On 17 June 2026, Nikita Obraztsov was a guest on the programme “Fiziki i Liriki” (Scientists and Humanists) on Radio Mayak. The conversation covered contemporary religious studies as a discipline, its research programme, and the different forms of atheism and what distinguishes modern non-belief from its historical predecessors. Listen →
“Fiziki i Liriki” (Scientists and Humanists), Radio Mayak, 17 June 2026. Listen → An appearance on the Radio Mayak programme “Fiziki i Liriki”, hosted by Alexander Pushnoy and Rita Mitrofanova. The conversation covered contemporary religious studies as a discipline — what researchers in the field actually study today and what the research programme of the field looks like. A substantial part of the discussion was devoted to atheism: its different varieties, its historical forms, and what distinguishes contemporary non-belief from the atheism of earlier periods. ...
My interview for the SPEECH podcast by Litres publishing is out. We talked about whether religion can be defined at all, what the “fuzzy sphere” between believers and non-believers is, why transhumanism comes closest to being a new religion, and what will happen to traditional confessions in the age of AI. Watch on YouTube → Read more →
Interview for the SPEECH podcast, Litres. Watch: YouTube In this conversation with the SPEECH podcast team, we worked through several questions I consider fundamental to understanding what religion is and what is happening to it today. Can Religion Even Be Defined? Since Friedrich Max Müller, religious studies has never arrived at a single universal definition. Substantive approaches grounded in belief in the “supernatural” frequently fail: in classical Theravada Buddhism or in archaic belief systems, the concept of the supernatural is blurred beyond usefulness. ...
Commentary for a Forbes Young feature by Elena Strelkova on why young people are increasingly turning to religion. Forbes is one of the world’s leading business publications; the Russian edition has been in operation since 2004. In the article I explain why religious communities appeal to Gen Z: the gym, the co-working space, the university are all places where people are near each other without being together. Religious communities have historically offered something different — a regular rhythm of shared practice and a common language for talking about what matters most. Compensatory mechanisms kick in. ...
Guest appearance on Fiziki i Liriki, Radio Mayak. On how neural networks and digital technologies are transforming the religious experience of contemporary people. Listen →
Guest appearance on Fiziki i Liriki, Radio Mayak — one of Russia’s oldest public radio stations, founded in 1964. Consistently among the top five most-listened-to stations in the country. On air: how a physics graduate invented the Flying Spaghetti Monster to fight the teaching of intelligent design in schools; why Pastafarianism is a way of carnivalising traditional beliefs and defending civil rights; how to tell parody from aggression; why Pastafarians wear colanders on their heads, etc. ...
Guest appearance on Fiziki i Liriki, Radio Mayak. On the transformation of religiosity in contemporary society — from traditional forms of belief to new spiritual practices. Listen →
Guest on the Pascal’s Wager podcast. On the nature of rationality, science, astrology, and how we form beliefs. Read the text → Watch In Russian →
A review of Religions of the World by Lidia Maslova in the “Book of the Week” column of Izvestia — one of Russia’s oldest and most widely read national newspapers, founded in 1917 and with a current circulation of over 230,000. Read →
The video lecture “Allann Chumak: The History of Fraud” was selected as a finalist at the Crystal Penguinopithecus 2023 — an annual award for best Russian-language popular science videos, presented at the ProProsvet science communication conference. Read the original paper →
Interview for Alexander Bydantsev’s channel on Yandex Zen. On religious studies as a science, the Brights movement, agnosticism, scientism, and the limits of the scientific method. Read in Russian→ Read the interview in English→
Guest appearance on Byt Sovremennikom (Being a Contemporary), Radio Grad Petrov, with Darya Zavyalova. On the phenomenon of omens and superstitions from a scientific perspective: why around a third of Russians treat omens as part of everyday life, their communicative function in culture, and why the brain is evolutionarily inclined to seek patterns. With references to Robert Sapolsky’s research and Skinner box experiments. Listen →
Expert commentary for Sobaka.ru on irrational thinking, conspiracy theories, and the spread of pseudoscience. Read →