Watch R&E’s interview with best-selling author and surgeon Atul Gawande about aging, dying, end-of-life care, and the limits of medicine—all themes in his latest book" Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End."

People from many faiths gathered in Washington for the 63rd annual National Prayer Breakfast, including the Dalai Lama. One major theme this year was fighting religious extremism.

Former Army captain Jaspen Boothe opened a house for homeless women vets and named her organization Final Salute.

Watch our conversation with Religion News Service editor-in-chief Kevin Eckstrom about the recent outbreak of measles and the issue of parents refusing to vaccinate their children for personal or religious reasons.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is offering two-year grants to ten seminaries that incorporate more science into the teaching of theology and religious studies. The effort raises debate about the age-old tension between science and religion, but the purpose of the project is to educate more effective ministers and religious thinkers.

Jockin Arputham started his campaign to build a network among the urban poor by organizing a critical mass of India's slum-dwelling population, especially women’s collectives. Today they pressure local governments to be more responsive to their needs, especially toilet and sanitation facilities.

Social justice and civil rights activists had a lot to like in President Obama's address, but religious conservatives were concerned by the “reframing” of issues such as gay marriage as matters of freedom and justice.

Once the world’s leading Eastern Orthodox seminary, Halki was closed by the Turkish government 43 years ago. The US and religious freedom activists want it reopened. But Turkish officials have long said that won't happen until Greece improves conditions for Turkish minorities living there.

Over his long career, 69-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn says he was continually reaching for God's presence, a connection he often feels while performing. His spiritual journey has now been chronicled in his book "Rumors of Glory."

Two of Istanbul’s top tourist destinations are also two of the city’s most important religious monuments: Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Watch scenes of both as author and Ottoman scholar Scott Rank discusses their historic spiritual and political significance for Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople.

Last week’s wave of attacks in Paris has prompted new debates about Islam and extremism. Host Bob Abernethy and Managing Editor Kim Lawton talk with Haris Tarin of the Muslim Public Affairs Council about how the West should respond, how to counter an anti-Muslim backlash, and how US Muslims are trying to keep extremism from taking hold here.

For many Christians, celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany means marking the appearance of Jesus. In Western churches, the holiday emphasizes the visit of the wise men to the baby Jesus. But Eastern Orthodox churches focus on Jesus’ baptism.

How do interfaith couples decide which faith their children should adopt? "We both wanted to keep our own religions and our own identity for ourselves, so we knew from the beginning that we didn’t want our children to be just one of our faiths," says Amy Schombs, who is Jewish and whose husband is a Christian.

Some social media companies—including Facebook—have run experiments to learn what influences user behavior. Many of these experiments have troubled both social media users and privacy advocates, who worry that this research and use of personal information is unethical.

As the movie opens in theaters around the country amidst controversy over its portrayal of former president Lyndon Johnson, we speak with "Selma" director Ava DuVernay and actor David Oyelowo, who portrays Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., about what it means to them to tell the story of the historic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

What's likely to make headlines in the new year? From ISIS to Pope Francis's visit to the US to the situation in the Holy Land, it's our annual survey of the top religion and ethics stories we expect to be covering in 2015.

Host Bob Abernethy leads a conversation with managing editor Kim Lawton, Religion News Service editor-in-chief Kevin Eckstrom, and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, in our annual review of the top religion and ethics stories of 2014.

"A couple of years ago the responses we saw from local communities hosting Syrian refugees—not the government, but just your average person—[] very impressive,” says Daryl Grisgraber, senior advocate at Refugees International. "But four years on that can only be kept up for so long."