Obama's 'Spiritual Cabinet'
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Date: 10 March 2010
Shaping The President's Policy, and His Soul
Where does the President turn when he needs a line from the Q'uran, a refresher on Catholicism, or a daily devotion on his Blackberry? Journalist Daniel Burke has just released a surprising analysis of President Obama’s inner spiritual circle: the people who prep him to meet the Pope, write his speeches for the Muslim world and pray with him in private. Burke joins us with a who's who of what he calls the President's "spiritual cabinet".
Pictured: Obama makes his speech to the Muslim world at Cairo University
Daniel Burke, author of "Obama's Spiritual Cabinet Shapes Policy, Tends His Soul" for Religion News Service
Speaking of Faith, and Science, With Krista Tippett
Begins at 22 min 30 sec
Religion is based on faith, science is based on skepticism. Religion relies on revelation; science, on careful experiments. At least, that's how it's usually framed. After years of interviewing thinkers who work at the nexus of science and faith, Krista Tippett says we must move beyond the binary mindset and find common ground.
Krista Tippett, author of Einstein's God: Conversations about Science and the Human Spirit, and host of Speaking of Faith
Psychedelics and the Religious Experience
Begins at 35 min 31 sec
The world's first LSD trip began by accident in a Swiss lab, with a 5-year old sample of fungus. It was 1938, and the chemist Albert Hoffman had absorbed a small amount of the stuff through his fingertips. His strange, fantastical experience later that day would be the inspiration behind the Harvard Psilocybin Project, a school-sponsored research group designed to test the religious possibilities of psychedelic drugs.
Don Lattin, author of The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America
The Zoroastrian New Year
Begins at 45 min
Even if you're not a Zoroastrian, your religion (if you have one) wouldn't be the same without it. It’s one of the world’s oldest traditions, predating Islam, Christianity and even Judaism. Zoroastrians introduced many of the religious concepts we know today, like angels and demons, belief in one God, and the idea of a final judgment day. With the Zoroastrian New Year Nowruz approaching, Zoroastrian Deena Guzder joins us with more about the holiday and this ancient, vibrant faith.
Pictured: A depiction of Faravahar, one of the best-known symbols of Zoroastrianism, from the 8th or 9th century.
Deena Guzder, freelance journalist
