Episodes

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 — from faith-based pushback to immigration enforcement, to fights over DEI, to how communities are surviving economic upheaval. They also look ahead to 2026: an American pope, shifting “religious freedom” battles, and the rising entanglement of religion, technology, and polit...

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. The loudest response didn’t come from Washington or American pulpits, but from Rome, where Pope Leo warned about sovereignty, dignity, and the rule of law. In this episode, Amanda Henderson talks with Religion News Service editor-in-chief Paul O’Donnell about why so many re...

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 Complexified, Amanda Henderson is joined by Religion News Service reporters Fiona Murphy and Richa Karmarkar to unpack the people shaping belief, identity, and public conversation online right now. From conservative power brokers and Christian nationalist figures to Jewish c...

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 whistleblower Jen Lyell. What followed was not another update for a news story, but a devastating turn that forced Bob to confront the human weight behind the reporting. In this episode, Bob joins Amanda Henderson for an unusually intimate conversation about Jen’s life, her co...

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 aesthetic is reshaping conversations about gender, faith, and politics. Just up the road in Dallas, her colleague Kathryn Post had been surrounded by 6,700 women at “Sharpen the Arrows,” a high-energy conference hosted by conservative Christian commentator Allie Beth Stuckey. Dif...

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 off with “I don’t really know him.” But after a sympathetic Tucker Carlson interview and a wave of explosive backlash, Fuentes is suddenly unavoidable. He’s amassed a massive following of young men who see his Catholic branding as a moral compass, even as he pushes openly a...

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: a two-decade boom in Bible sales alongside sinking religiosity. They trace how hyper-personalized editions (pink gift Bibles, “adventure” and environmental Bibles, even waterproof ones) meet life stages and rituals; why translation choices and shifting English keep spawnin...

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 who turned identity into empathy and faith into fluency. RNS reporters Fiona André and Ulaa Kuziez join to unpack how Mamdani built a multifaith, multiethnic coalition that stretched from mosques to churches to fried chicken shops across Queens. They trace how his campaign ref...

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 weekend, 900 volunteers, a crucifix chainsaw-carved by parishioners, and a pastor urging his flock to show up when it counts. Religion News Service reporter Aleja Hertzler-McCain takes us there: to St. Francis festivities packed into a too-small sanctuary, catechism teachers ...

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 to define what’s sacred? Host Amanda Henderson and guest John Fuglesang trace a line from open-source scripture to televangelist TV to AI resurrecting voices, exploring how media mirrors our clicks—and how those clicks shape the moral imagination we live in. They name the s...

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 priests who refused to leave a bombed parish that sheltered hundreds, the “Pope’s hour” of daily calls that steadied a frightened community, and the uneasy politics of neutrality when lives are at stake. From Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa’s gritty, multilingual bridge-building ...

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 seeker friendly. Within a generation, Willow Creek became the blueprint for American megachurches: packed auditoriums, meticulous production, small groups for discipleship, and a marketing mindset that even drew Harvard Business School and Peter Drucker–level attention. Then came...

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 columnist and historian Mark Silk to unpack why the IRS recently announced it won’t enforce the law that bars nonprofits and churches from endorsing candidates. What’s at stake when sermons start sounding like campaign rallies? Is this really about religious freedom, political...

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 talks with veteran religion reporter Bob Smietana and cultural critic Karen Swallow Prior about Kirk’s complicated legacy. Together they explore his rise among young evangelicals, his merger with Trump-era politics, and the charisma that drew both admiration and outrage. Ka...

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 Complexified to talk about what happens when we finally let go of the pressure to save the world, and instead tend to our corner of it with humility, joy, and spiritual grounding. Drawing from Sikh wisdom and his own experience of burnout, Simran invites us to trade ego-driven...

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 reporter Claire Giangravè joins host Amanda Henderson to reflect on the legacy of Pope Francis. From his early image as a reformer to his efforts to include marginalized communities, we explore the tensions that defined his papacy. Plus, what actually happens when a pope dies — an...

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

Faith, Politics, and the Fight Over Humanitarian Aid: The Future of USAID in a Shifting Political Landscape

Vance took the stage at the March for Life to roaring applause, but just two days later, he launched a public attack on the very Catholic bishops who had welcomed him—revealing deeper tensions between conservative politics and religious leadership.