Episodes

Ian Silverii: political strategist, Jewish dad, and Senator spouse. Ian is a wisecracking fast-talking political genius who has led the progressive fight in Colorado for 15 years. Ian speaks with clarity, passion, and always humor. In this episode, Ian and Amanda talk about his work to bring the seismic shifts that he made in the political landscape and Colorado to the rest of the country. Ian shares about his own family escape from Nazi Germany- and how the gravity of those stories drive his work.

Reverend Dr. Jacqui Lewis is one of those people who transcends all of the categories we like to create - the first female and the first black senior pastor at a historic church in New York City that was founded in 1628. She speaks with prophetic truth. In this episode, Jacquie and Amanda talk about Christian Nationalism, the tied-up realities of the founding of the U.S., Christianity, and white supremacy. Jacquie casts a vision of a world where the radical love she preaches about becomes real.

To many, Rob Schenck is THE father of the anti-choice movement. As a young pastor, he drew headlines for a stunt in which a dead fetus was thrust at president Bill Clinton. Later, as you’ll hear, Rob had the ears – and the hearts and pens – of conservative Supreme Court justices. In this provocative conversation, Rob shares his fundamental transformation and how he came to see- and fight- the full danger of Christian Nationalism.

With the first two episodes under our belt, Host Amanda Henderson and Iliff graduate student Lex Dunbar dig into the key takeaways they hope our listeners come away with after the first two episodes: 1) The idea that there are clear god-ordained, universal religious teachings about gender, sexuality, and marriage as we know them today is a myth. 2) Regulation of bodies, sexuality, and marriage relationships has been a part of the business of the State since the founding of the U.S. and before. With these two realities in mind, how are we to understand and navigate the deeper questions tied to gender, sexuality, and marriage?

It’s never been easy, politically or religiously, to be queer or trans in this country – but this year, politics has made it harder than it’s been in decades- state lawmakers introduced 240 anti-gay bills across the US- and some seem to think homophobia is socially acceptable again. That makes Sam Park’s job both more important and more difficult. Sam is the first openly gay state rep ever elected in Georgia…in 2016. I found him to be so thoughtful about how he looks at the conflicts he faces as a gay Korean-American Democrat serving in Georgia – how he deals with adversity, how his own faith informs his work, and where he finds hope.

In the 2022 state legislative sessions across the U.S., 240 bills were introduced that would restrict rights and equality for LGBTQ people. A high number of these bills specifically targeted trans youth. In this episode, we talk with Brandan Robertson to learn about his own experiences growing up in Evangelical Fundamentalist Christianity. Brandon shares his own hatefulness to his LGBTQ peers, to the love and care he experienced in the church– and his own coming-out story and the rejection that followed.

It’s been a ROUGH few years. If you’re like me, you feel overwhelmed. Why can’t we keep our kids safe from guns? Why are voting rights under attack? Why can’t we even talk about abortion, gender, sexuality, or racism? How we got here is not a mystery. For too long we have avoided talking about religion and politics. But when we avoid these hard topics, we stay stuck. On Complexified, we dig into the places where religion and politics collide with real-life, - so we can make real change. I’ll talk with activists and thinkers about the issues tearing our lives up today… the end of Roe v. Wade, climate change, Christian Nationalism, attacks on trans kids, homelessness, and so much more. Complexified launches on August 11th. Join me. Follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts. And become a part of this movement to embrace the complexity of real life – and to move forward, together. This podcast is a project of the Institute of Religion Politics & Culture at Iliff School of Th…