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Climate change. Genetic engineering. Truth and falsehood on social media. The psychology of how we flourish. For most Jews, we look to science for knowledge and wisdom on how to think and talk about these topics. But they also raise deep religious, ethical and philosophical questions, as well. Unfortunately, our political and cultural conversation pits "science" against "religion," rather than trying to explore and integrate these human questions from multiple perspectives. "Sacred Science," hosted by Sinai and Synapses Founding Director Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman, talks with professors and rabbis, academics and practitioners, and scientists and religious thinkers to help us move beyond a simplistic and false "either / or" dichotomy to go in depth on the biggest questions we face in this world -- personally, societally, and globally.


More information, including transcripts (after a few days), is available at the Sinai and Synapses web site.


This Week’s Guest

August 5 — Michael Kaplan is the Principal Consultant at Kaplan Astronautics, LLC located in Boulder, CO and has been working in aerospace, satellite and systems domains for over 35 years. While at NASA Headquarters, Michael created and led the development of several transformational programs including the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), successor to the Hubble Space Telescope.


Episode 1, with Professor Nicholas Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., sociologist and physician, author of Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live

Episode 2, with Professor Jeremy England, Ph.D., author of Every Life Is On Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things

Episode 3, with Rabbi Rachael Jackson, who worked as an analytical chemist before becoming a rabbi

Episode 4, with Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz, a rabbi with a doctorate in Cultural Geography, participant in Sinai and Synapses' Scientists in Synagogues program

Episode 5, with Tania Lombrozo, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Princeton University, Psychology Today blogger

Episode 6, with Elaine Howard Ecklund, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology and Director of the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University, author of Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think About Religion (2019).

Episode 7, with Briana Pobiner, Ph.D., paleoanthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, expert on the evolution of human diets (with a focus on meat-eating).

Episode 8, with Professor Emily Oster, Ph.D., Professor of Economics at Brown University, whose academic work seeks to understand why consumers do not always make “rational” health choices.

Episode 9, with Michael Shermer, Ph.D., Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, Presidential Fellow at Chapman University, author of New York Times bestseller Why People Believe Weird Things.

Episode 10, with Ethan Siegel, Ph.D., astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, author of Beyond the Galaxy: How Humanity Looked Beyond our Milky Way and Discovered the Entire Universe

Episode 11, with Samuel Arbesman, a complexity scientist and research fellow at the Long Now Foundation

Episode 12, with Rabbi Jonathan Crane, Ph. D., scholar of bioethics, comparative religious ethics, and Jewish thought, and food ethics at Emory University

Episode 13, with Christian Miller, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University, director of The Honesty Project, author of The Character Gap: How Good Are We?

Epidose 14, with Tiffany Shlain, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, founder of the Webby Awards, and author of bestselling 24/6: Giving up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection

Episode 15, with Sigal Samuel, staff writer at Vox and and author of the award-winning novel The Mystics of Mile End, about a family with a dangerous mystical obsession

Episode 16, with Professor Larisa Heiphetz, Ph.D. of the Department of Psychology at Columbia University, who investigates how people think about religion.

Episode 17, with David B. Yaden, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins Medicine, who studies the therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances.

Episode 18, with Professor Steven Pinker, Ph.D., Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, author of The Better Angels of Our Nature.

Episode 19, with Adam Lyon, Ph.D., particle physicist and senior scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

Episode 20, with David DeSteno, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Northeastern University, author of the upcoming book How God Works.

Episode 21, with Kate J. Stockly, scholar of bio-cultural theories of embodied religious ritual, and author of the upcoming book Spirit Tech.

Episode 22, with Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, and author of Renewing the Process of Creation.

Episode 23, with Annie Murphy Paul, science writer and author of Origins, The Cult of Personality Testing and the forthcoming The Extended Mind.

Episode 24, with Connor Wood, Ph.D., Research Associate at the Center for Mind and Culture, focusing on the evolutionary study of religion and religion-science issues.

Episode 25, with Helen de Cruz, Ph.D., professor in the humanities at Saint Louis University, who studies how we form beliefs in domains remote from everyday life.

