Zachary Ugolnik - Science & spirituality, heightened states of community, and new conceptions of flourishing

Zachary Ugolnik has for years been charting a new path that refuses the tired and inanimate narrative about the separateness of science and spirituality, reason and religion. In his life we find rich possibility when those old illusory dichotomies are discarded, and from that possibility perhaps new wisdom for creating a society full of care and flourishing, one that embraces our inherent needfulness and borrows from theology, ecology, and the social sciences.

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Dr. Ugolnik is currently working in philanthropy. Prior to joining the foundation sector, Zack was Program Director at the unparalleled Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University, leading interdisciplinary activities at the institution particularly esteemed for its interdisciplinarity.

His singular trajectory includes points that constellate academia across North America and across disciplines. He's a former professor of religion at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick where he designed and taught courses in ethics, religion, and philosophy. He was an Interdisciplinary Fellow at the Center for Innovative Theory and Empirics (INCITE) at Columbia University, where plural communities explore how to engage the social world in surprising new ways. Zack earned his Ph.D. in Religion from Columbia University, his Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard University, and his B.A. in Religion and International Relations from Syracuse University.

His book on religious imagery and self-formation is forthcoming with Fordham University Press.

I wanted to have Zack on the podcast to discuss the space and possibility opened when we release ideologies that pit science and spirituality against one another, to explore a life that has unfolded in that space, and to learn what implications this holds for our social lives--who we each are with and for each other.