Circa: 1790 - Central Character: Judith Sargent MurrayAbout this episode: Harmonia explores Judith Sargent Murray, whose radical belief in the equality of every soul helped build the world we live in today.
Christianity
Circa: 1800 - Central Character: Ryōkan TaiguAbout this episode: Ryōkan Taigu was an Edo-period Zen monk whose life of radical simplicity and chosen joy continues to illuminate what it means to be fully, deliberately alive.
Buddhism
Circa: 1807 - Central Character: William WilberforceAbout this episode: How William Wilberforce's interior transformation on a carriage ride gave him the moral grounding to abolish the British slave trade.
Christianity
Circa: 1809 - Central Character: Elizabeth Ann SetonAbout this episode: The story of Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of Charity, and the enduring power of service as a spiritual calling.
Christianity
Circa: 1810 - Central Character: Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsá'íAbout this episode: Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsá'í spent his life preparing the ground for a new age he could sense but never see --- his story is the pre-dawn of the morning we inhabit.
Islam
Circa: 1817 - Central Character: Elizabeth FryAbout this episode: How Elizabeth Fry transformed the brutal women’s ward of Newgate Prison through structure, dignity, and disciplined compassion—and reshaped society’s conscience.
19th century awakening
Circa: 1818 - Central Character: Shabkar Tsokdruk RangdrolAbout this episode: Tibetan yogi Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol saw through the walls between sacred traditions two centuries before the world was ready to listen.
Buddhism
Circa: 1823 - Central Character: Betsey StocktonAbout this episode: Betsey Stockton taught herself into freedom, then spent forty years teaching others --- on three continents, in three languages, under one conviction.
Christianity
Circa: 1829 - Central Character: Mary Elizabeth LangeAbout this episode: Mary Elizabeth Lange fled revolution as a child and built the first Black women's religious congregation in American history from a school in her own home.
Christianity
Circa: 1836 - Central Character: Jarena LeeAbout this episode: Jarena Lee was born free in a land built on slavery. Denied a pulpit, denied authority, and denied permission, she preached anyway
Christianity
Circa: 1840 - Central Character: Siyyid Kázim RashtíAbout this episode: In a quiet classroom in 19th-century Karbala, Siyyid Kzim Rasht whispered of a sacred change drawing near.
Islam
Circa: 1843 - Central Character: Dorothea DixAbout this episode: How Dorothea Dix exposed hidden suffering and helped transform mental health care through steady, uncompromising compassion.
19th century awakening
Circa: 1845 - Central Character: Hannah CohoonAbout this episode: Hannah Cohoon was a Shaker artist whose visionary gift drawings, made in humble obedience, became icons of American folk art.
Christianity
Circa: 1848 - Central Character: TahirihAbout this episode: Harmonia remembers Tahirih (1814-1852), the Persian poet, theologian, and revolutionary who defied her world with words and unveiled her face at the Conference of Badasht.
Baháʼí Faith
Circa: 1853 - Central Character: Antoinette Brown BlackwellAbout this episode: Antoinette Brown Blackwell
Christianity
Circa: 1854 - Central Character: Maneckji Limji HatariaAbout this episode: Harmonia traces Zoroastrianism from Zarathustra's radical vision of monotheism to Maneckji Hataria's 19th century mission to save a dying faith.
Zoroastrianism
Circa: 1855 - Central Character: Florence NightingaleAbout this episode: A look at how Florence Nightingale helped medicine awaken, turning compassion into structure and revealing the deeper shift that made modern healthcare possible.
19th century awakening
Circa: 1858 - Central Character: Isaac HeckerAbout this episode: The story of Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulists, and his insistence that spiritual and civic life are not separate --- and why that question now belongs to the whole world.
Christianity
Circa: 1858 - Central Character: George MacDonaldAbout this episode: George MacDonald lost his pulpit and found something larger --- the ancient truth that story is how the largest truths have always traveled to the human heart.
Christianity
Circa: 1859 - Central Character: Henri DunantAbout this episode: How Henri Dunant’s compassion at Solferino sparked the Red Cross, the Geneva Conventions, and a new global understanding of mercy.
19th century awakening
Circa: 1860 - Central Character: Angelo SecchiAbout this episode: The Vatican Observatory's centuries-long tradition of astronomical research reveals that wonder and service, science and faith, are expressions of the same love.
Christianity
Circa: 1860 - Central Character: Antoine ChevrierAbout this episode: The story of Antoine Chevrier, who turned an abandoned Lyon ballroom into a shelter, seeing not charity but restitution owed to the poor.
Christianity
Circa: 1865 - Central Character: Nhá ChicaAbout this episode: The story of Nhá Chica, the freed Brazilian slave who built a chapel over thirty years through pure faith and individual initiative.
Christianity
Circa: 1866 - Central Character: Léonie AviatAbout this episode: A look at Mother Mary’s quiet courage as she protected young factory workers and helped shape the early moral foundations of modern labor protections.
19th century awakening
Circa: 1867 - Central Character: EnmegahbowhAbout this episode: Enmegahbowh, the first Native American priest in the Episcopal Church
Christianity