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Behind the Interviews

Interviewer

Narrators

Yiyi Zhang graduated from Brandeis University with a B.A. in Philosophy and from Columbia University with a M.A. in Philosophy. Her interests shift from Philosophy to Oral History in 2016 as she was involved in a Oral History project. She is specifically interested in giving the oppressed group voice, the ignored people attention and building understanding and nurturing compassion through oral history. Yiyi is a world traveler. Besides countries in North America and Europe, she has also been to countries in South Asia, Central Asia and Africa for volunteer works and independent studies. Yiyi is always ready to encounter and be inspired by new people and new stories.

Iain Atkinson was born in 1989 in west London, the U.K.. He was a Philosophy PhD candidate at Columbia University. He was born into an Anglican family and both of his parents were pastors. In 2016, he went through a lot of transitions and hardships which drew him into deeper spiritual hunger. Instead of continuing to pursue a PhD in philosophy, Iain felt called to ministry. During his interview he said, "I could only think in matters of prayer, I could only be rooted in my experience, and my experience became more and more prayer somehow". With regards to his spirituality, he considers himself a Christian, and as someone who is both less than a Christian, and more than a Christian.

Rozanne Gooding Silverwood was born in 1954 in North Carolina but grew up in Texas. After raising three daughters, she received her undergraduate degree in anthropology at Columbia University at the age of 63, and she is currently a master's student in the university's Oral History program. Her spiritual interests began in her teenage years and she was an active student and teacher in a national meditation school for two decades. She left the group due to the psycho-spiritual abuses that seem to be endemic to religious culture. Currently, she considers herself as spiritual but not religious. She says, "My indigenous heritage prompts me to look for signs and meaning in the natural world and in dreams. My atheism prompts me to appreciate the wonder of my co-existence with the world around me and to accept my inevitable end."

Aidan Azad was born in 1977 in London. He moved to Bangladesh with his family for 9 years during his childhood where his family is originally from, and later moved back to the U.K. His mother is Muslim and his father is atheist. Growing up Aidan had a rebellious streak to him - and he stil does - but also a side that hungered for spirituality. He was a Wahhabi for a year before he became a Sufi Muslim, which he practiced for a decade and a half. In 1999 he had an overpowering experience which he now considers to be his first conversion experience. He had his second conversion experience in 2016 and found his home in Orthodox Church. He has a PhD in Islamic Studies from Columbia University. He is currently pursuing an MDiv at Union Theological Seminary, and is working towards being ordained as an Orthodox priest.

Hannah Johnson was born in 1993 in North Carolina in a big family with 6 siblings. Growing up in a Christian family, she fell in love with God at an early age.However, Hannah has struggled with finding the same joy in her faith from dealing with depression and struggles with pain, guilt and shame on different levels. Her spiritual journey is filled with questions related to injustice and pain in our world and as she encounters friends who are from various religious backgrounds, and who have wrestled with feelings within LGBTQ. Though still carrying pain and struggles, Hannah says, "It's okay to be overwhelmed and to be angry at God and to doubt and to not believe, and to ask the Lord, what does this mean? ... It's been really rich, I wouldn't have changed it."