A guide to the first season's episodes
How can religious wisdom help us think more deeply about AI, digital life, biotechnology, virtual reality, and the future of human meaning?
"Technology and religion sometimes seem like oil and water, but they've been crossing paths for centuries and aren't going to stop," says Belief in the Future podcast host, DZ Kalman. Belief in the Future explores the ethical, social, and existential implications of transformative new technologies — like AI — through creative conversations at this crucial intersection. The podcast is affiliated with the Faith Family Technology Network, and is a production of Sinai and Synapses, with support from Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF) under Science of Religious and Spiritual Exercises.
The podcast grew out of a TWCF-supported project led by Kalman that aims to encourage more proactive and creative public conversations about technology, society, and religion. Each episode brings together religious leaders, scholars, technology experts, and other thoughtful voices to explore how faith traditions can help people navigate the ethical questions and social changes emerging technologies raise.
“Technology is transforming our world at an unprecedented pace,” says Kalman.“But we often overlook the wisdom and insights that our religious traditions can offer as we navigate this complex landscape. Belief in the Future aims to bridge that gap and spark a meaningful dialogue about how we can create a future that aligns with our deepest values.”
“This new podcast will make you reflect on just how broadly we define technology and how intertwined it is with our humanity – and how religion can help us raise the right questions surrounding its impact,” says Rabbi Geoff Mitelman, Sinai and Synapses’ Founding Director. “Dr. Kalman is a leading thinker on the interplay of religion and technology, and he beautifully helps people understand the new technological world we will be living in, and how valuable religion can be to help us navigate it. We can’t wait to see the kinds of deep conversations this podcast will lead to.”
Where to Listen: Spotify | Apple Podcasts
The Two Lamp Mystery with Dr. Lindsay Ems
Two religious communities invented the same lamp. Why? In the first episode, Kalman speaks with Lindsay Ems about Amish technology, Orthodox Jewish Sabbath practice, and how communities preserve tradition while navigating an electrified world.
Ghost in the Machine with Dr. Muhammad Ahmad & Rabbi Ethan Witkovsky
After learning that his father had a terminal diagnosis, machine learning researcher Muhammad Ahmad began creating a text-based AI simulation. The episode explores grief, memory, “DeathGPT,” and Jewish perspectives on whether ancient scholars could, in some sense, “enter the chat.”
AI and the Baptists with Dr. Jason Thacker
Kalman speaks with Jason Thacker of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission about evangelical Christianity and AI, including the denomination’s AI statement of principles and what religious traditions might contribute to public guidance around emerging technologies.
Should I Use the Plagiarism Machine? with Rabbi Ethan Tucker & Rabbi Avi Killip of Responsa Radio
In this crossover with Responsa Radio, this episode considers whether generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and DALL-E are a form of theft, drawing comparisons to Jewish responsa and older traditions of attribution, borrowing, and shared learning.
Does AI Need History? with Dr. Elly Truitt
Historian Elly Truitt joins Kalman to connect today’s AI questions to older human dreams of artificial life, from Greek automata to Jewish golems. The episode asks whether earlier stories about mechanical servants and created beings can help illuminate our ethical obligations to today’s technologies.
What Silicon Valley Means by “God” with Professor Mary-Jane Rubenstein
Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Professor of Religion and Science in Society at Wesleyan University, discusses why technology leaders often use religious language and what that language may reveal about meaning-making, infinity, simulated realities, and the quasi-religious aspirations of tech culture.
The Cantor in the Brothel
What happens when synagogue music leaves the synagogue? This episode explores cantorial music, cultural memory, and the digital-era afterlives of religious sound.
The Secret Synagogue Tapes
The episode asks a provocative question: if recording in synagogue is forbidden or discouraged, what happens when recording becomes a way to preserve a disappearing culture?
Is Tech Too Fast to Be Governed? with Gideon Lichfield
Gideon Lichfield, journalist and alum of MIT Technology Review, The Economist, and WIRED, joins Kalman to discuss whether lawmaking can keep up with technology, and how government and religion mirror one another when responding to new technological realities.
Listen | Show notes
Does Religion Have Wisdom for Tech? with Rabbi Zvika Krieger
Rabbi Zvika Krieger, spiritual leader of Chochmat HaLev and former Director of Responsible Innovation at Facebook, discusses the Metaverse, religious leadership, ethical frameworks for technology, and what separation between religion and tech might look like.
The Beta Testing of Jesus Christ with Marco Schmid
Kalman speaks with artist, curator, and theologian Marco Schmid at St. Peter’s Chapel in Lucerne, Switzerland, about an AI-guided prayer project and what happens when a traditionally private spiritual encounter is mediated by a machine.
The Church That Wants to Build God with Professor Beth Singler
Professor Beth Singler discusses her book Religion and Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction and the increasingly entangled relationship between AI, religion, and visions of god-like artificial intelligence.
The Wild World of Bible Apps with Dr. John Dyer
John Dyer, professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and author of People of the Screen, explores the long relationship between Christian evangelism and software development, asking not only how technology has shaped religion, but how religion has helped shape technology.
Are AI Sermons a Good Thing? with Kenny Jahng
Religion and AI evangelist Kenny Jahng discusses how churches are beginning to use AI, including more routine administrative uses as well as more sensitive applications such as sermon writing and evangelism.
The Two Codes with Dr. Samuel Arbesman
Scientist Samuel Arbesman joins this episode to discuss his book, The Magic of Code, and the ways coding, religion, tradition, and storytelling may resemble one another — especially as AI changes how people learn, write, and pass on code.
What Could Go Right? with Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly, founder of WIRED Magazine and a longtime writer on technology and culture, closes out the summer episodes with a conversation about technological skepticism, the AI identity crisis, the Amish, and ways to think about technology through a more hopeful ethical lens.
"Technology and religion sometimes seem like oil and water, but they've been crossing paths for centuries and aren't going to stop," says Belief in the Future podcast host, DZ Kalman. Belief in the Future explores the ethical, social, and existential implications of transformative new technologies — like AI — through creative conversations at this crucial intersection. The podcast is affiliated with the Faith Family Technology Network, and is a production of Sinai and Synapses, with support from Templeton World Charity Foundation.
