An image of Marshall Applewhite from the poster for the docuseries Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults

Behind the Curtain of the Heaven’s Gate Cult

On the 25th anniversary of UFO cult Heaven's Gate's mass suicide, a religion scholar examines its theology and doctrines in the context of the New Age Movement.
Cover of Muhammed Speaks, 1975

The Nation of Islam’s Role in US Prisons

The Nation of Islam is controversial. Its practical purposes for incarcerated people transcend both politics and religion.
Hindu devotees celebrate during Holi with colored powders at the Banke Bihari temple on March 26, 2013 in Vrindavan, India.

Gender and Caste at Holi

The Hindu festival of Holi celebrates love, colors, and the arrival of spring. How it's celebrated can vary significantly throughout India.
Terence McKenna

Terence McKenna’s Anarchic Psychedelic Religion

Terence McKenna was an evangelist for the use of psilocybin and other mind-altering drugs, as a way to transcend and escape “untrammeled rationalism.”
A woman with cerebral palsy using her phone

Navigating Dating Apps While Disabled

How disabled people use dating apps, whether specific to their communit(ies) or not, can raise personal questions about how to present themselves.
blue aerial view of Chicago streets with red flashes that indicate gun shots

What Happens When Police Use AI to Predict and Prevent Crime?

With the dawn of artificial intelligence, a slew of new machine learning tools promise to help protect us with data.
A cafeteria in Reeves County Detention Complex, Pecos, Texas

The Surprising Answer to Who Eats Kosher in Prison

24,000 incarcerated people in the U.S. eat kosher meals. Even some neonazis. Why?
Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes in 2019

Court Trials: The Plot Drives the “Story”

Trials create narratives that are "plot-driven." When judges attempt to see them as "character-driven," real people can be denied justice.
Cover of Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A. Hardesty's All We're Meant To Be

Whatever Happened to Evangelical Feminism?

From Christianity’s beginnings, the religion has been split between two visions of gender relations.
A gavel against a black background

Fact-Based Courts, but What Facts?

US courts operate as "informationally disabled" institutions that may lack (or intentionally exclude) important facts when making complex legal decisions.