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Every Sunday at 3:00amAbout the Show
Inspired
Inspired is the nation's leading public radio show about faith, ethics and spirituality. Each week we offer you analyses of the big headlines alongside lesser-told stories – those of Orthodox Jewish artists and African-American atheists, Muslim feminists and spiritual seekers. Through these stories, a rough sketch of our country’s religious landscape begins to emerge. It’s a marketplace of beliefs and ideas too complex for sound bites, and too important to ignore.
A Woman Walks Us Through Her Spiritual Trip
You may know psilocybin as the ingredient that makes magic mushrooms, well… magic. And if you were around in the 60s you may be thinking of tie-dye, Timothy Leary, and psychedelic music. But recently, psilocybin has been going through a kind of rehabilitation, as medical researchers explore the neurobiology of mystical experiences. Karin Sokel is a life coach who had a spiritual experience during an experimental psilocybin trial 10 years ago. A longtime meditator, she describes her most memorable ‘trip,’ and tells us how it completely changed the way she thinks about life, death, and God.
Medicine, Magic Mushroom and Mysticism
We speak with two leading researchers who are studying psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in “magic mushrooms,” and its effects on spirituality. Dr. Anthony Bossis, co-principal investigator on the Psilocybin Cancer Project at New York University believes psilocybin can help cancer patients cope with existential and spiritual anxiety, and he is also partnering with Dr. Roland Griffiths, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, in a trial that administers the compound to religious leaders.
Learn more about Dr. Bossis’ study here and about the clergy study here. Listen to a Radiolab story with Dr. Griffiths and Rev. Mike Young, who in the 1960s participated in a study that involved giving psilocybin to theology students in a church basement during a Good Friday service.
Religious Minorities and Pakistan’s Identity Crisis
Last Sunday, over 70 people died in a suicide attack in Lahore, Pakistan. Because the assault occurred at an amusement park, the victims were mostly women and children. An offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility, and while the attack killed many Muslims, Christians celebrating Easter were the intended target. It’s likely you’ve heard news of this terrible tragedy. So let’s dive deeper. What are the conditions on the ground for Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan? And what’s behind the rising number of attacks by Islamic extremists? We talk to Raza Rumi, Pakistani journalist, analyst, and scholar and a survivor of an assassination attempt, to find some answers.
