Guest Bio: Jennifer Roberts, former Mayor of Charlotte, co-leads the North Carolina Network for Free, Fair, and Safe Elections alongside former NC Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr. This cross-partisan initiative, supported by The Carter Center, is dedicated to fostering peaceful political engagement and bolstering confidence in the electoral process. Before her mayoral term, Roberts served four terms as a Mecklenburg County Commissioner and later led the Communities Program on Climate Solutions for ecoAmerica, a national nonprofit. She remains a dedicated advocate for education, equality, inclusion, and environmental protection. 

Roberts’ diverse background includes experience as a high school math teacher and a diplomat for the U.S. State Department, with postings in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. She holds advanced degrees from the University of Toronto and the Johns Hopkins School of International Affairs. Her leadership has earned her numerous accolades, including the Maya Angelou Women Who Lead Award and Equality North Carolina’s Ally of the Year.

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Next, Shariq Ghani from the Minaret Foundation discusses his work in Harris County, Texas, fostering multi-faith collaborations to improve voter access. He highlights the power of interfaith connections in bridging divides and strengthening democracy. Both guests show how solidarity can uphold shared values and counteract divisiveness.  

Guest Bio: Dr. Dilara Sayeed serves as the President of the Muslim Civic Coalition. Dilara’s story goes from Headstart to Harvard, and through public school systems. She is an award-winning teacher, social impact entrepreneur, and civic justice advocate. In 2021, Dilara was appointed by Governor Pritzker to the IL Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes (CDHC). Dilara has served on the Transition team for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, as well as Advisory Councils for Mayor Lightfoot and Illinois Comptroller Mendoza. She is a board trustee for the Field Museum and Indo-American Democratic Organization.

Guest Bio: Shariq Ghani is the Director of Minaret Foundation, an organization focused on developing multi-faith relations to change the world through advocacy in the areas of food insecurity, child welfare, and religious freedom. For the past 11 years, Shariq has regularly spoken at faith centers, conferences, and educational institutions on topics ranging from American Muslim identity to faith-based advocacy and spirituality. In addition to teaching Islam through sermons and lectures, he works with clergy, policymakers, and law enforcement to provide insight into the American-Muslim community. Shariq has a bachelor's in history from the University of Houston and completed his graduate studies in homeland security from the Bush School at Texas A&M. He is currently pursuing his master’s in negotiation and conflict resolution with a focus on peacebuilding from Columbia University. Shariq's passion is finding intersections between communities for collaboration and mutual growth and loves to connect with like-minded people over chai or burgers.

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Pick up a copy of Dr. Parrish's powerful book, Jailbirds Don’t Fly to really understand the impact her life has had on others.  

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Guest Bio: Patricia Ruiz-Cantu, as a Community Outreach Manager at the City of Milwaukee, has over eight years of experience in developing and implementing innovative programs and initiatives that foster authentic human connections and civic engagement among diverse communities. She collaborates with various stakeholders, including faith leaders, media outlets, non-profit organizations, and elected officials, to build trust, collaboration, and awareness on various issues and opportunities that impact the city and its residents. 

In addition to her role as a Community Outreach Manager, Patricia also serves as an Election Commissioner and a Certified Coach, Trainer, and Speaker with The John Maxwell Team. These roles allow her to leverage her skills in conflict resolution, workshop facilitation, and leadership development to empower individuals and groups to achieve their goals and create positive change. As a bilingual and bicultural professional in Spanish and English, she has a unique perspective and ability to communicate effectively across cultures and contexts.

Find out more about Civics 101 and Renaces  by following Patricia on X @Pruizcantu. 

The identity of “evangelical” contains a wide range of people from across America and the world. We believe they have an important role to play in America’s Diverse Democracy. In collaboration with Christianity Today, Interfaith America has launched a new essay series that equips Christians to live faithfully and neighborly in a world we don’t control. Featuring leaders in the evangelical tradition—like John Inazu, Karen Swallow Prior, Matthew Kaemingk, and Russell Moore—this series offers thoughtful and diverse perspectives on how Christians can build bridges across differences in their communities. To read the series and learn more about our work with evangelicals, visit Evangelicals in a Diverse Democracy.

