One major response to our conversation on egg freezing was the idea that for many single Christian women it is a sensible choice given the difficulty in finding a partner/husband. For years it has been often said that the church is disproportionately made up of women, which means it is much harder for female believers to find husbands than the other way around. But is this statistic actually true? In this episode we look at what evidence there is for the idea of a gender gap in church, and then discuss what may have caused it. Are men and women fundamentally so different they worship God and are discipled in radically different ways? Has the church become too feminised and unable to reach out credibly to men? Or is it actually the men’s fault for failing to respond to the call to follow Jesus no matter the social cost? • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Some more listener questions: what kind of line is crossed once a country legalises euthanasia and how can a state simultaneously fund suicide prevention for some while offering state-sanctioned and facilitated assisting dying for others? Will this contradictory worldview eventually collapse under the weight of its own incoherence? Then, we respond to a listener who has been struggling to know where to find news which seems uncontaminated by either conspiracy theories or cynical commercial concerns? Are there any news outlets left which offer genuinely non-partisan impartial news? Or is that even something worth aiming for these days? • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Increasing numbers of women are choosing to freeze their eggs in the hope that years down the line they can use these younger, healthier eggs to have children once their relationship, personal, financial or work circumstances are right. And fertility clinics and employers are increasingly pushing women to consider this option as a ‘normal’ part of life, while a culture war backlash from the political and social right is also well underway. But how on earth should we as Christians think about the practice of so-called social egg freezing, which has shot up eightfold in the last decade alone? Is it prudent and necessary to ensure women can play a full part in the workplace? Or a denial of our created reality, and a dangerous use of technology to selfishly pursue our own desires? Can we retain the huge benefits of the feminist revolution of the last century while also ordering our lives and fertility how God intended, without invasive technological ‘fixes’? • A helpful Nuffield Council on Bioethics briefing paper https://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/publications/egg-freezing-in-the-uk/introduction • The New York Times’s research into differing maternal age at first birth across the United States https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/04/upshot/up-birth-age-gap.html • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

A final classic episode to see us through the Christmas and New Year break. Today we’re returning to an interview with NHS geneticist Melody Redman. Each of us carries around in our cells about 20,000 different genes – a unique set of biological code which shapes how our bodies develop. As scientists better understand genes and how they work, genetics is becoming a more and more important field of modern medicine, particularly in diagnosing conditions. But this comes with a brand new set of ethical challenges to think through. We go on to talk about a new NHS programme in England which is piloting whole genome sequencing of newborn babies. Why are scientists and doctors interested in collecting a child’s entire set of genes and storing them for the rest of their life? What medical benefits might result from this, and what ethical challenges does it throw up? Just because we can now do this, should we? We also consider some of the risks of our increasingly geneticised world and how as Christians we can hold onto our identity in Christ rather than lapsing into genetic determinism. • Find out more about the Newborn Genomes Programme here - https://www.genomicsengland.co.uk/initiatives/newborns • The group Unique helps support people and families affected by rare chromosomal and genetic disorders - https://rarechromo.org/ • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Today we’re returning to a classic episode from our back catalogue, with special guest Sophie Guthrie-Kummer from Choices, a Christian crisis pregnancy centre in London. Abortion is a flashpoint issue in both the church and wider culture, with the very language you choose used as a cudgel for either side. So how does Choices juggle the theological and social hot potatoes here, and how can we respond to abortion in a way which cools tensions rather than inflames them? And can a pro-life believer offer truly non-directive counselling to a pregnant woman considering termination, or work with integrity in a hospital which carries out abortions? • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

This week we’re bringing you an episode from our back catalogue, this time from March 2022. The latest report from the UN's climate scientists was both incredibly downbeat about climate change and almost entirely ignored by a media fixated on Ukraine. In this episode we consider the communication and changing narratives around climate change, why an unscientific hyper-fatalism has set in with many activists, and what impact this might be having on younger generations terrified humanity itself is going extinct. We then discuss what an authentically Christian response to our environmental crisis would look like. How can we steer a middle path between complacency and despair? Does our different theology of the future change how we act on climate change? • Christian Aid's climate change projects https://christianaid.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/campaign-climate-justice • A Rocha's Eco Church scheme https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/ • Christian Climate Action’s principles and values for Christian climate activism https://christianclimateaction.org/who-we-are/cca-principals-and-values/ • 'The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis' - 1967 essay by Lynn White https://www.cmu.ca/faculty/gmatties/lynnwhiterootsofcrisis.pdf • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Our final Q&A episode of the year tackles two medical ethics questions in the news recently. The first is Wegovy, the ground-breaking anti-obesity drug which has been a controversial sensation in the United States. It is now available (in very limited supply) on the NHS here in the UK, but only for those with quite serious obesity with BMIs of 35 or higher. Should Christians hail this a brilliant medical advance tackling a serious public health issue, or a worrying example of big pharma trying to medicate away our self-control? Next, we discuss a new push by some scientists to soften the ground ahead of a campaign to extend the current 14-day limit on human embryo research. Why do researchers want to keep embryos alive in petri dishes for longer, and will it actually benefit any of us in the end really? Some Wegovy links: • A Guardian news story abiout the introduction of the drug on the NHS https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/04/nhs-in-england-to-start-prescribing-weight-loss-jab-wegovy-despite-low-supply • The NHS’s own website on how Wegovy will be prescribed https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/obesity/treatment/ • And, in a sign of how much public interest there is, the Department for Health has a page explaining more about how to access Wegovy https://healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/09/04/accessing-wegovy-for-weight-loss-everything-you-need-to-know/ • The BBC News story about the campaign to extend the 14-day limit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67204553 • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Creation. Fall. Redemption. New Creation. Our series on the theological foundations of Christian ethics and the grand narrative of the Bible has reached the third chapter – redemption. How is the story of what Christ accomplished on the cross a uniquely Christian approach to the problem of evil, and what light does it shed on our approach to everything from artificial intelligence to reproductive medicine? In this episode we discuss the mysteries of the cosmic universal story of redemption – with a lamb slain from the foundation of the world alongside a real historical man dying in a real place and time once and for all. And we try to think through why this redemption story seems to be retold time and time again across our secular culture, from Marvel superhero films to Harry Potter, and why it remains so compelling and yet also strangely impossibly optimistic. • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

John’s on holiday this week so we’re bringing you a classic episode from the Matters of Life and Death vault. A couple of years ago we interviewed Sarah Foot, a Christian palliative care doctor. She spoke about how she treats the physical, mental, social and even spiritual needs of those who are dying, the Christian foundations of the discipline, and what impact her profession has on her. We also discussed the renewed movement to legalise assisted suicide in Britain and other countries, how her colleagues viewed this, the ignorance which lies behind many of the arguments for changing the law, and the implications for palliative care should assisted dying be imposed upon it. - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

New official data in England reveals an alarming and much under-reported phenomenon – significant increases in mortality among children from the most deprived communities over the last two years. What is driving this concerning uptick in the statistics and why has it gone under the radar, both for mainstream society and the church? Also in the news this past week, we respond to the rise in popularity of ‘AI girlfriends’. New software apps allow lonely and frustrated young men to create the virtual girlfriend of their dreams, who is beautiful, sexy, dutiful, constantly available, and endlessly flattering. What impact is this having on real-world relationships, and will Christians ultimately need to walk away from AI technology if it keeps on tending towards these kind of exploitative and harmful applications? The National Child Mortality Database has all the data on the rise in child deaths here: https://www.ncmd.info/publications/child-death-data-2023/‘We Can’t Compete With AI Girlfriends’ by Freya India: https://www.freyaindia.co.uk/p/we-cant-compete-with-ai-girlfriendsSubscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.comFor more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

