How does cultural and moral renewal actually happen? Two schools of thought emerge to answer this recurring question from the 2026 Understory festival. The first argues that critical mass is the key to social change, requiring enough people mobilized to tip...
War has wracked Ukraine for 1,678 days—outlasting both World Wars. In this conversation with Mark Labberton, Fyodor Raichynets—a theologian at Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary, pastor of a church in Bucha, and a military chaplain serving on the front lines...
Matt and Shadi’s initiative, The Faith and Future of Democracy Initiative, is now housed at the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. The two sat down with the center director and Georgetown faculty member Nader Hashemi to...
Can you really vote your way to a good society—or does it have to be built house by house, street by street? James Vitali—former head of political economy at Policy Exchange, a Sandhurst-trained army reservist, local councillor, and author of The Ownership Society:...
With a jolt through his spine, Christian Wiman’s poem "In the Time of Fire" came to him. Included in his latest collection of poetry, The Dance, the poem’s speaker shifts from a man to a woman, addressing the world as a prophetic voice of wisdom. Recorded live on May...
In a country splitting apart over so much, three words point toward a better way to live: attention, agency, and power. David French returns to Conversing to take up all three. A New York Times opinion writer since January 2023, French writes from a conservative...
Friendship was a central theory of change at the Understory, revealing itself in main-stage debates and quiet corridor chats. Few panels demonstrated its power more potently than David Bailey’s conversation on arts and patronage. David—a musician, author, producer,...
Underneath all the political polarization, rage-baiting, punditry, and aggression, there is a crisis of civic agency. American citizens feel politically disempowered and undermined. And the effect, over time, will be that we lose our ability to self-govern. What is...
What are the lessons of 9/11? What does it mean to “never forget”? Join Matt and Shadi as they reflect on the fact that Muslims and Christians remember 9/11 and its aftermath quite differently. Together, Matt and Shadi share their personal stories from that day,...
What does it mean to prepare to die—and then discover that you need to prepare to live again? In this conversation, poet Christian Wiman reflects on faith, poetry, love, mortality, and his experience of living for more than 20 years with cancer. He talks about his...
The Menu, The Bear, and a choice.
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