How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality

We will be back with a whole new season of How God Works on October 5th. In the meantime, we wanted to share some of our favorite episodes from the archives. 

A majority of people in the US believe that faith can heal. And while there isn’t any strong scientific data backing the idea of faith healing by divine intervention, there is a growing recognition that faith in the power of a person, religious ritual, or even medicin...

We'll be back with a whole new season of How God Works on October 5th. But in the meantime, we wanted to share some of our favorite episodes from the archives.

Data shows that for many people, happiness takes a big dip around 50. But aging doesn’t have to be a crisis if we can figure out how to embrace who we’re becoming rather than hanging on to who we used to be. If done right, midlife can actually be a time of deepening ...

How God Works will be back with all new episodes this fall. In the meantime, we're taking the opportunity to share episodes from some of our favorite shows with you, our listeners. Today, we're excited to feature an episode from our friends at The Science of Happiness podcast, hosted by Dacher Keltner.

Summary: We investigate how Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead,  rituals strengthen family ties and cultural identity, ...

How God Works will be back with all new episodes this fall. In the meantime, we're taking the opportunity to share episodes from some of our favorite shows with you, our listeners. Today, we're excited to feature a conversation from the podcast Kelly Corrigan Wonders, featuring Rainn Wilson, creator of the book and podcast Soul Boom. 

"Going Deep with Rainn Wilson on Spirituality"

Rainn Wilson (who you might know as ...

As more Americans move away from organized religion, the moral and emotional needs once met by faith communities remain. What can secular society borrow from spiritual traditions — ritual, meaning, belonging and moral imagination — to nourish the human spirit and strengthen our shared civic life? In this conversation, recorded live at the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival, Dave explores how sacred wisdom can still guide character,...

The spiritual practice of speaking in tongues –a form of communication with the divine through speaking words in an unknown or unrecognizable language– has invited a lot of speculation and skepticism over the years. To many, it seems like the stuff of horror movies, or old-timey religious revivals. But charismatic Christianity, for which speaking in tongues is a central practice, is one of the fastest growing Christian mov...

What is prayer? And why do it? People pray for all kinds of reasons, and in all kinds of ways: alone, together, aloud, in silence, from memory, or from instinct. But whatever form it takes, there’s a reason prayer has been part of just about every spiritual tradition out there: its effects run deep. 

On this episode, we’re digging into the science and spirit of prayer. We’ll talk to neuroscientist Andrew Newberg about what ...

There's a lot of talk these days about a crisis of masculinity. But is it a genuine problem or just another culture war talking point? 

In this special episode, we’ll talk to writer and researcher Richard Reeves about the real and worrying data around the male struggle for meaning and purpose, and what role community and ritual can play in helping men find answers. We’ll also hear from Dr. Russell Moore and Pastor Rasool Be...

 Hey listeners, we'll be back in two weeks with a special episode looking at the multiple challenges facing men in America today. But while you wait, we wanted to share an episode from Season 2 of our show that feels especially relevant to that conversation. Think of it as a prequel or primer, because part of the problem, and possibly part of the solution, may have to do with how boys become men in the first place. We hope...

For centuries, Western science and philosophy have struggled to explain what consciousness is and where it comes from. What if the answer to both those questions is: everything?

On this episode, we dive into panpsychism: the idea that consciousness may not be limited to humans, or even living beings, but could be a basic property of reality itself. We’ll talk to philosopher Philip Goff about why this idea is gaining attenti...

People find faith or change faiths for many reasons: marriage, raising a family, dealing with  grief or crisis. But sometimes it happens the other way around… faith finds you. A believing takes hold, a sense that something divine is there. And maybe not in the way or role that you might have expected. 

It’s not uncommon. Data show that these types of experiences happen to about 30% of people. On this episode we’ll talk to o...

Many would agree there are few things better than sharing a delicious meal with the people you love, which is one reason why breaking bread together is a cornerstone of religions the world over. But so too is the opposite - going without food.  From Ramadan to Yom Kippur to Lent, fasting is an important ritual in many faiths. But why do so many religions periodically take away the very thing that nourishes our bodies and s...

We often think of belief as a religious or cultural idea that is a hallmark of modern humans. But what if the early sparks of belief burned in our ancestors’ minds long before modern humans walked the earth? What if beliefs about some of the biggest questions out there, like what happens after death, weren’t just pondered by Homo sapiens?

On this episode, evolutionary anthropologist Agustín Fuentes takes us on a journey spa...

When it comes to finding happiness, many religions see marriage as the gold standard: a path to love, stability, and fulfillment. But is that really true? And if so, why are marriage rates plummeting in so many parts of the world?

In this episode, we’ll talk to anthropologist Joseph Henrich about the surprising history of marriage and monogamy, including how these institutions helped lay the groundwork for much of our moder...

We'll be back with a whole new season of How God Works on March 9th. But in the meantime, we wanted to share shows from our archives that speak to some of the most pressing challenges we're all facing today. It’s only February, and already this has been an intense year. So if you’re feeling stressed today, how about… a breather?

It’s no accident that the Hebrew word for breath is the same as the word for spirit (ruach). Bre...

We'll be back with a whole new season of How God Works starting in early March. But in the meantime, we wanted to share a few shows from our archives that speak to some of the most pressing challenges we're all facing today.

Hate and prejudice based on ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual orientation are all too common in our world. But are we doomed to be this way? Or is it possible to create a world where cooperation an...

Artificial Intelligence, and its possible applications to religion, have been in the news a lot lately, so while we're busy working on Season 8, we thought we'd share this episode from 2022 with you.

Can you pray with a robot? Will people worship AI like a god? It’s not science fiction. It’s starting to happen now. But what does it mean if robots become priests, or AIs start offering ethical advice? And how do we know when ...