As we reach the conclusion of the current Series, Amanda and Sher take a deep dive into the thematic framework for binding the previous eight episodes: synthetic religions. Tune into to hear about the story behind the term, works such as Christopher Preston's The Synthetic Age & Catherine Albanese's Nature Religion in America that inspired its fruition, and memorable moments in conversation with our guests that enriched our understanding of synthetic religions as a conceptual tool for...

The advent of new digital technologies has made surveillance ubiquitous and inconspicuous. From facial recognition software designed to detect your mood to social media apps that track your daily shopping habits, we are now constantly surveilled in the absence of a guard watching over us. Indeed, a peculiar feature of digital media is that its turned over the burden of surveillance from state-sponsored policing agencies onto civilians. How might digital technologies both destabilize...

More religious spaces are currently closing than opening in America today. Another recent study found that over 50% of religious communities are facing financial difficulties and hardships. In some cities, nearly 20-30% of churches have closed or are currently in the process of closing. Moreover, the covid-19 pandemic and rising inflation has exacerbated many of these existing problems and created added financial strains on already imperiled religious communities. How will these...

This episode is an exploration of deafness away from a loss of hearing to a hearing faculty and a practice of attuning to the harmonic sounds of everyday life that travel in between shortcomings of contemporary urban soundscapes. Joining us on the show is Alison O'Daniel. Alison is an Assistant Professor of Film at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, a visual artist and a filmmaker working around sound, moving image, sculpture, installation and performance. She has screened and...

Anger can be a crippling emotion when we are forced to consider the limitations of our body. Perhaps no one else can better testify to this predicament than people with disabilities who routinely hear jeers and jokes about the assistance they depend upon to do things that able bodies take for granted. But what if anger could transform into a seed that nourishes people with disabilities to grow legs to walk on, pass through the crowd, and demand to be seen much like Moses at the Red Sea. This...

From skyrocketing medical bills to medical error and nursing/physician burnout, the US healthcare system incurs great costs to our health and well-being. While we might be healed from illness, our experiences with the healthcare system routinely leave us with mounting medical bills and emotional trauma. One recent study estimates that healthcare spending per person will surpass $15,000 annually by 2023. What exactly is the root cause of these growing costs? Governments, institutions,...

We purge our trash yet trash never disappears. It travels from the recycle bin to the dark abyss of rivers and oceans and returns to us as toxic contaminants in the fist we eat. As a consequence, we now face ecological hazards that are far worse than ever before. How did religion shape this predicament? How might religion point to its resolution? What are waste sites and why are they so useful for practicing a different kind of environmentalism, one marked by embracing the trash around us so...

Missing Attachments is a conversation on miscarriage with Ikhlas Saleem, a Moorish American Muslim mother of two. Ikhlas describes miscarriage as a religious experience of building lasting attachment to her daughter Nur Jennah. While her heart stopped beating 5 months into pregnancy, Nur continues to live as Ikhlas' feminine guide in the spirit world. The conversation draws out the contrast between technologies that allow a grieving mother to build a spiritual relationship with a child she...

Crossing Borders is the inaugural episode of the Assembly Podcast Season 4 “Synthetic Religions” that explores how political theology is an expression of a contestation over the natural and the unnatural, pivoting ever so intensively since the advent of biotechnology. This particular episode journeys onto the undulating and rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania and the flat commercial areas of sprawling metropolitical regions across the US to explore how a crossing over the boundary between...

In this episode of Assembly, Zac and Amaryah talk with Anthony Paul Smith about his Contending Modernities piece, Provincializing Theodicy. Drawing on Sylvia Wynter, Fanon, Laruelle, and others, Smith discusses the relationship between this piece and his forthcoming work on theodicy, the function of theodicy in contemporary culture, and theodicy and state of the university.

On this episode, Amaryah and Zac speak with Mona Siddiqui and Joshua Ralston about their individual approaches and collaborative work on Christian-Muslim Relations at the University of Edinburgh's Divinity School and Christian-Muslim Studies Network.

On this episode of Assembly Zac and Amaryah discuss the latest book by Ashon Crawley, The Lonely Letters, the winner of the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards in LGBTQ Nonfiction. We discuss Ashon's play with style and form in his writing and art, the relationship between blackpentecostalism and his work, and the mystical aspects of blackness that escape philosophical and theological domains of knowing.

In this episode of Assembly, Zac and Amaryah discuss prison abolition and religion with Joshua Dubler and Vincent Lloyd, authors of the recent book "Break Every Yoke:Religion, Justice, and the Abolition of Prisons." Among other things, they discuss what to do now that prison abolition has drawn greater attention from mainstream media and religion's role in prison abolitionism.

In this episode of Assembly, Zac and Amaryah discuss Linn Tonstad's latest book, Queer Theology: Beyond Apologetics. They talk to Dr. Tonstad about the intersections of queerness and theology, writing an introductory book, and the legacy of Marcella Althaus-Reid. Note: Amaryah was having technical issues which made her audio particularly poor for this episode. Thankfully Zac and Dr. Tonstad's audio was great.

In this episode, Zac and Amaryah discuss Willie Jennings' latest book, After Whiteness:An Education in Belonging. They get into theological education and its relationship to racial formation, as well as the role of the erotic in pedagogy and transforming unjust relationships in the academy and beyond.

Zac and Amaryah talk with tabletop RPG game designer Avery Alder(@lackingceremony) on games, community, and imagination in apocalyptic times. You can find more about Avery and her games here. You can read Avery's piece on emotional labor here.

In this episode of Assembly, Zac and Amaryah chat about the 2019-2020 movie season with Liam O'Donnell of the film podcast Cinepunx. They talk about Parasite, Uncut Gems, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire as well as some other favorites over the past year.

In this episode of Assembly, we talk with Adam Kotsko about his reconceptualization of Carl Schmitt's idea of political theology in his latest book, Neoliberalism's Demons. We also talk about pedagogy and teaching difficult figures.

On this episode of Assembly, Amaryah and Zac chat with Matthew M. Harris and Tyler B. Davis about their essay "In the Hope That They Can Make Their Own Future: James H. Cone and the Third World". They discuss understanding Cone as a part of the black radical tradition, black internationalism, and black marxism as well thinking about historical materialism and theology and collaborative writing.

On this episode of the Assembly Podcast, Zac and Amaryah talk with Nathan Kalman-Lamb about his work on sports, race, and social reproduction. Zac also gets Amaryah to break down her understanding of the relationship between social reproduction and political theology.

In this episode, Zac and Amaryah discuss Michelle Sanchez's recent book, Calvin and the Resignification of the World: Creation, Incarnation, and the Problem of Political Theology in the 1559 Institutes. And in discussion with the author, we get into questions of theological reading, writing, and formation, questions of genre and culture, and reading Calvin in political theological terms.

On this episode of the ASSEMBLY podcast, we pick up where we left off in sharing our interviews from 2019's PTN Conference. Here, Amaryah interviews two of the conference keynotes, Najeeba Syeed and Lap Yan Kung on topics like race and religion, interfaith justice work, and the role of the church in the Hong Kong protests.

On this episode of Assembly, Zac and Amaryah discuss the work of Gil Anidjar, especially his book, Blood, and his critique of Christianity and political theology. Stay tuned for more conference interviews with Najeeba Syeed and Lap Yan Kung.

On this episode of Assembly, Zac and Amaryah talk with the poet, essayist, and professor Ross Gay about his recent Book of Delights, and the explorations of politics, finitude, and meaning present there.