Krista Tippett Videos
newest 100 krista tippett videos / krista tippett widgets / media rss:

The spiritual is celebrated in American culture and beyond. It is the source from which gospel, jazz, blues and hip-hop evolved. It was born in the American South, created by slaves, bards whose names history never recorded. The organizing concept of this music is not the melody of Europe, but the rhythm of Africa. And the theology conveyed in these songs is a potent mix of African spirituality, Hebrew narrative, Christian doctrine, and an extreme experience of human suffering.

Author Barbara Kingsolver describes an adventure her family undertook to spend one year eating primarily what they could grow or raise themselves. As a citizen and mother more than an expert, she turned her life towards questions many of us are asking. Food, she says, is a "rare moral arena" in which the ethical choice is often the pleasurable choice.

Novelist and translator David Treuer is helping to compile the first practical grammar of the Ojibwe tongue of his tribe -- one of the 90 percent of human languages that could be endangered in this century. Treuer describes an unfolding awareness of aspects of his personality, of a sense of what brings him joy, an understanding of what makes him human -- that the Ojibwe language distinctly conveys.

An environmentalist who pursued the ecological impulse of Paganism, from its ancient roots to its modern revival in Europe and North America, discusses his observations about the spirit of Paganism and its influence on everyday Western culture -- and even on old-time religion.

Heschel was a mystic who wrote transcendent, poetic words about God. At the very same time, he marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and organized religious leadership against the war in Vietnam, embodying the extreme social activism of the biblical prophets he studied. We explore his teachings and his legacy for people in our day.

Americans are religious and non-religious, devout and irreverent. But in astonishing numbers, across that spectrum, most of us say that we pray. We open up the subject of prayer and explore how it sounds and what it means in three different traditions and lives.

Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson once said that the program he helped create is, "utter simplicity which encases a complete mystery." We explore the spiritual foundations of addiction and recovery with authors Kevin Griffin and Susan Cheever. Griffin reflects on the consonance of Buddhist teachings and the 12 Steps; Cheever tells her personal story and that of her father, the late fiction writer John Cheever.

Karen Armstrong speaks about her progression from a disillusioned and damaged young nun into, in her words, a "freelance monotheist." She's a formidable thinker and scholar, but as a theologian she calls herself an amateur -- noting that the Latin root of the word "amateur" means a love of one's subject. Seven years in a strict religious order nearly snuffed out her ability to think about faith at all. Here, we hear the story behind Armstrong's developing ideas about God.

We depart from our usual format and listen to a spectrum of lay Catholic voices on the force of this vast and ancient tradition on their lives, the way they struggle with it, the sources of their love for it. Even to be a "lapsed Catholic," we hear, is a complex state of being.

In honor of Earth Day, a riveting Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Wangari Maathai. She knows what many in the West have forgotten -- that ecological crises are often the hidden root causes of war. Maathai speaks about the global balance of human and natural resources, and she shares her thoughts on where God resides.

A passionate discussion is unfolding among Evangelical leaders and communities. Should Christians be involved in politics and if so, how? What has gone wrong, and what has been learned from the Moral Majority to today? Chuck Colson, Greg Boyd, and Shane Claiborne are three generations of Evangelicals who discuss and debate these answers.

Forcibly exiled from his native country, Zen master and poet Thich Nhat Hanh recently visited Vietnam for the first time in nearly 40 years. In 2003, Speaking of Faith took a radio pilgrimage with the Buddhist monk at a Christian conference center in a lakeside setting of rural Wisconsin. Thich Nhat Hanh offers stark, gentle wisdom for living in a world of anger and violence. Here, he discusses the concepts of "engaged Buddhism," "being peace," and "mindfulness."

Public Displays of Religious Monuments, Army Chaplain Boot Camp, Krista Tippett, Martin Luther King Jr. Remembered and this week's news headlines

More and more people in our time are disconnected from religious institutions, at least for part of their lives. Others are religious and find themselves creating a family with a spouse from another tradition or no tradition at all. And the experience of parenting tends to raise spiritual questions anew. We sense that there is a spiritual aspect to our children's natures and wonder how to support and nurture that. The spiritual life, our guest says, begins not in abstractions, but in concrete everyday experiences. And children need our questions as much as our answers.

In a recent Pew poll, 16 percent of Americans identified themselves as "unaffiliated" - atheist, agnostic, or most prominently "nothing in particular." Greg Epstein, a Humanist chaplain at Harvard, described himself that way until he discovered the tradition of humanism. He is passionate about articulating an atheist identity that is not driven by a stance against religion but by positive ethical beliefs and actions.

Johann Sebastian Bach's compositions, Dr. Thomas Rossin says, stemmed from his private faith - a faith evidenced by Bach's handwritten notes in his Bible. Hear about the Bible's nomadic journey and its possible influence of his "Mass in B Minor" - what the late, great scholar of creeds, Jaroslav Pelikan, holds up as an example of the "best we've ever done."

For many modern Americans, the very idea of reciting an unchanging creed, composed centuries ago, is troublesome. But, Jaroslav Pelikan, who died on May 13, 2006, was a scholar who devoted his life to exploring the vitality of ancient theology and creeds. He insisted that even modern pluralists need strong statements of belief. Here, we revisit Krista's 2003 conversation with him, who, then, in his 80th year, had released a historic collection of Christian faith from biblical times to the present and from across the globe. They discuss the history and nature of creeds, and how a fixed creed can be reconciled with an honest, intellectual faith that changes and evolves.

