Soul Search

By ABC listen

Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality

What's Soul Search about?

Soul Search explores contemporary religion and spirituality from the inside out — what we believe, how we express it, and the difference it makes in our lives

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Soul Search episodes:

05.02.2024
The science and spirituality of mindfulness
The nature of consciousness is a subject of enormous interest to both science and religion. Modern, secular mindfulness techniques have their foundation in ancient Buddhist thought, but it's only recently that neuroscientists have given serious attention to what actually happens...
04.25.2024
The stories that stick with us — Keerthik Sasidharan and the Mahābhārata
Keerthik Sasidharan grew up with stories from the great Indian epics. They fired his imagination, and they've stayed with him through all kinds of changes — including moving from India to New York City. Now he is reimagining the Mahābhārata,...
04.18.2024
Hope and healing in Rwanda and beyond
Thirty years after the Rwandan genocide, Rwandans are working towards a better future for the country, and each other — including the perpetrators of the violence. Also, an Australian doctor works tirelessly all over Africa to heal women of fistulas...
04.11.2024
Navigating faith over a lifetime
What role does faith play over the course of a lifetime? Three Christian women, each from a different generation, engage in an honest conversation about faith.
04.04.2024
Ramadan — Seeking the divine in times of suffering
How can one nurture the soul? Or seek the divine in times of suffering and violence? These aren't new questions, but as 1.9 billion Muslims approach the peak of Ramadan, we meet a poet and a professor wrestling with these...
03.28.2024
Imagining Jesus on screen and in literature
Jesus is a film star. He’s graced the big screen since the beginning of cinema — you can probably picture him: robed and long-haired, but that’s only one way to imagine Jesus. In fact, the conversation about the image of...
03.21.2024
Rituals of repair, of politics and ourselves
Rituals mark moments moments throughout our lives, big and small. They are also used to draw attention to political injustice and social inequality, to express lament and to reorient the participants in the ritual toward wholeness. What role might rituals...
03.14.2024
Habit and the spiritual life
Perhaps you've heard it said, "We are what we repeatedly do". The early Christian ascetics knew this, but you don't have to be a monk to cultivate good habits, replace bad ones, and — hopefully — become a better person. Dr...
03.07.2024
The drag queen and the hymn writer — Queering Christian music
Flamy Grant is a drag queen who made a splash in the Contemporary Christian Music industry, charting on Billboard and iTunes' Christian charts. Previously, powerful gatekeepers at Christian record labels and radio stations excluded queer artists from their lineups for...
02.29.2024
Contemporary Christian Music — Changing culture through song
You might not know it, but there's a parallel Christian entertainment industry that's existed since the 1950s, and it's changed the music you listen to — and even the politicians you know about. The Contemporary Christian Music industry caters specifically to...
02.22.2024
Good karma? Taylor Swift and popular Buddhism in pop music
Even if you're not Buddhist, you might believe in karma. Taylor Swift's single 'Karma' reflects popular ideas about cosmic justice, and is just the latest Western pop hit to borrow concepts from Eastern religions. Dr Hannah Gould is a cultural anthropologist studying...
02.15.2024
An Indigenous theological revolution
Hundreds of people — including pastors, activists, ministry workers and theologians — have gathered from every corner of this land we now call Australia. They're on Wurundjeri country for a First Nations theology conference, to share their faith and vision for...
02.08.2024
Zen and protest in a changing climate
How do we live with care and attention on this beautiful, but warming planet? We meet leading Zen teacher Susan Murphy. She's re-thinking the wisdom stories of her tradition, after having to flee her home during the 2019 bushfires. We also hear...
02.01.2024
Dragons in Chinese tradition — and today
The Chinese dragon has long been associated with the Emperor of China, and by extension China itself. The coming Year of the Dragon this Lunar New Year is a reminder of how the dragon is a significant and auspicious symbol...
01.25.2024
Contemplating country with Garry Deverell
What do Aboriginal spirituality and Christian theology have to say to each other? According to Garry Deverell there's plenty, but the conversation can only really begin when there's mutual respect and listening — something that is still missing 235 years...
01.18.2024
Going bush for solitude and connection
On SBS’s hit show Alone Australia, contestants had to spend weeks in the wilderness without any human contact. Isolation can be hard — many people fear it — but some embrace solitude as an opportunity to learn what makes us...
01.11.2024
The isolation and imagination of the first female English author
Julian of Norwich, the Medieval mystic and anchoress, continues to inspire though her writing even after 650 years. Her powerful prose about her religious revelations, was written in the midst of 14th Century plague-riven Europe. Julian was the first woman to write in...
01.04.2024
Wildness and wonder at the edge of Australia
Ningaloo Reef – on the remote west coast of Australia – is the playground of whales, manta rays and black-flanked rock wallabies. The world-heritage site is one of the last wild places left on Earth, and has inspired author Tim Winton for decades, both in...
12.28.2023
An Unorthodox Idea — Rest is Resistance
Why is rest such a challenge in our culture, in our time? Tricia Hersey has made it her life’s work to advocate for rest — developing a rest practice herself, and guiding others in the same direction. Tricia’s work isn’t about...
12.21.2023
Journeys that change us
Where are you going? Journeys take many forms: Moving away from your parents’ house, being a tourist in a foreign land, or going on a pilgrimage to a site of profound spiritual significance – and all have a transformative effect...
12.14.2023
How grace changes everything
As the year draws to a close, people from many traditions reflect on generosity, hope and grace. Where do you find grace in a world with so much grief? But according to Julia Baird, it’s worth looking for, because the...
12.07.2023
Making art in a time of crisis
Artists have always been engaged in social and cultural change. But how possible is art in a time of crisis? What kind of art do crises require and inspire? Maissa Alameddine is a multidisciplinary artist and vocalist who grew up in...
11.30.2023
Pasifika theologians reweaving the ecological mat
In a world shaped by colonialism and climate change, Pasifika theologians are on the cutting edge of Christian thought about mission, ecology and indigenous knowledges. It's part of a broader renovation of the whole idea of the church taking place...
11.23.2023
Reading the Bible in Australia today
