2 DGN GELEDEN

Ep.10: Why Do We Think Spiritual Growth Has to Be Stressful?

Why do we feel spiritually stuck… even when life is going well? In this episode, I open up about something I didn’t expect to be encountering post-PhD: feeling spiritually understimulated. No books or reading, just a check-in on what happens when stillness can lead to feeling disconnected, unfocused, and even bored sometimes. Things I am thinking about… Why do we associate spiritual growth with struggle and suffering?How can routines be a means of reconnecting? Why boredom and stillness might actually be necessary for growth? Chapters 00:00 Grounding Question: Why Do We Think Spiritual Growth Has to Be Stressful? 00:30 Opening 01:11 Feeling Spiritually Understimulated

20 min.

27 APR

Ep. 9: Why ‘Start With Yourself’ Is a Myth

“Why ‘Start With Yourself’ Is a Myth” What if the idea that success and wealth “start with yourself” is actually a myth? This week, I'm bringing a religious studies lens to the self-help industry and break down the buzz and backlash around Emma Grede’s Start With Yourself. I use it as a case study to think about how myths work and how the American Dream continues to sell individual success as the solution to structural problems. I argue that Grede’s message reflects a gendered and racialized version of success often marketed to Black women and women of color, what I think of as the millennial-coded myth of the pick-me. From there, I turn to Black thought and the Black Nationalist Movement, specifically the Republic of New Afrika, to explore alternative visions of success beyond capitalism and self-making. I close by thinking at the intersections of the spiritual and the intellectual as I try to define what success looks like in this new career chapter I am presently in. Chapters 00:00 Opening 00:40 Grounding in My Own Version of Success 02:30 How Myth Functions 06:28 Emma Grede & the Myth of the Pick Me 15:06 A Vision of Success Beyond Capitalism References Kees W. Bolle, “Myth: An Overview,” Encyclopedia of Religion (2005) Imari Obadele, Foundations of the Black Nation (1975)

29 min.

20 APR

Ep. 8: What’s Divine About the Black Femme?

There’s so much talk about the divine feminine out there. So what’s divine about being femme?✨ This week, we turn to Audre Lorde and Ashley Coleman Taylor to get a sense of what is divine about the Black femme through a Black queer and religious studies lens. We talk about A LOT. What’s the difference between popular culture takes and social media discourse on the divine feminine and Lorde and Coleman’s theorizing about the Black femme as divine? A lot. Most of the time, the girls are not talking about the same thing. And we get into how a lot of talk about the divine feminine defines itself over and against the Black femme embodiment like that of the rap girls (Sexyy Red, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, etc.). I explore how Lorde and Coleman Taylor’s work offer a beautiful and capacious understanding of the divine femme! You’ll have to listen for that! And how this definition also opens up a third option for how people answer questions about being Muslim and queerness. Chapters 00:00 Opening 00:40 Grounded in the Baddie Routine 03:34 Grounding Question: What Is Divine About the Black Femme 05:51 Who Is the Black Femme 14:02 Divine: A relentless commitment to becoming on your own terms References Coleman Taylor, Ashley. "Religio-erotic Experience and Transoceanic Becoming at the Shoreline in Audre Lorde’s Zami." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 91, no. 3 (2023): 680–697.

28 min.

13 APR

Ep. 7: Listener Question: What Do Muslims Mean When They Say, “I Fear No One but Allah?”

We’ve got another listener question! 💌 This week’s: What do Muslims mean when they say, “I fear no one but Allah?” Drawing on my research on Black Muslima thought and history, I turn to two thinkers who have given the saying meaning within the context of U.S. anti-Blackness, imperialism, and gender violence: Safiya Bukhari and Amina Wadud. I discuss how the phrase has been a rallying call to struggle against tyranny and oppression, an action-oriented understanding of what it means to be Muslim and embody Islamic monotheism. Chapters 00:00 Opening 00:40 Grounded in the Fact That It Is That Deep 04:59 Listener Question: What Do Muslims Mean When They Say, “I Fear No One but Allah?” 07:53 Safiyah Bukhari’s Escape from Prison 15:43 Fearing No One, Not Even Snakes 20:46 Amina Wadud and the Tawhidic Paradigm 26:40 Closing References: Bukhari, Safiya. The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison & Fighting for Those Left Behind. The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2010. Churchill, Ward. Cointelpro Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States. South End, 2002. Husain, Atiya. No God but Man: On Race, Knowledge, and Terrorism. Duke University Press, 2024. Wadud, Amina. Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective. OUP US, 1999. Wadud, Amina. “Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam.” Praktyka Teoretyczna 08 (2013): 249–262.