This week’s guest is Nick Spencer, senior fellow at the faith thinktank Theos, and recent author of Magisteria: The entangled histories of science and religion. Nick joins us to discuss the complicated backstory to how we all came to believe science and faith were inevitably at odds with each other. Where did this myth come from, and what is a more nuanced and truthful account of how religion reacted to the emergence of contemporary science in the last 300 years? Should Christians actually welcome a bright dividing line between our world of faith and spirituality, and the hard-nosed world of science, focused solely on a measurable reality of atoms and molecules? And what might we learn from the surprisingly interesting personal religious lives of some of history’s greatest scientists? - Find out more about Nick’s book and how to order it here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Magisteria/Nicholas-Spencer/9780861544615 - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

This week we dip back into the postbag to look at some more listener questions. First up we return to our episode looking at recent shifts in abortion rates – is the narrative of ‘it’s my body and I’ll do what I want’ what is truly driving increases in abortion figures in recent years, or is that a bit of a myth? We also take a closer look into recent reports that expose how cutting-edge artificial intelligence models are being trained by incredibly underpaid and exploited workers in the developing world. How should we as Christians respond to what is being claimed as the exploitation of workers around the globe in the name of technological advancement that seeks to benefit humanity? Should governments moderate this kind of employment or is there an argument that digital technology is actually positively transforming economic outlook in the third world? Finally we wrap up today’s episode considering if the UK government’s recent AI Safety Summit is meaningless ‘motherhood and apple pie’ platitudes and, if so, how can we actually push for meaningful regulation? - The WIRED article on the underpaid workers from poorer nations helping train AI data sets https://www.wired.com/story/millions-of-workers-are-training-ai-models-for-pennies/ - The UK government’s Bletchley Declaration on AI safety https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-safety-summit-2023-the-bletchley-declaration/the-bletchley-declaration-by-countries-attending-the-ai-safety-summit-1-2-november-2023 - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

We last tackled the idea of friendship when we explored the so-called ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’ – that cloud of concern that today hangs over any close relationship between two people. But friendship in the Bible was not inevitably corrupted by sex, coercion, or power plays. Today we pick up some other themes from John’s new book Transforming Friendship to look at paradigmatic friendships in Scripture – Ruth and Naomi, David and Jonathan, Jesus and Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and Paul and Timothy. What do these friendships teach us about the wonderful intimate friendship with God we are invited into by Jesus? Why do we miss the earth-shattering importance of Jesus declaring his disciples will no longer be his servants but his friends? And how can we bring these ideas of faithful, covenant loyalty and vulnerable love into our 21st century friendships? - Find out more about John’s new book Transforming Friendship and how to pre-order your copy: https://www.johnwyatt.com/transforming-friendship/ - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Creation. Fall. Redemption. New Creation. This is the grand narrative of scripture and the theological foundation we use to try to probe into the ethical challenges thrown up by advances in science and technology. We looked at creation in September, and now we’ve come to the Fall. What is the uniquely Christian approach to the nature of evil in our world, and how does it stand in sharp contrast to our secular society’s presumptions? Are people really fundamentally just good or all bad, and what are the shortcomings of that reductionist approach? And how does the Christian story about evil lead us to be both more pessimistic and more optimistic than the world is about humanity? - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

We spoke last week about the hugely welcome shift in how society talks about miscarriage and cares for women (and men) who have experienced it. And yet at the same time in Britain, we desperately avoid using the same language and narrative established in baby loss services when we are in the abortion zone. Now, the fetus is not a much loved, named human baby who is irreplaceable and whose death is a deep bereavement for both parents. Now it is simply a clump of cells inside the woman’s body who can choose for any reason to rid herself of it with no lasting consequences. How have these two mutually contradictory stories about the unborn child developed side by side? Why are abortions – especially medical ones now available at home via the ‘pills by post’ option – increasing in number in the UK? And would it be wrong for pro-life Christians to highlight the incoherent narratives around baby loss in advocacy and campaigning? - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

We have just finished Baby Loss Awareness Week here in the UK. While the event is not hugely well known, it is indicative of an enormous cultural shift in recent decades around how society talks about miscarriage and stillbirth. Today, the messaging is much more compassionate and empathetic, acknowledging the reality of the baby who has died and the grief their parents will be feeling. What has prompted this sea change in thought? What do we now know about how losing a baby before birth affects both mothers and fathers? And how can Christians welcome this shift in emphasis and language, and bring it into the church context as well? - Find out more about Baby Loss Awareness Week, including lots of first-hand true stories from women, here: https://babyloss-awareness.org/ - You can read the government’s Pregnancy Loss Review here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1172417/Pregnancy-Loss-Review-web-accessible.pdf - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Christianity is sometimes described as ‘bad news for women’. Clearly we would all disagree with this epithet, but why does it have cultural currency right now for a growing number of particularly younger women? In this episode we’re joined by Ellidh Cook, a student worker in central London whose theological studies focused on violence against women in the Old Testament, to discuss how she goes about showing women our faith is actually lifegiving for both sexes. Where might the church have gone wrong in its efforts to put Biblical teaching into practice? Should believers be feminists? What does that word even mean today? And what hope can the authentic gospel of Jesus Christ offer the stressed, anxious, confused and exploited young women of our 21st century societies? - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

When the pandemic first spread beyond China there was a straightforward message from scientific elites: the virus came from a wild animal accidentally spilling over into humans, and any suggestion it might have instead been manipulated in a lab and then escaped was a quasi-racist conspiracy theory. However, as the years have gone on this has been shown to have been, at best, wildly premature. We now know there is plenty of evidence which actually points away from an evolutionary coincidence and towards human error in a virology lab. The exact question of covid’s origins remains unresolved, and is probably unknowable, but the way the debate has fluctuated and been managed since January 2020 is both fascinating and concerning. How have virologists been genetically tweaking existing animal coronaviruses, and is it safe? Why did the scientific establishment close ranks to shut down questions about lab leaks and research in Wuhan? And how can Christians uphold the value of truth-telling, no matter the geopolitical consequences, in this era of febrile culture war? - This New Yorker article is an excellent investigation into the debate over the origins of covid https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-mysterious-case-of-the-covid-19-lab-leak-theory - This New York magazine investigation from January 2021 was one of the first mainstream sceptical accounts of zoonosis to appear https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/coronavirus-lab-escape-theory.html - This British Medical Journal article covers the way lab leak theory went from crackpot fringe conspiracy theory to serious possibility https://bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n1656 - The original February 2020 statement discounting a lab leak in The Lancet https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30418-9/fulltext - This Unherd piece explores the leaked private messages between scientists as they pulled together the influential Nature article which resoundingly dismissed the lab leak theory https://unherd.com/2023/07/the-secret-messages-behind-the-lab-leak-cover-up/ - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

