This week, religious studies professor Dr. Kati Curts discusses her book Assembling Religion: The Ford Motor Company and the Transformation of Religion in America, which illustrates how Henry Ford institutionalized a social gospel. Though Ford's efforts at the head of the Ford Motor Company have commonly been understood as secular, Ford himself was explicit that his work in engineering and auto production was prophetic and meant to remake the world.

AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB

This episode is presented in conjunction with the American Writers Museum's new special exhibit American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture. This exhibit and programming series explores the profound ways writing reflects and influences our understanding of religion. American Prophets is now open.

This conversation originally took place March 5, 2026 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum.

More about Assembling Religion:

Henry Ford did not just mass produce cars. As a member of the Episcopal Church, reader of New Thought texts, believer in the "gospel of reincarnation," mass marketer of antisemitic material, and employer who institutionalized a social gospel, Henry Ford’s contributions to American models of business were informed by and produced for an America he understood to be broadly Christian. Though Ford's efforts at the head of the Ford Motor Company have commonly been understood as secular, Ford himself was explicit that his work in engineering and auto production was prophetic and meant to remake the world.

This religious history of Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company repositions them within critical studies of religion, examining how Ford transformed American religious practice in the twentieth century. Drawing directly on documents from Ford’s archive, it examines Ford's mass production methods and bureaucratic reforms as examples of prosperity gospel traditions, illuminating the ways manufacturing and technology intersect with American religious practice. Bridging American religious and industrial history, Assembling Religion offers a new and surprising way to understand Ford's impact on culture, commerce, and the technology of labor.

DR. KATI CURTS is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Sewanee: The University of the South. She is a historian of religion, specializing in the history and culture of nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. She teaches courses and researches at the intersections of religion, capitalism, and popular culture.

This week, Maggie and Africa Brown discuss the legacy of their father—Oscar Brown, Jr.—and perform some of his work. This conversation originally took place February 26, 2026 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum.

Maggie and Africa Brown love doing what they do best together—singing with theatrics on stage. These "2 Brown Sisters" energetically merge their foundations in jazz with the melting pot of their mixed musical upbringing. The Browns' harmonious vocal blend radiates sisterly love and their often comical chemistry on stage. Their shows are always enjoyable and steeped in a rich musical legacy, which they proudly carry on from their father, singer, composer, playwright, and activist, Oscar Brown, Jr.

This episode is presented in conjunction with the American Writers Museum’s new special exhibit American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture. This exhibit and programming series explores the profound ways writing reflects and influences our understanding of religion. American Prophets is now open.

More about the episode:

Oscar Brown, Jr. was a towering figure in American arts whose genius transcended categories. A poet, playwright, songwriter, actor, director, and activist, he embodied the very spirit of creativity fused with social conscience. Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Brown used his words and music as instruments of truth, courage, and transformation. His career spanned theater, television, film, and jazz, leaving a body of work that was all at once entertaining, revolutionary, and timeless.

The 2 Brown Sisters grew up watching and internalizing their father at work, until they themselves began being part of the show. This performance offers songs and poetry to complement the celebration of African American History and Valentines Day. The 2 Brown Sisters will demonstrate glimpses of several of Oscar’s plays—written entirely in rhyming verse. They will also give insight into his own poetry form he called a "Long Song," which means: a poem with a large number of verses, that was composed to be accompanied with music or sung.

Thanks to their upbringing, the 2 Brown Sisters know how to turn poetry into theatre. This activity is part of the Brown family's year-long centennial celebration for Oscar Brown, Jr., born October 10, 1926.

In this episode, Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad discusses her book The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. Black, queer, feminist, Buddhist: The Fire Inside casts a fresh new light on the radical literary legacies of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. This conversation originally took place January 29, 2026 and was recorded live via Zoom.

AWM PODCAST NETWORK HUB

This episode is presented in conjunction with the American Writers Museum’s new special exhibit American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture. This exhibit and programming series explores the profound ways writing reflects and influences our understanding of religion. Travel through vibrant spaces that trace the many paths of American faith, from sacred rituals to songs of devotion. Discover rare artifacts and creative works from literature, film, music, and comedy along the way. This isn't just an exhibit—it's a shared journey of reflection, inspiration, and connection through the stories that move us all. American Prophets is now open.

More about The Fire Inside:

The Fire Inside explores the writings of Audre Lorde and James Baldwin through a Dharmic lens, revealing for the first time how two of America's greatest literary voices reflect—and expand—Buddhism's most timeless truths toward justice and liberation.

Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad dives deeply into a dharma of liberation as lived by Baldwin and Lorde, offering timely lessons to help us each meet this moment. She explores the writers' enduring legacies to show that liberation depends not only on organizing and mass movements, but the generative power of inner well-being, authenticity, art, and embodiment. Each chapter shares how looking inward is the way forward, examining Baldwin and Lorde through key Buddhist principles.

This book offers space for emerging conversations within spiritual communities—ones that don’t shy away from difficult or uncomfortable truths; that center—and celebrate—Black, queer, radical thought; and that embrace the ways our inner lives, creative fire, sensuality, and expressions of love can ignite and sustain revolutionary liberation.

About the author:

DR. RIMA VESELY-FLAD is the Visiting Professor of Buddhism and Black Studies at Union Theological Seminary. She is the author of Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation (NYU Press, 2022) and Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies: Moral Pollution, Black Lives, and the Struggle for Justice (Fortress Press, 2017).