Shortly before his death in 2008, the late Irish poet John O'Donohue recited his poem "Beannacht", meaning blessing, during an interview with Krista Tippett. We've woven his close friends' photographs of him in his Celtic landscapes with this reading. Produced by Colleen Scheck and Trent Gilliss.

Ingrid Mattson, the first woman and first convert to lead the Islamic Society of North America, describes her experience of Islamic spirituality, which she discovered in her twenties after a Catholic upbringing. We probe her unusual perspective on a tumultuous age for Islam in the West and around the world.

John O'Donohue was an Irish poet and philosopher beloved for his book "Anam Cara" — Gaelic for "soul friend" — and for his insistence on beauty as a human calling and a defining aspect of God. Before his untimely death this year, he spoke with Krista in our studios. And so this hour has become a remembrance of him. But John O'Donohue had a very Celtic, lifelong fascination with what he called "the invisible world." And he would also surely see this also as a serendipitous continuation of his life's work — of bringing ancient Celtic wisdom to modern confusions and longings.

Interviewed shortly before his death, the Irish poet John O'Donohue recited several of his poems during his conversation with Krista. "The Nativity" is the eighth of eight poems that provide a preview of their conversation in The Inner Landscape of Beauty.

British activist Ed Husain was seduced, at the age of 16, by revolutionary Islamist ideals that flourished at the heart of educated British culture. Yet he later shrank back from radicalism after coming close to a murder and watching people he loved become suicide bombers. He dug deeper into Islamic spirituality, and now offers a fresh and daring perspective on the way forward.

Krista Tippett gives a live performance on April 5, 2007 at the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. Accompanied by Dan Chouinard and Marc Anderson, she reads from her 2007 book, titled "Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters--and How to Talk About It." Yes, we're a radio program, but sometimes the visual helps -- especially when trying to envision the exotic instruments in the background!

In this edition of SOF Unheard Cuts, Krista interviewed Douglas Johnston, president and founder of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy. We're making the entire, unedited conversation available for the first time. Here's your chance to observe the editorial process and let us know what you think.

Americans have been hearing about Mormonism in the context of the presidential campaign. But we're learning about this faith of 13 million people indirectly, by way of rhetoric and defense. In this program, we avoid well-trodden, controversial ground and seek an understanding of some doctrinal and spiritual basics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Robert Millet, a leading scholar of the church and a lifelong practitioner, describes a developing young religion with distinct mystical and practical interpretations of the nature of God, family, and eternity.

As a theoretical physicist, Janna Levin probes whether the universe is finite or infinite. As a novelist, she explored the separate but parallel lives of two influential 20th-century scientists: Kurt Godel and Alan Turing. Their work laid the foundations for computer intelligence while challenging fundamental notions about how we can know what is true.

For the Christmas season and the New Year, a rare conversation with one of the wise men in our world today -- Jean Vanier. The philosopher and Catholic social innovator created a model of community, L'Arche, that embodies the ideal of power in smallness and light in the darkness of human existence.

The second in a two-part series on influential leaders who are reshaping Evangelical Christianity from within progressive and conservative circles. The best-selling author of "The Purpose Driven Life," Rick Warren and his wife Kay lead one of the largest churches in the U.S. They are now partnering in global ventures to fight AIDS and poverty.

Evangelical Christianity has no single, central authority, but it does have guiding figures in every generation. Progressive social activist Jim Wallis has become something of a national celebrity, proposing a new agenda for religion in politics in what he calls the "post-Religious Right era."

Krista says the globe should welcome the challenge of sustainability as an invitation -- a way to strengthen moral resources such as delight, dignity, elegance, and hope: Our emerging national conversation about sustainability has a decidedly "eat your spinach" tone. We're steeling ourselves to enter the realm of sacrifice, and penance. But as I've explored ethics and meaning in American life these past few years, I've been struck by the heightened sense of delight and beauty in lives and communities pursuing a new alignment with the natural world. Innovation in sustainability often begins, I've found, with people defining what they cherish as much as diagnosing what is wrong. I think of Majora Carter. The cutting-edge project she founded, Sustainable South Bronx, began when she and the people of that borough began to reclaim their riverfront for refreshment and play. I think also of the author Barbara Kingsolver, who found in a year of sustainable eating that when it comes to food, the ethical choice is also the pleasurable choice. And she says that as we face the grand ecological crises of our time, one of our most important renewable resources is hope. We simply have to put it on with our shoes every morning. Recently we visited the Rural Studio at Auburn University in Alabama. There, architectural students build elegant homes and public spaces in poor communities. Long before sustainability was fashionable, the Rural Studio was innovating "zero-maintenance" design. This architectural philosophy shelters the body while honoring the environment and human dignity. The writer Frederich Buechner has said that "vocation" happens when our deep gladness meets the world's deep need. I'd like to propose the work of sustainability as an unfolding vocation – not merely a response to problems, but an invitation to possibility and a way to strengthen moral resources such as delight, dignity, elegance, and hope.