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Freakonomics Radio

515. When You Pray to God Online, Who Else Is Listening?

Freakonomics Radio

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.532.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2022

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The pandemic moved a lot of religious activity onto the internet. With faith-based apps, Silicon Valley is turning virtual prayers into earthly rewards. Does this mean sharing user data? Dear God, let’s hope not …

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I will throw out the first question to you, Stephen.

0:09.0

What's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?

0:13.1

Well, if we're being literal, it's turning off the alarm.

0:18.1

So for me, I pray.

0:20.5

And for billions of people around the world, if you ask them that question, billions of

0:26.6

people would also respond that they pray too.

0:33.9

That is Steve Gatina.

0:35.9

And I am the founder and CEO of Pray.com, the world's number one app for daily prayer and

0:42.3

faith-based audio content.

0:44.5

For most of his life, Gatina himself was not someone you would consider a person of

0:49.0

faith.

0:50.0

Back when he played college football, for instance, you might hit people when they're not looking.

0:56.0

You might intentionally try to hurt people physically.

0:59.9

Those were some of the qualities that I enjoyed embracing.

1:04.2

And I would say off the field, I loved having a lot of fun.

1:10.0

This was at the University of Southern California.

1:12.2

At the time, USC was basically the pro football team in Los Angeles.

1:16.9

You're out in Hollywood.

1:18.4

You're at nightclubs still five in the morning.

1:20.8

I would say that it was definitely not a lifestyle that promotes Christian values.

1:27.4

But years later, Gatina did become more religious.

1:30.4

By then, he was a successful entrepreneur and he saw what looked like a market opportunity.

...

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