{"podcast":{"title":"Firestarters with Shannon Watts","slug":"firestarters-with-shannon-watts-6727386","podcast_index_feed_id":6727386,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/1766923.rss","website_url":"https://shannonwatts.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/1766923/8192a8b34f7c4de55802eb2ba13f7cd3.jpg","author":"Shannon Watts","episode_count":106,"summary":"Light the match. Fan the flames. Change everything.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-25T04:19:56.516138+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/firestarters-with-shannon-watts-6727386"},"episode":{"title":"Sarah Stankorb on on why women are losing their religion","slug":"sarah-stankorb-on-on-why-women-are-losing-their-religion","published_at":"2026-09-24T14:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/firestarters-with-shannon-watts-6727386/sarah-stankorb-on-on-why-women-are-losing-their-religion","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/firestarters-with-shannon-watts-6727386","url":"https://shannonwatts.substack.com/p/sarah-stankorb-on-on-why-women-are","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/216927560/6b609f9711a51de59296f2e3ff7f2ece.mp3","summary":"Sarah Stankorb is the author of Disobedient Women , a USA Today national bestseller, and her reporting has appeared in The Washington Post , The New York Times , Vogue , Elle , Marie Claire , Slate , and VICE , among others. Her new book, Damned If She Does , looks at the millions of women who have quit American churches over the last several decades, tracing the threads that connect purity culture, politics, and the reasons faith stopped fitting for so many of them. Sarah talked about the years-long reporting process that led to the book, and how covering women who blew the whistle on abuse inside their own churches, many of them still faithful, shaped the questions she wanted to answer. We got into the cognitive dissonance so many women describe between being treated as equals in their professional lives and being told to submit at church, and the hypocrisy of religious leaders who forgive abuse within their own walls while shaming the women who experienced it. Sarah also shared what she found most surprising and most fun to report, the wide range of things women are turning to instead of organized religion, from women’s only gyms to a renewed interest in astrology and ancestral spiritual practices, and what she thinks it will actually take for churches to survive if they keep ignoring the fact that women no longer feel welcome there. Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram | Substack | Buy the Book If you’re looking to unleash your potential, find your personal, professional, or political fire, and to connect with a community who is doing the same, click here to learn more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shannonwatts.substack.com/subscribe","meta_description":"Sarah Stankorb is the author of Disobedient Women , a USA Today national bestseller, and her reporting has appeared in The Washington Post , The New York…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1493,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/firestarters-with-shannon-watts-6727386/episodes/sarah-stankorb-on-on-why-women-are-losing-their-religion/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/firestarters-with-shannon-watts-6727386/sarah-stankorb-on-on-why-women-are-losing-their-religion.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}