Com­mon Threads is a pro­gram heard weekly on Grand Rapids, Michi­gan NPR affil­i­ate, WGVU-FM. It is hosted by Inter­faith Dia­logue Asso­ci­a­tion Pres­i­dent, Fred Stella. Steve Bohlert, author of Uni­ver­sal­ist Radha-Krishnaism was the guest speaker Sun­days Feb­ru­ary 7th and 14th, 2010.

In this world of sound bite jour­nal­ism and con­fronta­tional hit and run radio, Com­mon Threads is a wel­come relief.  Guests come from vir­tu­ally every point on the spec­trum of spir­i­tu­al­ity & reli­gion. In the past dozen years we’ve had Tibetan Bud­dhist lamas, Catholic priests, Hindu monks, Jew­ish Kab­balah teach­ers, Evan­gel­i­cal pas­tors and many, many more share the microphone.

The for­mat is quite sim­ple. In the tra­di­tion of such NPR pro­grams as Fresh Air or Speak­ing of Faith, we invite guests to share infor­mal con­ver­sa­tion with our host, Fred Stella. There is almost no edit­ing in this process.

You can down­load pod­casts of pre­vi­ous shows by log­ging on to http://www.wgvu.org. On the top panel, click on “Radio/News.” Once there, see “Com­mon Threads” in left col­umn. If you want to lis­ten after the show has aired click the left side. That will take you to the archives.

About the host: Fred Stella has been involved with Inter­faith Dia­logue Asso­ci­a­tion for over 15 years, and has held the office of pres­i­dent for 12 years. He has lec­tured inter­na­tion­ally on inter-religious mat­ters.  Mr. Stella brings over 3 decades of broad­cast expe­ri­ence to Com­mon Threads.