David is an op ed columnist for the New York Times, a radio and television host, author of multiple bestselling books, and Chair of Weave the social fabric project at the Aspen Institute, among many other things.

He speaks about the distancing effects of fame, his midlife crisis and subsequent conversion to Christianity, and the challenges of talking about morality in public life at the immense difficulty of dying to ourselves.

You can find a full transcript here: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2021/12/08/david-brooks-on-his-conversion-vulnerability-and-the-challenges-of-talking-about-morality

Ryan North is a writer for television, video games, and especially comic books. Some of his most recent projects include 'How To Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveller', a graphic novel adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse-Five', and the 'Unbeatable Squirrel Girl', which he wrote for Marvel Comics for five years. He also writes, as he has done since his early 20s, Dinosaur Comics, which is a daily webcomic using the same images with different words every day.

Ryan speaks about his childhood as a nerdy kid in rural Canada, his route to becoming a professional comic writer even though he can't draw, navigating gender in comics and graphic novels, and why human beings are so drawn to this idea of superheroes.

You can read a full transcript of the conversation here: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2021/12/01/ryan-north-on-kindness-comics-and-the-appeal-of-superheroes

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In the final episode of this series, Elizabeth speaks to Sarah Eberle, the most-decorated RHS garden designer. She has made RHS Chelsea Flower Show history by winning a Gold Medal in every category there is to enter. This year, Sarah turns her hand to the Psalm 23 Garden in the Urban Garden section for the Bible Society.

In this episode she speaks about why nature is sacred to her, what gardening teaches us about compassion and humility, the legacy of her unconventional schooling and her free-range childhood, and why gardening can bring people together across divides.

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Jillian is a loneliness expert, facilitator and events host. She is the author of ‘Un-Lonely Planet’.

She speaks about the drivenness of her East Coast American childhood, how she balances vulnerability in her public profile, the shame and rawness of talking about loneliness, and how her adventures in finding belonging in secular congregations eventually led her to join a church.

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Tim is a journalist, historian and broadcaster specialising in US history, politics and religion. He is leader writer for the Daily Telegraph, and contributing editor at the Catholic Herald. His new book ‘Whatever Happened to Tradition?’ is out in October 2021: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/whatever-happened-to-tradition-9781472974129.

In this episode he speaks about his Baptist, socialist and spiritualist childhood, his conversion from Marxist atheism to Catholicism at Cambridge, his vision for what conservatism offers society, and how he sees his role as a journalist.

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Arifa is the chief theatre critic at The Guardian. She is a former contributor to The Observer and previously worked as the arts editor at Tortoise Media. She is also a trustee of the Orwell Foundation, and has been a judge for the UK Theatre Awards and the Women's Prize for Fiction among others. She is also author of ‘Consumed’ about the life and early death of her sister from tuberculosis.

Arifa speaks about why choice and freedom are sacred to her, her spiritual encounters with Islam, the delicacy of telling other people’s stories and the power of the arts.

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Miriam has been Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge since 2019. She was born and brought up in Sheffield, studied genetics at Cambridge and taught science before having children.

In this episode she speaks about her Christian faith, becoming a Conservative as an adult almost by accident, her unusual path to being elected as an MP and why she thinks we should talk more about family and parenthood.

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Mike Mchargue, also known as ‘Science Mike’, is a podcaster of very long-standing. He was formerly co-host of 'The Liturgists' and host of ‘Ask Science Mike’ and he’s now host of 'The Cozy Robot Show'. He’s also the author of ‘Finding God in the Waves’ and more recently ‘You’re a Miracle and a Pain in the Ass’.

He speaks about the process of losing his childhood faith and subsequently finding his way to contemplative Christianity via science and an ecstatic experience, his sacred value of equity, how we as humans tend to process trauma when we leave a tribe, and why he thinks it’s really important for him to publicly identify as disabled.

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Sohrab is an Iranian–American columnist, journalist, editor and author. He’s written or edited for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and First Things among others. He was born in Tehran and emigrated to the US in his early teens, converting in 2016 to Catholicism, which he recounts in his book ‘From fire by water.’ His most recent book is ‘The Unbroken Thread: discovering the wisdom of tradition in an age of chaos.’

He speaks about his experiences as what he calls a radically assimilated immigrant in the US, the lasting impact of that childhood under a conservative Islamic regime, his time as a committed Marxist, his conversion to Catholicism, and why he thinks liberalism is failing us.

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In this series we’ll be talking to Conservative MP Miriam Cates, journalist Sohrab Ahmari, ‘Science Mike’ Mike McHargue, writer Tim Stanley, theatre critic Arifa Akbar, loneliness expert Jillian Richardson and award-winning garden designer Sarah Eberle.

Tune in and join us for the next series of The Sacred. Episodes out weekly from Wednesday 4th August.