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The Spiritual Edge The Spiritual Edge podcast explores the shifting, modern landscape of religion and spirituality. You'll hear diverse stories of people and their communities. It's a reflection of our collective reality, injected with a dash of hope. Produced in collaboration with KALW Public Radio, this is high production value audio. Season 1 of The Spiritual Edge launches with a series of intimate profiles called Sacred Steps — stories of people who show up as standout humanitarians and are challenging the status quo.
The Spiritual Edge

Podcast Directory
The Spiritual Edge

The Spiritual Edge

From KALW

The Spiritual Edge podcast explores the shifting, modern landscape of religion and spirituality. You'll hear diverse stories of people and their communities. It's a reflection of our collective reality, injected with a dash of hope. Produced in collaboration with KALW Public Radio, this is high production value audio. Season 1 of The Spiritual Edge launches with a series of intimate profiles called Sacred Steps — stories of people who show up as standout humanitarians and are challenging the status quo.

Most Recent Episodes

Becoming Muslim: ABDUL RAOOF

As a student and basketball player at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1960s, Abdul Raoof Nasir joined the Nation of Islam. In the years that followed, he was forced to make a choice: stay with the Nation or go with one of the groups that splintered away from it.

Becoming Muslim: RABI'A

Rabi'a Keeble has been fighting discrimination and pushing boundaries her whole life as she searched for a faith and spiritual home that felt just right. She's an innovator, which led her to found a women-led mosque that sparked a powerful backlash.

Becoming Muslim: DIANA

Diana Demchemko converted to Islam in college after a childhood of asking tough spiritual questions of those around her. She spent her young adulthood learning to become Muslim, but it was while on a journey to Cairo to study the Quran that she looked for answers to some of her deepest questions. While there she learned, and unlearned, a few things about how to be a "real" Muslim.

Introducing Becoming Muslim - Trailer

In Becoming Muslim, we explore the motivations and challenges of converts, as they carve out a uniquely American path for being Muslim in the United States. Over seven episodes, we profile eight individuals from various cultural backgrounds. Each offers a different window into this diverse and complex religion. A spiritual seeker travels to Cairo to find the "real" Islam.. A prison inmate hangs with the Muslim brothers to stay safe. A UC Berkeley basketball player is introduced to the Nation of Islam. And more. In a religion that's often partitioned by nationality and culture, how do these new Muslims fit in?

Sacred Steps: Making space for women In mosques

Women don't always feel welcome in American mosques. They're sometimes turned away, sent to basements to pray, or discouraged from serving on the boards of directors. Aisha al-Adawiya has devoted her life to changing that. She's inspired a national campaign — and a fatwa — that's persuading the men who control mosques to share space and power.

Sacred Steps: Sister Dianna Ortiz survived torture in Guatemala and became a voice for victims

Independent producer Maria Martin offers this remembrance of the late Sister Dianna Ortiz, who survived torture in Guatemala during the 1980s. For years, Sister Dianna sought the truth about what happened; the Guatemalan and U.S. governments attempted to cast doubt on her story. She went on to fight for human rights and to speak out about the use of torture globally. She did so until her death in February 2021, even while still suffering from the trauma of her experience.

Sacred Steps: Sister Dianna Ortiz survived torture in Guatemala and became a voice for victims

Listen · 25:34

Sacred Steps: Calling on ancient Maya wisdom to heal Guatemalan widows

The Central American country of Guatemala promotes its indigenous heritage to tourists. At the same time, its government has historically marginalized and discriminated against the Maya, many of whom endured terrible violence during a decades-long civil war. Twenty five years after the war's end, human rights leader Rosalina Tuyuc is promoting healing for her people based on ancient Maya wisdom.

Sacred Steps: Art and the divine fuel a mission to help sex trafficked kids

California reports more cases of human tracking than any state In Oakland, most sex trafficking victims are Black girls under the age 18. While living in Australia, healing from her own trauma, a visit from Beyoncé pushed Regina Evans to return home to Oakland. She's now an activist and artist using her creative gifts to call attention to the trafficking crisis and to rescue girls on a strip.

Sacred Steps: Art and the divine fuel a mission to help sex trafficked kids

Listen · 25:45

Sacred Steps: A Buddhist Lay Minister Asks 'What Is A Good Death?'

Caroline Yongue wants to talk about death, a subject many of us would rather avoid. She's the founder and director of the Carolina Memorial Sanctuary, a small cemetery offering environmentally-friendly burials in Western North Carolina. The Sanctuary is grounded in a Buddhist ethos and committed to restoring native ecosystems. It's also part of a larger project to change how Americans approach death and grief — creating new ways to live with loss, from the ground up.

Sacred Steps: A Jain tech innovator combines a religious and global perspective

Mehool Sanghrajka isn't your typical tech CEO. To start with, his worldview is grounded in ancient Indian philosophy, one which inspires him to serve not just his close-knit religious community, but people he's never met. He believes education is the key to improving the life chances of children. As the coronavirus pandemic forced millions of students online, his Jain worldview and tech savvy helped him to meet the moment.

Sacred Steps: A Jain tech innovator combines a religious and global perspective

Listen · 19:48
The Spiritual Edge

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