Kira Ganga Kieffer, "Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America" (Princeton UP, 2026)

Kira Ganga Kieffer, "Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America" (Princeton UP, 2026)

Author: New Books Network May 13, 2026 Duration: 43:02
Kira Ganga Kieffer (Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Wesleyan University; PhD, Boston University, 2023) studies contemporary American spiritualities, health, gender, and marketing. Her first book, a history of religion and vaccine skepticism, Unvaccinated Under God: Religion and Vaccine Hesitancy in Modern America (Princeton UP, 2026), is  forthcoming from Princeton University Press. She is the author of “Smelling Things: Essential Oils and Essentialism in Contemporary American Spirituality,” in Religion & American Culture (2021) and “Manifesting Millions: How Women’s Spiritual Entrepreneurship Genders Capitalism,” in Nova Religio (2020), which received the Thomas Robbins Award for Article of the Year. She has written for Religion & Politics, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Religion for Breakfast. Kieffer uses textual analysis of spiritual marketing materials to discover how consumer culture creates religious concepts within a secular context. Focused on spiritual items and practices that are marketed to women, Kieffer compares the usage of essential oils by three very different groups of spiritual practitioners: contemporary yogis, evangelical Christians, and witches. Although the usage of essential oils is consumerized, Kieffer argues, the beliefs and practices created by “oilers” are nonetheless meaningful responses to the spiritual yearning. Essential oil practices blur the lines between religious traditions, sharpen individual spirituality, and work to create new collective identities. Order "Unvaccinated Under God" here: here Visit Sacred Writes here: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

For anyone curious about the ideas shaping contemporary faith and practice, New Books in Religion offers a direct line to the scholars doing the work. This podcast, part of the wider New Books Network, functions as an ongoing, accessible seminar where authors detail their latest publications in conversation with informed peers. Each episode delves into a specific text, moving beyond summary to explore the author's motivations, research challenges, and the broader implications of their findings for understanding spirituality, ritual, history, and belief. The discussions are substantive yet approachable, designed to illuminate complex topics without sacrificing depth. You'll encounter a diverse range of subjects, from historical analyses of ancient traditions to contemporary explorations of ethics, mysticism, and social justice within various religious contexts. It's an opportunity to eavesdrop on genuine academic exchange, discovering new authors and pressing questions at the intersection of faith and scholarship. The entire New Books Network library, with its impressive collection of interviews across more than one hundred fifty channels, supports this mission of public education. By focusing on the nuanced conversations behind each new book, this channel provides listeners with a rich, intellectual resource for engaging with the dynamic field of religious studies. Tune in to hear the thinkers defining the current discourse explain their work in their own words.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

New Books in Religion
Podcast Episodes
A Divine Comedy: On Hollywood, Creativity, and Religion with Rob Long [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:03:45
Here in Episode 9 of Season 5, I interview Mr. Rob Long. A longtime Hollywood professional, he was a writer and producer for the classic sitcom Cheers as well as for over a dozen other shows. A National Review contributo…
Steven Nadler, "Spinoza, Atheist" (Princeton UP, 2026) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:55
In 1656, a young Amsterdam merchant was excommunicated by his Portuguese-Jewish community in the harshest terms it had ever used. Baruch Spinoza was accused of unspecified “horrifying heresies,” but the precise reasons f…