by Elli Anthony
On February 10th, Dr. Brent Landau’s seminar section had the great pleasure of hosting Glynn Washington as their guest lecturer.
Radio host and producer of Snap Judgement, he has a keen and developed interest in story-telling. Given his upbringing in a family enthralled with magic and breaking the barrier between the ordinary and the extraordinary, he began to collect personal accounts involving the supernatural. Spooked is a podcast series in which Washington grants individuals the opportunity to share their own experiences with what lies beyond our material realm. The stories he has gathered, combined with his own intimate knowledge of “spooky” encounters, proved to be of great benefit to those enrolled in Dr. Landau’s “Religion, the Supernatural, and the Paranormal” capstone course, as well as to those involved in the study of religion.
By discussing the supernatural with sincerity and academic intrigue, Washington causes one to pause and consider the implications of such a subject on the field of religious studies. Through his discussions with those around the world, he has come to realize that encounters with a world beyond our own is far too common to simply ignore. People speak of these experiences as responsible for altering their perspectives on life, religion, and death. Washington emphasized how significant these accounts are and highlights their potential to reveal ultimate truths. If we begin to normalize these experiences and accept the fact that there is a realm beyond ours, we can begin to deconstruct and understand the seemingly impossible aspects of religious texts, as well as the potential we have to better understand life after death.
Glynn Washington is the host, and executive producer of Snap Judgement, a storytelling podcast on NPR. He also hosts spinoff Spooked.
Elli Anthony is a senior with a double major in Religious and Middle Eastern Studies, with a specialization in both Arabic and Spanish. While working as a research assistant for the Religious Studies Undergraduate Research Cohort, she recorded and analyzed the role and contemporary application of Islam among young Americans. She spent this past summer at UT’s Arabic Summer Institute, and has developed her language skills in an effort to better understand the culture of her selected region of study. Elli will graduate in Spring 2021 and will work as an elementary school teacher while pursuing her masters in International Relations.
