This is keeping it 101, a killjoys introduction to religion podcast. In 2022-2023 our work is made possible through both a UVM Reach Grant and a loose AAR Advancing Public Scholarship Grant
Snatching trophies.
We are grateful to live teach and record on the current ancestral and unseeded lands of the Abenaki Wabanaki and Aucocisco people, but as you know, land statements aren't everything so you can find material ways to support indigenous communities on our website.
What's up, nerds? Hi hello, I'm Meghan Goodwin, a scholar of American religions race, gender and politics.
Hi, hello. I'm Ilyse Morgenstein-Fuerst, a historian of religion, Islam, race and racialization, and South Asia.
Banter! Go!
This is the part where we banter. Well, I'm excited just to do our like hellos again. Hi. Hello. We're back!
We are back. It feels good to be back. We have missed you. Yay. And like, welcome to a new format our chili babies. This season, we're mixing it up and giving you two formats for the price of one, which is still free (duh) making listening to the show a very good return on your investment.
Yeah, commies forever. We're still talking about religion and why you need to care about it. Even if you aren't religious yourself. Honestly, we are obviously never done talking about that. In fact, we're so not over religion, that we're writing a book! That's right nerds. We're delighted to be working with Beacon Press officially on a project we're really trying to call "Religion Is Not Done With You" coming to shelves and the Internet near you in 2024.
It's no big deal, it's fine. We're just we're just we're like sharing an imprint with like James Baldwin and Mary Daly and Kate Bornstein. It's fine.
Yeah no pressure, no pressure.
This is fine. We feel very fine and normal about all of this, it's fine. Yes. Anyway enough about us, let's talk about you nerds. Here's what you can expect from us this
So sometimes, like half of the
time, we'll be doing a segment called "Incorrect" incorrect, not correct. In which we condense the impromptu lectures, we find ourselves giving out the most. Whether that's, you know, on airplanes, because you stupidly brought squiggle letters or Persian and the guy next to you is genuinely trying to suss out if you're a terrorist, because racism. Or you know, in the back of cabs because you forgot to say I'm a mathematician, because no one but no one has a follow up to
that. So, these are the impromptu lectures that we that we find we have to be talking about because we were supposed to be doing something else and having a nice time. But accidentally we got triggered in public and now everybody's looking because we are loudly flailing about religion. And that might be more Megan than me.
That's probably me, that's probably me, have you have a filter, which I appreciate about you. I do not.
We gently but firmly in this series "Incorrect", intend to tell y'all why you're probably missing something about an important topic like say, hijab, or religious modesty, or religious appropriation or, you guessed it nerds...calendars.
Love a runner. All right. So sometimes we are incorrect, "incorrect". And then other times we are bringing you "So Glad You Asked". "Why I'm so glad you asked". Were we briefly (question mark), that is the intention that we're setting for the season. We briefly respond to questions from you, our
beloved listeners. So some of the things you wanted to know about include, "What does religion have to do with disability and vice versa?", "What the frickin heck balls is going on with the Supreme Court and religion, especially about reproductive justice?", "Religion seems to be a lot about food. What gives?" So yeah, we'll be doing a lot of these so glad you asked segments. And don't be shy if you have questions about how religion works or what it's like out there doing in the world.
Hey Ilyse, what else do we have going on this season? Anything you want to share with the nerds?
Well, let's start with some pod news beyond the book project, okay. So those two grants at the top are not gonna lie pretty big deals, she says, humbly patting herself on the back. The UVM Reach, which is an acronym of sorts for Research Enhancement in the arts, creative disciplines and the humanities. It's a big internal grant at the University of Vermont and it will support three new uh,
support folks. Which is to say to Rockstar undergraduate research assistants from my very own advisory pool, and an equally rockstar sound designer. So welcome to the crew officially Evie Wolf, Rachel Zeif, and Juliana Finch. While all of those smart folks will be sharing the largely unseen load
of running a podcast. Here's what their work is doing in a broad spectrum; so Evie is going to be our transcription and website maven, Rachel will be wrangling all social media, and Juliana will be handling sound like a goddamn professional and doing a bit of research. And there's more about them on our websites.
We've got like a whole new crew now. This is amazing.
Yeah, somehow winning grants meant that I now am like a supervisor, so that's fun. But Megan...
Sorry it's just like, win money and also more work.
This is a pattern, this is a pattern for me. Again, Meghan wrote in the notes that she will kill me, if I don't add that in addition to our podcast book, and these two grants that I wrote, and won, I also have won a Fulbright for 2022 2023. So, in the first half of 2023, I will be in the UK specifically housed at the University of Birmingham, working on my next
book, "Imperial Pandemics". So um across the pond, pod scheduling will be in order, and I look forward to maybe meeting up with some of our fans and friends in the UK while I'm there. But in the meanwhile, that's a lot of executive functioning for me, because this bitch is busy, booked, and blessed or whatever that phras is.
It's great, it's Great.
What's up with you Goodwin?
Oh, you know nothing. I cycled off the program that I have been program director for for the last four years. So Sacred Rites is in transition. I am consulting and doing tech and media consulting for Crossroads with Judith De Weisenfeld who you might have seen on the internet winning, I don't know, a goddamn
Guggenheim. Anyway, so I get to work with her and another previous and esteemed guest, Anthea Butler and Lauron Martin on this amazing, Loose Funded project that supports scholars and activists and artists working in and around African American religions. So that's amazing. I accidentally started a book discussion series for Religion Dispatches, it's called "Phoning It In", in which I asked very basic questions about books that I kind of read.
Dude
It's fine. It's gonna be great, "Phoning It In". I am working on an audio segment for this workshop that I did with UVA's religion lab and their memory project around race, religion, and democracy. So I'm doing an audio piece based on the chapter that I'm writing about the aftermath of the MOVE bombing for my ongoing book project that is not a pod book, which I have tentatively entitled "Cults Incorporated: The Business of Bad Religion".
That's a great title
So, it is really good. I'm really pleased with it. And now I just you know, have to write the book or whatever also, I'm trying to like garden and nap and stuff.
Yeah, all all fantastic pursuits.
Hey, thanks. So we have a lot going on and we have a lot that we're bringing you this season and we are excited to be back and thanks for tuning in friends. You can find Megan (that's me) on Twitter @mpgphd, and Ilyse @profirmf or the show @keepingit_101. Find the website at keepingit101.com. We're on Insta and now, oh god, Tik Tok, oh lord. Drop us a rating or review in your pod catcher of choice and with that...
Peace out nerds!
Do your homework, it's on the syllabus.
You've been to a dose of what's happened in all these crowns. I'm strapped to me I've got more discards than the vatican.