In this episode, Allison Alexy talks with Prof. Levi McLaughlin, whose research focuses on religion in contemporary Japan. The conversation centers on his new book "Soka Gakkai's Human Revolution: The Rise of a Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan," exploring Buddhist practices and beliefs among within the Soka Gakkai religious sect. Topics of discussion include: the history of Soka Gakkai, attitudes toward religion in Japan, social class and classism, stigma and prejudice, and doing ethnographic fieldwork.