Choose Your Own Religion

In the last episode of Choose Your Own Religion, my mom and dad come on the show to talk about the long, strange trip of my faith journey and what it means for me to be back in the religion I grew up in. We talk about Presbyterians, parables, and get personal.

Ryan Middledorf, founder of the Campfire Media network, comes on the second to last ever CYOR to talk about the five year journey this podcast has taken. We talk about Christianity, community, participating in broken things, and do some hardcore reminiscing.

Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), comes on to talk about the famous “Good Friday Experiment”, an experiment run at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel by Walter Pahnke while at Harvard Divinity School. Rick also tells the story of his follow-up study more than two decades later, sharing all the factors that went into Pahnke’s attempts to study mystical experiences afforded by psilocybin and how the study participants reflected back on their experiences later in life.

Please join the Center for the Study of World Religions on Wednesday, October 21st at 4pm for a panel featuring two psilocybin clinical trial participants in dialogue with the historian of religions Jeffrey J. Kripal (Rice University) exploring these contemporary psychedelic trials.

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I check in with my dad, Presbyterian minister Rev. Dr. Jody Welker, to talk about this year’s surreal Easter. We work our way through Passover, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday, talking about the kinds of messages from Holy Week that bother us and inspire us.

In the first episode of a new series called “Closing the Distance,” poet, writer, and Harvard Divinity School student Molly Silverstein (also my partner) helps talk through our emotions and feel our way through the darkness in the early days of the coronavirus. As we keep the physical distance to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we need all the help we can get from art, authenticity, and each other.

Rev. Dr. Brian Baker chooses his own religion! Brian is an Episcopalian priest, veteran, and co-founder of Camp Religious AF, a Christian theme camp that lives at Burning Man. He came on the podcast to tell me about the journey to his first Burning Man, the evolution of Religious AF, and what it means to be an authentic, inclusive Christian community on the playa. We also talk about healing Christian trauma, wrestling with scripture, learning from other religions, radical agnosticism, and what the Army has in common with Burning Man.

For more of Brian’s work go to deanbaker.org and check out Religious AF’s website at religiousafcamp.com.

Khadija Ali chooses her own religion! Khadija is a Master of Theological Studies candidate at Harvard Divinity School and in this episode she told me her spiritual biography growing up as a Muslim in Nashville, Tennessee. We also talk about questioning, the limitations of understanding, the impact of our community, candor, and an interfaith dialogue about the nature of interfaith dialogue itself.

Cody Hooks chooses his own religion! Cody is a writer, editor, gardener, journalist and Master of Divinity candidate at Harvard Divinity School, and he came to tell me about life as a rural journalist in New Mexico. We talked about Tarot as scripture, ethnography, the nitty gritty of local journalism, storytelling ethics, desert energy, polyamory, and what emerges from loud silences.

Cody’s Ember oracle card

Jason Adam Sheets chooses his own religion! Jason is a poet, a Master of Theological Studies candidate at Harvard Divinity School, and author of the book The Hour Wasp. In this episode we talk about the spirituality of poetry, the creative process, surrealism, death, symbolism, generational trauma, being authentic and of service, the healing potential of poetry.

Find the “The Hour Wasp” here.

Jessica Young chooses her own religion! Jessica is a yoga teacher, writer, storyteller, and Master of Divinity candidate at Harvard Divinity School. She came on the pod to talk about the intersection of her yoga practice and discernment of Christian ministry. We talked about yoga, dance, theological translation, loving our bodies, learning from teaching, and getting drunk on discernment.

For more of Jessica’s writing and work, check out adevotedyogi.com!