The Bible has been held sacred by Christians for centuries, and in the process has become one of the world’s most beguiling and disputed texts. Why do people still read it, nearly 2000 years after it was compiled? Rev Dr Robyn...
11.16.2023
The Māori Anglican Church, Māori language and the search for justice
Despite their many similarities, the colonial governments in Australia and New Zealand have taken very different approaches to relations with Indigenous peoples. After the referendum, what can Australia learn from Māori people in Aotearoa, and what role can churches play...
11.09.2023
Muslim Anzacs — from the Great War to today
Did you know there were Muslims who fought on the side of the Anzacs in World War I, some even in Gallipoli? That ill-fated campaign has become a defining story of contemporary Australia, but we’re still learning new things about...
11.02.2023
Awakening a wondrous world through storytelling
What would it take for a wiser and more beautiful world to emerge, even in the midst of crisis? Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee says stories are like seeds, and when they are watered with our attention, they can grow into a landscape...
10.26.2023
The Iona Community’s Ruth Harvey on thin places and strong communities
What does community look like in this increasingly fractured world? Iona Community Leader Ruth Harvey sounds a note of optimism that, although sometimes dispersed, intentional communities working for justice and peace can create thin places that connect us with each...
10.19.2023
Icons and iconoclasts part 2
Have you ever felt the impulse to just tear it all down? Iconoclasm — or image breaking — has real potency as a way of contesting the sacred and re-imagining the world, even in a post-religious society. From the Byzantines...
10.12.2023
Icons and iconoclasts part 1
We live in a highly visual culture — the image is king, and image-breaking is a key form of protest. But this is hardly new; idols, icons and iconoclasts have been part of the human story for millennia. We’re all...
10.05.2023
Why do we scapegoat?
James Alison says scapegoating is one of our oldest social behaviours. But casting someone out to maintain group cohesion has its obvious drawbacks — particularly for the person taking the fall! As a gay Catholic priest, Dr Alison was drawn...
09.28.2023
Shakespeare’s religious world
William Shakespeare's world was marked by social change, spiritual tumult, and cosmic disorientation. Elizabeth I was on the throne, defining and defending England's Protestant reformation, and Europe now knew the Earth wasn’t the centre of the universe. So how secular...
09.21.2023
Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet at 100
It’s been 100 years since the publication of The Prophet by Khalil Gibran, a book beloved by everyone from Indira Ghandi to Elvis Presley. What is the story behind one of the most enduring spiritual texts of the Twentieth Century,...
09.14.2023
Future of religion — A changing climate
None of us are immune from the reality of a changing climate, or perhaps even from the local disasters that seem to accompany it. But what does a changing climate mean for the ways people live out their faith? How...
09.07.2023
Future of religion — From the Torres Strait to Uluru
“Sovereignty is a spiritual notion”. The Uluru Statement from the Heart makes clear that Indigenous cultures and spiritualities are key to the story of the future of religion in Australia. As Australians head to the polls to decide on the question of...
08.31.2023
Future of religion — Where is Christian theology headed?
The world Christians live in is changing, so Christian theology is too. David Bentley Hart — one of the world’s most prominent and influential theologians — calls elements of mainstream Western Christian thought “a psychotic fantasy”. Wow! In Australia, theological colleges...
08.24.2023
Future of religion — Digital utopias and spiritual imagination
The year is 2087 and Istanbul is a glittering, technological metropolis — but is this digital utopia more, or less, religious than today? Religious affiliation and the category of “religion” itself is changing along with technology, politics and the environment....
08.17.2023
Overcoming poverty and prejudice — The women creating communities of justice
Meet two women who’ve tried to change the world — to give shape to a certain freedom, or liberation, for their community. From Catholic Liberation Theology in the Philippines to a hijabi mountaineer standing on top of the world, encouraging...
08.10.2023
Does your religion make you laugh?
Religion isn’t always serious business. While the sacred is sometimes considered off-limits for comedy, religious people actually do use humour to bond with each other and teach the tenets of their faith. And in the wake of tragedy, laughter is...
08.03.2023
Solitude and the ache for humans
On SBS’s hit show Alone Australia, contestants had to spend weeks in the wilderness without any human contact. Isolation can be hard — many people fear it — but some embrace solitude as an opportunity to learn what makes us...
07.27.2023
Making peace with mortality
Everyone dies, but in the last 200 years or so, our beliefs about death have changed dramatically. From pandemic meditations on mortality to the history of euthanasia, attitudes about death are part of life. Yahia Lababidi is an Egyptian American poet,...
07.20.2023
The Dalai Lama and the Scottish hermit
The 14th Dalai Lama is arguably the most prominent Buddhist in the world. He has influenced the West considerably, including religious traditions other than his own. How did this come to be, and who will succeed him as the 15th...
07.13.2023
The soul and the self
Is it possible to really, actually, know yourself? Descartes said the self was the only thing we can know — I think therefore I am — but other philosophical traditions say the self doesn’t even exist. Indian religion and philosophy has...
07.06.2023
Skin-on-skin — birth, spirituality and parenthood
Birth: we all go through it — according to some religions, at least twice! For Flesh Week, Soul Search looks at ideas and experiences of birth, including the Christian story of Mary as the mother of God, and being a...
06.29.2023
Reckoning and reconciliation at Glebe’s scarred tree
Under one of the last remaining scarred trees in Sydney, Pastor Ray Minniecon is imagining a reconciled community.
06.22.2023
The great Medieval mystic and writer — Julian of Norwich
In a plague-riven Medieval Europe, a woman wrote a book in English that has inspired 650 years of devoted readers.
06.15.2023
Pádraig Ó Tuama on poetry, rage, and remaking religion
The search for a language that can hold rage and heal pain.
06.08.2023
The sacred river
The river is sacred to many cultures, including the Barkindji community of NSW. For them, the beloved Barka, also known as the Darling River, is a life source and Ancestor.
06.01.2023
Forest bathing and the 'more than human world'
The Indigenous people of Papua have a philosophy of nature that’s helping them resist deforestation. And, we explore shinrin-yoku – the Japanese art of forest bathing.
05.25.2023
Religion and ecology in a warming world
Around 84% of the world’s population affiliates with a religion, so how might that matter in the Anthropocene, for the ways our species interacts with the rest of environment? And can religious beliefs and practices add something to the pursuit of...

