Harvard Divinity School

On this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from first year MDiv student Audrey Zhou on open question of home, the clarity of coming to a resolution, different ways of asking why, and many, many other things.

On this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from first year MTS student Mishka Banuri about home, spiritual autobiographies, and connecting hope and action. Transcript forthcoming.

Do we live inside a Matrix-like simulation? For Episode 17 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome one of the leading theorists behind the simulation hypothesis, Rizwan Virk, to discuss that question. Virk is an entrepreneur, videogame pioneer, and academic author of two major works on simulation theory: The Simulation Hypothesis (Tarcher, 2025) and The Simulated Multiverse (Bayview Books, 2021). In the interview, we discuss the technologies necessary to make a Matrix-like simulation possible and how close we are to achieving them. Then we turn to the religious and mystical dimensions of simulation theory, exploring reincarnation, out-of-body experiences, UAPs, angels, and the anthropocentrism and ethical pitfalls of simulation theory. Rizwan Virk bio A graduate of MIT and Stanford University, Rizwan Virk, PhD, is a successful entrepreneur, video game pioneer, film producer, venture capitalist, professor, and bestselling author of The Simulation Hypothesis (Tarcher, 2025), Wisdom of a Yogi (Bayview Books, 2023), and The Simulated Multiverse (Bayview Books, 2021). Virk’s video games, including Tap Fish and Penny Dreadful: Demimonde, have been played by millions. He is the founder and executive director of Play Labs @ MIT, a video game accelerator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and currently teaches at Arizona State University.

On this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from second year MDiv student Lexi Potter about Lexi's journey to HDS, community, and the "tradition of friendship." Transcript forthcoming.

For Episode 16 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome composer, artist, and media theorist Paul Miller. Miller is best known for his music as DJ Spooky, the avant-garde turntableist who has collaborated with artists ranging from Chuck D to Yoko Ono. He has also re-scored classic films, such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and his art has been showcased in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In this wide-ranging conversation, we asked Paul to explore the eeriness of life in the digital age. We touch on the perils and possibilities of artificial intelligence, the role of the DJ, Japanese Butoh as a response to nuclear tragedy, re-scoring D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, and how Einstein, science fiction, and Sun Ra have shaped Miller’s work.

For episode 15 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome Fryderyk Kwiatkowski, Assistant Professor at the University of Krakow, on to discuss the relationship between ancient Gnostic myth and modern cinema. Fryderyk takes us through the impact European intellectuals Carl Jung, Hans Jonas, and Eric Voegelin on popular conceptions of Gnosticism. Then we dive into analyses of the Gnostic elements in films like the Matrix, Dark City, Truman Show, and more recent cinema like Free Guy, Chappie, and the television series Silo.

For episode 14 of Pop Apocalypse, we welcome the linguist and philosopher Wouter Kusters. Kusters is the author of Pure Madness (2004) and A Philosophy of Madness (2014), both of which won the Dutch Socrates Award for best philosophy book of the year. We discuss how the experience of psychotic thinking challenges and illuminates our notions of language, philosophy, and mysticism. Along the way, we touch on the similarities between mystical and mad experiences, apophatic and psychotic uses of language, the phenomenology of time, and the impact of Kusters’ books on mental health specialists.

David Holden, MDiv '24, came to HDS after a career in politics in search of ways to help others heal as a hospital chaplain. Transcript forthcoming.

On this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from second year MTS students Becca Leviss and Rucha Modi sharing the story of their early HDS friendship as a source for inspiration. Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/04/30hope-podcast-featuring-becca-leviss-and-rucha-modi-mts-candidates

On this episode of the Hope Podcast, we hear from third year MDiv candidate Matta Zheng who teaches us about the interconnections between justice, the mundane, and hope. Transcript: https://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/2025/04/29/hope-podcast-featuring-matta-zheng-mdiv-candidate