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Guest Bios: 

Yashpreet Singh Matharu, Community Development Manager at the Sikh Coalition, is dedicated to empowering young Sikh leaders and fostering civic engagement. Drawing from his experience growing up as an interpreter for his Punjabi parents, Yashpreet turned his passion for community advocacy into action by working with Michigan State Representative Ranjeev Puri. Now, he focuses on connecting Sikh student associations and volunteers nationwide, promoting civil rights, interfaith solidarity, and awareness of Sikh culture.

A key part of Yashpreet’s work is leading a fellowship program aimed at mobilizing young Sikhs to engage their communities in the democratic process. By equipping youth with tools to navigate U.S. politics, he hopes to bridge generational gaps and increase civic participation within the Sikh community, ensuring their voices are heard and represented in the political landscape.

Dani Levine is the Senior Director of Social Impact at Hillel International. Dani brings extensive experience in Jewish social justice work to her role at Hillel, including a decade of work at Avodah. Dani holds a BA in Environmental Studies and Comparative American Studies from Oberlin College, and a Masters of Public Health with a focus on Environmental Health and Policy from Tulane University. Outside of work, Dani is actively involved in her local New Orleans and Jewish community, where she lives with her wife and three children. Embracing the local food, music, and culture, Dani finds inspiration away from the desk. Through her career and community engagement, Dani is inspired by Jewish values and practice to work towards co-creating a more just world.

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Join hosts Jenan Mohajir and Adam Phillips as they speak with Interfaith America Faith in Elections grantees about how faith convictions motivate their civic engagement and service. 

The Faith in Elections Podcast is part of the Voices of Interfaith America Podcast network. Episodes will be released each Thursday leading up to the 2024 presidential election. 

Host Bios: 

Jenan Mohajir is the Vice President of External Affairs at Interfaith America. Inspired by faith and family to work for change at the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, and religion, Jenan has served in leadership at IA for 15 years where she as has trained hundreds of interfaith leaders from diverse backgrounds to foster a vision and practice of civically engaged interfaith leadership. Jenan completed undergraduate work at DePaul University and is pursuing her MA in religious studies at Chicago Theological Seminary. As a natural storyteller, she performs with 2nd Story, Chicago’s premier storytelling company. Jenan proudly lives on the south side of Chicago with her children and loves to collect vintage children’s books.

Adam Phillips is the Chief Strategy Officer & Chief of Staff at Interfaith America. Adam serves as the senior lead in the Executive Office by managing internal and external inquiries from the President’s office and leads the organization’s narrative strategy, ensuring the advancement of Interfaith America’s mission and vision. Having spent two decades at the intersection of faith and public life, Adam most recently served as a Biden Administration appointee leading Localization and Faith-based efforts at the United States Agency for International Development. Working closely with the White House and Department of State, in his role at USAID Adam oversaw development policy, new and non-traditional partnerships, as well as democracy and diplomacy initiatives in nearly 100 countries. Adam has been a TEDx speaker, his work has also been featured in The Atlantic, CNN, Washington Post, NPR, Huffington Post, Relevant Magazine and the Christian Broadcasting Network’s 700 Club.

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Guest Bio: Best-selling author David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times, a commentator on “The PBS Newshour,” and a frequent analyst on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” He has been a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Atlantic, and op-ed editor at The Wall Street Journal. Brooks is the founder of Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Aspen Institute, and his most recent book, “How to Know a Person” was published in 2023.

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Guest Bio: Dr. Laurie L. Patton is the 17th president of Middlebury College and the incoming president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Patton is an authority on South Asian history, culture, and religion, and religion in the public square. She is the author and editor of ten scholarly books and three books of poems, and has translated the classical Sanskrit text, The Bhagavad Gita. She was president of the American Academy of Religion in 2019 and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018 in two categories, philosophy/religion and education.

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Earlier in April, Jenan Mohajir joined her colleague, Rebecca Russo, to narrate their personal stories and reflect on their Jewish-Muslim friendship they insist on maintaining in the face of ongoing devastating news from Israel/Palestine. Listen to the full episode here. 

Interested in reading similar stories? Check out our Interfaith America Magazine for stories from across the country on the intersection of religion and American civic life. 

