Dazed and Discoursed

“More and more young people are embarking on spiritual journeys,” writes Susan Akyeampong in her latest article, ‘Why Are So Many Young People Looking for God?’. In 2019, just 22 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK said they believed in God. By early 2025, that figure had more than doubled to 45 per cent. New research commissioned by the Bible Society reveals that, since 2018, the number of young men attending church has risen from 4 per cent to 21 per cent, while attendance among young women has grown from 3 per cent to 12 per cent. A similar trend can be seen in the US, where 46 per cent of Gen Z identify as Christian – many of them young boys and men. But what’s behind this religious revival? And why is this surge in faith and churchgoing largely concentrated in conservative Christian spaces?This week on the podcast, Halima Jibril and Elliot Hoste are joined by editorial director Ted Stansfield (our resident Christian) to unpack what’s drawing young adults to faith and spirituality, the reasons behind the striking gender divide and whether online trends like #tradcath and “Catholic chic” are making Christianity more attractive to the chronically online.Related articles: Why Are So Many Young People Looking for God? by Susan AkyeampongTrump and the changing face of America’s young evangelicals by Laura Pitcher Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since its release on Netflix last month, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s Adolescence is all anybody has been talking about. The British crime drama television mini-series centres on a 13-year-old schoolboy named Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) who is arrested for the murder of a girl in his school. The show has reinvigorated conversations about the manosphere, incels and the rise of misogyny among young boys and men. In this week’s episode, Halima Jibril and Elliot Hoste are joined by our deputy editor, Serena Smith, to discuss the show’s popularity, the Labour government’s new initiative to show Adolescence in schools, the problems with the way we discuss toxic and positive masculinity, and so much more. Related articles: ‘The problem with Adolescence’ by Serena Smith ‘Are young men really doomed?’ by Halima Jibril  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan Erickson’s critically acclaimed Apple TV+ series Severance has returned for its second season. The show centres on Lumon, a mysterious corporation that has developed a novel medical procedure known as ‘severance’. This process allows employees to split their professional (“innie”) and personal (“outie”) identities via a microchip implanted in their brains. The chip activates when descending to the eerie severed floor, erasing all memories of their outside lives. Conversely, once they leave the office, they have no recollection of what they do from nine to five.Severance is a brilliant and complex exploration of late-stage capitalism, identity, loss, and belonging. While often described as a dystopian sci-fi series, our deputy editor, Serena Smith, argues in her latest essay, “Are we all severed?” that its world is eerily similar to our own. “How many of us contain parts of our identities just to get through the day? How many of us have gone to work while depressed, brokenhearted or grieving? On a macro level: how many of us have gone to work knowing that wars, famines, and genocides are happening? Arguably, under late capitalism – which prioritises work over all else – we’re all kind of severed.”This week on the podcast, Smith joins Halima Jibril to explore how capitalism forces us to split our identities, the consequences of ignoring pain and suffering and why the fragmentation of the self is such a compelling theme in popular culture.This episode contains spoilers for Severance seasons one and two. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From Halina Reijn’s Babygirl and Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu to FKA twigs’ EUSEXUA and Ethel Cain’s Perverts, sex is back in the mainstream. And it’s not just any kind of sex — as Emma Garland argues in her latest essay, “Everyone is Horny Now”, “there has been a pendulum swing not just towards sex, but towards deviance.”With Nicole Kidman being dog-walked by her twenty-something-year-old male intern, Nosferatu elevating the conflict between repression and liberation to Biblical proportions and FKA twigs referring to the softer edges of her music as “the pussy,” music and media are depicting sex in ways that challenge socially accepted norms.But what makes these depictions so deviant? And eight years on from the height of the #MeToo movement, how has the cultural conversation around sex evolved and what impact has it had on how sex is portrayed?In this episode, hosts Halima Jibril and Elliot Hoste are joined by Garland to unpack the latest and most provocative depictions of sex in popular culture, explore why pleasurable sex is often framed as transgressive, and argue why everyone needs to let go and just be gross. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In July 2024, writer and artist August Lamm shared her prediction for the future on X: “I’m calling it right now: abstention is the next big thing. Sobriety, celibacy, digital minimalism, dumb phones, religion. The age of hedonistic hyper-consumption is over. We’re moving into a new peaceful age marked by moderation and self-discipline. I can’t wait.”Lamm, who has been without an iPhone for two and a half years, wasn’t basing her prediction on trends she’d seen online (she doesn’t have a phone, remember?). Instead, she expressed her desire for a shift in culture, grounded in the belief that we have reached peak hyper-consumption. From Brat being synonymous with hedonistic indulgence, to Stanley cup fads and excessive skincare hauls, to Oxford’s Word of the Year, “brain rot”, a term describing the negative effects of consuming low-quality or trivial online content, 2024 was undeniably a year of excess.As we enter the new year, however, a cultural shift seems to be emerging. People are challenging their consumption habits by participating in low-buy or no-buy years, where they refrain from shopping for an entire year. Others are turning to digital detoxes in an effort to rebuild their attention spans, productivity and overall well-being.In this episode, hosts Halima Jibril and Elliot Hoste are joined by Lamm to unpack our addiction to consumption, our scarcity mentality, and whether we’re simply swinging from one extreme to another – from hedonistic hyper-consumption to complete restriction. Is this the beginning of a world without pleasure, or could moderation finally offer the balance we’ve been craving?Featured articles: No-buy 2025: So you want to try a year without shopping?How to avoid ‘lifestyle creep’You Don't Need a Smartphone: A Practical Guide to Downgrading & Reclaiming Your Life by August Lamm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter (and renamed it X) the platform has become inundated with right-wing rhetoric, sparking questions about whether X played a direct role in putting Donald Trump back in the White House. Recently, celebrities such as Lizzo and publishers like The Guardian have posted impassioned statements explaining their decision to leave X. And many people are flocking to Bluesky, a Twitter lookalike which gained more than one million new users in a week. In this episode, we delve into the turmoil on X and consider whether the solution lies in abandoning one social media platform for another or staying to challenge right-wing ideology and combat radicalisation.This episode is hosted by Halima Jibril and Elliot Hoste, with research by Solomon Pace McCarrick. It was edited by Oliver Gale, and the executive producer is Harry Slater. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Manifestation is intention-setting through focusing your thoughts on the desired outcome until it happens. It’s part of psychological thought that became popularised by books like The Secret, before taking over popular culture in 2020. Since then, there’s been a growing fascination around how algorithms, the internet, and even AI can be tools for manifestation. Over the summer, Gabi Abrão Tweeted: “Everything I have in my life, I once reblogged on Tumblr. The internet is a rapid manifestation tool. The images and essences you worship here lay on an altar that determines your future.”” In her article, The rise of the ‘manifinsta’: how social media became a manifestation tool, writer Laura Pitcher explores the phenomenon of "manifinstas"—social media accounts that young people use primarily to manifest jobs, relationships, and an overall improved life. This trend aligns with the growing popularity of astrology in culture, reflected in music of Ariana Grande and film’s like Tarot (2024). This week, we delve into the roots of the desire for predetermined outcomes and discuss whether social media should function as a tool for self-optimisation.This episode is hosted by Halima Jibril, Elliot Hoste, and Laura Pitcher, with research by Solomon Pace McCarrick. It was edited by Oliver Gale. The executive producer is Lauren Ford. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.