The PBS Foundation has received initial support from The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and The Pew Charitable Trusts for a new 24-episode Crash Course series titled “Religions.” The series, which premiered on PBS Digital Studios’ and Crash Course’s YouTube channels in September, is produced by educational media company Complexly, and explores how religions arise and change over time. Crash Course currently has 16 million subscribers, and the episodes have been accumulating upwards of 100,000 views. PBS Digital Studios draws in more than 50 million monthly views and has a total of five billion views since it was founded in 2012.
The “Religions” series is hosted by author, YouTuber, and podcaster John Green. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including The Fault in Our Stars, one of the best-selling books of all time.
The series explores the various ways people define, debate, and contest what religion means in their lives and the lives of others. The series examines how religion intersects with and influences such things as social identity, political systems, and popular culture. It is hoped that by fostering a better understanding of differences in religious views, the series will encourage empathy among current and new audiences and lead to respectful civic engagement on the topic. Episodes include “What’s the Difference Between Religion and Magic?” and “Buddhism Explained.” Other episodes include conversations on sacred texts, rituals, atheism and more.
Reviews of the series have been strongly positive. One viewer commented: “Crash Course always teaches me new and interesting things I’d never expect to have learned otherwise. In fact, I dedicate an hour or two in my daily routine to watch, take notes, and rewatch a video most days in the afternoon in order to continue educating myself for the pleasure, and wellness, of simply learning. In the same way that cardio exercise, muscle building exercise, and meditation/mindfulness exercises are important, simply taking an hour or two to continue engaging your mind has multiple benefits for elongated brain health. I love this series!!!”
“This is a topic our audience has requested for a long time, and John Green majored in religious studies, so there has been a lot of interest within Complexly to create a religion series, too.” said Heather Di Diego, the Executive Producer of Crash Course. “Religion addresses many of life’s greatest mysteries including ‘What is the meaning of life? What happens when we die?’. There is so much to dive into. We were excited to tackle these big questions and help audiences understand similarities and diversity within different religions.”
To date, work on the series has received generous funding from The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and The Pew Charitable Trusts through grants to the PBS Foundation, PBS’s national fundraising arm.
“For many years now, Crash Course has been a reliable source of engaging and high-quality educational videos for millions of people, across a wide range of audiences. We at the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations were thrilled to provide support for the Crash Course team to apply their unique approach to a series on religion,” said John Churchill, Vice President of Grants and Programs.
“The Pew Charitable Trusts’ religion grantmaking supports organizations and programs that promote a better understanding of religion in America, particularly efforts that bridge divides among people of diverse faiths and counter biases against religious groups,” said Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Senior Vice President at Pew. “By making information about different religions easy to understand and by explaining how they intersect for people of various cultures and faiths, Crash Course “Religions” is doing just that – and we are therefore very pleased to support this important work.”
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About the PBS Foundation
Established in 2004 as the national fundraising arm for PBS, the PBS Foundation is a leader for philanthropic support of PBS, ensuring that PBS continues to be an excellent provider of outstanding programs and services. The PBS Foundation is both a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and a 509(a)(3) supporting organization to PBS, and its purpose is to seek, cultivate, and receive philanthropic gifts and grants at the national level. The Foundation then administers these gifts and grants on behalf of PBS. By offering donors opportunities to make outsized impact possible and working collaboratively and cooperatively with member stations nationwide, the Foundation secures the extraordinary funding necessary to maintain and enhance PBS’s commitment to serving the American public. In particular, the Foundation raises funds for PBS’s priority projects and initiatives, including high-quality, accessible media that addresses climate; democracy, civics, & journalism; the arts; educational programming from PBS KIDS; and more. Learn more at foundation.pbs.org.
