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To The Best Of Our KnowledgeTo The Best Of Our Knowledge is a nationally-syndicated, Peabody award-winning public radio show that dives headlong into the deeper end of ideas. Author: Wisconsin Public Radio
To the Best of Our Knowledge is a Peabody award-winning national public radio show that explores big ideas and beautiful questions. Deep interviews with philosophers, writers, artists, scientists, historians, and others help listeners find new sources of meaning, purpose, and wonder in daily life. Whether its about bees, poetry, skin, or psychedelics, every episode is an intimate, sound-rich journey into open-minded, open-hearted conversations. Warm and engaging, TTBOOK helps listeners feel less alone and more connected to our common humanity and to the world we share.For more from the TTBOOK team, visit us at ttbook.org. Language: en Genres: Philosophy, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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Manvir Singh: Was Shamanism the First Religion?
Episode 8
Saturday, 4 April, 2026
Shamanism may be humanity’s oldest religion – a tradition found across cultures, where healers slip into unseen realms, speak with spirits, and bring back knowledge from beyond the visible world. But in a modern, scientific age, these practices can seem like little more than superstition. But what if they reveal something deeper in human experience? Anthropologist Manvir Singh set out in search of answers. On a remote island in Indonesia, he lived with the Mentawai people, watching as their shamans — the sikerie — drummed, danced and entered trance, their tattooed bodies painted in turmeric. In these altered states, they appeared to move between worlds. How does an empirically-minded scientist make sense of such experiences? Singh combines immersive fieldwork with cross-cultural research into shamanic traditions, past and present. He calls shamanism a “timeless religion,” one that may go back to our earliest ancestors — and still lives on in the world’s major religions.Along the way, he asks a provocative question: Was Jesus a shaman?— Manvir’s book, Shamanism Manvir’s article in The Guardian on the debate over the history of psychedelics in indigenous cultures —0:00 The Macumba Exorcism in Brazil4:35 Meeting the Sikerei of Siberut8:30 Inside a Shamanic Healing Ceremony17:05 Psychedelics and Altered States22:10 Shamanism as the First Religion29:25 Was Jesus a Shaman? Wonder Cabinet is hosted by Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson. Find out more about the show at https://wondercabinetproductions.com, where you can subscribe to the podcast and our newsletter.