A listener has emailed in to ask where we stand on alternative medicine, such as homeopathy or chiropractors. Is it fine for believers to partake in these kinds of complementary treatments and therapies, alongside traditional evidence-based scientific medicine? Why are they so stubbornly popular despite mountains of research suggesting they mostly don’t work? Or should Christians shun anything without a double-blind randomised control trial behind it? Then we move on to discuss a fascinating and alarming article by a climate scientist, who revealed that in a recent paper published in the ultra-prestigious journal Nature he deliberately simplified his findings. The paper was subtly tweaked to suggest that climate change alone was to blame for recent increases in wildfire risk in California, rather than acknowledging other factors were also present. Why are some climate scientists feeling unable to present the complexity of their research but instead tell simple, moralistic tales about the climate crisis? And should we even care as Christians? - The climate scientist’s article in The Free Press: https://www.thefp.com/p/i-overhyped-climate-change-to-get-published - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Today we start a new series unpacking the theological foundations of much of what we talk about on Matters of Life and Death. Many Christians, going back to church fathers, have understood the grand narrative of scripture through a four-part journey: from Creation, to Fall, to Redemption, to New Creation. This week we are beginning with creation. Why is it that some traditions in the church have developed such hostility and suspicion of everything beyond the church walls? Is it Biblical or Godly to hold such fear for what he has made? How can we rediscover the character of God - his truthfulness, goodness and beauty – in his creation? And how can believers faithfully celebrate what he has made? - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Our latest episode tackling questions from the listeners starts by considering whether we can harmonise a belief in modern science and a literalistic reading of the Genesis account of creation. Did God really create the universe in six days only 6,000 years ago, but then set up all of created order with fossils, carbon decay and the speed of light to only appear to be billions of years old? Why would he seek to mislead and deceive his people like that? Then we move onto a gentle riposte after our episode on dementia accused philosophy of being an elitist discipline, useless to the needs and insights of real people. Maybe philosophers could have something to teach us after all? - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Britain has been gripped by horror by the recent conviction of a neonatal nurse called Lucy Letby, who murdered seven premature babies and attempted to kill six others at the hospital where she worked. In this episode we discuss this horrifying and tragic story and whether Letby could or should have been stopped earlier. Will this case damage trust between parents and patients, and the medical professionals tasked with looking after them? Is it actually possible to prevent the one-in-a-thousand psychopathic killers from getting into positions of power over vulnerable people? What unintended consequences might result in our efforts to protect ourselves from dangerous and rogue individuals like Letby? And how might our Christian understanding of evil help us cope with the horrifying truth that an ordinary and unremarkable nurse could also be Britain’s worst child serial killer? There has been lots of excellent media coverage and investigations into the case for those who would like to read more: - We relied on the Sunday Times investigation in the episode a lot https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lucy-letby-files-nurse-hospital-evidence-rkxchgqh9 - The BBC have also done a thorough investigation https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66120934 - And this Guardian piece digs into the background of Letby https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/18/lucy-letby-the-beige-and-average-nurse-who-turned-into-a-baby-killer - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

We have another episode of listener questions today. First, we respond to feedback from a listener with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (also known as ME) who queried how we spoke about the condition in our previous episode touching on Long Covid. What exactly do we mean when we talk about some illnesses being ‘psychosomatic’ and how has the scientific method itself started to break down in our efforts to get more insight into what CFS/ME really is? Then, we move on to a question from a listener who works at a university and is curious to know what will happen to academic and teaching assessments in an era when ChatGPT can answer written tasks for students. Will we have to move to in-person, oral examination entirely? Can large language model AI software really come up with genuinely new content, or is it simply a skilful rehash of human creativity? Don’t forget, you can send in your own questions for us to consider by emailing molad@premier.org.uk or tweeting Tim at twitter.com/tswyatt. - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

This week we have another classic episode of Matters of Life and Death from the archive. We invited theologian Andrew Davison to join us to talk through the spiritual ramifications of cosmology and what light thinking about the wider universe sheds on vital doctrines such as creation and incarnation. We then talked about the subject of his book, which is out now, on astrobiology - what would the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe mean for us as Christians and for what we believe about God? - Andrew’s new book, ‘Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine’, is available to order now: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Astrobiology-Christian-Doctrine-Exploring-Implications/dp/1009303155 - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Evolution versus creationism is the internal Christian argument which doesn’t go away. We recorded an episode last year exploring this knotty problem and how believers might go about trying to debate it respectfully even if they disagree. We look at the age of the Earth, common descent, natural selection, and the historicity of Adam, Eve and the Fall, to try and shed some light on this murky issue. - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

It’s been almost two years since we recorded an episode about abusive church leadership inspired by the downfall of Mark Driscoll and the Mars Hill church. Today we re-examine that conversation in the light of the latest scandal rocking the British evangelical church – allegations against Mike Pilavachi from Soul Survivor. We discuss his influence in the church and the impact of the latest stories, before cueing up our older discussion about how contemporary culture thinks about sex and power (and in particular how they are exploited) in human relationships. And then we consider to what extent Christians should become as suspicious of our leaders and their relationships, as it seems wider society is. - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

We’re bringing you a classic episode of Matters of Life and Death from the archive today, all about suffering. The problem of suffering has been one of the most intractable and painful theological debates for centuries. But is it perhaps not a problem to be solved, but a deeper mystery to be journeyed through? How does knowing Jesus’s death and resurrection are not simply a response to pain but God’s Plan A from the start change things? We also think through some faithful Christian responses to evil and loss. How can the church reintegrate the deeply Biblical tradition of lament into its corporate and individual life, picking up on the psalms and ultimately Jesus on the cross? - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

In our latest episode tackling some questions from listeners, we begin by thinking about whether it should matter if influential theologians and Christian writers had personal moral failings, and whether we can separate out someone’s theological work from their own sins. Then we move on to a question from an unmarried listener who would like children and is wondering if adoption should be an open option for her. - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Our second ‘lessons learned’ episode looking back at the covid pandemic tackles how our healthcare systems coped, or failed to cope, with the unprecedented crisis of coronavirus. Did we see doctors forced to make impossible choices over who gets a ventilator and intensive care and who is left to die in a corridor? Did we get the balance right between protecting healthcare workers and taking sacrificial risks for the sake of patients? And how did the church do in all this – did we live up to our Christian forebears who showed great courage during plagues in the ancient world? - Find John’s writing and our original podcasts on coronavirus here: https://www.johnwyatt.com/tag/coronavirus/ - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

This podcast happened to launch a week or two into the first lockdown in spring 2020, and so for the first year almost all we could talk about on the show was coronavirus. But since normality finally returned last year, it feels like nobody wants to talk about the pandemic again. Yet reconsidering those traumatic, confusing, revolutionary few years might help us think afresh about how the world is changing. In the first of two episodes, we look back at coronavirus and in particular the social, medical and spiritual issues the pandemic threw up. Was lockdown worth it, know we now more about the cost for young people? Were we right to embrace the rapidly-produced novel vaccines as our way out of the pandemic? And why is there a stubbornly persistent excess death rate worldwide, long after the virus stopped killing people in large numbers? - Find John’s writing and our original podcasts on coronavirus here: https://www.johnwyatt.com/tag/coronavirus/ - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

‘Granny’s body remains, but she was gone’. The public narrative around dementia often presumes that as our ability to talk, move and think gradually withers away, so does our personhood and sense of self. But if we believe as Christians that our humanity and identity is inextricably bound up in our physical flesh and bones, how should we approach the heart-breaking challenge of caring for someone declining into dementia? In this episode we speak with trainee vicar and theologian Jess Wyatt about her research into embodiment, personhood and dementia, and think through different ways to care for and attend to those suffering from this increasingly prevalent disease. - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

The numbers of couples choosing to have children via surrogate mothers has been steadily rising in recent years. Now, the UK authorities are considering plans for a radical overhaul of the laws around surrogacy, making it more heavily regulated but also reversing certain presumptions around legal parenthood. In this episode we discuss why surrogacy is gaining in popularity, the pros and cons of the proposed reforms, and whether Christians should endorse surrogacy as a good way to start families. - We previously discussed this issue on an episode of Premier’s Unbelievable podcast https://www.premierunbelievable.com/unbelievable/the-surrogacy-industry-john-and-tim-wyatt-on-the-ethics-of-paying-for-pregnancy/12955.article - Tim also wrote an article last year exploring the issue in depth https://www.premierchristianity.com/features/wombs-for-rent-can-christians-really-support-surrogacy/13184.article - The Law Commission report on surrogacy reforms https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lawcom-prod-storage-11jsxou24uy7q/uploads/2023/03/LC_Surrogacy_Summary_of_Report_2023.pdf - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

