515. When You Pray to God Online, Who Else Is Listening?

515.当你在线向上帝祈祷时,还有谁在听?

Freakonomics Radio

社会与文化

2022-09-15

44 分钟
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单集简介 ...

The pandemic moved a lot of religious activity onto the internet. With faith-based apps, Silicon Valley is turning virtual prayers into earthly rewards. Does this mean sharing user data? Dear God, let’s hope not …

单集文稿 ...

  • I will throw out the first question to you, Stephen.

  • What's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?

  • Well, if we're being literal, it's turning off the alarm.

  • So for me, I pray.

  • And for billions of people around the world, if you ask them that question, billions of people would also respond that they pray, too.

  • That is Steve Gutina, and I am.

  • The founder and CEO of Pray.com, comma, the world's number one app for daily prayer and faith based audio content.

  • For most of his life, Getina himself was not someone you would consider a person of faith.

  • Back when he played college football, for.

  • Instance, you might hit people when they're not looking.

  • You might intentionally try to hurt people physically.

  • Those were some of the qualities that I enjoyed embracing, and I would say, off the field, I loved having a lot of fun.

  • This was at the University of Southern California.

  • At the time, USC was basically the pro football team in Los Angeles.

  • You're out in Hollywood, you're at nightclubs till five in the morning.

  • I would say that it was definitely not a lifestyle that promotes christian values.

  • But years later, Gettina did become more religious.

  • By then, he was a successful entrepreneur, and he saw what looked like a market opportunity.

  • Religion is approximately $126 billion in revenue per year.

  • And the pandemic with so much activity moving online, presented another opportunity.