Can you be a liberal or progressive woman and still be religious in the United States today?

As conservative, tradition-seeking men increasingly turn to Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism—and a hypermasculine online religious culture grows alongside them—women who grew up in these traditions can find themselves asking a very different question: Is there still a place here for us?

Host Maria Eliades talks with Orthodox theologian Rachel Contos about feminism, faith, the rise of the “Orthobro,” and what happens when women refuse to let conservative religious movements define what their faith is allowed to look like.

Rachel shares her own complicated journey from nearly leaving the Orthodox Church to pursuing a PhD in theology and becoming an outspoken advocate for women and queer people in the Church. Together, Maria and Rachel explore why some disaffected men are drawn to a vision of Christianity built around masculinity and tradition, how churches respond to social change, the fight over women’s roles in Orthodox Christianity, and why remaining inside an imperfect institution can itself become an act of resistance.

And ultimately, Rachel offers a different way to think about faith: you can question your religious tradition, argue with it, take a break from it—and still refuse to let someone else take away something that sustains you.