We're both on holiday this week so we're bringing you an episode we first recorded in 2021 during the covid pandemic. It explores one of the most significant and potentially long-lasting ways the covid pandemic has affected church life – the shift to digital. Ever since the first lockdown began, churches of every shape and size and from every denomination have been forced to offer worship online. And even though it has been legal to re-open buildings since last summer, most have continued to livestream, pre-record or video conference their way through the pandemic alongside some physical gathering. Will this continue indefinitely even when covid is long gone? Are we really seeing digital church spark a revival among non-churchgoers? And what implications for our worship and our theology does this brave new online world pose? - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Perhaps the most contentious political, medical and social issue of the day is how to treat and care for young people who are questioning or experiencing distress around their sex and gender. In this episode we speak with Christian community paediatrician Julie Maxwell about the rise in children reporting gender dysphoria, the evidence base behind controversial treatments such as puberty-blockers, and how we as followers of Jesus can speak compassionately and faithfully into the maelstrom of invective and opinion on this important topic. Some helpful resources from Julie: - An article she wrote for the website Living Out on how to parent a child who is questioning their gender identity https://www.livingout.org/resources/articles/111/parenting-a-child-questioning-their-gender-identity - A quick guide to the issue written for the Christian Medical Fellowship https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=article&id=27357 - The Bayswater Support group helps parents whose children have some form of transgender of nonbinary identity https://www.bayswatersupport.org.uk - The Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine https://segm.org - Transgender Trend campaign against medical interventions for gender-questioning children https://www.transgendertrend.com - Genspect is an international coalition of professionals and others critical of transgender treatment for gender dysphoria https://genspect.org - The Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender https://can-sg.org/  - Gender: A wider lens is a podcast which explores issues around gender, sex, identity and medicine https://gender-a-wider-lens.captivate.fm/  - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

In this episode we tackle two questions from listeners. The first asks in the light of the conflict in Ukraine whether it is ever right for Christians to become active participants in war. Then we move on to think about how the Genesis account of the Tower of Babel might shed light on our current debates over artificial intelligence software and humankind's creative capacity for evil. You can send us a question by emailing molad@premier.org.uk or tweet us: @johnswyatt or @tswyatt.

The persecuted church today lives as it always has under the threat of arrest, imprisonment, physical attack, verbal threats and harassment, and even death. But today these traditional methods are supplemented by the technological revolution. Increasingly persecution comes via the internet, on social media platforms, and sometimes even via the smart devices Christians use themselves. How do oppressive regimes and anti-Christian extremists use modern tech to persecute believers? What impact does this new form of pervasive digital surveillance have on underground churches? And how can those of us worshipping in safety and freedom try to resist a future of global coercion and repression for vulnerable Christians facilitated by multinational tech companies? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Today’s episode was recorded as part of the New Zealand Christian Medical Fellowship’s annual conference. Doctors there sent over two bioethical conundrums for us to chew over as part of a special episode of Matters of Life and Death. The first explores how Christians can work within a secular healthcare system while holding values which are entirely at odds with what their jobs require them to do. And the second relates to a real life story from New Zealand, where anti-vax parents refused to allow their baby to have life-saving heart surgery because they were worried about the blood of vaccinated donors being transfused during the procedure. You can read more about the real life story at the heart of the second question here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/480297/high-court-takes-guardianship-of-sick-baby-at-the-centre-of-dispute-over-donor-blood Tim's article questioning the religious literacy of some of the media coverage of the Mike Pilavachi scandal: https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/poor-reporting-on-soul-survivor-is-damaging-for-everyone-alleged-victims-included/15515.article  Find out more about CMF NZ: https://www.cmf.nz/  Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

A new kind of artificial intelligence software has swept through the internet over the last year. Many are thrilled by the potential and power of AI which can generate by itself impressively creative text, images, sound and video. But others are sounding the alarm. Does this new generation of generative AI really pose a dire threat to humankind? What are the commercial and political pressures forcing tech firms to keep rolling out this unpredictable yet powerful software at breakneck speed? Will the Church’s role solely be to pick up the pieces of our broken public square and broken lives, or can we get ahead of the curve for once? And is all this not just a huge over-reaction to a flashy but relatively insignificant computing breakthrough? The Centre for Humane Technology’s video on generative AI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhYw-VlkXTU Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com  

More quickfire initial thoughts in response to questions from listeners. This week we discuss whether introverts are marginalised in the church, or actually disproportionately likely in the pulpit? We also consider how spirituality might play a role in healthcare, and in particular how Christian doctors could appropriately bring their faith into their surgeries. And finally, we wonder if a recent call by tech figures for a six-month pause on all AI research will actually mean anything. The article Tim mentions about chaplains embedded in general practice is here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/doctors-order-chaplains-for-surgeries-r8xr2jgnk We’re going to start doing Q&A episodes like this a lot more often, in part to allow us to run the normal episodes in full over a single episode, rather than being split into two halves. So please do email us with feedback, questions, disagreements or any other thoughts to molad@premier.org.uk. Thank you!   Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

The non-religious are an ever-increasing segment of the population, in the UK, the United States and across the Western world. But what do they actually believe, and indeed not believe, in? In this episode we’re joined by evangelist and author Glen Scrivener to discuss the different spiritualities we encounter, especially among younger generations. Are all non-believers Richard Dawkins style naturalistic atheists, or is there a more complex and contradictory set of belief systems out there for those who don’t call themselves Christians? How should the church’s outreach shift to reflect the contemporary mores of Gen-Z and the pick-and-mix spiritualities they often espouse? And are modern social movements, whether ‘woke’ or ‘anti-woke’ functioning like religions without creeds? Glen's book from last year is called The Air We Breathe: How we all came to believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress and Equality https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/the-air-we-breathe     The Theos thinktank report on the non-religious: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/research/2022/10/31/the-nones-who-are-they-and-what-do-they-believe Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com  

In this second part of our effective altruism conversation, we explore the Christian sub-community within EA and ask whether the movement’s fundamental ideas are compatible with Christian tradition on giving. Is Christian EA a welcome challenge to our increasingly sentimental and selfish modes of charity, or has it actually missed the point on the nature of God? What can we learn from Biblical stories about compassion and giving, and what does truly Christian wisdom look like in this arena? Find out more about EA for Christians on their website here: https://www.eaforchristians.org/learn-more Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com  

A movement founded at the University of Oxford in 2009 has now captured the imagination – and the wallets – of some of the brightest and most successful across elite Western academic and business circles. Effective altruism, a 21st-century data-driven take on the philosophy of utilitarianism, claims we must give our time and money only to those causes which can be proven to increase the greatest amount of pleasure to the most people. Why has this eccentric community grown so fast, has it become unmoored from its original intentions, and what perverse incentives arise when we try to distil ethics into an algorithm? This Economist article asking if effective altruism has lost its way is well worth a read: https://www.economist.com/1843/2022/11/15/the-good-delusion-has-effective-altruism-broken-bad Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

In the second part of John’s webinar with Premier Unbelievable, he takes questions from listeners on everything from whether AI tech is inching us towards the end times to how families can stave off the destructive influence of smartphone addiction. Should the church be stepping up to both advocate for greater regulation of these technologies and help guide believers through the maze of chatbots and algorithms? Support Premier Unbelievable? and receive your 130 page e-book of John Wyatt & Lord Martin Rees' Big Conversation on Robotics, Transhumanism & AI: https://premierunbelievable.com/wyatt Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

We are taking a few weeks off over Easter but to give you something to chew on until normal service resumes, we’re uploading in two parts a webinar John took part in for Premier Unbelievable. Called ‘How to live faithfully in a technologically confusing world’, part one explores the staggering sophistication of the latest generation of AI chatbots and what ethical questions these might throw up for Christians. Support Premier Unbelievable? and receive your 130 page e-book of John Wyatt & Lord Martin Rees' Big Conversation on Robotics, Transhumanism & AI: https://premierunbelievable.com/wyatt For the AI article referenced on the show: https://www.premierunbelievable.com/articles/should-christians-be-concerned-about-the-rapid-advancements-in-artificial-intelligence/14631.article Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com  

