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PODCAST

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality

While religion and science often seem at odds, there’s one thing they can agree on: people who take part in spiritual practices tend to live longer, healthier, and happier lives. The big question is: Why? In How God Works, professor Dave DeSteno takes us on a journey to find out how spirituality impacts our minds and bodies, as well as the world in which we live.He speaks to leading scientists and philosophers, religious thinkers, and thought leaders to explore what we can learn from the

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All Episodes

31:20

DIY Spirituality?

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2026/03/15

About 70% of all Americans consider themselves spiritual in some way, whether it be a belief in the soul, spirits or just the idea that something's going on beyond the natural world and what science can prove. But that doesn't mean they're ordering off the menu of organized religion. In this episode, we’ll talk to religion professor Liz Bucar, about this “spiritual salad bar” approach: where people pick and choose ingredients from various religions. What’s lost if we take these traditions

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02:14

Season 10 Trailer

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2026/03/08

Join us for Season 10 of How God Works, starting next week!

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01:22:26

Uniter or Divider? Explore Religion in Modern...

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2026/02/22

We’ll be back on March 15 with an all-new season of How God Works! In the meantime, we’re excited to share one of our favorite episodes — our very first live event.If you ask people what they think about religion, you often get one of two answers: Religion is the source of war, violence, abuse, and hypocrisy OR a route to love, kindness, tolerance, and mercy.Put another way, it’s either what divides us or it’s the thing that can actually bring us together. In a country deeply divided over

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36:52

The Spiritual (and Political) Crisis in the US (From...

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2026/02/08

A brand-new season of How God Works returns March 15! In the meantime, we’re revisiting a powerful episode from our archive that feels particularly relevant today. Anger, loneliness, and despair are hitting record levels in the US. Our social and political fabrics are fraying. Is the turn away from religion in the US part of the problem? And if so, might a spiritual renaissance (even among the secular left) help us find new ways to flourish? Join Dave as he talks with podcast host Krista

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34:58

Mattering

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2026/01/25

Feeling that our life is meaningful - that we add value to the world and are valued by the people around us, isn’t just a good feeling, it's a fundamentally necessary one. In fact, the need to matter is a universal human motive, second only to the needs of food and shelter. On this episode we'll talk to author Jennifer Wallace about her new book on the topic of mattering, why we’re in a “mattering deficit,” the worrying impact this is having on our physical and emotional health, and what

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38:27

Rethinking Sin (From the Archive)

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2026/01/11

For many people, the word “sin” is associated with harsh judgment and shame. Or, it’s used to talk about guilty pleasures like consuming decadent desserts... But is this concept as harmful or outdated as it seems?Join Dave as he talks with Elizabeth Oldfield about Christianity’s Seven Deadly Sins, and how reconceptualizing them for modern life can offer a science-backed user’s manual of sorts to find joy and connection in this world, whatever your beliefs. Elizabeth Oldfield is host of The

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39:52

The End of the World As We Know It

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/12/28

These days, it feels like the end of the world is always just around the corner. From RaptureTok to climate doom and geopolitical upheaval, someone always seems to be predicting an impending apocalypse. But how does believing in The End affect how we are in the world? And is there a healthier way to navigate living in uncertain times?On this episode, we’ll talk to writer Dina Nayeri about growing up in a community that saw the apocalypse as right around the corner, and what she now sees as

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39:11

Dream Yoga

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/12/14

We spend about a third of our lives sleeping and yet the question of why we sleep and dream has remained a mystery for much of human existence. But recently scientists have developed the tools to begin to reveal some astonishing insights into lucid dreaming and its uses. In this episode, we'll talk to neuroscientist Ken Paller about the science of Lucid dreaming. Whether it's something any of us can learn to do and what benefits it might offer. And while the science of lucid dreaming and

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40:59

Shamanism

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/11/30

When life feels uncertain, who do you turn to? Across cultures and throughout history, many of us have looked to people who seemed to have a special set of abilities and knowledge… shamans.On this episode, we’ll talk to anthropologist Manvir Singh about what shamanism actually is, how it works, and why its appeal is both timeless and universal. From a remote island in Indonesia to American Pentecostal churches, we’ll explore how shamans harness ritual, empathy, and performance to help

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34:02

Give Us This Day Our Daily Kale

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/11/16

For most of human history, religion guided people’s choices about health and food. Then with the rise of modern nutritional science in the 19th century, people began to favor scientific advice over religious ideas about how to eat. But lately, a new generation of Christian diet influencers are putting the God back in nutritional guidance, sometimes at the expense of science altogether. And this messaging might not be creating healthier or holier people. We'll talk to New York Times writer

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38:42

Becoming Wise

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/11/02

We often think of wisdom as something that comes with age, or as a gift reserved for a chosen few. But what if wisdom is more like a muscle… one that becomes stronger with practice?On this episode, we’re exploring the true meaning of wisdom. We’ll talk to psychologist Igor Grossmann and Jesuit priest Barton Geger about how science and spirituality have come to many of the same conclusions about what wisdom looks like in practice and what we can all do to train our hearts and minds to see

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27:45

Seeking the Spiritual Life

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/10/19

If you want to grow spiritually, should you go to a monastery and withdraw from the world, or look for greater meaning, connection, and purpose in the loud messiness of life? In other words, do you heal the world by working in it or praying for it? Philosophers and spiritual thinkers have debated it for centuries, but perhaps finding the right balance is the answer. On this episode of How God Works, we’ll talk with journalist Sigal Samuel, about the centuries old debate over the spiritual

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40:53

The Friendship Cure

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/10/05

We say friends are what make life worth living. But if that’s true, why are so many of us struggling to find and keep them these days? And what can we do to cultivate better friendships?Join us as we talk to psychiatrist Robert Waldinger about the importance of friendship to our health and happiness, and to philosopher Samuel Kimbriel about the keys to forming meaningful friendships and the helpful advice spiritual traditions offer. Along the way, we’ll also ask what it means to be a good

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01:45

Season 9 Trailer

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/09/28

Join us for Season 9 of How God Works, starting next week!

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35:54

Healing Rituals: There's Power in Belief (From the...

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/09/14

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 medicine to heal can play a role in recovery via the placebo effect. Join

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36:27

Midlife: Leaning Into the Change (From the Archive)

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/09/02

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 joy and satisfaction. Join Dave as he talks to The Atlantic columnist

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27:17

HGW Presents: How Rituals Help Us Process Grief (The...

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/08/17

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, and learn about its evolution from a 3,000 year old practice to a

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49:25

HGW Presents: Kelly Corrigan Wonders (with Rainn Wilson)

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/08/03

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 Dwight Schrute) is making a serious call for a spiritual revolution based on

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45:11

Losing Our Religion or Finding What Matters?

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/07/20

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, compassion, and community in a post-religious age with Krista

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34:16

Speaking in Tongues

How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality ·

2025/06/29

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 movements in modern history. So why has it not only persisted, but

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