The Sacred

Preparing to Die, Then Learning to Live Again with Poet Christian Wiman

What does it mean to prepare to die—and then discover that you need to prepare to live again? In this conversation, poet Christian Wiman reflects on faith, poetry, love,

Why We Need to Be in Our Bodies Together

What are we losing by spending so much of our lives behind screens? COVID-19 brought the whole world online, and as a podcast we kind of stayed there. This season, we ma

How to Belong When You’ve Always Been An Outsider with Rabbi Angela Buchdahl

What do you do when you feel like an outsider? We spoke to Rabbi Angela Buchdahl who turned her experience of being a cultural and religious outsider into a source of st

Why Are Our AI Conversations So Divided?

We talk a lot about the harms and benefits of AI, but we don’t talk enough about what the conversations about AI might actually be doing to us. Perhaps the biggest chal

The Ancient Wisdom in Fairy Tales | Dr Sharon Blackie

Why do stories matter? Why have human beings always told stories - and what if the oldest stories still have something vital to teach us? In this episode of The Sacred,

The Economics of the Life We Want with Sam Bowman

Whether we know it or not, economics shapes almost every part of our lives - where we live, whether we can afford children, how much time we have with the people we love,

"I'm Painfully British": What it Means to be British and Muslim Right Now | Mehreen Khan

What does it mean to be visibly Muslim in British public life right now? Mehreen Khan has been living that question since she was eleven years old - when 9/11 turned he

Boarding School Britain and The Things We Normalise | Hugo Rifkind

Hugo Rifkind has spent his career observing power. He also grew up inside it — and never quite felt he belonged there. In this episode, he talks about: The Scottish b

Psychedelics, Consciousness and Changing Your Mind | Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan tried psychedelics at 55. What he found changed everything he thought he knew. Michael is not a mystic or a guru. He is the kind of writer that scientists

Bake Off, Alopecia & Learning to Be Yourself with Jasmine Mitchell

What happens after winning Bake Off? Jasmine Mitchell joins us to talk about perfectionism, alopecia, self-image, and learning to be fully yourself in a world obsessed

Why I’m Still Hooked On This Podcast (After 9 Years!)

Nearly a decade into The Sacred, we’re still doing the same thing: having honest and curious conversations with people who see the world differently. We're wondering why

The Myth of the Neutral Human with Leah Libresco Sargeant

The world wasn’t built for everyone. Leah Libresco Sargeant on feminism, care, and the myth of the “neutral” human. Join our community of people listening curiously to d

Are You Living a Life You Didn’t Choose? With Dr Rangan Chatterjee

What actually shapes the life you’re living - your own choices, or the ones you inherited? In this episode of The Sacred, we are with Dr Rangan Chatterjee exploring the

I Don’t Believe in the Sacred | Doubt, Reading and Muddling Through with Stig Abell

We spoke to Stig Abell on how to live if nothing is ultimately sacred. Elizabeth Oldfield and Stig explore detective fiction and our longing for justice, the consolatio

Can We Save the Family by Abolishing It? With Sophie Lewis

In this episode, Elizabeth Oldfield is joined by political theorist and author Sophie Lewis to explore one of the most provocative ideas: the abolition of the family. Re

Why Love, Not Wealth, Changes Everything with Jo Colman

In this episode of The Sacred, Elizabeth Oldfield is joined by Jo Colman - great-great-great grandchild of the founder of Colman’s Mustard and now Chief Mint Officer of t

The Cost of Integrity: Inside the Trump Administration with Elizabeth Neumann

Elizabeth Neumann, a former senior official in the Trump Administration, reflects on why she felt called to serve, what she witnessed from inside government, and how her

George Monbiot on Exposing Power and the Fight to Save Our Planet

In this episode Elizabeth Oldfield speaks with writer, environmentalist, and activist George Monbiot - a fiercely anti-establishment voice shaped by resistance, trauma, a

Let's Slow Down and Read Some Poems to See the Year Out | Elizabeth Oldfield

In this special end-of-year reflection episode of The Sacred, we're slowing down and seeing the season out with some of Elizabeth's favourite poems. Take a moment to sit

Why Good People in the Church Look Away: Abuse, Power and Protecting the Mission

Elizabeth Oldfield speaks with Andrew Graystone about his role in uncovering the serial abuser John Smyth and the institutional cover-ups within the Church that kept the