God’s understanding of friendship is very different to the sexualised and suspicious framework society now inhabits. In this episode we take a lightning-quick tour through the Bible to consider what we can learn about friendship there – with God, between God’s people, and fundamentally lived out in the life of Jesus. What are the key themes which define a contemporary gospel-spared friendship today? Is it realistic to try to reimagine friendship in this way in the 21st-century? And what are the signs we should be looking out for which suggest a relationship may not be in line with this scriptural vision? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Somebody once said that in contemporary society we all want to ‘have sex with our friends, and be friends with our sexual partners’. There is a broad suspicion of intimate but non-sexual friendships, especially those which are intergenerational or cross the sexes. We are all supposed to be too cynical to believe that people might just be friends – surely it’s actually all about sex and power in some way? In this episode we try to unpick where the denigration of friendship came from in the modern Western world, and explore what impact this has on the Christian ideal of friendship. Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

To mark one year since Matters of Life and Death joined the Premier Unbelievable network, we have a special one-off episode answering some questions emailed in by listeners. We discuss everything from whether Christians should lean into the culture wars to resist growing social liberalism, to how far we might go in suffering to care for elderly family members, and even whether it would be ethical to create lifelike child-sized sex robots to give to paedophiles in an effort to deter actual child abuse. Thank you to everyone who sent in questions, we’re sorry we couldn’t answer them all! Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

There are two strong Christian traditions when it comes to robust political or industrial action such as strikes. One argues for enduring oppression and unfair employment in the manner of Jesus and points to Paul’s teaching in the Bible on slaves and masters. But a second position throws its weight behind efforts to challenge injustice and protect the vulnerable, noting Jesus’s clear teaching on care for the widow, orphan and stranger. In this episode we consider these two strands of Christian thinking and how they end up being applied, sometimes poorly, to the question of public servants going on strike. And is there a third response to the paralysis and conflict which has erupted in British society – the distinctively Christian virtue of reconciliation? The Christian Medical Fellowship blogs by junior doctors on whether to strike can be found here: - Should Christian doctors strike? No https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=article&id=26387 - Should Christian doctors strike? Yes https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=article&id=26386 Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

The UK is currently gripped by a wave of strikes from public sector employees – nurses, teachers, postal workers, train drivers, paramedics, and soon junior doctors too. But this raises complex ethical questions. Few Christians would deny it is legitimate for private employees to withhold their labour in order to demand better pay or conditions, but it is not the governmental employers who will suffer in public sector strikes but patients, students and ordinary citizens. In this first part of our conversation we discuss the origin of striking as a tactic, the history of how British law does or does not permit certain professions to go on strike, and the complexities of healthcare workers in particular walking off the ward, while maintaining (or not) their legal duty of caring for vulnerable patients. Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

If surveillance capitalism permeates all of modern society, how on earth can we step back to think critically about what it may be doing to us? In this episode we think through more of the implications of living in a non-private digital village in the 21st century, but is privacy even a Christian virtue in the first place? We also ponder the implications of the more deceptive and destructive aspects of addictive digital technologies and think through some initial efforts believers have made to carve out space for family time and spirituality in our disembodied always-on world. Some extra reading: Surveillance capitalism: the hidden costs of the digital revolution, Jonathan Ebsworth, Samuel Johns, Michael Dodson, Cambridge Papers June 2021 The Question of Surveillance Capitalism, Nathan Mladin and Stephen Williams, in The Robot will see you Now: Artificial Intelligence and the Christian Faith, ed John Wyatt and Stephen Williams, SPCK, 2021 The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff, Profile Books, 2019 Atlas of AI: Power politics and the planetary costs of artificial intelligence, Kate Crawford, Yale University Press, 2021 Irresistible: The rise of addictive technology and the business of keeping us hooked, Adam Alter, Penguin, 2017 Hooked: how to build habit forming products, Nir Eyal, Penguin, 2019 Weapons of Math Destruction, Cathy O’Neil, Penguin, 2017 Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Every tap, swipe and click we make on our phones, tablets and laptops is being recorded by big tech firms. This is often called surveillance capitalism – a network of products and services we use every day which sucks up large quantities of data about us and then sells it on to advertisers at huge profits. It’s garnering increasing concern from citizens and regulators around the world, but should we care as Christians? What impact is this system having on once flourishing industries such as journalism or bookselling, let alone on us as human beings? And why have tech companies made their products so addictively hard to put down and stop tapping, swiping and clicking? Some extra reading... Surveillance capitalism: the hidden costs of the digital revolution, Jonathan Ebsworth, Samuel Johns, Michael Dodson, Cambridge Papers June 2021 The Question of Surveillance Capitalism, Nathan Mladin and Stephen Williams, in The Robot will see you Now: Artificial Intelligence and the Christian Faith, ed John Wyatt and Stephen Williams, SPCK, 2021 The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff, Profile Books, 2019 Atlas of AI: Power politics and the planetary costs of artificial intelligence, Kate Crawford, Yale University Press, 2021 Irresistible: The rise of addictive technology and the business of keeping us hooked, Adam Alter, Penguin, 2017 Hooked: how to build habit forming products, Nir Eyal, Penguin, 2019 Weapons of Math Destruction, Cathy O’Neil, Penguin, 2017 Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com  

In the second part of our discussion with Chris Goswami, we dive into some of the ethical arguments for and against cryptocurrencies. Are they providing financial liberation for some of the poor and excluded communities in the developing world, or simply luring vulnerable under-educated people into shady scams? What does properly Christian investment look like and could putting our money into crypto be an example of this? And how can we grow in wisdom and discernment as believers so that we can pick our way through this wildly accelerating field of technological advancement, avoiding what is harmful while pursuing the good? Find more of Chris’s writing on tech and faith at his website – www.7minutes.net Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Recent news headlines have been full of discussion of the current ‘crypto winter’, a season where the value of cryptocurrencies has plummeted causing financial devastation and destroying what looked like thriving crypto institutions. This week we’re joined by Christian tech writer and Baptist minister Chris Goswami to try to unpick how we should feel as believers about cryptocurrencies and their dramatic fall in recent months. What is bitcoin, and is it any different to previous internet-based tech industries we could invest in which have boomed and gone bust over the years? Is crypto just a Ponzi scheme, a 21st century version of Tulipmania, or is there something useful and transformative being built on the blockchain? Find more of Chris’s writing on tech and faith at his website – www.7minutes.net Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

In our second conversation on Canada’s euthanasia regime, we chat with a Canadian doctor about the troubling expansion of Medical Assistance in Dying to those only suffering from mental illness. Can the families of mentally struggling patients be confident their loved ones will be met with compassion and a commitment to long-term treatment from their doctors, or will they simply be shuffled off to the quick and easy assisted suicide programme? How easy or difficult is it for doctors, including Christians, who reject euthanasia to continue to practice within Canadian hospitals? And what might the future look like if Christians in healthcare stood firm and demanded space to continue to practice pro-life, hope-filled medicine? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Since 2016, Canada has offered assisted suicide through its public healthcare system. And the criteria for Medical Assistance in Dying has steadily expanded year on year, and will soon include not just those suffering from terminal conditions, but also those experience mental illness too. This week we speak with a Christian psychiatrist from Canada who has been involved in both the campaigning against the spread of euthanasia, and also figuring out on the ground how to care well for patients in a system which offers them the chance to take their own lives instead of receiving treatment. In particular, what can we in other countries yet to introduce such laws learn from the Canadian experience of sliding down the infamous slippery slope since 2016? We briefly discussed Canadian euthanasia in a previous episode in 2021 about assisted dying, which you can listen to here - https://johnwyatt.com/2021/10/08/assisted-dying-the-meacher-bill-radicals-in-the-lords-canadas-slippery-slope-and-fragile-conscience-protections/ (Correction: Our guest on a few occasions accidentally says the expansion of MAiD to those with mental illnesses was due in 2022, when it was in fact originally scheduled to begin in March 2023, although it has now been delayed again.) Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com  

