Crash Course Religions

History Series / 1 Season

Welcome to Crash Course Religions! Over the next 24 episodes, John Green will explore the history and culture of religions and how they offer frameworks for making sense of our lives — while being incredibly slippery things to pin down. We’ll discover how we define, debate, and contest what religion means, whether we’re personally religious or not. Episode 1 premieres on September 10, 2024.

13m 7s

Are Science and Religion Compatible?

S1 E19 / 12m 13s

Religion and science have had some famously messy fights, but do they always have to be in conflict? In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we’ll look at some ways religion and science are more than just enemies.

Religion, Spirituality, and the Supernatural

S1 E18 / 13m 7s

Angels, aliens, and ghosts—oh my! In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we figure out how the paranormal and supernatural shows up in our religions, and outside of them. If you or someone you know identifies as “spiritual but not religious,” this one’s for you.

Death and Afterlife Across Religions

S1 E17 / 12m 32s

Everybody dies—and then what? In this episode of Crash Crash Religions, we’ll explore how religions around the world have formed answers to a question nobody knows the answer to. We’ll also discover how concepts of Heaven and Hell have changed over time.

Who Speaks for a Religion?

S1 E16 / 12m 16s

From priests to imams, from rabbis to gurus, religious leaders play a big role in shaping religions today. In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we’ll dig into what makes a religious leader and how people can take the power back.

What Does Ritual Have to Do with Religion?

S1 E15 / 12m

Rituals aren’t meaningless actions. They can mark time and space, create new identities, and connect people to something bigger than themselves. In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we explore the rituals that shape our lives—whether religious or not.

How Do Religious Texts Work?

S1 E14 / 11m 8s

Sacred texts mean different things to different religions—sometimes they’re essential to belief and practice, and other times, not much importance is placed on them at all. In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we dive into the different ways religious texts are used, debated, and venerated across various traditions.

What Does it Mean to Be Jewish

S1 E13 / 13m 11s

What does it mean to be Jewish? Is it being part of a religion, a people, a culture, a nation? All of the above? In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we’ll uncover how Jewish identity has been shaped by centuries of debate and deliberation.

Is Atheism a Religion?

S1 E13 / 11m 55s

Atheism is far from new, but the various ways that people say “no thank you” to belief in gods, deities, or particular religions are so diverse that they’ve had a huge impact on world belief systems. In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we break down the different flavors of atheism and nonbelief and ask the question, “Is atheism a religion?”

Are Confucianism and Daoism philosophies or religions?

S1 E12 / 12m 48s

A large proportion of Chinese people believe in a god—yet most report they don’t belong to any religion. In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we’ll learn about two of the Three Teachings of China—Confucianism and Daoism—and explore why Chinese religious practice is much more fluid than the question “What religion do you follow?”

Religions of the African Diaspora

S1 E11 / 11m 9s

African religions include Islam and Christianity, but also hundreds of diverse and complex indigenous religions. In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we explore those traditions and how, when forced intro adaption-mode as a result of the slave trade, they became a unique blend of cultural influences in the African diaspora.

The History and Practice of Islam on Earth and Beyond

S1 E10 / 11m 39s

Many Muslims believe it’s their religious duty to pray five times a day in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca. But how do they do it in space? In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we dig into the beliefs, pillars, and spread of Islam, from the astronomers who charted stars hundreds of years ago to the Malaysian astronaut who took his faith to space.

Sacrifice, Redemption, and Miracles: The Story of Christianity

S1 E9 / 12m 52s

Christianity isn’t just about Jesus. In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we explore the many faces of the world’s most popular religion—its denominations, commonalities, and complexities.

Can a River Be A Person?

S1 E7 / 11m 59s

What does it mean for a river to be a person? An ancestor, even? In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we’ll learn how Indigenous religious traditions’ emphasis on place, kinship, and diverse spirits challenge the dominant assumptions of the Western worldview.

Life, the Universe, and the Buddha

S1 E6 / 11m 10s

Getting stuck in a video game can be frustrating—especially when that game is the cycle of suffering. In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we’ll explore the ways Buddhists try to leave that suffering behind and reach enlightenment, using the teachings of the Buddha, the three jewels, the four noble truths, and the eightfold path.

The Infinite Stories of Hinduism

S1 E5 / 11m 32s

What does it mean to be Hindu? In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we’ll learn about the surprising history of the term “Hindu,” what the word “karma” really means, and how this vast, sprawling tradition contains more than one version of a story.

What's the Difference Between Religion and Magic?

S1 E4 / 12m 51s

The word “magic” has dubious, demonic connotations. But is there really a difference between magic and religion? In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we’ll explore the history of magical practices and discover how modern-day witches, brujas, and Hoodoo practitioners are reclaiming the label.

What's the Difference Between Cults and Religion?

S1 E3 / 10m 27s

What is a cult? How are cults different from religions? And why do many religious scholars say we shouldn’t even use that label? In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we’ll learn why the line between cults and religions is much fuzzier than it seems.

How Many Religions Are There?

S1 E2 / 12m 3s

When we think of world religions, we often think of the Big Five: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. But why do we think of those? In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we’ll learn why “world religions” is a category constructed by human choices—and why that matters for the communities that are left out.

Is Yoga a Religion?

S1 E1 / 11m 57s

When is yoga religious, and when is it… not religious enough? In this episode of Crash Course Religions, we’ll find out why these frameworks we call “religions” are so hard to define, and why our definitions have real-life consequences.

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