Complexified

The 9/11 Generation: 25 Years Later

Twenty-five years after 9/11, the attacks' aftershocks — surveillance, suspicion, identity — continued to shape how young Muslim Americans saw themselves and their countr

Erika Kirk’s Turning Point

One year after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, his widow, Erika, is leading Turning Point USA — appealing to young women through a message of faith, forgiveness and biblica

Saint, Sinner, Superstar: Dolly Parton’s Complicated Christianity

Dolly Parton was loved by evangelical Christians, queer fans, atheists and nearly everyone in between. Some saw her as a model of Christian living. But Dolly’s own rela

How One City Became an American Flashpoint

In Springfield, Ohio, a small Rust Belt city where thousands of Haitian immigrants had settled…  America’s fights over work, migration, race, religion and belonging stopp

High Church on Chicago’s South Side

Pope Hats, Hot Dogs and Holy Ground: Baseball has long been called a kind of church. It has its own calendar and rituals, its sacred places and inherited traditions. Its

Put on a Pedestal, Kept Out of Power: How The LDS Church Is Losing Women

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says it is bringing in new converts at an extraordinary rate. Its practicing members are among the most religiously engage

The “Pastors In Name Only”: The New (Old) Fight Over Who Counts As Christian

Why Democratic pastors are being attacked for their faith, not merely their politics. Pastors, seminarians and other faith leaders are running for office as Democrats ac

Data Centers, Dark Money: The Interfaith Group That Won't Disclose Anything

Who's behind a mysterious mass-text that invoked faith and economic justice to promote data centers? A few weeks ago, residents of Prince George’s County, Maryland, rece

$438 Million Later, What Does This Faith-Tech Company Actually Do?

RNS reporter Bob Smietana on Gloo, the faith-tech company chasing a one-stop IT/AI solution for churches. Nearly half a billion dollars, gone, over thirteen years. That

The Catholics Who Broke With Rome. Again.

When Tradition Becomes Trouble On the side of a mountain in Switzerland, in the shadow of the Alps, a fanciful event attracting a small but ardent group of Catholic trad

Spiritual Technology for the 21st Century

Philip Reed-Butler, Black AI, and the future of healing For the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about artificial intelligence. We’ve talked Vatican positioning, Silic

The Business of Being Good

Anthropic, the Vatican, and the Moral Branding of AI Imagine you're an engineer at one of the most powerful AI companies in the world. You've built a system that can wri

Building God, Fearing Doom: The Theology of Superintelligence

A theology of sorts has been building in Silicon Valley, where questions about digital, biological and spiritual life are beginning to converge. For most of us, AI means

Pope Leo XIV and the Case for Imperfection

In 1891, Pope Leo 13th looked at the Industrial Revolution — factories, machines, workers being displaced and exploited — and decided the Church had a role to play. The

America, According to Hillsdale

Who gets to tell America's story? Hillsdale College is small by most reckoning, but punching above its weight in influence, with its ethos and teaching saturating all le

Separation of Church and State Was a Baptist Idea. What Happened?

The Baptist preacher (and Texas Lieutenant Governor) who stood before the White House Religious Liberty Commission had a message: there is no separation of church and sta

What Stuck: Reading Pope Francis a Year Later

A year after his death, the Catholic Church is moving forward—and revealing what Francis actually changed. While he was alive, Francis' papacy was interpreted in real ti

What If the Most Powerful American in the World Isn't Who You Think?

The playbook for dismissing a pope just stopped working. Trump called Pope Leo weak. Catholics — including some of Trump's own — aren't buying it. Vatican reporter Clair

He Survived Conversion Therapy. The Supreme Court Just Made it Legal Again

Tim Schrader Rodriguez spent eight years trying to "pray out the gay". He modulated his voice. He stopped listening to music with female lead singers. He sat weekly with

The Myth of Sudden Change: How the First Woman Archbishop Got There

When Sarah Mullally was installed as Archbishop of Canterbury, it looked like a breakthrough. It was. But it didn't happen by accident. In this episode, Amanda Henderson