

Renovatio: The Podcast
Zaytuna College
A multimedia, multi-faith publication about the ideas that shape the modern world from the first Muslim liberal arts college in the United States, Zaytuna College.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 18, 2025 • 26min
Other People's Truths: Reading Sacred Scripture in Secular Settings (Audio Essay)
Sacred scriptures certainly qualify as Great Books, but can they be read as literature in secular settings?Read the essay by Eva Brann- https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/other-peoples-truths

Feb 12, 2025 • 21min
Resisting the Architecture of Apathy (Audio Essay)
The way societies driven by profit and production design and build lived environments breeds an apathy that, unchecked, can only lead to the dissolution of human communities as we’ve known them. Article by Marwa Al-Sabouni https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/resisting-the-architecture-of-apathyRead by Lyba Hussain Produced by Faatimah Knight

Jan 27, 2025 • 17min
What Pico Thought—and What It Wrought (Audio Essay)
The dignity of man in his potential to be whatever he desires to be, this fifteenth-century Italian prince & philosopher gave rise to the modern secular worldview that privileges self-actualization above all else.Essay by Esme Partridge

Dec 30, 2024 • 29min
The Sin of Cosmocide (Audio Essay)

Oct 3, 2024 • 43min
What Islam Gave the Blues by Sylviane Diouf (Audio Essay)

Oct 3, 2024 • 35min
Where Islam and Nationalism Collide by Zaid Shakir (Audio Essay)

Oct 3, 2024 • 40min
Counting the Minutes: Productivity and the Well-Lived Day between Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī and Benjamin Franklin (Audio Essay)

Oct 3, 2024 • 33min
Courteous Exchange in an Age of Empire by Sarah Barnette (Audio Essay)

Oct 3, 2024 • 27min
What Walking Can Do For Our Souls (Audio Essay)

Sep 9, 2024 • 40min
What is the Write Way to Read?
Does reading help you think if you write your thoughts about what you’re reading? What’s the difference between writing books about books, and writing books drawn from one’s own experiences? Such questions relate to matters that are both practical and philosophical. In this episode of our podcast, Safir Ahmed, editor of Renovatio, interviews philosopher Sophia Vasalou who writes engagingly on philosophical theology, virtue ethics, Al-Ghazali, Schopenhauer, wonder, and much more. The conversation springs from Vasalou’s essay, “Can We Think Deeply About Important Ideas Without Writing About Them?” which argues that writing that cultivates the ideals of intellectual and moral growth must eschew the illusions of originality and detachment. Vasalou shares insights from her scholarly journey, discussing the distinction between writing about philosophical concepts and writing from personal experience, particularly in her works on moral beauty and the experience of wonder.