Of This World

Nick Tabor and Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins
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Of This World is a podcast dedicated to discussing religion and politics. Co-hosts Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, a historian at Wesleyan University, and Nick Tabor, a journalist and author, talk with scholars, writers, and theologians working at the seam between faith and the secular. Across each episode they return to one question: can there be an effective religious left in the United States? A joint production with Commonweal magazine.

Episodes

  1. May 21

    Pope Leo XIV: A Conversation with Journalist Elise Ann Allen

    Hosts and Commonweal contributors Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Nick Tabor chat with journalist Elise Ann Allen, the Rome correspondent for Crux, about her new book,  (Penguin Random House). Together, they discuss how Allen came to know then-Bishop Robert Prevost while investigating an abuse scandal in Peru, the formative decades he spent as a missionary amid poverty, terrorism, and political upheaval there, the influence of Augustinian spirituality and liberation theology on his social conscience, and how his instincts for unity and peacemaking are shaping a papacy that, as his recent trip to Africa revealed, is only beginning to find its voice. Episode production and original music by Joel Myers.

    54 min

  2. May 7

    Minnesota, Mamdani, and Iran—A Conversation with Kambiz GhaneaBassiri

    Hosts and Commonweal contributors Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Nick Tabor chat with historian of Islam Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, professor of religion at Carleton College and author of A History of Islam in America: From the New World to the New World Order (Cambridge University Press), which examines Muslim political life in Trump’s America. In this episode, the three discuss the grassroots faith-based coalition behind Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory in New York, the Muslim community’s response to ICE raids in Minnesota and its roots in post-9/11 organizing, and what the war in Iran reveals about a regional politics driven more by the interests of billionaires and Gulf states than by the lives of ordinary people across the Middle East. Episode production and original music by Joel Myers.

    52 min

  3. Apr 21

    The Great Global Transformation: A Conversation with Economist Branko Milanović

    Hosts and Commonweal contributors Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Nick Tabor chat with economist Branko Milanović, senior scholar at the CUNY Graduate Center, about his new book, The Great Global Transformation: The United States, China, and the Remaking of the World Economic Order (University of Chicago Press). Together, they discuss the end of the neoliberal era, the rise of what Milanović calls "national market liberalism," the economic and geopolitical consequences of a multipolar world, and what the greatest reshuffling of global incomes since the Industrial Revolution means for the future of capitalism.  Episode production and original music by Joel Myers.

    43 min

  4. Mar 26

    The Black Church and Progressive Politics: A Conversation with Gary Dorrien

    Hosts and Commonweal contributors Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Nick Tabor chat with Gary Dorrien, professor at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary, about the life and legacy of Jesse Jackson and the Black social gospel tradition. They explore Dorrien's own intellectual journey from rural Michigan to the academy, his groundbreaking trilogy on the Black social gospel, Jackson's relationship with Martin Luther King Jr., the Rainbow Coalition presidential campaigns of the 1980s, and what Jackson's career reveals about the enduring ties between the Black church and progressive politics.  Episode production and original music by Joel Myers.

    1h 11m

  5. Mar 6

    On the Altar: A Conversation with Historian Jonathan Sheehan

    Hosts and Commonweal contributors Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Nick Tabor chat with Jonathan Sheehan, professor of European History at UC Berkeley, about his new book On the Altar: A History of Sacrifice from the Sacred to the Secular (Princeton University Press). They explore the long, contested history of Christian sacrifice from the early church and the cult of the martyrs through the Reformation and into the secular modern world, and discuss what the language of sacrifice might still offer us today. Episode production and original music by Joel Myers.

    43 min

  6. Feb 23

    Revelation and Reporting: A Conversation with Journalist Daniel Silliman

    Hosts and Commonweal contributors Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Nick Tabor chat with reporter Daniel Silliman about his tenure at Christianity Today, his bombshell reporting on Ravi Zacharias, the current state of Evangelicals‚ and more.  Episode production and original music by Joel Myers.

    55 min

  7. Jan 21

    American Charisms: A Conversation with 'Spellbound' Author Molly Worthen

    Hosts and Commonweal contributors Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Nick Tabor discuss Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump with author Molly Worthen, professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Episode production and original music by Joel Myers.

    50 min

  8. Jan 8

    Christianity's American Fate

    Hosts and Commonweal contributors Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins and Nick Tabor introduce the podcast and discuss the book Christianity's American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular by David Hollinger, the Preston Hotchkis Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. Episode production and original music by Joel Myers.

    38 min
  • 8 Episodes

About

Of This World is a podcast dedicated to discussing religion and politics. Co-hosts Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, a historian at Wesleyan University, and Nick Tabor, a journalist and author, talk with scholars, writers, and theologians working at the seam between faith and the secular. Across each episode they return to one question: can there be an effective religious left in the United States? A joint production with Commonweal magazine.

Information

  • Creator
    Nick Tabor and Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins
  • Episodes
    8
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Nick Tabor and Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins