On Being is brought to you by the John Templeton Foundation.

On September 24th, join them in celebrating the 2020 Templeton Prize winner, Dr. Francis Collins,

with a virtual ceremony.

Learn more about his inspiring work at TempletonPrize.org.

For so many of us, music is a source of solace and nourishment,

in the best of times and the hardest of times.

It has been so for me in this year of pandemic,

and cloud cult is on every playlist I make.

Craig Minnow has started the band in 1995.

Its trajectory was cathartically changed,

the day he and his wife Connie woke up to find that their first born, two-year-old son,

Caden, had mysteriously died in his sleep.

The music that has emerged ever since has spanned the human experience

from the rawest grief to the fiercest decision to hope.

It's hard to classify their mix of indie rock and orchestral collective.

Lesson question is the profound and life-giving force of cloud cult music.

You were born into a strange world,

like a candle you were meant to share the fire.

I don't know where we come from.

I don't know where we go.

My arms are made to hold you,

so I will never let you go as you're born.

...