Do you love reality TV, or do you love to hate it? This week, Rachel is joined by two friends, Grace and Fiona, to gossip about the relationship between reality TV, ritual and religion. Using examples from The Bachelor, Love Island, and Drag Race, the trio discusses the various rituals and ceremonies that are so intrinsic to reality shows, the devoted followings they acquire, and the parables they tell.

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This week we dive head-first into different types of religious experience when it comes to consciousness. We chat ASCs, Trance, and Mysticism, while trying to understand the difference between the three types of experience. We also talk a lot about how religious experience is often branded as “crazy”, and is therefore used as an excuse to de-platform those that are religious.

We’re back with another monthly installment of our “In The News” episode. This week, we chat about a wide range of topics including; the psychology of religion and how religion is studied in the brain, the ethics of AI, and Islamophobia in Canada.

Want to read the articles we talk about?

“Religion on the Brain” from The Scientist

“Can Silicon Valley Find God” from The New York Times

“Trudeau calls out federal agencies during national summit on Islamophobia” from CBC News

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Join Rachel and Jacqueline for a special interview with Faezeh Izadi about Muslims in Canada. Faezeh is an International Ph.D. student of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, originally from Iran. She got her bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, but after two years of engineering works, Faezeh changed her path to humanities and joined the Comparative Religions and Mysticism MA program at the University of Kashan, Iran. After seven years of teaching and leadership experience in educational institutions in Iran, Faezeh decided to pursue her study abroad. She received her second master’s degree in Religious Studies from Queen’s University, Canada. Faezeh’s current research interests surround the relationship of value systems with benevolent activities. She is also interested in addressing issues related to Islam and Islamic societies through the lens of sociology of religion.

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Welcome to the 2nd episode in our series on CW’s hit show, The 100! If you haven’t listened to the first episode yet, check it out here! And if you haven’t seen Season 1 of The 100, then we recommend watching it before you dive into this episode (otherwise you’ll get a lot of spoilers).

In this episode, we focus more on group identity and cohesion using all our fancy background and language about religion and group identity. Get ready for some 1st year University-level definitions, and also some rants about who would make the best charismatic leader.

As always, you’ll be able to find a transcript shortly after the episode is published on our website – nearlynuminous.ca. There, you can also check out all our past episodes and learn more about us.

Join your hosts, Steph and Rachel, for an interview with yoga teacher and practitioner Laura Chaignon. We get deep into gender binary language in yoga (and elsewhere) and chat about the effect of the western lens on yoga, gendered language, and the importance of making yoga a safe and comfortable space for everyone.

Resources Laura mentions:

@yogaisdeadpodcast (Hosted by Tejal Patel and Jesal Parikh)

Artist Sarah Cargill from the Tarot for the End of the World podcast,

Yoga instructor and educator @susannabarkataki

Welcome to the first of a special 2-part episode on the hit CW show “The 100”. The show originally premiered in 2014 and ran for seven seasons – but today, we’re only getting into the first season. Of course, there are some spoilers, so feel free to go watch the entire first season and come back to this episode.

In the first part of our series on “The 100,” we introduce the premise of the show, some of our favourite plotholes and burning questions, and most importantly, how it relates to religion—through its apocalyptic themes.

Join us next episode for the rest of our discussion on Season 1 of “The 100” where we compare culture and religiosity in three different communities: The Sky People, The 100, and the Grounders!

Interested in learning more about apocalypticism and rapture theology? Check out these sources:

• Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart D. Ehrman
• The Apocalypse: A Brief History by Martha Himmelfarb
• Ultimate Things: An Introduction to Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Literature by Greg Carey
• The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature by John J Collins
• The Apocalyptic Literature by Stephen L Cook

Don’t forget to follow us on your favourite social media platforms – just look up Nearly Numinous. To check out past episodes, learn more about us, sign up for our newsletter, or get in touch with us, head to our website – nearlynuminous.ca.

This week, jump in with Rachel and Steph while they talk about different religious symbols being taken from their original meaning and used in either dangerous ways or just taken out of context. We also get pretty deep into the COEXIST bumper sticker’s history.

As always, don’t forget to check out nearlynuminous.ca for previous episodes, to subscribe to our newsletter, or get in touch with us! You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – just search Nearly Numinous.