Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst \u201905 wants you to know there is just no escaping religion. Even if you are not religious, she says, religion affects your life. It\u2019s out there, with its systems and assumptions, structuring the world around you, influencing politics and policy, and determining who has power and who does not. \u201cChurch and state,\u201d Morgenstein Fuerst has written, \u201care not separate \u2014 they\u2019re not even on a break.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That drive to help people understand religion\u2019s often unacknowledged role in our world is what motivated Morgenstein Fuerst, an associate professor of religion at the University of Vermont, to launch a podcast with her friend and fellow religion scholar Megan Goodwin in January 2020. Called Keeping It 101: A Killjoy\u2019s Introduction to Religion<\/em>, the podcast would go on to air 114 episodes over more than five years and become an unlikely hit. (Weary of the workload that writing and producing a podcast entailed, the pair decided to bring it to a close in June.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Why \u201cA Killjoy\u2019s<\/em> Introduction\u201d? For Morgenstein Fuerst and Goodwin, being a killjoy means sharing uncomfortable truths people may not want to hear. \u201cWe want you to see the world more clearly,\u201d says Morgenstein Fuerst, who believes that not talking forthrightly about religion \u201callows intolerance and inequality to flourish.\u201d Developing a better understanding of religion \u2014 its histories, tenets, rituals, how it functions in the lives of adherents \u2014 she believes, can also help us see its potential to create a better world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The way I think about my scholarship comes down to the question of, \u2018Are you serving the public good?\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Keeping It 101<\/em>, in its six seasons, offered deep dives into Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Judaism, Indigenous religions, African Diasporic religions, and many others. It explored early Christianity, religious nationalism around the world, food-based religious rituals, and the ways various religions have viewed illness and disability. It also asked and answered the question \u201cIs religion dangerous?\u201d While dead serious about its educational mission, Keeping It 101<\/em> also featured witty and irreverent commentary delivered with crack comic timing by Morgenstein Fuerst, an observant Jew who earned her master of theological studies from Harvard Divinity School, and her co-host and best friend Goodwin, who is senior editor at Religion Dispatches<\/em> and identifies as Wiccan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The success of the podcast, which racked up more than 250,000 downloads by its end, also attracted the interest of publishers and gave birth to a book, Religion Is Not Done With You: Or, the Hidden Power of Religion on Race, Maps, Bodies, and Law<\/em>. Co-authored by Morgenstein Fuerst and Goodwin, the book was published in 2024 by Beacon Press and came out in paperback in fall 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The book\u2019s reception was a big surprise for Morgenstein Fuerst, who directs the UVM Humanities Center and teaches such courses as Interpretation of Religion; Islam and Race; and Religion, Politics and Power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s been shocking,\u201d she says of the book\u2019s success. \u201cAcademics don\u2019t expect their work to be read. But paperbacks are printed to sell and the fact that the book has been reprinted indicates it\u2019s being adopted in classrooms and used on college campuses.\u201d The authors have also been getting a lot of feedback from across the country, including from public libraries and churches that have chosen the book for their monthly book clubs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the final episode of the podcast, Morgenstein Fuerst declared her role in Keeping It 101<\/em> \u201cthe most impactful work I will ever do in terms of scholarship.\u201d A big statement, but she stands by it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In her other academic work, Morgenstein Fuerst observes, she often writes about hate, Christian supremacy, and Islamophobia. \u201cThese are things that no one wants to talk about. Also, academic research tends to be jargony and written for our colleagues.\u201d With the podcast \u2014 and the book \u2014 though, connecting with the general public was the aim. Says Morgenstein Fuerst, \u201cThis was lightning striking. It\u2019s hard for me to imagine anything else I write having that kind of quick and immediate adoption.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n That hasn\u2019t stopped her from beginning two new book projects, which she is currently working on simultaneously. One, the product of a Fulbright she won in 2022, examines how laws about Muslims and Jews set up in the 1800s under the British imperial system \u201ccontribute to a global conversation about Islamophobia and antisemitism.\u201d The other mixes memoir with a history of adoption in the U.S., which has always been, she says, \u201cpart of Christian nationalist programs.\u201d (Morgenstein Fuerst is an adoptee.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n And while the podcast may be done, Morgenstein Fuerst remains passionately committed to what\u2019s been called “public-facing scholarship.\u201d For her, that\u2019s about more than offering a hot take as a talking head on a news show; it demands \u201cwriting in a way that grips the public without all the jargon and without every sentence having 16 footnotes that make it challenging for your average educated American to wade through. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI still write that way,\u201d she says of her academic writing. \u201cThat\u2019s how I keep my job and my health insurance. That\u2019s how I push a conversation. But every time I write something like that, I do a translated version.\u201d Her \u201ctranslations\u201d might be published on a website, or she might discuss the topic on a podcast or give a public lecture that is recorded and posted online. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Morgenstein Fuerst, who says she \u201cdiscovered religion\u201d in her first semester at Colgate, adds: \u201cI am one of those alums who credit Colgate with setting me up correctly\u2026. The way I think about my scholarship comes down to the question of, \u2018Are you serving the public good?\u2019 That\u2019s a value Colgate instilled. It\u2019s not just, \u2018What do you know?\u2019 It\u2019s \u2018How are you showing what you know to others, and how is that making the world a little bit better?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst \u201905 is driven to help people understand religion\u2019s often unacknowledged role in our lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":20109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3263,3267,3269,3264,3265,3266,3268],"coauthors":[2624],"class_list":["post-18974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-discover","tag-colgate-alumni-research","tag-ilyse-morgenstein-fuerst","tag-islamophobia-and-antisemitism","tag-keeping-it-101-podcast","tag-public-facing-scholarship","tag-religion-and-power","tag-religion-and-society"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-4W2","amp_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/01\/scene-religion-featured-v2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18974"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19760,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18974\/revisions\/19760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18974"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=18974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}