29 min.

6 APR

Ep. 6: Why Is It Important to Study Religion and Spirituality?

Why I think studying religion is a social good… Bet you thought I was gonna say something like “it helps you understand the diversity of the world.” WRONG. If you’ve been here for a while, you know DEI speak ain’t got a place here. Now that I’ve got your attention. The study of religion… Is the study of what people do and the meaning they give to those actions. And once you know that, then you begin to see how power and authority are cultivated, maintained, and resisted in this world. You understand how myths work, you begin to see how systems hold power over you by selling you fiction they market as truth. You understand how rituals work, you begin to see that the most impactful social movements and thinkers have all ritualized resistance in some way. You understand how authority works, you start moving in a way that aligns with what you think should have authority over your life, not what you’re told should have. You understand how knowledge is produced, you start producing your own and finding meaning + purpose in knowledge they’ve told you has none. The study of religion is a social good because it helps one see the world as it is and turns your attention to all the possibilities of what it could be. It’s the study of critique not rooted in despair or ambivalence. It’s the study of how the spiritual AND the material are one and the same. It’s the study of how the status quo is maintained and resisted. Chapters 00:00 Welcome 00:40 Grounding in my own answers 01:59 Why is it important to study religion + spirituality? 05:15 Myth of the Millennial Pick Me 12:04 Rituals that give the everyday meaning 15:10 Authority to move how YOU wanna move 21:25 Knowledge also comes from within References Ali, Tazeen M. The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority and Community in US Islam. NYU Press, 2022. Lorde, Audre. “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power (1978).” Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (2020): 53–59. Pérez, Elizabeth. “Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions.” In Religion in the Kitchen. New York University Press, 2016. Episode 3: What’s the Difference Between Religion and Spirituality Episode 4: Listener Question: How to Make a Writing Practice (or Any Practice) Spiritual

28 min.

30 MRT

Ep. 5: How to See the Unseen?

How can you see the unseen? And does it matter if you don’t “believe” in it, as a scholar of religion? This week, I’m thinking through how we, as scholars of religion (yes, that includes you if you’re listening), come to see and engage the unseen, regardless of whether we “believe” in it or can perceive it through our physical senses. I also share how I encounter and draw on the unseen in my own intellectual work and practices, and what this has taught me about a much broader, more embodied understanding of the unseen. One that goes beyond flickering lights, things flying across rooms, or haunting silhouettes. Follow me on socials @imanabdk for more of my thinking on the unseen. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:40 The unseen tested me 02:26 What is the unseen? 03:28 Does it matter if I believe in the unseen? 05:58 Stop trying to arbitrate the real 12:21 Beyond ghosts 14:00 My encounters with the unseen 18:50 Broadening what we consider the unseen Works referenced: Ahmad Greene-Hayes, “Hair, Roots, and Crystal Balls: Archival Viscerality, Black Conjuring Traditions, and the Study of American Religions,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 91, no. 4 (2023): 798–819. Amira Mittermaier, Dreams That Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination (University of California Press, 2010). Safiya Bukhari, The War Before: The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison & Fighting for Those Left Behind (The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2010).

26 min.

23 MRT

Ep. 4: Listener Question: How to Make a Writing Practice (or Really Any Practice) Spiritual?

We've got our first listener question! How did you make your writing practice feel like a spiritual practice? I break down three ways I made the dissertation writing practice feel like a spiritual practice: thinking about writing as channeling, ritualizing the whole thing, and working in some collective accountability. I've NEVER been motivated by the kind of disposition that says "get up and grind," "show you're the smartest," "dominate the field you are in," or "be the best." It works for some people, just not me. But what has always helped me tap into the kind of discipline I needed in this moment was seeing the task before me as a challenge for obtaining spiritual depth. You mean I’ll get to know myself better through this practice? Develop a deeper connection to my ancestors? Think about my work as part of a larger tradition? Now that I will get up and do every day. Works referenced: For my reference to "archival ancestors," see Ahmad Greene-Hayes Underworld Work: Black Atlantic Religion Making in Jim Crow New Orleans (University of Chicago Press, 2025). For my reference to "ancestrally responsible work," check out the amazing public, artistic, and scholarly work of Alexis Pauline Gumbs, including Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde (Penguin, 2024). For my note on getting started with ancestor veneration, I learned so much from Ehime Ora's Spiritu Come From Water: An Introduction to Ancestral Veneration and Reclaiming African Spiritual Practices (Hay House, 2025) and JuJu Bae's The Book of Juju: Africana Spirituality for Healing, Liberation, and Self-Discovery (Sterling Ethos, 2024).

