child, his sacred value of life and why he feels we all need more meaning and belonging.