In the third and final installment of John’s discussion with Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, they discuss Martin’s views on the future of space travel and astronauts, and whether some robotic future progeny of humankind will eventually replace us in exploring the universe. Would this be any bad thing, or should we resist efforts to gradually supplement and even supplant our biology with novel biotech? And without any Christian belief, how can we justify our ethical reservations about transhumanism or explain the correspondence between our minds and the cosmos we are understanding better every year. This discussion was first broadcast as part of the Big Conversation podcast, hosted by Justin Brierley, which is also part of the Premier Unbelievable network - https://www.thebigconversation.show/ Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Happy New Year! Today’s episode continues the Big Conversation between John and Martin Rees, the astronomer royal. In this part, they respond to robotics experts who welcome the arrival of non-human machines which could take over care work, healthcare, and even become our lovers. Is it healthy to replace jobs done by people with robots, especially when that work involves interacting with vulnerable people? How will we re-order society if widespread super-capable AI renders a lot of our white-collar industries redundant? And are the risks of blurring the lines between the real and the virtual, the human and the machine, being underestimated in our dash towards progress? This discussion was first broadcast as part of the Big Conversation podcast, hosted by Justin Brierley, which is also part of the Premier Unbelievable network - https://www.thebigconversation.show/ Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Today’s episode is a little different from normal as we’re going to begin a short series sharing a recent conversation John had with Lord Martin Rees, the astronomer royal. As well as a highly distinguished cosmologist and astrophysicist, Martin is also an author whose recent books have explored some themes familiar to Matters of Life and Death listeners, including the rise of artificial intelligence and the future of humanity. Their chat was first broadcast as part of the Big Conversation podcast, hosted by Justin Brierley, which is also part of the Premier Unbelievable network - https://www.thebigconversation.show/   Support our End Of Year Appeal: https://gtly.to/aAxRk0kQs   Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

In the second half of our conversation with Tim Farron, we discuss his conviction that Christians should get stuck into politics despite its compromises and challenges. Why did his own term as leader of the Liberal Democrats come unstuck so badly, and does he believe there actually is a ceiling on ambition for Christian politicians who wish to hold onto their integrity? What impact is social media and our accelerating, atomised society having on our politics, and how can we as believers resist being dragged along with this?   Premier's End Of Year Appeal: https://gtly.to/aAxRk0kQs   Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

This week we’re joined by the former leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron to discuss social media and politics. Research suggests UK members of parliament like Tim get sent thousands of offensive tweets every single day. Why have social networks become such toxic, hateful places? Is this a technology problem to be solved with better moderation, a policy issue solved by government regulation, or a spiritual affair reflecting the sinfulness of the human heart? And should Christians avoid these online worlds to remain unpolluted, or stick around to act as salt and light regardless? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

In the second half of our discussion with Christian psychiatrist Daniel Maughan, we work through some ways in which the church might play in role in supporting those struggling with their mental health back to fullness of life. But is there also a place for the church in gently pushing back on the medicalisation of ordinary emotions and modelling a greater sense of mental resilience? And what kind of narratives within the Christian faith and scriptural tradition might help us move away from damaging or judgemental stereotypes about mental health? Some useful resources recommended by Daniel: The Mind and Soul Foundation Tackling mental illness together, by Alan Thomas Christianity and Depression, by Tasia Scrutton Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Since the covid pandemic there has been an alarming rise in people presenting with mental health problems. Today we speak with Christian psychiatrist Daniel Maughan to better understand why this might be happening, how our mental healthcare systems are coping (or not), and how his faith intersects with his work diagnosing and treating those with psychosis. Can professional mental healthcare workers bring their Christianity into the treatment room? What can we do to protect ourselves and especially our younger people from this tsunami of anxiety and depression? And has society over-corrected in its desire to eradicate mental health stigma? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

In the second part of our conversation on ageing and dependence, we think about how secular society has tried to ameliorate the crisis of isolated older people with technological solutions. Can the smart home or robotics really save us from having to care for our elders ourselves? And if this isn’t the whole answer, what does the Church have to bring to the table? How can we as believers plausibly offer up the countercultural idea of embracing dependence in old age and indeed at every stage of life, and make it real through practical service? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

We’ve discussed in previous episodes the looming ‘demographic timebomb’ – a growing mass of elderly and increasingly chronically ill people in many developed nations, expected to place huge strain on public resources. The policy debates around this issue often emphasise the importance of not ‘being a burden’ on others, with some even suggesting there could be a ‘duty to die’ by assisted suicide for those who become old and infirm. Why does our contemporary culture have such a horror of the idea of becoming dependent on our families or the state? And what does the Christian story have to say about the value of dependence versus autonomy, especially as we near the final seasons of our lives? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Resuming our conversation with Rhys Laverty from the Davenant Institute, we look at John’s contribution to the Protestant Social Teaching book – a chapter exploring post-Reformation tradition around death and dying. What might medieval and early modern approaches to the end of life be able to teach us modern Christians about how to die well? How was the hospice movement inspired by this, and how has it lost its way amid debates over assisted suicide? And what can the Protestant Church do if it wishes to renew its interest and investment in ethics and social teaching? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com  

Over 150 years the Catholic Church has built up a body of ethical doctrine commonly known as Catholic Social Teaching, which applies Catholic theology to wider social concerns, covering everything from labour relations to contraception. In this episode we are joined by Rhys Laverty from the Davenant Institute to discuss their new book Protestant Social Teaching, an attempt to scour the history of Protestant thought and establish a reformed version of CST. Why have evangelicals been so behind the curve when it comes to thoughtfully applying church and Biblical tradition to the social concerns of the day? Is there merit in perusing the writings of long dead believers when thinking about 21st century ethics? And how would any kind of Protestant Social Teaching differ or agree with its Catholic counterpart? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Building on last week’s discussion of AI chatbots, we consider the theology and sociology of why interacting with other human beings is so central to our personhood. But would it matter if we did enter into a counselling or caring relationship with a robot or AI software, if we felt it helped our loneliness or anxiety? How can we be raising young people, who cannot remember a world before smart speakers and digital assistants, to engage well and honestly with the AI all around them? And might there be a role for regulation to hem in the ambitions of the overmighty tech giants in this space? You can read John’s briefing paper on AI and simulated relationships here - https://johnwyatt.com/2020/01/10/article-artificial-intelligence-and-simulated-relationships/ Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Earlier this year, a Google engineer went public with his concerns an artificial intelligence chatbot program he had been testing had become sentient. Although his fears were dismissed by Google’s bosses, parts of his conversations with the software reveal the chatbot can speak in shockingly coherent and nuanced language, and even claims itself to have become conscious. How do these kind of programs work and why have they taken such a huge leap forward in recent years? Do we as Christians have anything to fear about the rise of computers which can talk back to us as convincingly as people? And why is speech in particular such a powerful part of our own sense of personhood and who God is? The Washington Post article on Blake Lemoine is here - https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/ Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Twenty-four years ago, John published the book which gave this podcast its name: Matters of Life and Death. His first foray into Christian writing and teaching on ethics, it’s now available as an audiobook for the first time which we’re using as an excuse to do a short retrospective. How does the book stand up to scrutiny today? Would John change anything about it if he was writing it from scratch? Why has it been influential, even beyond the UK’s shores? And what has the experience told John about the miracle of the written word and its power to engage and shape minds across time and space? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Building on last week’s whistlestop tour through the latest ground-breaking embryo research, in this episode we consider what we should do as Christians about all this. Do we continue to hold onto the position that every embryo is a distinct and precious human life from the moment of conception, or should we rethink our theology of the early unborn child? How on earth can ordinary believers keep up with the dizzying pace of scientific advancement to equip themselves to make good ethical choices? And should we prepare for a future world where Christians may have to opt out of lifesaving treatments because of how they are developed? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

