Arifa is the chief theatre critic at The Guardian. She is a former contributor to The Observer and previously worked as the arts editor at Tortoise Media. She is also a trustee of the Orwell Foundation, and has been a judge for the UK Theatre Awards and the Women's Prize for Fiction among others. She is also author of ‘Consumed’ about the life and early death of her sister from tuberculosis.

Arifa speaks about why choice and freedom are sacred to her, her spiritual encounters with Islam, the delicacy of telling other people’s stories and the power of the arts.

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Miriam has been Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge since 2019. She was born and brought up in Sheffield, studied genetics at Cambridge and taught science before having children.

In this episode she speaks about her Christian faith, becoming a Conservative as an adult almost by accident, her unusual path to being elected as an MP and why she thinks we should talk more about family and parenthood.

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Mike Mchargue, also known as ‘Science Mike’, is a podcaster of very long-standing. He was formerly co-host of 'The Liturgists' and host of ‘Ask Science Mike’ and he’s now host of 'The Cozy Robot Show'. He’s also the author of ‘Finding God in the Waves’ and more recently ‘You’re a Miracle and a Pain in the Ass’.

He speaks about the process of losing his childhood faith and subsequently finding his way to contemplative Christianity via science and an ecstatic experience, his sacred value of equity, how we as humans tend to process trauma when we leave a tribe, and why he thinks it’s really important for him to publicly identify as disabled.

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Sohrab is an Iranian–American columnist, journalist, editor and author. He’s written or edited for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and First Things among others. He was born in Tehran and emigrated to the US in his early teens, converting in 2016 to Catholicism, which he recounts in his book ‘From fire by water.’ His most recent book is ‘The Unbroken Thread: discovering the wisdom of tradition in an age of chaos.’

He speaks about his experiences as what he calls a radically assimilated immigrant in the US, the lasting impact of that childhood under a conservative Islamic regime, his time as a committed Marxist, his conversion to Catholicism, and why he thinks liberalism is failing us.

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In this series we’ll be talking to Conservative MP Miriam Cates, journalist Sohrab Ahmari, ‘Science Mike’ Mike McHargue, writer Tim Stanley, theatre critic Arifa Akbar, loneliness expert Jillian Richardson and award-winning garden designer Sarah Eberle.

Tune in and join us for the next series of The Sacred. Episodes out weekly from Wednesday 4th August.

Sam is a novelist and author of ‘Idiopathy’, ‘Perfidious Albion’ and most recently ‘Come Join Our Disease’, which the Sunday Times has said confirms him as one of the most accomplished novelists of his generation.

In this episode he speaks about his sense that novels should tackle big ideas, his discomfort with the idea of freedom and our society’s diminishing sense of compassion.

Chris is Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit in the Psychology Department at Goldsmiths University, a fellow at the British Psychological Society and a patron of Humanists UK.

In this episode he speaks about what being a sceptic means to him, the difficulty of living out a fully materialist worldview, why even scientists have to take some things on faith and much more.

Grace is an American journalist. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the American Conservative among many others, and usually with a family or a farming focus. She has recently written a book called ‘Uprooted’ which explores the effects of the rural brain drain on farming communities, the huge ecological problems that global agri-business brings and questions in a very personal way whether our association of success with cosmopolitan mobility is problematic for our communities.

In this episode she speaks about her personal wrestle with leaving her rural community, having a consistent pro-life ethic, and why she no longer feels at home in conservatism.

Guvna B is a multi MOBO award-winning rapper, hip hop artist and author. He’s presented TV and radio documentaries for BBC, is a Sky Sports pundit and his most recent book is ‘Unspoken: Toxic Masculinity and How I Faced the Man Within the Man.’

In this episode he speaks about how his childhood as a first-generation immigrant on a council estate has shaped him, how he’s thought about his creativity and navigated different tribes with his music, how he needs space to process his emotions, the phrase ‘toxic masculinity’, and the conditions needed for young people to flourish.

Suzanne is a journalist and columnist who for many years was at The Guardian, but has also written for the Mail on Sunday, Marxism Today and now writes for The Telegraph.

In this episode she speaks about her rebellious youth, her atheism, how she understands the role of a journalist and briefly about her departure from The Guardian last year.