Chris Stedman

Nothing in Particular

(Nonfiction, 2027)

Nothing in Particular explores the rise of fastest-growing segment of the American religious landscape—those who claim no religious affiliation, frequently referred to as the “nones”—and investigates their largest subgroup, the enigmatic “nothing in particulars,” or people who don’t claim a specific religious or secular worldview. While these nothing in particulars have been largely ignored in favor of more visible nones, like atheists or agnostics, they actually far outnumber them—one in five Americans is now a nothing in particular, with one out of every twenty Americans having become one in the last decade alone. Yes, there are a lot of them, but a closer look reveals that the nothing in particulars aren’t just rapidly growing in number—they also represent a significant change in how people understand religion, identity, and commitment. It’s not that these nothing in particulars no longer believe in a God or higher power—in fact, most of them say they do. Instead, it seems that many nothing in particulars feel disconnected and disengaged, not just from religious institutions and identities, but more generally. Nothing in particulars report lower levels of civic engagement and physical and mental health than both religious Americans and nonreligious people with a concrete identity like atheist or agnostic. Decontextualized from history and tradition, the nothing in particulars appear to be adrift and isolated. And their number is increasing quickly.

Drawing on years of research, reporting, and personal experience working with the nones, Stedman argues that neglecting the nothing in particulars has caused many of us to think about the rise of the nones all wrong. The issue isn’t that people are leaving religion. Rather, indifference and disconnection are the real causes for alarm, because of what they say about the conditions producing them, and because they can leave people disengaged from their communities, unequipped to navigate central life experiences, and more vulnerable to adopting extremist worldviews. In Nothing in Particular, Stedman explores how we got here, highlights ways people are attempting to live without religion today, and, finally, offers ideas for how those looking for meaning in an increasingly atomized world can overcome the pull of indifference.

IRL: Finding Our Real Selves in a Digital World

Nonfiction, 2022

“Jam-packed with metaphors and beautifully described vignettes . . . Stedman reminds us throughout IRL that these digital lives, though different, aren’t any less real than our offline ones so they must be managed with care.” —Lambda Literary

It’s reflexive and common to view our online presence as fake; to see the internet as a space we enter when we aren’t living our real, offline lives. But ever since a pandemic pushed more and more of our work, relationships, and even leisure into digital space, the internet doesn’t feel so fake anymore. Every day, the lines between digital and “real” space blur even further.

Activist and writer Chris Stedman explores authenticity in the digital age, shining a light into and beyond age-old notions of realness–who we are and where we fit in the world–to bring fresh understanding for our increasingly online lives. Stedman offers a new way of seeing the supposed split between our online and offline selves, one in which online spaces and social media become new tools for understanding and expressing ourselves–and where the not-always-graceful ways we use these tools can reveal new insights for incorporating far older human truths into modern life. How might the online spaces we use fulfill our essential human need to feel real? Must we view the internet and the real world as binary, where there is no room for overlap? Playful and wise, Stedman suggests that the digital search for meaning and belonging presents challenges but also opportunities to become more fully human. He boldly invites us to embrace realness in all its uncertainty, online and off, no matter how risky it might feel.

Unread

Nonfiction Podcast, 2021

“Extraordinary . . . a delicately plotted journey through one person’s grief, a fandom’s relationship with an icon, and humanity’s attempts to understand the unknowable.” —R. Eric Thomas, Previously On…

One December evening in 2019, Chris Stedman noticed a new message in his inbox from his friend Alex, sent at exactly 7 p.m. He and Alex hadn’t talked in a while—was Alex writing to tell him off for being a bad friend? But it wasn’t that. “listen,” the note read. “i am writing to let you know that when you receive this scheduled email, i will no longer be alive.” At the bottom of his message, Alex included a link to a private SoundCloud account. “here’s Alice recordings,” he wrote.

Alice. Alex had talked to Chris about her before. A Britney Spears superfan, Alex had befriended this anonymous figure in a Britney fan forum years earlier. Alice had become the stuff of legend in Britney fan circles, and for good reason—she happens to sound exactly like Britney herself. Why was Alex including these recordings in his goodbye email? Who was Alice, really, and what had she meant to Alex? More importantly, could she help Chris understand why his friend was gone? With help from Alex’s loved ones, Chris decides to track down the elusive Alice, in the hopes that she can answer some of the questions Alex couldn’t.

Faitheist

Memoir, 2012

“The searching, intelligent account of a gay man’s experiences growing away from God and into a thoughtful and humane atheist. Brave and refreshingly open-minded.” —Kirkus Reviews

In Faitheist, Chris Stedman makes a passionate argument that atheists should engage religious diversity. Becoming aware of injustice, and craving community, Stedman became a “born-again” Christian as an adolescent, only to encounter staunch homophobia at a time when he was slowly coming to realize that he was queer. But over time he came to know more open-minded Christians, and found that his disdain and hostility toward religion was holding him back from engaging in meaningful work with people of faith. And it was keeping him from full relationships with them—the kinds of relationships that break down intolerance and improve the world. As someone who has stood on both sides of the divide, Stedman is uniquely positioned to present a way for atheists and the religious to find common ground and work together to make this world—the one world we can all agree on—a better place.