Reasons To Believe [Teaser]

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REMINDER: COME SEE KYE x MIKE DUNCAN LIVE IN NYC (eventbrite.com/e/decline-and-fall-tickets-1986…)

Given the string of recent episodes that, in various ways, grappled with religion we wanted to take a step back and offer a rather personal conversation about believing in God, or not, and what difference it might makes. The discussion begins by revisiting when we first met over a decade ago and talked a lot about faith, then ranges widely, including: atheism vs agnosticism, W.H. Auden, why we're not experiencing a religious revival in the United States (but could be soon), and more.

Sources:

Christopher Beha, Why I Am Not an Atheist (penguinrandomhouse.com/books/703237/why-i-am-n…) (2026)

Edward Mendelson, "The Secret Auden (nybooks.com/articles/2014/03/20/secret-auden)," New York Review of Books, March 20, 2014

David Martin, w/ a reply from Edward Mendelson, "Why Auden Married (nybooks.com/articles/2014/04/24/why-auden-marr…)," New York Review of Books, April 24, 2014

Matthew Sitman, "Saving Calvin from Clichés: An Interview with Marilynne Robinson (commonwealmagazine.org/saving-calvin?check_log…)," Commonweal, Oct 5, 2017

Ryan Burge, "Religion Has Become A Luxury Good For The Middle Class, Married College Graduate With Children (religionunplugged.com/news/2023/7/3/religion-h…)," Religion Unplugged, July 12, 2023

Daniel Cox, "The Illusion of America's Religious Revival (americanstorylines.com/p/the-illusion-of-ameri…)," American Storylines, Nov 13, 2025

Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book (us.macmillan.com/books/9780312253998/lostinthe…) (1983)

— The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man Is, How Queer Language Is, and What One Has to Do with the Other (us.macmillan.com/books/9780312254018/themessag…) (1975)

The Living Thoughts of Kierkegaard (nyrb.com/products/the-living-thoughts-of-kierk…), edited & with an introduction by W.H. Auden (1999)

W.H. Auden, "In Praise of Limestone (allpoetry.com/In-Praise-Of-Limestone)," in Nones (1951)

"Jill Lepore on Nationalism, Populism, and the State of America (econtalk.org/jill-lepore-on-nationalism-populi…)," EconTalk, April 15, 2019