There has been a flood of highly significant if poorly reported developments in embryo research in recent years, all of which raise new and confusing questions for Christians and non-Christians alike. Is it acceptable to use stem cells to create embryo-like structures to research on? Should we ban all efforts to perfect gene editing, even if that stops us effectively eradicating some horrible conditions? And would it be wise to extend the current rules on embryo research to let scientists go further in the lab, as many would like? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Our second episode on the evolution debate considers three more bones of contention: where do different species come from? Are we all commonly descended from a single source, or does God intervene? Then we consider homo sapiens, and whether science supports the Genesis account of humankind having an original Adam and Eve couple. Lastly we look at the Fall, and question if this can be seen as a real event in space and time, or instead has evolutionary biology proven death, predation and suffering were baked into creation long before human beings chose to sin. Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

In this special one-off episode, Tim speaks with Mark Greene from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity about Queen Elizabeth II, her faith and decades of service. We consider her own particularly Biblical vision for how constitutional monarchy should work in post-war and post-Imperial Britain, and we explore how her deeply-held Christian faith shaped a lifetime of service. How did this mostly silent figurehead become the most admired public Christian in Britain and quietly expound the gospel year after year in an increasingly secular country? You can find out more about Mark’s book, The Servant Queen and the King She Serves, here – https://licc.org.uk/ourresources/the-queens-faith/ Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Evolution vs creationism. It's been one of the most divisive and contentious debates within Christianity. But is there a way to tackle these questions without falling into rancour and accusation? In this episode we tentatively attempt just that, exploring first what we can all agree on about God as Creator, and then looking through five big areas of disagreement. Can we sustain the idea the universe is only 6,000 years old in the 21st century? And should Christians reject scientists' insistence all species were originally descended from a common ancestor, including humans? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Archie’s case underlines the growing crisis over the lack of trust many ordinary people have in medical professionals. Nobody wants to go back to absolute deference to doctors, but is there an alternative to furious hostility and judges having to rule on care decisions? Doctors and patients also need to wrestle with a new participant in these vexed and fraught conflicts – the public, newly involved in these cases via social media and online campaigns. But is it helping to have activists turning these unique and tragic stories of deeply sick children into grist for the culture war mill? For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173

Twelve-year-old Archie Battersbee died on 7 August, after months of legal wrangling between doctors who believed he was brain dead and wished to end life support, and his family who resisted this. This tragic case has captured a lot of media attention, and in this episode we try to unpick some of the complicated medical and ethical challenges thrown up by the story. Why is it so much harder today than in the past to actually determine if a person has died? How can, and should, the courts overrule the wishes of a child’s parents regarding medical treatment (or its withdrawal)? And can Christians be pro-life and anti-euthanasia, while still supporting the doctors’ wish to allow Archie to die? For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173

In this episode we pick up our conversation with clinical geneticist Melody Redman to talk about a new NHS programme in England which is piloting whole genome sequencing of newborn babies. Why are scientists and doctors interested in collecting a child’s entire set of genes and storing them for the rest of their life? What medical benefits might result from this, and what ethical challenges does it throw up? Just because we can now do this, should we? We also consider some of the risks of our increasingly geneticised world and how as Christians we can hold onto our identity in Christ rather than lapsing into genetic determinism. Find out more about the Newborn Genomes Programme here - https://www.genomicsengland.co.uk/initiatives/newborns The group Unique helps support people and families affected by rare chromosomal and genetic disorders - https://rarechromo.org/ Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 

Each of us carries around in our cells about 20,000 different genes – a unique set of biological code which shapes how our bodies develop. As scientists better understand genes and how they work, genetics is becoming a more and more important field of modern medicine, particularly in diagnosing conditions. But this comes with a brand new set of ethical challenges to think through. In this episode, we interview Melody Redman, a clinical geneticist working in the NHS, about her work, and her perspective on it as a Christian doctor. For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com Subscribe to the Matters Of Life And Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173  

Resuming our conversation about suffering, we think through some faithful Christian responses to evil and loss. How can the church reintegrate the deeply Biblical tradition of lament into its corporate and individual life, picking up on the psalms and ultimately Jesus on the cross? And what might a resilient and hope-filled fellowship of believers look like in the light of this?   For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com  If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com  Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 

The problem of suffering has been one of the most intractable and painful theological debates for centuries. But is it perhaps not a problem to be solved, but a deeper mystery to be journeyed through? Is suffering solely a consequence of human sin since the Fall, or were we made to be fragile, dependent and broken? And how does knowing Jesus's death and resurrection are not simply a response to pain but God's Plan A from the start change things?  For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com  If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com  Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 

In the second half of our conversation with theologian Andrew Davison, we ask what the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe would mean for Christian faith and teaching. Whether it is single-celled organisms or fully-fledged intelligent sentient life, would its discovery change how we think about God as creator? Are aliens also made in the image of God? And if so, do they have their own Jesus and incarnation and redemption story, just as we do? For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com

In the week the first images from the new James Webb Space Telescope were beamed back to Earth, we are joined by theologian Andrew Davison to consider the spiritual value of cosmology and astrophysics. Andrew is a theologian of the sciences and especially interested in the deep questions about life thrown up by new developments in space exploration. We consider what the telescope might discover, how Christians can reconcile themselves to our smallness in the universe, and if there is spiritual value in spending billions on this kind of far-sighted scientific endeavour in the first place. For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com

Hello, and welcome to Matters of Life and Death. Today we’re going back to our conversation about simulation for part two of this re-broadcast. Last week’s episode discussed the growth of deep fakes and other digital technologies which allow us to simulate human faces and speech with increasing accuracy. We thought about how these developments had been presaged for decades by sci fi, such as Philip K Dick’s iconic novels, but also by the influential yet eccentric French philosopher Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard sketched out four phases of simulated reality, beginning with a first phase of accurate, faithful representation where an image acted as a sacrament. We’re going to pick up the discussion as John explains the next phase in Baudrillard’s analysis. If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

For the next two weeks we’re dipping back into the Matters of Life and Death archive to bring you an episode we first broadcast last year. It’s all about simulation. We live in an era when digital technology is making it increasingly easy and cheap to create fake but compelling images or videos of people, or even entirely artificial human-like personalities. Machine learning tools and progress in artificial intelligence software means we are closer than ever to things previously only imaginable in sci fi: computer programs which can speak to us like a human or, androids which are indistinguishable from real people. In this episode we discuss examples of this kind of tech already in the world, what impact it may have in the future, and how we as Christians should think about these forms of simulated images, relationships and personalities. If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Could it be that some knowledge – including whether your unborn child has a serious genetic condition – is actually not helpful, and even harmful to us? In this episode we dig further into the complex ethics of prenatal screening and explore what the Christian tradition makes of seeking to understand the future, and the different arguments for and against aborting children we know will be disabled. If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Pregnant women today are offered a battery of tests and screening for their unborn child, looking for an ever-increasing range of conditions and risks. But is the onward march of technology in this sphere always an unmitigated good thing? With abortion for a disability legal in the UK up to term, women are being given terrible choices previous generations never faced: give birth to a child who probably has a life-limiting or even fatal condition, or end the pregnancy early. What ethical challenges does this knowledge, whether gained via the official NHS programmes or a growing number of DIY tests available online, pose? If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John’s website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Demographic trends reveal clearly the next century will be one increasingly dominated by older people. If God is giving us a lot more folk in their later years, what are they for in church life? Has the modern church, terrified of decline, alienated its faithful, older congregants in a desperate attempt to lure back the young? And what wisdom and service do older Christians have to offer their churches? If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com Matters of Life and Death is part of Premier Unbelievable. Find out more at www.premierunbelievable.com

The world’s population is rapidly becoming older and older, with many developed nations seeing unprecedented proportions of their citizens in retirement age. Why is this taking place, and does this presage an era of economic stagnation or a utopia of stability? How have fears over demography shifted as fertility rates plummet across the world, and how can we avoid pitting the young against the ever more powerful old in bitter intergenerational conflict? If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com Matters of Life and Death is part of Premier Unbelievable. Find out more at www.premierunbelievable.com

