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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.
Zika: Balancing Public Health and Catholic Teachings
The Zika virus is sweeping through Latin America and may be linked to an increase in babies born with microcephaly, a severe disability. The gravity of this epidemic has prompted health officials in five Latin American countries to urge women not to get pregnant for the time being. But how does one do that in a part of the world that’s predominantly Catholic? Where abortion is often banned, and birth control is frowned upon? We discuss how this mosquito-borne virus is reigniting discussion over Catholic views on contraception and abortion. Featuring Father Thomas Petri, Instructor of Moral Theology and Pastoral Studies at the Dominican House of Studies,
Sara Hutchinson Ratcliffe, Domestic Program Director of Catholics for Choice, and
Patricia Miller, Journalist and Author of Good Catholics: The Battle Over Abortion in the Catholic Church.
Read Pope Francis’ statement on the Zika Virus, abortion, and contraception.
How Corporate America Invented Christian America
We tend to think the United States was founded as a ‘Christian nation.’ But in fact, it wasn’t until the mid-20th century that the United States began printing “In God We Trust” on its currency, and pledging allegiance to “one nation under God.” Historian Kevin Kruse, History Professor at Princeton University and Author of One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America traces this conception of America to the 1930s, when a coalition of businesspeople and religious leaders formed to oppose the New Deal.
From “The Mystics of Wild End” to Jewish India
Author Sigal Samuel shares how writing her debut novel led to a real-life discovery: her Indian family’s deep roots with Jewish mysticism. Sigal traveled to India where she searched for her ancestors’ legendary Beit Kabbalah (House of Kabbalah), visited a Jewish cemetery, and accidently joined a theosophical society. Features music from “Hodu: Jewish Rhythms from Baghdad to India” by Rahel Musleah.
