Episodes

Trying to put smoke in a box That's what it feels like to map why churches are dying. Most people who leave can't tell you why. They drifted. Three times a month became twice, then never. Ryan Burge , a sociologist and pastor...

Faith leaders thought their collars would protect them. They were wrong. The Presbyterian minister was wearing his collar. DHS shot him with pepper balls anyway. Across American cities—LA, DC, Chicago, Minneapolis—clergy are ...

A Special Episode from The State of Belief! A special crossover from The State of Belief : RNS reporters Jack Jenkins and Adelle M. Banks join Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush to break down the biggest religion stories of 2025 ...

Religious leaders stayed mostly silent when the U.S. seized a foreign dictator — except for the pope. Religious leaders stayed mostly silent when the U.S. grabbed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and flew him to New York. ...

In a world where attention is authority, who gets to shape faith, values, and public life? What does it actually mean to be an influencer in 2025 — and why does it matter so much for religion and politics? In this episode of ...

Sometimes a story breaks you open. While reporting on abuse and accountability inside the Southern Baptist Convention, RNS journalist Bob Smietana reached out to someone he’d interviewed many times before — publisher and whis...

What if your favorite wholesome mom account was also your quietest political radicalizer? Earlier this year, RNS Editor Roxanne Stone was in Austin, Texas talking about tradwife influencers—women whose soft, nostalgic aesthet...

When a 27-year-old streamer outruns the Church and spooks the political class, it’s worth asking how we got here. Nick Fuentes was supposed to be a fringe character—the kind of online provocateur national leaders could shrug ...

A paradox: declining churchgoing, rising Bible sales. Americans are attending church less—and buying more Bibles than ever. In this Complexified conversation, Amanda Henderson and RNS reporter Bob Smietana unpack the paradox:...

What happens when a Muslim mayor-elect treats identity as a bridge, not a brand? In this episode of Complexified , Amanda Henderson explores the story of Zoran Mamdani , New York City’s first Muslim mayor-elect—a politician w...

In a dusty parking lot, worship meets organizing as a community faces ICE—and refuses to disappear. In Vista, California, a Catholic parish that worships outdoors has become a refuge and a rallying point: 13,000 people on a w...

When outrage wins the algorithm, what does faith become? This live conversation from the RNS Symposium at Trinity Commons wrestles with a bracing question: when faith, power, and platform collapse into the same feed, who gets...

When peacemaking is quiet, stubborn, and deeply human. In this conversation, host Amanda Henderson sits with RNS reporter Claire Giangravè to open the door on Vatican diplomacy during the Gaza cease-fire. We hear about priest...

How the “church of the future” grew up—and owned its past. In the fall of 1975, a youth pastor rented a suburban movie theater and swapped hymns for rock, sermons for storytelling, and pews for folding chairs—calling it seeke...

What happens when the Pentagon becomes a pulpit?

How a sacred idea of service collided with American labor rules.

What happens when politics steps into the pulpit? The Johnson Amendment has been around since the 1950s, but it’s still a political lightning rod today. In this episode of Complexified , Amanda Henderson sits down with RNS co...

What does it mean to mourn someone who thrived on conflict? Charlie Kirk’s assassination sent shockwaves through America’s already polarized political and religious landscape. In this episode of Complexified, Amanda Henderson...

How small acts of connection make space for something larger to grow.

In overwhelming times, spiritual practice starts small—and stays true. When the world feels too big to fix, it’s tempting to shut down—or spiral. In this intimate conversation, author and scholar Simran Jeet Singh joins Compl...

How Serene Jones keeps faith alive in an anxious, unraveling America.

A conversation about memory, movement-building, and the sacred work of staying connected.

The complicated legacy of Pope Francis — part reformer, part rule-breaker, and always hard to pin down. Pope Francis changed the Catholic Church — but how far did he really go? In this episode of Complexified, Vatican reporte...

Scandals, political divides, and a crisis of accountability—inside the power struggles shaping the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.