Guest Bio:

Jenan Mohajir is the Vice President of External Affairs at Interfaith America. In this role, Jenan focuses on building strategic relationships and programs with new partners across Interfaith America's emerging sectors. Inspired by faith and family to work for change at the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, and religion, Jenan has served in leadership at IA for 15 years, where she has trained hundreds of interfaith leaders from diverse backgrounds to foster a vision and practice of civically engaged interreligious leadership. Jenan completed undergraduate work at DePaul University and is pursuing her M.A. in religious studies at Chicago Theological Seminary. As a natural storyteller, she performs with 2nd Story, Chicago's premier storytelling company. Jenan proudly lives on the south side of Chicago with her children and loves to collect vintage children's books. 

Rebecca Russo is the Vice President of Higher Education Strategy at Interfaith America. Rebecca oversees I.A.'s higher education strategy in this role, focusing on bridgebuilding programs and partnering with senior campus administrators. Rebecca has worked with IA since 2014 and sees college campuses as a laboratory where students can deepen and challenge their worldviews and learn to build relationships across divides. Rebecca has worked in higher education for over a decade, including roles as the Director of Engagement at Northwestern University's Fiedler Hillel and Executive Director of the Campus Climate Initiative at Hillel International. Rebecca holds a B.A. in Middle East Studies from Brown University and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. Rebecca is inspired by her interfaith experiences living in Morocco and Jerusalem and by the Talmudic concept of "these and those are words of the living God" to work toward a society where religious diversity is engaged actively and positively. Rebecca lives in Chicago with her family and enjoys singing, hiking, and chasing around her three children.

Guest Bio: Jim Wallis is the inaugural holder of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair in Faith and Justice at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, and the Director of its new Center on Faith and Justice. He served on President Obama’s first White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and is the author of multiple New York Times bestselling books, including God’s Politics; his latest book, The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy, was released on April 2nd, 2024, and is available wherever you buy books. In 2022 and 2023, Washingtonian magazine named Wallis one of the 500 most influential people shaping policy in DC. Wallis is also the founder of Sojourners.

Guest Bio: Najeeba Syeed is the inaugural El-Hibri endowed Chair and Executive Director of the Interfaith Institute at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has been a professor, expert practitioner, and public speaker for the last two decades in conflict resolution, interfaith studies, mediation, restorative Justice, education, and social, gender, and racial equity.

She has facilitated conflict resolution processes for conflicts in many schools, communities, and environmental and public controversies. She served as the co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Religion and Politics Section and was a member of the Academy’s Religion, Social Conflict, and Peace Section.  She was elected by the body of the American Academy of Religion to serve on the governing body of the Program Committee. She is a past board member of the National Association for Community Mediation, National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation and serves on the Higher Education Advisory Council for Interfaith America, and Advisory Council for Peace and Conflict Resolution at the Tanenbaum Center and past chair of the Pasadena Commission on the Status of Women. She served on the Teaching Team for the Luce American Academy of Religion Summer Seminar on Religious Pluralism and Comparative Theologies.

Guest Bio: Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, writer, and director — widely known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom The Office (2005–2013), for which he earned three consecutive Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. 

Other film credits include lead roles in the comedies The Rocker (2008) and Super (2010), as well as supporting roles in the horror films Cooties (2014) and The Boy (2015). In 2009, he provided his voice for the computer-animated science fiction film Monsters vs. Aliens as the villain Gallaxhar and voiced Gargamel in Smurfs: The Lost Village. He has played a small recurring role of Harry Mudd on Star Trek: Discovery (2017) and Star Trek: Short Treks (2018), as well as a supporting role in The Meg (2018). He is also the voice of Lex Luthor in the DC Animated Movie Universe. Outside of acting, Wilson published an autobiography, The Bassoon King, in 2015 and co-founded the digital media company SoulPancake in 2008. 

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Bio: Ayad Akhtar is a novelist and playwright. His work has been published and performed in over two dozen languages. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 

Akhtar is the author of Homeland Elegies (Little, Brown & Co.), which The Washington Post called "a tour de force" and The New York Times called "a beautiful novel…that had echoes of The Great Gatsby and that circles, with pointed intellect, the possibilities and limitations of American life." His first novel, American Dervish (Little, Brown & Co.), was published in over 20 languages. As a playwright, he has written Junk (Lincoln Center, Broadway; Kennedy Prize for American Drama, Tony nomination); Disgraced (Lincoln Center, Broadway; Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony nomination); The Who & The What (Lincoln Center); and The Invisible Hand (NYTW; Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award, Olivier, and Evening Standard nominations). 

Guest Bio: John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion and holds a joint appointment in the Washington University Law School and the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. 

