Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution
Rainn Wilson in Conversation with Dean Varun Soni

Book signing to follow.

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Join the Office of Religious & Spiritual Life and the School of Religion for this special book talk and signing with comedic actor, producer, and writer Rainn Wilson.

In his New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller Soul Bloom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution, Wilson explores the problem-solving benefits that spirituality gives us to create solutions for an increasingly challenging world. For Wilson, this pursuit of spirituality is serious and essential, but he brings great humor and his own unique perspective. He feels that, culturally, we’ve discounted spirituality and we need profound healing and a unifying understanding of the world that the great spiritual traditions provide.

Dr. Varun Soni, Dean of Religious & Spiritual Life, will join Wilson in conversation on the possibilities of a spiritual revolution to find healing transformation on a personal and global level.

Bios:

Rainn Wilson is a three-time Emmy Award–nominated actor, best known for the role of Dwight Schrute in NBC’s The Office. He’s acted in dozens of other films and TV shows such as Six Feet Under, The Meg, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Super, The Rocker, Star Trek Discovery, Utopia, Jerry and Marge Go Large, Almost Famous, Backstrom, Galaxy Quest, and Blackbird. He is the co-founder of the digital media company SoulPancake which created thousands of pieces of content and over a billion video views, including viral hits like Kid President, My Last Days, and The Idiots Guide to Climate Change. Wilson co-wrote the New York Times bestselling SOULPANCAKE: Chew on Life’s Big Questions as well as his comedic memoir, The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith and Idiocy.

USC Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni is a University Fellow at USC Annenberg’s Center on Public Diplomacy and an adjunct professor at the USC School of Religion. He is the author of Natural Mystics: The Prophetic Lives of Bob Marley and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and his writings have appeared in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Crosscurrents, Jewish Journal, and Harvard Divinity Bulletin. He produced the critically acclaimed graphic novel Tina’s Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary by Keshni Kashyap, which is currently being adapted as a feature length film, and also produced and hosted his own radio show on KPFK-Pacifica that showcased music from South Asia and its diaspora. In 2009, he was one of the organizers of the historic Concert for Pakistan, a benefit concert at the United Nations General Assembly Hall featuring Salman Ahmad, Sting, Outlandish, Jeff Skoll, Deepak Chopra, and Melissa Etheridge. 

Presented by the USC Office of Religious Life. Co-sponsored by the USC School of Cinematic Arts and USC Visions & Voices.