Episodes

What’s the cost of aligning Christianity to division?

Unspoken alliances shaping America’s political future

Subsidizing religion through education vouchers

Breaking tradition, shaking party lines

Exploring the evolving role of women in the Catholic Church with Vatican correspondent Claire Giangravé

Redefining our Distortations & Disconnections

with Dora Rodriguez

A Colorado Church on giving land away to build community

Have the stories of freedom in America masked a long history of violence?

Lessons from a Soul Food Scholar

What’s a 15th century statement from a pope have to do with U.S. land policy today?

When land isn't just land

In this episode, Amanda Henderson talks to Dr. Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi, a biracial scholar and professor at the Iliff School of Theology. They explore the American dream through the lens of personal experiences and the stories of ancestors, especially focusing on the immigrant journey.

In this episode, Amanda Henderson interviews Dr. Albert Hernández - a Cuban-American academic with a unique perspective on the American Dream. Dr. Hernandez discusses the challenges faced by those who exist in-between cultures, feeling a lack of belonging to either.

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.