Episode 26, with Megan Powell Cuzzolino, Ed. D., researcher and educator whose primary focus is on the emotion of awe and its role in scientific learning and discovery.

Episode 27, with Professor Julien Musolino, Ph.D., of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, who studies the capacities of the human mind and the history and development of science, author of The Soul Fallacy.

Episode 28, with Rabbi Rachel Ain, a congregational rabbi at Sutton Place Synagogue, a Scientists in Synagogues congregation.

Episode 29, with David Rosmarin, Ph.D., Director of the Spirituality and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

Episode 30, with Dr. Grace Wolf-Chase, Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, where she studies the origins of stars and planets.

Episode 31, with Dan Rothstein, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Democracy-Building Programs at the Right Question Institute (RQI), teaching parents and students what questions to ask.  

Episode 32, with Robyn Fivush, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Emory University, who studies the parent-child narrative and the development of autobiographical memory.

Episode 33, with Rabbi Daniel Swartz, author of To Till and To Tend: A Guide for Jewish Environmental Study and Action

Episode 34, with Yair Lior, Ph.D., founder of Scholarium and Professor at Boston University, who applies systems theory, information theory, and a cultural evolutionary framework to comparative religion

Episode 35, with Joelle Novey, Director of Interfaith Power and Light for MD-DC-NoVA (Maryland-DC-North Virginia)

Episode 36, with Professor Stuart Firestein, Ph.D., former chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, author of Ignorance: How it Drives Science, and Failure: Why Science Is So Successful

Episode 37, with Professor Larry Lesser, Ph.D., of the University of Texas at El Paso, whose education work includes connections among math/statistics, Judaism, and music

Episode 38, with Dr. Lisa Miller, professor at Teacher’s College, Columbia University, author of Lifelong Thriving and The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality

Episode 39, with Roy Plotnick, Ph.D., paleontologist and professor emeritus in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Episode 40, with Amy Herman, a lawyer and art historian who teaches courses on observation, analysis and communication, author of Fixed: How to Perfect the Fine Art of Problem-Solving.

Episode 41, with Rabbi Annie Tucker, Senior Rabbi at Temple Israel Center in White Plains, NY, who has led Scientists in Synagogues programs at multiple synagogues.

Episode 42, with Dominic Packer, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Lehigh University, co-author of The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony

Episode 43, with Dr. David Zvi Kalman, Director of New Media at Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where he studies the connections between Jewish law and the history of technology.

Episode 44, with Michael Dine, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Physics, Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California at Santa Cruz, author of This Way to the Universe: A Theoretical Physicist's Journey to the Edge of Reality.

Episode 45, with Professors Gale Sinatra (Middlebury College) and Barbara Hofer (Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California), co-authors of Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It.

Episode 46, with Daniel H. Pink, author of five New York Times bestsellers about social science, most recently The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward.

Episode 47, with Rebecca Saxe, Ph.D., John W. Jarve Professor in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, who studies how we assess the mental states of other people.

Episode 48, with Rabbi Richard Agler, Director of the Tali Fund, which promotes organ donation; author of The Tragedy Test: Making Sense of Life Changing Loss and A God We Can Believe In.

Episode 49, with anthropologist Dr. Agustin Fuentes, who researches the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans and animals with whom humanity shares close relations. 

Episode 50, with Michael Kaplan, Principal Consultant at Kaplan Astronautics, LLC, creator and leader of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) program at NASA.

 

Upcoming Guests

To Be Announced


Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman is the Founding Director of Sinai and Synapses, an organization that bridges the scientific and religious worlds, and is being incubated at Clal – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.

His work has been supported by the John Templeton FoundationEmanuel J. Friedman Philanthropies, and the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, and his writings about the intersection of religion and science have been published in the books Seven Days, Many Voices and A Life of Meaning (both published by the CCAR press), as well as on The Huffington PostNautilusOrbiterScience and Religion TodayJewish Telegraphic Agency, and My Jewish Learning. He has been an adjunct professor at both the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion and the Academy for Jewish Religion, and is an internationally sought-out teacher, presenter, and scholar-in-residence.