Inazu's scholarship focuses on the First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion and related legal and political theory questions. Inazu is the special editor of a volume on law and theology published in Law and Contemporary Problems, and his articles have appeared in several law reviews and specialty journals. He has written broadly for mainstream audiences in publications including USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. 

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Guest Bio: Danielle Allen is James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and Director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. She is a professor of political philosophy, ethics, and public policy. She is also a seasoned nonprofit leader, democracy advocate, tech ethicist, distinguished author, and mom.  

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Bio: Jonathan Eig is the bestselling author of six books, including his most recent King: A Life, which The New York Times hailed as a "monumental" new biography of Martin Luther King Jr., and is a National Book Award nominee. 

Jonathan's previous book, Ali: A Life, won a 2018 PEN America Literary Award and was a Mark Lynton History Prize finalist. His works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He served as consulting producer for the PBS series "Muhammad Ali," directed by Ken Burns. The Esquire magazine named Ali: A Life is one of the 25 most excellent biographies of all time. Joyce Carol Oates called it "an epic of a biography" that "reads like a novel." His books have been listed among the best of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. 

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GUEST BIO: 

Amanda has spent her career trying to make sense of complicated human mysteries by following survivors of all kinds. Her most recent book is High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out, winner of a 2022 Christopher Award. Her previous books include The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why, which was published in 15 countries and turned into a PBS documentary, and The Smartest Kids in the World—and How They Got That Way, a New York Times bestseller which was also turned into a documentary film. 

Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, Slate, The Guardian, the Harvard Business Review, and the Times of London. Her stories helped Time win two National Magazine Awards. Previously, she served as an Emerson Collective Senior Fellow and the host of the weekly Slate podcast How To!

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New episodes drop every Tuesday at 5 a.m. CST.  

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Kwame Anthony Appiah is a British-born American philosopher, writer, and scholar of African and African American studies, best known for his contributions to political philosophy, moral psychology, and the philosophy of culture. 

Appiah tackles life’s dilemmas in The Ethicist column in the New York Times magazine. In his recent book The Lies that Bind, Appiah helps us rethink the way we understand group identity. His earlier book Cosmopolitanism defined a diversity paradigm and was widely influential in the Obama era.

Appiah is the son of Joseph Appiah, a Ghanaian-born barrister, and Peggy Cripps, daughter of the British states-person Sir Stafford Cripps. He attended Bryanston School and later Clare College, Cambridge, where he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1982. He taught philosophy, African studies, and African American studies at Yale University (1981–86), Cornell University (1986–89), Duke University (1990–91), and Harvard University (1999–2002). In 2002 he joined the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, where he stayed until moving to New York University in 2014.

You can learn more about Appiah on his website.

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Guest Bio: 

Kwame Anthony Appiah is a British-born American philosopher, novelist, and scholar of African and African American studies, best known for his contributions to political philosophy, moral psychology, and the philosophy of culture. 

Appiah tackles life’s dilemmas in The Ethicist column in the New York Times magazine. And in his book The Ties that Bind, he illustrates how identities are defined by conflict, while Cosmopolitanism is a proclamation that every single one of us matters and that we are responsible for our collective wellbeing no matter the differences. 

Appiah is the son of Joseph Appiah, a Ghanaian-born barrister, and Peggy Cripps, daughter of the British statesperson Sir Stafford Cripps. He attended Bryanston School and later Clare College, Cambridge, where he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1982. He taught philosophy, African studies, and African American studies at Yale University (1981–86), Cornell University (1986–89), Duke University (1990–91), and Harvard University (1999–2002). In 2002 he joined the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, where he stayed until moving to New York University in 2014.

You can learn more about Appiah on his website.

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This panel discussion was a part of the opening plenary at the 2022 Interfaith Leadership Summit. 

Guest Bios:

Panelist: Allison Josephs (she/her)

Allison Josephs is the founder and executive director of Jew in the City, a nonprofit that changes negative perceptions of religious Jews and makes engaging and meaningful Orthodox Judaism known and accessible.  

