Learn more about the innovative religious communities working to serve people who feel out of place in traditional worship services.

Marion Bowman is a senior lecturer in religious studies at The Open University in England. She studies people on the edges of and outside organized religion, with a particular interest in nontraditional pilgrimage.

Greg Russinger is the co-founder and board president of Laundry Love, a ministry run out of laundromats across the country.

Lennon Flowers is the co-founder and executive director of The Dinner Party, which facilitates conversations about loss over shared meals. She also leads The People’s Supper, which addresses ideological, political and racial divides.

Kassi Underwood is a meditation adviser for Harvard Innovation Lab, where she offers spiritual counseling to students. She is also pursuing her master’s at Harvard Divinity School. Arrange an interview through the contact form on her website.

Caroline Starkey is a sociologist of religion at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. She studies religious practice in Great Britain, religion and gender and contemporary Buddhism.

Kim Lam is an associate research fellow at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia. She has written about the transformation of Buddhist meditation into a secular mindfulness practice.

Food plays a big role in Ramadan. But food waste shouldn’t, according to a growing number of Muslims.

Katie Sorrell is the interfaith wellness director for the University of California, San Diego’s Center for Community Health. In 2017, the center partnered with local Muslim groups to reduce food waste during Ramadan.