Rad Religion is a weekly radio segment on Sydney's 2SER 107.3, dedicated to exploring that fertile territory created when religions meet popular culture. Each week we look at a unique combination of a religious tradition and a contemporary music genre, and trace the paths back to see how it came abo…
Could we say that capitalism is the religion of modernity? Or at least a part thereof? For the final topic of Rad Religion, we chatted about how money and capitalism could be ‘religious’. Hear us chat here: We also played … Continue reading →
I recently visited Thailand and was impressed by the richness of Thai popular religious traditions. We played a couple of Thai pop songs as part of this week’s segment. It was the first half of a double feature to mark … Continue reading →
Guitar-pickin’ monks and bluesy Buddhists are our topic today. Listen to us chat about the cultural flexibility of Buddhism here: We played a couple of American Buddhist folksy tracks: ‘Yashodara‘ from the Venerable Heng Sure; and ‘Zen Gospel Singing‘ from … Continue reading →
Today we looked at what might be the most widespread myth in Western culture: the myth of romantic love. Hear us chat about it here: We played ‘This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)’ by Natalie Cole – which my girlfriend reliably … Continue reading →
Christians aren’t the only ones rockin’ in God’s name – today we looked at the Sikh bands who are doing the same thing. Listen to some tracks and our discussion here: We listened to ‘Tu Kaun Hai‘ by The Roving … Continue reading →
Today we tried to get ourselves immersed in Mexican culture with the quirky traditions of la Día de los Muertos. Hear us chat about it here: We played a couple of traditional Mexican tunes to get in the mood: ‘Cruz … Continue reading →
Flow, oneness, connection, selflessness, immediacy – all of these notions are central to both Zen Buddhism and jazz improvisation. Hear us chat about the links here: Tracks we played were ‘Rita‘ by Jazztronik, and ‘Kogun‘ by Toshiko Akiyoshi. Zen is … Continue reading →
Take some Indian mythology and put it to a beat, and you’ll get today’s topic – Hindu rap. Listen to the segment here: (NB: The tracks are now included in the audio here, due to changed agreements between community broadcasters … Continue reading →