On Being

Natasha Trethewey was the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate. Her books include "Domestic Work," "Native Guard," and "Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast." Eboo Patel is the founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core. His books include "Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America" and "Interfaith Leadership: A Primer." This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Natasha Trethewey and Eboo Patel — How to Live Beyond This Election." Find more at onbeing.org.

This political season has surfaced our need to reimagine and re-weave the very meaning of common life and common good. We take a long, nourishing view of the challenge and promise of this moment with former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey and interfaith visionary Eboo Patel. This is the second of two public conversations convened by the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis on the eve of the 2016 presidential debate on that campus.

This is a strange, tumultuous political moment. With columnists David Brooks and E.J. Dionne, we step back from the immediate political gamesmanship. We take public theology as a lens on the challenge and promise we will all be living as citizens, whoever our next president might be. This public conversation was convened by the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Graham Chapel at Washington University in St. Louis, the day before the second presidential debate on that campus.

David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times. His books include "The Social Animal" and "The Road to Character." E.J. Dionne is a columnist for The Washington Post. His books include "Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith in Politics after the Religious Right" and "Why The Right Went Wrong." This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Sinfulness, Hopefulness and the Possibility of Politics." Find more at onbeing.org.

“A dysfunctional family is any family with more than one person in it.” Mary Karr is beloved for her salty memoirs in which she traces her harrowing childhood in southeast Texas with a mother who once tried to kill her with a butcher’s knife and her own adult struggles with alcoholism and breakdown. She has a captivating ability to give voice to what is funny and wild in life’s most heartbreaking moments. Mary Karr embodies this wryness and wildness in her lesser-known spiritual practice as a devout Catholic — an unexpected move she made in mid-life.

Mary Karr is the Jesse Truesdell Peck Professor of English Literature at Syracuse University. Her books include “The Liars’ Club,” “Lit,” and “Now Go Out There: (and Get Curious.)” Her celebrated guide, “The Art of Memoir,” is now in paperback. This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Mary Karr — Astonished by the Human Comedy" Find more at onbeing.org.

Fundamental forces of physics somehow determine everything that happens, “from the birth of a child to the birth of a galaxy.” Yet physicist Leonard Mlodinow has an intriguing perspective on the gap between theory and reality — and the fascinating interplay between a life in science and life in the world. As the child of two Holocaust survivors, he asks questions about our capacity to create our lives, while reflecting on extreme human cruelty — and courage.

Leonard Mlodinow is a physicist, and the author of several books including "The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives" and "Feynman’s Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life." He's also written for television, including "Star Trek: The Next Generation." This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Leonard Mlodinow — Randomness and Choice." Find more at onbeing.org.

Alain de Botton is a philosopher who likes the best of religion, but doesn’t believe in God. He says that the most boring question you can ask of any religion is whether it is true. But how to live, how to die, what is good, and what is bad — these are questions religion has sophisticated ways of addressing. So he’s created The School of Life — where people young and old explore ritual, community, beauty, and wisdom. He explains why these ideas shouldn’t be reserved just for believers.

Alain de Botton is the founder and chairman of The School of Life. His books include “Religion for Atheists” and “How Proust Can Change Your Life.” His new book is a novel, “The Course of Love.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Alain de Botton — A School of Life for Atheists " Find more at onbeing.org.