She has been involved in the field of Jewish Outreach for over twenty years and is the Partner in Torah mentor to actress Mayim Bialik. Variety named her as an advocate for inclusivity in the entertainment industry in its 2022 Inclusion Impact Report. Allison has been quoted or written about in numerous publications, including Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, People Magazine, NYPost, Daily News, TMZ, The Daily Beast, and Hollywood Reporter. She has appeared on numerous television and radio networks including CBS, ABC, Fox5, TLC, Associate Press TV, and NPR; her articles have appeared in publications including The Washington Post, JTA, Jewish Week, Jerusalem Post, The Forward, and Kveller.

Panelist: Nisha Anand (she/her)

Nisha Anand is an Indian-American activist, mom of two teenagers, and leader for racial justice. Once a radical grassroots activist arrested in Burma for passing out pro-democracy leaflets, Nisha’s expansive organizing experience and work with mentors like Van Jones, solidified her belief in the power of working with unlikely partners to find real solutions. As Dream Corps’ CEO, Nisha leads a diverse group of people who are learning, like her, the value of unconventional relationships. Nisha’s journey from punk-rock protester to common ground champion is documented in her TED talk, The Radical Act of Choosing Common Ground.

Panelist: Sarwang Parikh (he/they)

Sarwang Parikh is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT) in CA. He was born and raised within a devotional Hindu Gujarati Indian culture from an immigrant, working-class family in the South. They have been steeped in the practices and study of Yogic sciences & Buddhism for nearly 20 years. Sarwang earned his MA from CIIS in Integral Counseling Psychology, BA in Psychology and Religious Studies from University of SC. Additionally, they have advanced training in the healing arts and have completed Spirit Rock's two-year Dedicated Practitioners Program (DPP5) within the tradition of Theravāda Vipassanā. Sarwang is a long-time sangha member and community teacher at East Bay Meditation Center (STL teacher training); mentors youth with iBme; and currently serves as the Interim Director at Buddhist Peace Fellowship

Panelist: Ulysses W. Burley III (he/him)

Dr. Ulysses W. Burley III is the founder of UBtheCURE, LLC – a proprietary consulting company on the intersection of Faith, Health, and Human Rights. Ulysses served as a member of the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches as well as the United States Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) under the Obama Administration. He has been recognized by the National Minority Quality Forum as a top 40 under 40 Minority Health Leader for his work in faith and HIV in communities of color and serves on the NMQF Advisory Board. Ulysses is an internationally recognized speaker and award winning writer on topics including faith, HIV/AIDS policy, LGBTQIA, gender and racial justice, food security, and peace in the Middle East.

Registrations are now open for 2023 Interfaith Leadership Summit -- the largest gathering of students and educators with a commitment to American religious pluralism. Join the hundreds of people who care about the future of our religiously diverse society as they learn to bridge divides and forge friendships across lines of religious and worldview differences. Learn new skills and return to your campus inspired and ready to build.

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Guest Bios: 

Maria Dixon Hall, Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Professor of Organizational Communication at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Dixon’s primary research interests are organizational strategy and planning and the intersection of power, identity, and culture in corporate, non-profit, and religious organizations. Her work appears in top communication journals including Management Communication Quarterly, Southern Journal of Communication, Liturgy, and the Journal of Communication and Religion. An active organizational consultant, Dr. Dixon founded mustangconsulting, the in-house communication-consulting firm comprised of top students in Comm Studies. mustangconsulting’s clients include Southwest Airlines, Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Ugandan American Partnership Organization and the United Methodist Church.

Laurie Patton, President of Middlebury College.  Dr. Laurie L. Patton is the 17th president of Middlebury College and the first woman to lead the institution in its 222-year history. Patton is an authority on South Asian history, culture, and religion, and religion in the public square. She is the author and editor of ten scholarly books and three books of poems, and has translated the classical Sanskrit text, The Bhagavad Gita. She was president of the American Academy of Religion in 2019 and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018 in two categories, philosophy/religion and education.

Omid Safi, Professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. He specializes in the study of Islamic mysticism and contemporary Islam and frequently writes on liberationist traditions of Dr. King, Malcolm X, and is committed to traditions that link together love and justice.  He has delivered the keynote for the annual Martin Luther King commemoration at the National Civil Rights Museum. He has written many books, including Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism; Cambridge Companion to American Islam; Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam; and Memories of Muhammad.

