The Ryan Vet Show
To lead well today, you have to understand the forces that shaped yesterday and the ones reshaping tomorrow. You were made to Inspire Forward...and every episode helps you do just that.
The Ryan Vet Show is where leaders come to understand why the world, and the people in it, work the way they do. Hosted by Ryan Vet, USA Today bestselling author, generational futurist, and contrarian leadership thinker, the show blends research, lived experience, and narrative to help you navigate tomorrow with more insight, perspective, and practical wisdom.
Each week, Ryan explores the ideas shaping today’s workplace and culture:
- Generational dynamics and the behaviors that form each cohort
- Leadership and organizational psychology
- Change management and the forces driving adaptation
- Entrepreneurship and real-world decision making
- Communication, influence, and human behavior
- How the past explains the present and the present shapes the future
The show features two core formats:
- Long-form interviews with leaders, thinkers, entrepreneurs, and creators whose stories reveal the “why” behind their work, decisions, and impact.
- Weekly readings of the COLLIDE newsletter, where Ryan breaks down cultural shifts, generational insights, and leadership lessons with a story-rich, research-backed lens.
Whether you’re an executive, a manager, an entrepreneur, an educator, or simply navigating cross-generational tension, The Ryan Vet Show gives you the insight and tools to lead with clarity, curiosity, and intentionality.
If you want a show that’s intellectually grounded, practically useful, and deeply human — welcome.
This is your place to understand the world more clearly and lead it more thoughtfully.
The Ryan Vet Show
What Gen Z’s Relationship With Christmas Reveals About the Future of Faith
What Gen Z’s relationship with Christmas reveals isn’t really about holiday greetings—it’s about the future of faith, belief, and institutional trust.
In this episode, generational futurist Ryan Vet explores a growing contradiction shaping Gen Z: belief in a higher power is rising, while participation in organized religion is collapsing. Drawing on data from Pew Research, the General Social Survey, Barna, Gallup, and Springtide Institute, Ryan explains why Gen Z is not becoming less spiritual—but far more selective about where and how belief shows up.
Is it okay to say Merry Christmas this year? Using Christmas as a cultural signal, Ryan unpacks why debates over saying “Merry Christmas” versus “Happy Holidays” are mostly noise, and what they reveal about a deeper generational shift. Beneath the surface is a widening divide between spirituality and religion, authenticity and performance, belief and institutions.
This episode explores:
- Why Gen Z belief in a higher power is increasing while church attendance declines
- How institutional skepticism—shaped by Gen X—resurfaced and intensified in Gen Z
- Why Gen Z is deeply allergic to hypocrisy and performative faith
- The surprising rise in Bible sales, increased commitment among churchgoing Gen Z, and a gender shift in attendance
- How spirituality is being reframed as mental health, grounding, and self-connection rather than doctrine
Through a futurist lens, Ryan explains why Gen Z is not indifferent to faith—but polarized. Some are doubling down with conviction and consistency, while others are opting out entirely, often because organized religion feels inauthentic or misaligned with lived values.
The defining question of this moment isn’t how we greet customers in December.
It’s whether belief systems—religious, institutional, or cultural—can hold together under scrutiny.
If you’re interested in:
- Gen Z and religion
- Spirituality vs organized religion
- Generational change and cultural polarization
- Faith, authenticity, and institutional trust
- What Christmas reveals about belief and belonging
…this conversation will challenge how you see both the data and the deeper signal underneath it.
🎧 Listen now and vote in this week’s Your Perspective poll.
About Ryan Vet
Ryan Vet is a USA TODAY bestselling author, futurist, and international keynote speaker whose insights on generations, culture, and the future of work have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, ABC, NBC, and CBS. His research helps leaders understand emerging generational patterns and anticipate societal shifts before they fully unfold.
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If you want deeper research and behind-the-scenes insights on generations and the future of culture and society, join Ryan’s weekly newsletter:
👉 https://collide.ryanvet.com