By the People: Conversations Beyond 250
Episode Description
As part of the national By the People initiative, several humanities councils created podcast series and episodes of their own. In between original episodes of this show, we are republishing episodes from the councils so you can meet even more culture bearers and history keepers from around the country…and discover new podcasts.
This episode is titled “The Changing Role of Religious Spaces?” It is republished from the Oregon Humanities podcast The Detour, courtesy of Oregon Humanities. You can find more episodes of The Detour at oregonhumanities.org/rll/podcast. Show notes and a transcript for this episode are available here.
Episode Description: Wherever people live in Oregon, you are certain to come across churches. Sometimes you’ll find mosques, synagogues, and other houses of worship, but as you’d expect in a majority Christian country, church buildings especially are everywhere. All these structures were built for a specific purpose, but with fewer and fewer people going to church, fewer and fewer are people using and paying for the upkeep of these buildings. In March of 2026, Brandon Rhodes, Amy Jayne, and Frank So explored what’s happening with these buildings in a conversation in La Grande, Oregon.
By the People: Conversations Beyond 250 is available on all major podcast platforms. Listen on your browser by using the player above or find your preferred platform here.
