Episodes

In this episode, Amanda Henderson talks to Nga Vương-Sandoval, a refugee from Việt Nam and United States Refugee Advisory Board Project Manager. The conversation explores the transformation of the American Dream, immigration histories and policies, and the experiences of refugees.

Last month, we had our first live audience recording of Complexified! Amanda Henderson and Lex Dunbar welcomed Denver Drag Performers Juiccy Misdemeanor and Dixie Krystals for a provocative conversation confronting the efforts across the U.S. to ban drag performances. We laughed, we cried, we learned, and we laughed some more!

In this episode, recorded before the attacks by Hamas on Israel and the devastating response by the Israeli Military in Gaza, Colorado State Representative Iman Jodeh shares her family story of leaving Palestine in the late 1960s seeking refuge from daily discrimination and violence.

In this episode, recorded before the attacks by Hamas on Israel and the devastating response by the Israeli Military in Gaza, Rabbi Joe, from Temple Emanuel in Denver, Colorado, shares his family story. His father’s family fled persecution in the late 19th century to find safety in the U.S.

Why is homeownership such an integral part of the American Dream? Why have some been systematically excluded from homeownership while others have been incentivized and subsidized to own their home? In this episode, Dr. Ben Sanders shares his family story of ownership and belonging from an experience as a Black American, as we continue to peel apart the myth of the American Dream.

One afternoon, her clothes, hair, language, name, and even her parents were taken from her. In this episode, Navajo woman Bessie Smith, an Indian Boarding School survivor, shares her story of losing everything and then reclaiming the traditions she learned as a child to find healing.

As debates rage in state legislatures and school boards about history curriculums or critical race theory or the impact of slavery, we know that how we imagine our future has everything to do with how we remember our past. In this episode, we begin our series pulling apart the stories we have been told about the American Dream through our own multiple, honest, complicated stories of Dreaming America.

What comes to your mind when you hear the term, "American Dream?" This season on Complexified, we have changed things up a bit! We are taking apart this idea of the American Dream. Turning it upside down to explore our multiple, honest ways of Dreaming America. Each week, I will take you with me as I learn more about where this idea came from– and what it has to do with religion and politics. We will move beyond the theoretical, and explore this idea through hearing people's stories. Join us!

In this episode, we talk about generational change and belonging with Denise Soler Cox. We share our own struggles to belong and investigate what it means to belong, even in the in-between space of identity and culture.

Dr. Philip Butler is an international scholar whose work primarily focuses on the intersections of neuroscience, technology, spirituality, and blackness. Dr. Butler speaks to the vital need for black folks to engage in challenging questions about current and rapidly developing human enhancement. In this episode, we talk about the changing of our bodies and technologies.

Ian is a political strategist, dad, and the first gentleman of the seventh congressional district in Colorado. We discuss the tension between incrementalism and revolutions and how religious ideologies influence our political mindsets.

Dr. Pamela Ayo Yetunde, an interfaith practitioner of Buddhism, brings unique insights into how our understanding of God shapes the way we navigate change in ourselves and change in the world. She shares practical methods from the Zen Buddhism tradition that invites us to consider the inevitability of Change and how to navigate the disruptions.

On this season of complexified, we are exploring CHANGE. And we're asking how our ideas of God shaped the way we navigate change, personally, politically, and culturally. Today, we have Dr. Miguel De La Torre, professor of social ethics and Latino Studies at Iliff. School of Theology. Author of 42 books.

“All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God is Change”― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents. This quote in Butler's post-apocalyptic novel is the basis for our season 3 episodes. In this interview, Amanda and Lex talk about the complexities of change and what you can expect from this new season!!

Amanda and Lex talk about their favorite episodes and what they've learned in these first two seasons of the Complexified podcast! They also share the vision and what you can expect for season 3!

We are approaching the holiday season, and many folks have questions and anxieties about sharing space with family members with whom we disagree based on our political understanding and involvement in the world. Sarah Holland and Beth Silvers from Pantsuit Politics talk with Amanda, and they help us approach the holidays with family and engage them in political discussions rooted in love and care.

Reverend Dr. Jennifer Leath speaks on liberation and the AME church. We hear about her journey growing up as a Quare young person knowing that she was called to preach and how she had to make choices aligned with HER TRUTH. We also dive into her decision to move to Canada and her quest to become a mother.

Why does the government care so much about our bodies and whether we have babies? Get nerdy with us as we talk with philosophy professor Thomas Nail, and explore the history of governments forming the populations they want to govern.

Rabbi Joe Black joins us in the studio to share his moving music and poetry. Rabbi Joe helps us understand what Jewish tradition teaches about abortion and shares his own story of navigating difficult life and death decisions in his own family.

We continue our conversation about religion, politics, and abortion with biblical scholar, pastor, and professor of New Testament at Iliff School of Theology, Reverend Dr. Eric Smith. Eric and Amanda talk about some of the ways the Bible is used in anti-abortion arguments and how it shapes our society and our cultural expectations. We ask what the Bible can actually teach us to understand about abortion.

Iliff Student Lex Dunbar and host Amanda Henderson share their personal stories about their relationships with the anti-abortion movement and journies toward championing equitable reproductive health and justice. These stories are powerful and eye-opening - unveiling the truth behind the manipulation, harm, and misuse of religious ideals that uphold the anti-abortion movement in their missionary efforts. **accidents happen when you’re talking on the fly we know Mike Brown was murdered in 2014. Sorry for the mistake!**

Born in a Church, and raised moving between the worlds of poverty in Jamaica Queens, and private school in the wealthy Upper East Side of New York City, Ann Marie Benitez knows what access to healthcare looks like when you have resources, and when you dont. Listen in to learn about Reproductive Justice, and the realities people of color face when trying to access reproductive healthcare after the end of Roe v. Wade.

Over the last year, a number of things have happened that signal an alarming change in American life: church and state seem to be no longer separate. In this episode, lawyer, advocate, strategist, and President and CEO of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Rachel Laser tells the stories of those whose lives are directly impacted when the Supreme Court favors one religious ideology over the well-being of families and children. And she shares how her own family story shapes her work and reminds us all why the separation of church and state is vital to our democracy.

What is Christian Nationalism? Why is everyone talking about it? In this episode, we wrap up our past few episodes by answering those lingering questions to dig into what is - and is not- Christian Nationalism. We share the bad news on the embrace of Christian Nationalism by mainstream Republican politicians and come back to the wisdom we gleaned in earlier episodes to fight to build communities that reject xenophobia and embrace radical love.