What Could Go Right?

What Could Go Right?

Author: DZ Kalman August 27, 2025 Duration: 38:35
To close out our summer episodes, we're talking with Kevin Kelly, founder of WIRED Magazine and writer about all things tech and culture. Kevin is a devout Christian with an eye toward the ethical good of technology. In our conversation, we cover technological skepticism, the AI identity crisis, the Amish, and much more.  P.S. Check out host David Zvi Kalman's new YouTube channel, Sabbath Mode, for more in depth conversations about religion and technology. Resources: Kevin's website Kevin's books Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a world often framed by conflict, Belief in the Future explores the surprising and fertile intersections where our oldest spiritual questions meet our newest technological realities. Host David Zvi Kalman guides conversations that move beyond simple debate, delving into how faith traditions adapt to artificial intelligence, how ritual lives alongside digital life, and what ancient wisdom might offer to our most modern dilemmas. This isn't about proving one side right, but about listening deeply to the nuanced ways people are actually navigating these realms. Each episode offers a thoughtful space to consider how the tools we build and the beliefs we hold shape our humanity, for better or worse. Released every other week, this podcast from Sinai and Synapses, with support from Templeton World Charity Foundation, invites you into a long-running conversation that feels more urgent than ever. You'll hear from theologians, engineers, artists, and philosophers, all contributing to a richer understanding of our collective path forward. Tune in for a series that finds connection in the places we least expect it.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 27

Belief in the Future
Podcast Episodes
Is AI leapfrogging women in religious leadership? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:47
AI conversations have a tendency to become so big that you can't really locate yourself within them. For this episode we're flipping the script and talking about a longstanding conversation into which AI has unexpectedly…
AI and Fear of Death [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:35
How does our inevitable deaths change how we live—and how does fear of loss change how we develop technology? Alex Sarkissian is a death doula and a co-founder of the Buddhism and AI Initiative; he joins us to discuss hi…
AI loves Catholicism. Why? (w/ David Wingate) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:24
How does AI portray religion? Does it talk about it in the way that most Americans do? Does it treat all religions the same? CEFE-AI (https://cefe.ai/) is a multi-university consortium that has been trying to answer thes…
Faith and the Printing Press (w/ Michelle Margolis) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:43
Yes, AI is new and unique—but we've been through an information revolution before. The printing press transformed religion, authority, and public life. Those upheavals offer insights into the age of AI. Michelle Margolis…
A next-gen religious chatbot (w/ Zohar Atkins) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:16
The market in religious chatbots is now quite healthy. If you’re Episcopalian you can go to Ask Cathy; if you’re Catholic there’s Magisterium; if you’re a Latter-day Saint there’s LDSBot; if you’re Muslim there’s Ansari;…
Islam and AI (w/ Waleed Kadous) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:57
As a decentralized faith, Islam does not have one single approach to AI. Muslim communities are constructing norms around AI usage in religious scholarship and sermon-writing through a mix of guidance from religious lead…
The Image of God in the Age of AI (w/ Tomer Persico) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:14
The idea that human beings are created in the image of God is a central part of both Jewish and Christian theology, and with the rise of AI it has become perhaps the best example of how ancient religious wisdom can regul…
The Latter-day Saint Way on AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:31
There is more than one type of religious approach to AI. While the Catholic response has received by far the most media attention, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been developing a response that has a…
A Catholic and a Jew read the pope's AI encyclical together [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:47
On May 25, 2026, Pope Leo XIV issued Magnifica Humanitas, a major new document on AI for the world's biggest religion. I talked with Brian Green about what it says, why it was written this way, where it sits in the histo…
There's been an earthquake. We're coming back. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 6:12
After less than a year from the end of our first season, Belief in the Future is coming back into a world where religion and technology are now crashing into each other. *** Belief is affiliated with the Faith Family Tec…