In this episode of Sacred Tension I talk to controversial journalist and podcaster Katie Herzog about online cancel culture. We discuss online queer communities, the helpfulness of the term “cancel culture,” resiliency, how big social media companies are destroying local news outlets, and the article that got her canceled in the first place.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Getting Canceled with Katie Herzog”
In this episode of Sacred Tension I’m joined by Jane Essex, spokesperson for the Reproductive Rights Campaign of The Satanic Temple, to discuss TST’s controversial new abortion ritual. Learn more about the abortion ritual here.
The Satanic Temple dropped big news this week, announcing an official abortion ritual. This is significant: it allows members of TST to be exempted from oppressive and religiously motivated guidelines for abortion that violate their deeply held convictions.
Continue reading “The Satanic Temple Announces Religious Abortion Ritual”
In this episode of Sacred Tension I talk to philosopher Philip Goff about Panpsychism, which posits that consciousness is a fundamental feature of the universe. Find Philip Goff here. Read his blog here, and follow him on twitter here.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: Panpsychism, feat. Philip Goff”
This was an active month on the podcast and blog, and I got some extremely thoughtful responses. The following are just a fraction of the comments and emails I received. Even if I’m not able to feature every single excellent comment I receive I so appreciate them, and please keep them coming.
Continue reading “God, Ineffability, and Satanic Ritual: Best Comments of July 2020”
In this episode of Sacred Tension I’m joined once again by my favorite Evangelical John Morehead to discuss the psychology of evangelicals and why they do what they do. John details his research into the emotions that drive toxic evangelical behavior.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: What’s Going On With Evangelicals? Feat. John Morehead”
Like everyone else during this plague, I’ve been struggling to find ways to survive and stay sane. I’m an essential worker, and life has been somewhat fraught with existential dread. Some days, I feel good – balanced, mostly happy, and relatively centered. Other days, the existential despair crushes me. I don’t know how we will get out of this, how we will create a better world, how we will survive intact.
Many of the previous avenues of leisure are closed to me, now. Podcasts are often too stressful. Youtube is too stressful. Social media is too stressful. I’m already maxed out trying to stay safe and responsible at the front lines of the food industry. My brain just doesn’t have as much capacity as it used to.
The only place I can go, then, are books, primarily sci-fi and fantasy. I’ve devoured a huge number of books since the beginning of the pandemic, as books feel like the only safe place I have left.
Continue reading “How Reading Sci-fi and Fantasy Gives Me Hope”
In this episode of Sacred Tension Ally Henny joins us to give an intro on how to be good allies to the black community. She defines basic terms and gives white people some hard, probing questions. If you are new to conversations about race, this episode is for you.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: What Took You So Long? Feat. Ally Henny”
In this episode of Sacred Tension I’m joined by religious studies professor Megan Goodwin to discuss abuse within religious communities, Satanic Panic, New Religious Movements, QAnon, her new book Abusing Religion, and more. Find Professor Goodwin here.
Continue reading “Sacred Tension: QAnon, Satanic Panic, and New Religious Movements with Prof. Megan Goodwin”
This week in curiosities: Vaush on how deplatforming works, Cal Newport on “intellectual groupieism”, and TST TV’s amazing show Unraveling
Continue reading “Sunday Curiosities: Deplatforming Works, Intellectual Groupieism, and Unraveling”
Stephen Bradford Long 