Comparative Religion Podcasts

Dr. Christopher Tounsel is an historian of Sudan and a scholar of Global Blackness who puts “race and religion as political technologies” at the center of his research and teaching.  Join us as we unpack what that work means today, on campus and off, from the Mahdist wars of 19th century Sudan to the 2016 election of Donald Trump.  Recorded on Jan. 29, 2026

Our series introductory and closing music are generously provided by Dr. John-Carlos Perea, chair of the UW Ethnomusicology program, from the title track of his 2014 CD Creation Story.  For more, see johncarlosperea.bandcamp.com/album/creation-story.

Dr. John-Carlos Perea (Mescalero Apache, Irish, Chicano, German) brings it all to his religious studies scholarship – his role as associate professor and chair of the ethnomusicology department at the UW; his talents as a multi instrumentalist jazz musician and composer; his research into intertribal Native American musical forms, jazz traditions and the work of Creek and Kaw saxophonist Jim Pepper. Join us for a musical first installation of our exploration of what UW religious studies can be.
Recorded on Jan. 14, 2026

This episode’s introductory and closing music comes from the title track of John-Carlos Perea’s 2014 CD Creation Story. For more, see johncarlosperea.bandcamp.com/album/creation-story.

Evangelicalism is not new in American political life.  But the second Trump administration coincides with a surprising development in the role of Christian faith in the nation’s politics.  The once fringe notion of Christian Nationalism now sits squarely at the point of intersection of American culture, politics and the economy.  Danny Hoffman, Director of the Jackson School of International Studies, interviews Jim Wellman, Professor and former Chair of the UW’s Comparative Religion Program, which is housed in the Jackson School, on what Christian Nationalism means and the tensions it creates in faith communities and secular politics. Wellman’s latest book is “High on God: How Megachurches Won a Nation,” published by Oxford University Press in February 2020.
Recorded Nov. 7, 2025