Traditionalism and Russian Orthodox Converts – Laurie Taylor talks to Mark Sedgwick, Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at Aarhus University, about the radical project for restoring sacred order. Traditionalism is founded on ancient teachings that, its followers argue, have been handed down from time immemorial and which must be defended from modernity. How has this mystical doctrine come to have contemporary sway on the political right, inspiring ex President Trump's former chief strategist, as well as the Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, sometimes dubbed as “Putin’s brain”?
They’re joined by Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, Assistant Professor of Religion and Anthropology at Northeastern University, Boston, who has uncovered an extraordinary story of religious conversion in one corner of Appalachia. Here, a group of American citizens has embraced the Russian Orthodox Church and through it Putin’s New Russia. They look to Russian religion and politics for answers to Western secularism and the loss of traditional family values.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Age of noise - British drinking
Sexual violence in the Bangladeshi War of Independence - Global danger and the risk to research
Super Rich: The 1% of the 1%
Laurie Taylor discusses the relationship between literature and sociology.
Musicians Union - women heavy metal fans
Men and Violence - Stag Parties
Success and Luck - Cosmopolitanism and Private Education
Foie gras & the politics of taste - Memories of Irish food
Racial segregation, Dementia and hair care
Population change - Chronic illness
Evangelicals - Troubled families
Drone warfare, Fitness instructors
Hoods - Construction Blacklist
House of Commons - Voting and Inequality
Rentier capitalism - Protest camps
Political polarisation, An anthropologist's guide to naming
Higher Education - Crisis or Change?
Shyness - Names
Men dressing up - The male 'suit'
Airport security, Retiring to Spain
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