God Forbid

A bohemian journalist who found God in the slums — and built a movement that unsettled both Church and State.Born in Brooklyn in 1897, Dorothy Day lived many lives: radical writer, suffragist, single mother, and eventually Catholic convert. In the midst of the Great Depression, she co-founded the Catholic Worker movement, opening houses of hospitality for the poor and protesting every war America fought. To admirers, she was a saint in street clothes; to critics, a communist in disguise. Can holiness and revolution coexist? Day’s life suggests that faith and rebellion may be closer than we think.GUESTS:Paul Elie — author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American PilgrimageMartha Hennessy — granddaughter of Dorothy Day and lifelong member of Catholic Worker Movement.Robert Ellsberg — former editor of Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker newspaper. He worked closely with her in the final years of her life and is the editor of her published diaries and selected letters, The Duty Of Delight and All the Way to Heaven. Rev Simon Moyle — ordained Baptist Minister and elder at the Grace Tree Christian community in Coburg Melbourne.This is the sixth and final episode of God Forbid's Religious Rebels, a six-part special series exploring the lives of spiritual revolutionaries who defied empires, reshaped traditions — and sometimes paid with their lives.

A street hustler turned minister whose faith transformed Black politics — and himself.Born Malcolm Little in 1925, Malcolm X rose to fame as a fiery preacher in the Nation of Islam, calling for Black self-determination “by any means necessary.” But after his pilgrimage to Mecca, he embraced Sunni Islam and a universal vision of justice that transcended race. Weeks later, he was assassinated. Was Malcolm X a prophet of liberation or a threat to the powerful? His journey from militant separatism to spiritual reformer still forces America — and the world — to confront the cost of conviction.GUESTS:Tamara Payne — co-writer and principal researcher of Pulitzer prize winning biography “The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X” Assistant Professor Jimmy Butts — specialist in Malcolm X Studies at Trinity university in San Antonio Texas This is the fifth episode of God Forbid's Religious Rebels, a six-part special series exploring the lives of spiritual revolutionaries who defied empires, reshaped traditions — and sometimes paid with their lives.

A French lawyer-turned-theologian who split from Rome — and built his own city of God.John Calvin fled Catholic France to lead a new Protestant movement in Geneva during the 1500s. His ideas about predestination and the absolute authority of Scripture reshaped Christianity and inspired the Reformed and Presbyterian traditions. Yet under his rule, dissenters were exiled, imprisoned, and violently executed. Was he a reckless heretic or a visionary thinker centuries ahead of his time — and what does his death say about the danger of new ideas?GUESTS:Randall C. Zachman Professor Emeritus of Reformation Studies, at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, after many decades at University of Notre Dame. Professor Ben Myers at Alphacrucis University College in Brisbane - author of The Apostles’ Creed: A guide to the ancient catechism Dr Constance Lee is Lecturer in Law at Adelaide University, and author of a forthcoming book Natural Law and the Nature of Government: John Calvin’s Constitutional Theology This is the fourth episode of God Forbid's Religious Rebels, a six-part special series exploring the lives of spiritual revolutionaries who defied empires, reshaped traditions — and sometimes paid with their lives.

A Persian poet and scholar who tore off her veil — and announced the dawn of a new religious age. In the 1840s, Táhirih became one of the first women to preach in public in Iran. As a leading figure in the Bábí movement — a precursor to the Bahá’í faith — she argued that revelation had not ended and that women should be free to study, speak, and lead. Her defiance of clerical and royal authority terrified the establishment. In 1852, she was executed in secret, her body buried in silence. Was Táhirih a prophet of liberation or a heretic undone by her own courage?GUESTS:Professor Negar Mottahedeh — cultural critic and film theorist specialising in interdisciplinary and feminist contributions to the fields of Middle Eastern Studies at Duke UniversityRaya M Hazini — doctoral candidate with her Masters from the Graduate Theological UnionDr Zara Moballegh — PhD from Tehran University, she’s now visiting Assistant Professor at Harvard Divinity School. This is the third episode of God Forbid's Religious Rebels, a six-part special series exploring the lives of spiritual revolutionaries who defied empires, reshaped traditions — and sometimes paid with their lives.

