smart grrl summer

season 1

season 2

season 4

season 3

season 6

season 5

 season 7 

Last season was rough, nerds — we won’t lie to you. But we’re delighted to be back and returning you to your regularly scheduled programming! This season we’re doing a miniseries on religion and adoption and offering y’all a sneak peek into our writing process for Religion Is Not Done With You. Plus crossover conversations with smart folks, movie night, tattoos, and more!

 season 6 

We kicked off our first season on the Sustain stream of the Amplify Podcast Network! Plus we revisited some of our greatest hits and a few episodes we think deserve another listen. BONUS: our first in-person live episode, courtesy of the religion nerds at Miami University of Ohio.

 season 5 

Season 5 was all about answering your questions, nerds! We tackled religion and food, monsters, disability, the Easter bunny, calendars, and more! We also tried to gently but firmly shift hearts & minds on misconceptions about reproductive justice, “drinking the Kool-aid,” jihad, fandoms, sports, and yoga. Plus we gave you a chat with pod bestie Hannah McGregor about their latest book, sneak peeks into what Ilyse and Megan were reading/watching/thinking, and an intern takeover.

Season 5 was jam-packed full of goodies, in large part because support from a UVM REACH grant and AAR/Luce Advancing Public Scholarship grant allowed us to pay three amazing junior scholars to lend us their talents. Evie Wolfe (left) was our 2022-2023 transcription, website, and digital research assistant.
Rachel Zieff
(center) was our 2022-2023 social media research assistant. And Juliana Finch (right) was our 2022-2023 audio designer and intern. We couldn’t have done this without them!

 season 4 

This season was a DOOZY, nerds. We went the whole wide world just to find you experts on many, many religious traditions — and hopefully taught you a thing or two about why “world religions” and “major and minor religions” are a big old problem. This season was also an AWARD WINNER, Y’ALL! The Religion Communicators Council (RCC) honored us with an Award of Merit for our work on this series. It’s good to be the hosts!

Season 4 was made possible in part through a UVM Humanities Center Public Humanities Fellowship, which us allowed us to bring Alex Castellano on as Keeping It 101’s Digital Intern and Transcriber for 2021-2022.

 season 3 

In Season 3 we talked to our smart friends about subjects beyond our areas of expertise. Tune in to learn more about public scholarship and representation, white evangelical racism, and early Christianity and imperialism. Also jinn.

Season 3 was made possible in part through a 2020 NEHC Seed Grant, which allowed us to bring Katherine Brennan on as our Digital Intern and Transcriber for 2020-21.

 season 2 

The season in which we tried to cover race, gender/sexuality, and religion in one fell swoop! Plus we gave you an extra credit interview with pod (and life, tbh) goals scholar Dr. Judith Weisenfeld.

smart grrl summer

Because our idea of fun and relaxation includes learning about cool new stuff. We are who we are, okay?

 season 1 

The season that started it all! (And boy, does it ever sound gutter punk.) Giving you why you need to care about religion even if you aren’t religious yourself since January 2020 — plus an extra credit interview with pod bestie Dr. omid safi.