This week’s guest is Paul Vigna.

Paul Vigna is an author and former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and has been a journalist for more than 30 years, as a reporter, editor, and photographer. He currently writes the Substack newsletter PofV and posts on TikTok under his name. Vigna covered the equity markets and economics for the journal across its blogs, podcasts, and live video programs. In 2013 he began writing about bitcoin, pioneered coverage of bitcoin and the cryptocurrency sector. In 2015, he co-wrote "The Age of Cryptocurrency" with Michael J. Casey and published by St. Martin's Press, the first book about bitcoin from a Big Five publisher. They followed that up with "The Truth Machine" in 2018. He also covered arts and entertainment while at the Journal, and in 2017 published "Guts: The Anatomy of The Walking Dead," with Dey Street Books. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Dallas Morning News, and MIT Technology Review. He has spoken at South By Southwest and Comic Con New York, as well as many other conferences. He starred in the 2016 documentary "Banking on Bitcoin." Vigna is a native of New Jersey and a 1990 graduate of Fairfield University in Connecticut.

His newest book is The Almightier: How Money Became God, Greed Became Virtue, and Debt Became Sin.

In this conversation we dive into the intricate relationship between money, morality, and society. We explore the historical evolution of wealth, the moral implications of capitalism, and the cultural narratives that shape our understanding of money today. From the Renaissance to modern America, this conversation challenges conventional wisdom and invites you to rethink the role of money in our lives.

Our sponsor is The Brueggeman Center for Dialogue at Xavier University, here in Cincinnati, which is dedicated to deepening understanding across faiths and promoting systemic change.

Avenue M is produced by Bespoken Live with music by Zach Swelber, who plays in Circle It and Mosant.

This week’s guest is Shadi Hamid.

Shadi Hamid is a columnist at The Washington Post and a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Previously, he was research professor of Islamic studies at Fuller Seminary as well as a longtime senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. Hamid's newest book is The Case for American Power (Simon & Schuster). He is also the author of several other books, including The Problem of Democracy, as well as the co-editor of Rethinking Political Islam. His book Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam is Reshaping the World was shortlisted for the 2017 Lionel Gelber Prize for best book on foreign affairs. In 2019, Hamid was named one of the world’s top 50 thinkers by Prospect magazine. He is also the co-founder of Wisdom of Crowds, a podcast, newsletter, and debate platform. Hamid received his B.S. and M.A. from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and his Ph.D. in political science from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.

His newest book argues that America, for all its contradictions and failures, is still, in his words, “the last best hope for a more moral and just world.”

In this conversation, we press him on that claim. Is it possible for a nation-state to act morally? What happens when faith traditions rooted in humility and sacrifice collide with the logic of power? And what do we do when moral conviction itself becomes a weapon — in foreign policy, in Gaza, and even in our domestic politics?

Shadi calls his book a “love letter to America,” but the conversation quickly becomes a debate about what love looks like and what it demands when the country you love commits moral wrongs.

It’s a conversation about belief and realism, religion and responsibility, power and purity and whether the only way to redeem power is to take it.

Avenue M is produced by Bespoken Live with music by Zach Swelber, who plays in Circle It and Mosant.

This week’s guest is Adam Fronczek. Adam has been the Pastor of Knox Presbyterian Church for eight years. He is passionate about understanding the changing role of religion in our culture; he is also convinced that there is still a place for an active neighborhood church, where generations gather together to figure out life, where people greet you by name and know your story, and where we consider together how we can leave the world a little better than we found it. Adam is married and has four kids.

In this episode, we talk about the ways religion can both hold us together—and pull us apart. What begins as a conversation about coherence quickly turns into something deeper: how faith, doubt, vocation, masculinity, and middle age collide in real life.

Together we ask: How do we navigate incoherence as parents and people of faith? And is it possible to find solidarity—not in having it all figured out—but in admitting that we don’t?

This is a conversation about the daily work of meaning-making, about gratitude, choice, and consent, and about what it might look like to rebuild our lives—and our faith—together, one day at a time.

We’re excited to share a new sponsor: The Brueggeman Center for Dialogue at Xavier University, here in Cincinnati, is dedicated to deepening understanding across faiths and promoting systemic change.

Avenue M is produced by Bespoken Live with music by Zach Swelber, who plays in Circle It and Mosant.

This week's guest is Shaul Magid. Shaul Magid is Professor of Modern Judaism in Residence at Harvard Divinity School and rabbi of the Fire Island Synagogue. His most recent book in The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance.

This conversation explores the complex dynamics of religious identity in the context of recent conflicts, particularly focusing on the implications of the ceasefire, the state of American Jewry, and the evolving narratives surrounding Zionism. We reflect on personal journeys, the challenges of diaspora versus exile, and the importance of solidarity between faith communities. We discuss the role of youth in shaping future conversations and the moral responsibilities of faith communities in responding to the call of this moment.

Avenue M is produced by Bespoken Live with music by Zach Swelber, who plays in Circle It and Mosant.

This week's guest is Mohammed Marikar. We explore the meaning and implications of AI. Mohammed reflects on AI’s rapid evolution from narrow tools to general-purpose systems, while balancing optimism about efficiency with concern for lost human development and resilience. We probe questions of education, faith, parenting, and morality, discussing how AI intersects with character formation, spiritual life, and societal structures. The conversation ultimately highlights both awe at AI’s capabilities and anxiety about dependence, emphasizing the need for grounding in fundamental skills, moral frameworks, and embodied human experiences.