A former Dominican friar who dared to say the universe had no centre — and paid with his life.Born in 16th-century Italy, Giordano Bruno broke with Church teachings to imagine an infinite cosmos filled with countless worlds. To him, God was not confined to heaven or hierarchy but alive in every corner of creation. The Inquisition saw it differently. After years of imprisonment and interrogation, Bruno was burned alive in Rome in 1600. Was he a reckless heretic or a visionary thinker centuries ahead of his time — and what does his death say about the danger of new ideas?GUESTS:Ingrid Rowland — Emeritus Professor of History at the US University of Notre Dame. Dilwyn Knox — Emeritus Professor of Renaissance Studies at University College, London Dr Shaun Blanchard — Lecturer in Theology at Notre Dame University Australia.This is the second episode of God Forbid's Religious Rebels, a six-part special series exploring the lives of spiritual revolutionaries who defied empires, reshaped traditions — and sometimes paid with their lives.

A teenage peasant who claimed to hear the voice of God — and changed the course of European history. At just seventeen, Joan of Arc convinced the French prince to let her lead an army against the English, turning the tide of the Hundred Years’ War. But her victories came at a price: captured, accused of heresy, and burned alive at nineteen. Was she a divinely inspired saviour or a dangerous fanatic? Centuries later, her story still provokes questions about faith, gender, and power — and how belief can turn an ordinary girl into a national saint.GUESTS:Dr Charlotte Millar — Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Melbourne.    Author Witchcraft, the Devil & Emotions in Early Modern EnglandDr Stephanie Downes — Lecturer at La Trobe University, an expert on the history of English and French, and of books and writing of the periodDr Shaun Blanchard — Lecturer in Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia. His anticipated fifth book – Catholicism and Enlightenment.This is the first episode of God Forbid's Religious Rebels. A six-part special series exploring the lives of spiritual revolutionaries who defied empires, reshaped traditions — and sometimes paid with their lives.

What’s on the other side of the near-death experience?

Only half of all Australians understand Jesus to be a real person who lived at a time and place in history, according to the latest Australian Community Survey.Two in 10 Australians said Jesus was a mythical or fictional character while three out of 10 didn’t know.Their doubts stand in contrast to those of ancient historians, classicists and New Testament scholars, who universally accept that Jesus was a real person in time and place in history.The question here is ontological: what makes “Jesus” Jesus? Is it enough that a man called Jesus (or Joshua or Yeshua), who became a charismatic teacher, was born around the turn of the millennium in Palestine? GUESTS:Dr John Dickson, Anglican cleric, historian and author of Is Jesus History?Professor Vrasidis Karalis, Professor of Greek at the University of SydneyRev Dr Karen Pack, lecturer in history at Notre Dame Australia Sound Engineer: Antonia Gauci, Music by Russell StapletonThis program was made on the lands of the Gadigal People

What separates humans from other animals? It’s not our brain hardware. It’s our always changing brain software.For so long, humans believed our brain power separates us from animals: since the earliest human species, our brain size has tripled.But our brains haven’t grown for 30,000 - probably 300,000 years.So, why are we the ones who build cities and fly to space?  Michael Muthukrishna calls it our collective culture.As every generation passes our operating system gets a free upgrade, and we build on the knowledge of the generation before.GUEST:Professor Michael Muthukrishna is at the London School of Economics and, in January 2026, will take up a professorship at New York University This program was made on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation

In the Pacific Ocean right now grey, humpback and southern right whale populations are increasing.This is important for us all ecologically. But for some of us, even more is at stake.Because around the world, from the equator to the Arctic, from Russia to New Zealand, throughout history and today, humans revere whales, as spiritual ancestors and as harbingers of fortune and protection.And as we’ll learn, some communities and traditions even worship whales as gods. Which makes their near extinction in the 20th century nothing less than deicide.GUESTS:Aike Peter Rots is principal investigator of the Whales of Power project at the University of Oslo.Mere Takoko is a leading Maori whale conservationist and founder and CEO of the Pacific Whale Fund.