Andrew Ali Aghapour is a scholar, storyteller, writer, and artistic producer living in Durham, NC. With a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from UNC-Chapel Hill, he worked as the Consulting Scholar of Religion and Science for the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, where he helped develop the “Discovery and Revelation,” exhibition and co-author the exhibit […]

Brook Wilensky-Lanford is a religion writer, editor, and teacher. She is the author of A God-Shaped Nation: Five Hundred Years of Religion in America, forthcoming in June 2026 and Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden. Media inquiries should be directed to Deb Seager, Director of Publicity, Grove Atlantic.

Cedric Harmon was the co-founder and executive director of Many Voices: A Black Church Movement for LGBTQ+ Justice and advocate for LGBTQ+ justice within Black church contexts.

Joseph Winters is the Alexander F. Hehmeyer Associate Professor of Religious Studies and African and African American Studies at Duke University. His research interests lie at the intersection of African-American religious thought, Black literature and critical theory. Winters is author of Hope Draped in Black: Race, Melancholy, and the Agony of Progress (2016).

Ruth King is an insight meditation teacher and emotional wisdom author and life coach. Mentored by Jack Kornfield in the Theravada tradition and influenced by the Tibetan traditions of Buddhism, King teaches at insight meditation communities nationwide. She is a guiding teacher at Insight Meditation Community of Washington and Spirit Rock Meditation Center and the […]

Discerning Deacons is an organization advocating for the diaconal ministry of women, which members view as historically, theologically and anthropologically possible and as a means of church renewal. Contacts include co-directors Casey Stanton ([email protected], English), based in North Carolina, and Ellie Hidalgo ([email protected], English and Spanish), based in Miami.

Matthew Hayes is the librarian for Japanese studies and Asian American studies at Duke University. He is co-creator of the website “Collecting Religion.”

Leela Prasad is a religion professor at Duke University, whose work focuses on South Asia, Hindu worlds, gender, colonialism & decoloniality, prison pedagogy & Gandhi, and religion & modernity. She has written on Hindu pilgrimage in South India.

The Institute for Faith and Family is an advocacy organization run by Tami Fitzgerald of the North Carolina Values Coalition. The organization uses media, communications, amicus briefs and other platforms to help drive a for-faith and for-family culture.