In previous discussions on the podcast, we've talked about the decrease in institutional religious affiliation in America.

That's particularly the case among the millennials and Generation Z, but it's true for a great

many Americans, and of course it's true in the Jewish community.

But the instinct for religious meaning and an existential yearning to somehow touch divine

transcendence is sewn into the fabric of the human condition.

Everybody worships.

Man is a worshipping animal. And if that is true,

if the impulse to bow our head in reverence is built into human nature, and at the same time,

if empirical analyses are demonstrating that Americans of all faiths are not attending houses

of worship quite as much as we once did.

If both of these things are true, then you have to ask if we're not traditionally religious,

so how are we untraditionally religious? If we're not worshipping the creator of the universe

in a church or a mosque or synagogue, then where and what are we worshipping?

It turns out that with the decline of traditional religious institutions,

there's been a rise of alternative and even very alternative forms of spiritual expression.

And more than that, the investment of spiritual energy into all manner of other domains of human life,

from shopping to wellness to politics. Today on the show, we ask about the return of paganism to

America and the spirituality of soul cycle. Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host,

Jonathan Silver. My guest is the writer Tara

Isabella Burton, the author of a new book, Strange Rights, New Religions for a Godless World,

published just this week in mid-June 2020. In my view, it's crucial for Jews to hear what Tara

has learned by observing the intual Religious Practices of Americans today.

...