The philosopher Simone Weil defined prayer as “absolutely unmixed attention.” The artist Ann Hamilton embodies this notion in her sweeping works of art that bring all the senses together. She uses her hands to create installations that are both visually astounding and surprisingly intimate, and meet a longing many of us share, as she puts it, to be “alone together.”

Jonathan Sacks was Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth for 22 years. He is now the Ingeborg and Ira Rennert Global Distinguished Professor of Judaic Thought at New York University and the Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University. He is also Professor of Law, Ethics and the Bible at King’s College London. His books include “The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning,” “The Dignity of Difference,” and his latest, “Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Jonathan Sacks — The Dignity of Difference.” Find more at onbeing.org.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and one of the world’s deep thinkers on religion in our age. He’s just released a new book, “Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence.” In this intimate conversation with Krista, he speaks about how Jewish and other religious ideas can inform modern challenges. Rabbi Sacks says that the faithful can and must cultivate their own deepest truths — while finding God in the face of the stranger and the religious other.

Adam Grant is a professor of psychology at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is the youngest tenured and highest rated professor. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times. He has consulted for numerous organizations, including Google, the United Nations, and the U.S. Army. He became known to many through his popular book, “Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success.” His forthcoming book, “Originals,” will be published in February, 2016. This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Adam Grant — Successful Givers, Toxic Takers, and the Life We Spend at Work.” Find more at onbeing.org.

The organizational psychologist Adam Grant, who many know from his New York Times columns, describes three orientations of which we are all capable: the givers, the takers, and the matchers. These influence whether organizations are joyful or toxic for human beings. His studies are dispelling a conventional wisdom that selfish takers are the most likely to succeed professionally. And he is wise about practicing generosity in organizational life — what he calls making “microloans of our knowledge, our skills, our connections to other people” — in a way that is transformative for others, ourselves, and our places of work.

Nancy Cantor is a social psychologist and the chancellor of Rutgers University–Newark, one of the most diverse institutions in the U.S. She is widely recognized for helping forge a new understanding of the role of universities in society that re-emphasizes their public mission. Christopher Howard is the first African-American president of Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia, an historically white all male school in the South. He is one of the youngest college presidents in the U.S., a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Academy, and a former Rhodes Scholar. This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Nancy Cantor and Christopher Howard — Beyond the Ivory Tower.” Find more at onbeing.org.

When we talk about the relationship between colleges and the world, we tend to focus on economics. But what is the place of institutions of higher education in the communities they inhabit? How can and should they nurture students as citizens and leaders for the emerging 21st century world? Two visionary college presidents of two very different institutions take up these questions with Krista at the American Council on Education’s 97th Annual Meeting.

Brother Guy Consolmagno is director of the Vatican Observatory, appointed in this post in September, 2015 by Pope Francis. Previously he was curator of meteorites. His books include “Brother Astronomer: Adventures of a Vatican Scientist” and “Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?: and Other Questions from the Astronomers’ In-box at the Vatican Observatory.” Father George Coyne is the former director of the Vatican Observatory. His books include “Wayfarers in the Cosmos: The Human Quest for Meaning.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Guy Consolmagno and George Coyne — Asteroids, Stars, and the Love of God.” Find more at onbeing.org.

More than 30 objects on the moon are named after the Jesuits who mapped it. A Jesuit was one of the founders of modern astrophysics. And four Jesuits in history, including Ignatius of Loyola, have had asteroids named after them – Brother Guy Consolmagno and Father George Coyne being the two living men with this distinction. In a conversation filled with friendship and laughter, and in honor of the visit of Pope Francis to the U.S., we experience the spacious way they think about science, the universe, and the love of God.

Louis Newman is an Associate Dean of Carleton College and John M. and Elizabeth W. Musser Professor of Religious Studies. He is the author of several books on Jewish ethics and theology, including “Repentance: The Meaning and Practice of Teshuvah.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Louis Newman — The Refreshing Practice of Repentance.” Find more at onbeing.org.