What's Soul Search about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Soul Search episodes:

The science and spirituality of mindfulness

The stories that stick with us — Keerthik Sasidharan and the Mahābhārata

Hope and healing in Rwanda and beyond

Navigating faith over a lifetime

Ramadan — Seeking the divine in times of suffering

Imagining Jesus on screen and in literature

Rituals of repair, of politics and ourselves

Habit and the spiritual life

The drag queen and the hymn writer — Queering Christian music

Contemporary Christian Music — Changing culture through song

Good karma? Taylor Swift and popular Buddhism in pop music

An Indigenous theological revolution

Zen and protest in a changing climate

Dragons in Chinese tradition — and today

Contemplating country with Garry Deverell

Going bush for solitude and connection

The isolation and imagination of the first female English author

Wildness and wonder at the edge of Australia

An Unorthodox Idea — Rest is Resistance

Journeys that change us

How grace changes everything

Making art in a time of crisis

Pasifika theologians reweaving the ecological mat

Reading the Bible in Australia today

The Māori Anglican Church, Māori language and the search for justice

Muslim Anzacs — from the Great War to today

Awakening a wondrous world through storytelling

The Iona Community’s Ruth Harvey on thin places and strong communities

Icons and iconoclasts part 2

Icons and iconoclasts part 1

Why do we scapegoat?

Shakespeare’s religious world

Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet at 100

Future of religion — A changing climate

Future of religion — From the Torres Strait to Uluru

Future of religion — Where is Christian theology headed?

Future of religion — Digital utopias and spiritual imagination

Overcoming poverty and prejudice — The women creating communities of justice

Does your religion make you laugh?

Solitude and the ache for humans

Making peace with mortality

The Dalai Lama and the Scottish hermit

The soul and the self

Skin-on-skin — birth, spirituality and parenthood

Reckoning and reconciliation at Glebe’s scarred tree

The great Medieval mystic and writer — Julian of Norwich

Pádraig Ó Tuama on poetry, rage, and remaking religion

The sacred river

Forest bathing and the 'more than human world'

Religion and ecology in a warming world