Episode 1: Divine Disillusionment and the Catharsis of Storytelling

In this first episode of The Vibe Shift, we sit down with Iris—a London-based student from Southeast Asia and one of the first participants in the Oxford pilot of the Gen Z Role Models Project. The project uses a research method called story completion to surface the unspoken beliefs young people hold about religion and spirituality.

Together, we explore stories of “divine disillusionment”—moments when religious figures and institutions fail to live up to expectations, and when faith begins to unravel. Iris shares her spiritual context back home and explains why Gen Z needs better, braver ways to talk about religion, doubt, and belief. She reflects on the power of fiction to say what can’t always be said out loud—and how the story completion method offered a safe space to process what felt unspeakable. She also shares what it was like to engage face-to-face with other participants—some on completely different ends of the religious spectrum—and still find meaningful common ground.

This episode dives into:

• What spiritual disillusionment looks like for Gen Z
• Why fictional storytelling can offer a kind of catharsis
• How to have honest conversations across deep differences
• The power and complexity of role models in today’s secular age

If you’ve ever wrestled with religion—or struggled to put your spiritual questions into words—this episode’s for you.

This is The Vibe Shift. And this is just the beginning.

Visit us at oxfordexemplars.org.

Music: 'Find Yours Dreams' by Art Flower. CC0 1.0 Universal License.