Lode Van Hecke has been the abbot of Orval's Cistercian Monastery for ten years. He has been living in the 11th century abbey for more than 40 years, a place that, according to him, is still full of beauty. In times when the Catholic Church in Flanders is faltering and churches and monasteries are run down, he sees it as his task to look forward to the future - even if he may be Orval's final abbot. Alicja gets the extraordinary opportunity to live in the community for three days.

Lode Van Hecke

Alicja Gescinska

Renata Salecl

Nelofer Pazira

Alicja is a guest of Senegalese star Youssou N'Dour, perhaps the most famous African musician, but also a man who takes inspiration and commitment from his faith. Alicja is given the exceptional opportunity to meet him in his personal environment. During Ramadan, they share the iftar (the meal after sunset) and she visits him during rehearsals in his music studio.

Youssou  N'Dour

Marcel Möring is one of the most important writers in the Netherlands and is known as a powerful storyteller that works uncompromisingly. He has been living in Rotterdam for 25 years but grew up in Drenthe, a region that has become part of him and where he regularly returns. He calls himself a walking Jew who is uprooted and doesn't feel at home. Alicja returns with him to his native area where he talks about his search for his origin, destination and identity.

Marcel Möring

Theodore Dalrymple is the pseudonym of Anthony Daniels, a psychiatrist who has worked in state hospitals and prisons in England. The prisoners and abused women he treated there provided material for his books and articles. Because of the critical views of the wealth state, critics accuse him of being a pessimist, yet for some politicians such as Bart de Wever, he is another source of inspiration. Alicja wants to know who the person is behind the pseudonym.

Theodore Dalrymple

Nelofer Pazira is an Afghan journalist and filmmaker who as a sixteen-year-old fled with her family from Pakistan to find a new home in Canada. Nelofer found out how, as a refugee, you lose not only your physical place, but also your identity. The refugee problem is a constant theme in her documentaries and books. Alicja visits with her in her home in Beirut and they visit the Palestinian refugee camp Shatila together. A hallucinous place the size of a city.

Renata Salecl is a Slovenian philosopher and sociologist who now lives with her son in Ljubljana after divorcing the famous philosopher Slavoj Zizek. She wrote several books about making choices, love and fear. With Alicja, she talks about how our consumer society leads to keen stress and how social media stimulates fear and asks questions like “who am I in the eyes of others?”

Raoul Servais is one of the most innovative Belgian filmmakers of the twentieth century. He made twenty animation films and won more than fifty awards, including the Golden Palm at Cannes. Servais has a passion for beauty and is still active at 89 years-old, continuing to inspire young people. Alicja visits with him in his remote house in Leffinge and they talk about his life force, positivism and pursuit of a better world.

Raoul Servais

British writer Sara Maitland chose a life of silence. In 2010, she converted to Catholicism and swapped life in busy London for the countryside. She feels that silence helps her to see things as they really are. But she also experiences how difficult it is to isolate you from your fellow human beings.

Sara Maitland

Masaaki Suzuki enjoys worldwide fame as a Bach specialist. He was born in Kobe, the city known as the center of church music in Japan. After his music studies in Tokyo, he went to the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Suzuki belongs to the 1% Christians in Japan. He is part of the Shinko-Kyokai, the Reformed Church, who believes everything is destined. For the protestant Suzuki, conducting Bach's music was not a choice but his fate.

Masaaki Suzuki

Lesley Hazleton, a British-American author, is an agnostic and very fascinated by historical religious figures. As a 22-year-old girl, she lived in Jerusalem, where she stayed for thirteen years in spite of various wars and reported to various media. Alicja is visits her in Seattle, where she has lived in a floating house for 25 years.

Lesley Hazleton

Polish-Flemish philosopher Alicja Gescinska interviews national and international personalities with diverse philosophical and religious backgrounds.

Lode Van Hecke

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Season 2 Episodes10

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