24 min.

16 MRT

Ep. 3: What's the Difference Between Religion and Spirituality?

What's the difference between religion and spirituality? This is the second most frequently asked question I get as a scholar of religion, next to “Oh, so you're a minister.” And to be honest, folks tend to be disappointed by my answer to both. When it comes to the religion versus spirituality question, that is often because my answer focuses less on defining the terms and more on the question itself. I am fascinated by what is really going on in people’s thought worlds when they want me to distinguish between religion and spirituality in the first place. This week, I'm thinking through my own experiences alongside Robert A. Orsi’s Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them (Princeton University Press, 2005). If you like the episode, don’t forget to share it with a friend and follow me @imanabdk on socials.

23 min.

9 MRT

Ep. 2: Are We Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams?

I have a very complex, sometimes maybe a little too intense, relationship I have had with time. One that left me extremely skeptical of the saying "we're our ancestors' wildest dreams" when I first heard it. I’m coming to this reflection during the cross-over episode that is Ramadan intersecting with Black History Month, which has got me thinking its time to heal my own relationship to time. This week, I'm finding grounding in a beautiful concept written about by Alexis Pauline Gumbs: dream time. This idea really changed how I think about my responsibility to, as they say, use my time wisely. Follow me @imanabdk on socials for more at the intersections of the spiritual and the intellectual! -- I did the reading so you don't have to, but as always, I'd love to hear what you think about it too! Send me a DM or comment on the show directly on Spotify. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, “Prophecy in the Present Tense: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee Pilgrimage, and Dreams Coming True,” Meridians 12, no. 2 (2014): 142–152.

24 min.

2 MRT

Ep. 1: Where the Spiritual Meets the Intellectual

Welcome to the Grounded podcast with your host, Dr. Iman. This is a space where the intellectual meets the spiritual. I'm a professor, scholar of religion, and someone trying to find her footing. I will introduce you to the people, discussions, and schools of thought that have changed how I see the world. Together we'll seek clarity, not in passivity or bypassing, but in intuition, critique, and imagination. Some episodes are just me reflecting on where I'm finding my footing. Others draw more closely from my own research on religion and spirituality, tracing where I've seen others find theirs. And sometimes we're joined by experts, friends, and even you, the listeners, learning with each other and seeking rootedness together. In this episode, you can hear me talking about the very new season of life that I am in and how I'm finding grounding in abeautoful question asked by Katherine McKittrick and Eugenia Zuroski, where do you know from? --- References I did the reading so you don't have to, but of course I want you to too ;) Zuroski, Eugenia. "Where Do You Know From?: An Exercise in Placing Ourselves Together in the Classroom." MAI: Feminism (2020).

27 min.

11 FEB

You're in the right place.

If you’re anything like me, you want your big-idea, smart podcasts to have some soul and life to them. But when you go looking for that in the more “woo-woo” corners, it can feel like everyone is promising to change your life or sell you something. And it doesn’t always feel grounded in the kind of research and intellectual work that makes spirituality feel real. So I’ve got something for you. Welcome to the Grounded Podcast with your host, Dr. Iman. This is a space where the intellectual meets the spiritual. I’m a professor, a scholar of religion, and someone learning how to find her footing in real time. I’ll introduce you to the people, conversations, and schools of thought that have changed how I see the world. Together, we’ll seek clarity not through passivity or bypassing, but through intuition, critique, and imagination. Some episodes are just me reflecting on where I’m finding my footing. Others draw from my research on religion and spirituality, tracing where I’ve seen others find theirs. And sometimes we’re joined by experts, friends, and even you, the listeners, learning with each other and seeking rootedness together. So wherever this takes us, I’m really glad you’re here. Let’s get grounded.

1 min.

Grounded

Afleveringen

Ep.10: Why Do We Think Spiritual Growth Has to Be Stressful?

Ep. 9: Why ‘Start With Yourself’ Is a Myth

Ep. 8: What’s Divine About the Black Femme?

Ep. 7: Listener Question: What Do Muslims Mean When They Say, “I Fear No One but Allah?”

Ep. 6: Why Is It Important to Study Religion and Spirituality?

Ep. 5: How to See the Unseen?

Ep. 4: Listener Question: How to Make a Writing Practice (or Really Any Practice) Spiritual?

Ep. 3: What's the Difference Between Religion and Spirituality?

Ep. 2: Are We Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams?

Ep. 1: Where the Spiritual Meets the Intellectual

You're in the right place.

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You're in the right place.

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