Mohammed is a technologist, investor, and AI leader with over 20 years of experience at the intersection of finance and technology. At the Royal Bank of Canada, he founded the bank’s first Innovation Lab in Europe, deploying its first agentic AI system in 2016, and also ran the bank’s UK academic partnerships, sponsoring PhD research in applied AI at leading universities, including Imperial College London.

On leaving RBC, Mohammed co-founded Neem Capital, an AI-native investment firm that connects global capital with high-impact opportunities in developing markets. He is also Head of Institutional Development at FLock.io, a decentralised AI company pioneering federated learning and privacy-preserving AI, where he helps bridge frontier AI research into institutional and commercial use cases.

In addition to his industry work, Mohammed serves as an Adjunct Fellow at the University of Southampton, where he trains PhD students at the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in AI for Sustainability on translating their research into industry applications.

A London native and Mathematics graduate of Imperial College, Mohammed began programming at the age of five and continues to tinker with open-source projects and white-hat hacking. He also sits on the board of The Brokerage, a social mobility charity helping young people access careers in finance and technology.

We’re excited to share a new sponsor: The Brueggeman Center for Dialogue at Xavier University, here in Cincinnati, is dedicated to deepening understanding across faiths and promoting systemic change.

Avenue M is produced by Bespoken Live with music by Zach Swelber, who plays in Circle It and Mosant.

Zaakir Tameez is a scholar of antitrust and constitutional law. A graduate of Yale Law School and the University of Virginia, he has published award-winning scholarship and coauthored amicus briefs before the Texas and United States Supreme Courts. He is a Fulbright Scholar and Humanity in Action Senior Fellow from Houston, Texas.

Zaakir's new book, Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation, bridges personal identity and American history. He talks about why a young Muslim guy chose to tell the story of a 19th-century abolitionist and shows how neglected narratives of Reconstruction and civil rights can inspire us today. Woven throughout our conversation are themes of faith, courage, solidarity, and the shared responsibility of all Americans to claim, tell, and act upon their history.

We’re excited to share a new sponsor: The Brueggeman Center for Dialogue at Xavier University, here in Cincinnati, is dedicated to deepening understanding across faiths and promoting systemic change.

Avenue M is produced by Bespoken Live with music by Zach Swelber, who plays in Circle It and Mosant.

John Faherty still cannot believe his good fortune in getting a job at The Mercantile Library. His nightstand is filled with books because he is a slow reader, but he doggedly marches on with his pattern of one challenging book followed by one fun book. John thinks few people are actually worth biography and fewer yet of autobiography. John loves historical fiction and confesses a weakness for well-written crime procedurals. He has a particular affection for everything written by Kate Atkinson. He received a History degree from the University of Chicago in 1987. John lives with his particularly adorable family in Hyde Park.

We talk to him about why he chose to stay in Cincinnati, the library’s history and mission, and how it fosters civic dialogue and cultural life. He also shares personal stories about his faith journey and surviving a pancreas transplant while emphasizing gratitude, empathy, and striving to live a present life in honor of his donor.

We’re excited to share a new sponsor: The Brueggeman Center for Dialogue at Xavier University, here in Cincinnati, is dedicated to deepening understanding across faiths and promoting systemic change.

Avenue M is produced by Bespoken Live with music by Zach Swelber, who plays in Circle It and Mosant.

Dr. Abdallah Rothman is a leader in the field of Islamic psychology and has authored numerous books and academic papers on the subject. He is co-founder, along with the late Professor Malik Badri, of the International Association of Islamic Psychology. He’s currently Head of Islamic Psychology at Cambridge Muslim College and the Founder and Clinical Director of Dar al-Shifaa. Dr. Rothman holds an MA and a PhD in psychology and is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Board Certified Registered Art Therapist.

We talk to him about integrating spirituality with psychology, the nature of the soul, raising children with resilience, the value of discomfort and exploration, and how remembering is a key part of spiritual growth.

Show Notes:

• The late Professor Malik Badri helped to reinvigorate a Muslim approach to mental health. Badri is the author of Contemplation: An Islamic Psychospiritual Study (pdf) and Abu Zayd al-Balkhi’s Sustenance of the Soul: The Cognitive Behavior Therapy of a Ninth-Century Physician (pdf).
• During the episode, Rothman speaks often of “heartfulness,” a kind of parallel to mindfulness. His YouTube series, Midnight Moments, helps to clarify heartfulness in theory and in practice.
• Understandably, we were very interested in Rothman’s take on parenting in the secular world. His recent lecture, “God-Conscious Parenting,” elaborates many of the themes we discussed.
• You can find more of his content on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

This episode is sponsored by Queen City Diwan, a new kind of travel company, which leads historical tours, immersive experiences, leadership retreats and religious pilgrimages. While this September’s Uzbekistan trip is booked, we’re excited to offer an ‘umrah (Oct 11 - 19), a remarkable tour of Morocco, Spain and Portugal (Nov 21 - 29)—and early next year, a trip to Andalusia just for college students (Jan 3 - 9). Learn more on our website!

Avenue M is produced by Bespoken Live with music by Zach Swelber, who plays in Circle It and Mosant.