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Guest Bio: Rabbi Joshua Stanton is spiritual co-leader of East End Temple and Senior Fellow at CLAL—The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. He has appeared on CNN, CNBC, and CBS, and his work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Daily Beast, Vox, the Associated Press, Religion News Service, and the Jerusalem Post, as well as in documentary films and international media in over a dozen languages. Rabbi Benjamin Spratt is the senior rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan. He cofounded Shireinu for Jewish families with special needs; Tribe, to engage Jewish millennials through grassroots leadership; and New Day Fellowship, to foster a connection between Muslim and Jewish millennials. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, Associated Press, Religion New Service, the Jewish Week, and numerous podcasts. Link to full episode audio Link to transcript Link to study guide Link to download episode Logos of other platforms the podcast episode is available on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts  

Guest Bio: Diana L. Eck is a scholar of religious studies who is a Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University, a former faculty dean of Lowell House, and the Director of The Pluralism Project at Harvard. Eck received the National Humanities Award from President Clinton and the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1998, the Montana Governor's Humanities Award in 2003, and the Melcher Lifetime Achievement Award from the Unitarian Universalist Association in 2003. From 2005–06 she served as president of the American Academy of Religion.

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Guest bio: Best-selling author David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times, a commentator on "The PBS Newshour," and a frequent analyst on NPR’s "All Things Considered." He has been a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Atlantic, and an op-ed editor at The Wall Street Journal. His most recent book, “The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life,” was published in 2019.

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Guest Bio: A visionary leader who is passionate about Christian higher education and the role it plays in the common good, Shirley V. Hoogstra became the seventh president of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities in September 2014. She has focused on expanding diversity and inclusion on CCCU campuses and making education available, accessible, and affordable to all students. Hoogstra serves on the steering committee for the Washington Higher Ed Secretariat, is a leader for the Evangelical Immigration Table, and serves on the boards of the American Council on Education, the National Association of Evangelicals, and Trinity Forum.

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Guest Bio: Trabian Shorters is the CEO of BMe Community, an award-winning network of innovators, leaders, and champions who invest in aspiring communities. He is also a New York Times bestselling author, social entrepreneur, and the leading authority on an award-winning approach to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Impact, called "Asset-Framing."

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Guest Bio: Kashif Shaikh is co-founder and executive director of Pillars Fund, a philanthropic organization that amplifies the leadership, narratives, and talents of American Muslims. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Peabody Awards (East Coast division), Chicago Humanities Festival, Donors of Color Network, and Mortar, and has written for The New York Times, Vice, and NPR, Variety, among other outlets.

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Guest Bio: Rev. Adam Russell Taylor is the president of Sojourners, a Christian nonprofit organization focused on the biblical call to social justice. Taylor previously led the Faith Initiative at the World Bank Group and served as the executive director of Global Justice. He was selected for 2009/2010 White House Fellows to serve in the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs and Public Engagement and currently serves as a member of the inaugural class of the Aspen Institute Civil Society Fellowship. Taylor is ordained in the American Baptist Church and the Progressive National Baptist Convention and serves in ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va.

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Guest Bio: Dr. Laurie L. Patton is the 17th president of Middlebury College and the first woman to lead the institution in its 222-year history. Patton is an authority on South Asian history, culture, and religion, and religion in the public square. She is the author and editor of ten scholarly books and three books of poems, and has translated the classical Sanskrit text, The Bhagavad Gita. She was president of the American Academy of Religion in 2019 and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018 in two categories, philosophy/religion and education.

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john a. powell (who spells his name in lowercase in the belief that we should be "part of the universe, not over it, as capitals signify") is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of civil rights, civil liberties, structural racism, housing, poverty, and democracy. He is the Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, and appears regularly in major media to offer expert insights on a host of issues.

Guest Bio: Dr. Simran Jeet Singh is the Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s Religion & Society Program and an educator, writer, and activist who frequently offers comments and analyses on religion, racism, and justice. He is a visiting professor of history and religion at Union Theological Seminary and a Soros Equality Fellow with the Open Society Foundations, and in 2020 TIME Magazine recognized him among 16 people fighting for a more equal America. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN, and he is a columnist for Religion News Service.

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Krista Tippett is a Peabody Award-winning broadcaster, a National Humanities Medalist, and a New York Times bestselling author. Known for her work on “On Being” - a weekly national radio program – Krista has published three books at the intersection of spiritual inquiry, social healing, science, and culture.

Visit Interfaith America to learn more about the organization and our podcast.

Apply for a $250 grant to host a podcast listening party or win a $25 gift card for sharing your feedback. Learn more.

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