In the second part of our conversation on robot rights, we explore three Christian responses to calls for robot personhood, spanning the spectrum of hostility to optimism about the development. What Biblical truths and doctrines can we turn to as we wrestle with what is a fundamentally brand new dilemma? And how would our theology and practice as believers change should conscious, intelligent, autonomous robots come to live among us? You can find plenty of resources on the question of personhood and robotics on John’s website: www.johnwyatt.com John co-edited a multi-author book last year called The Robot Will See You Now which brought together Christian thinkers and writers to consider how the rise of robotics and AI might affect everything from the arts to healthcare. You can find out more and order a copy here: https://johnwyatt.com/2021/07/01/the-robot-will-see-you-now/

If and when autonomous and intelligent robots come into existence, should they be granted rights, or even personhood? A growing number of technologists argue governments must lay out what status conscious and rational machines would have before they actually have been invented. But how can we decide what is and isn’t a person, and what rights and responsibilities such a thing should have? And how could this philosophical and technical debate affect our Christian beliefs on human uniqueness? You can find plenty of resources on the question of personhood and robotics on John’s website: www.johnwyatt.com John co-edited a multi-author book last year called The Robot Will See You Now which brought together Christian thinkers and writers to consider how the rise of robotics and AI might affect everything from the arts to healthcare. You can find out more and order a copy here: https://johnwyatt.com/2021/07/01/the-robot-will-see-you-now/

Abortion is a flashpoint issue in both the church and wider culture, with the very language you choose used as a cudgel for either side. So how can Christians talk about it and respond to it in a way which cools tensions rather than inflames them? How has the church’s thinking on abortion and pregnancy changed over the many decades John has been involved in healthcare? And can a pro-life believer offer truly non-directive counselling to a pregnant woman considering termination, or work with integrity in a hospital which carries out abortions? (This episode was recorded before the news broke about the draft Supreme Court ruling in the United States which would revoke Roe v Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion.) A good place to get help if you or someone you know is experiencing an unplanned pregnancy (or if you'd like to find your local pregnancy crisis centre in the UK) is https://www.pregnancychoicesdirectory.com/info You can find more information and resources on abortion and the beginning of life on John's website: www.johnwyatt.com 

Rates of unplanned pregnancies rose significantly during the coronavirus lockdowns. What kind of support is out there for women (and men) facing this situation, and how can the church try and plug the gaps? In this episode we speak with Sophie Guthrie-Kummer, who runs a charity in London which has offered pregnancy crisis counselling (among other services) for two decades, to hear what this work looks like and how Choices juggles the theological and social hot potatoes of pregnancy and abortion.  You can find more information and resources on abortion and the beginning of life on John's website: www.johnwyatt.com  A good place to get help if you or someone you know is experiencing an unplanned pregnancy (or if you'd like to find your local pregnancy crisis centre in the UK) is https://www.pregnancychoicesdirectory.com/info  You can find out more about Choices here: https://www.choicesislington.org/ 

This is part two of our re-broadcast of last year’s John Stott episode, to mark what would have been his centenary. Is Stott’s vision of lay Christians persuading for Christ in the public square a naïve fantasy in the 21st century? And should we be more cautious before lionising evangelical titans like Stott in this age of scandal and disappointment? (Originally broadcast in April 2021). Resources from John's website from the Stott centenary: Talk and discussion: Quick to listen – lessons from John Stott on grace under fire Interview and talk: The John Stott Centenary – Equipping the people of God for ministry Interview: The life and legacy of John Stott

This month marks 101 years since the late John Stott was born, and his centenary last year prompted a flurry of events to mark the centenary of this highly influential vicar, Bible teacher and evangelical leader. ‘Uncle John’, as he was affectionately known, also had a huge impact on John's life and career and so we dialled in back then to reflect on not just the legacy of Stott’s many decades of ministry, but also to consider whether his vision for how Christians can engage well in the public square was still relevant and meaningful now, more than 60 years after he began making the case. Has society long since moved on, or are there still things to learn and challenges to heed from Stott? (This episode was first broadcast in April 2021) Other resources on John's website from the John Stott centenary: Talk and discussion: Quick to listen – lessons from John Stott on grace under fire Interview and talk: The John Stott Centenary – Equipping the people of God for ministry Interview: The life and legacy of John Stott

In Britain as in many countries there is a growing campaign to legalise assisted suicide and to make doctors prescribe on request lethal drugs to terminally ill patients. In the second part of our interview with Sarah Foot, a Christian palliative care doctor, Sarah explains why her colleagues are overwhelmingly opposed to this, the ignorance which lies behind many of the arguments for changing the law, and the implications for palliative care should assisted dying be imposed upon it. John's resources page for material on euthanasia and the end of life: https://johnwyatt.com/medical-ethics/euthanasia-end-of-life/  An article he wrote about the Assisted Dying Bill introduced to the UK parliament last year: https://johnwyatt.com/2021/07/08/whats-wrong-with-the-assisted-dying-bill/  Our episode about assisted dying from 2021: https://johnwyatt.com/2021/10/08/assisted-dying-the-meacher-bill-radicals-in-the-lords-canadas-slippery-slope-and-fragile-conscience-protections/ 

Over the past 60 years a new field of medicine has emerged – palliative care. In this episode we interview Sarah Foot, a Christian palliative care doctor, who explains how she treats the physical, mental, social and even spiritual needs of those who are dying, the Christian foundations of the discipline, and what impact her profession has on her.   If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com

Following on from our discussion last week on the rise of climate fatalism, we discuss what an authentically Christian response to our environmental crisis would look like. How can we steer a middle path between complacency and despair? Does our different theology of the future change how we act on climate change? And, what can we learn from our evangelical forbears about how to live well in the face of potential climate catastrophe?   Excerpts from CS Lewis's essay Living in an Atomic Age Christian Aid's climate change projects A Rocha's Eco Church scheme The Christian Climate Alliance's principles and values for Christian climate activism 'The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis' - 1967 essay by Lynn White If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com

The latest report from the UN's climate scientists was both incredibly downbeat about climate change and almost entirely ignored by a media fixated on Ukraine. In this episode we consider the communication and changing narratives around climate change, why an unscientific hyper-fatalism has set in with many activists, and what impact this might be having on younger generations terrified humanity itself is going extinct.    'We're heading Straight for a Demi-Apocalypse' - Emma Marris in The Atlantic  Climate anxiety in children - study in The Lancet Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability - IPCC report If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com

In this episode we pick up our conversation from last week about transhumanism and how technology might redefine what it means to be human. We consider what place technology has in today's social narrative and whether it makes sense as Christians to automatically resist efforts to use cutting-edge science to reshape ourselves. Is the human body to be regarded as a Lego kit or a flawed masterpiece of art? How do we discern the Creator's original intention for our bodies in a world where they, like everything else, have been broken by the Fall? And how might it change our ethics in this area if we focused our attention on the resurrected Jesus as the firstfruits of a new kind of humanity? If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com

Billions of dollars are currently being spent by a suite of private firms, mostly in Silicon Valley, pursuing radical research to enhance human capacities. These companies want to put off, or even defeat, aging, upload our minds to computers and give humans new abilities. Is this simply the next frontier for science and something to be welcomed, or should Christians hesitate to endorse research which appears to target our very created selves? What is the difference between using technology to tackle cancer versus tackling the aging process itself? And what is driving tech billionaires to spend their fortunes in this way? If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com

To mark our arrival on the Premier network, we recap how Matters of Life and Death began and what we hope our intergenerational conversations might achieve. We then reflect on how the pandemic and its acceleration of digital technology has shaped so many of the issues we discuss, before briefly exploring three stories we will cover in future episodes (human enhancement, climate change nihilism, and end of life care). If you're new to the show, please do also scroll down the podcast feed to find the last two years of episodes we've already produced to have a listen. If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, find more resources to read, listen to and watch at John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com US based listeners can support this podcast financially. Head to https://premierinsight.org/mattersoflifeanddeath UK based listeners can support this podcast financially. Head to https://my.premier.org.uk/donate/donate-unbelievable-2021      

The Omicron variant has in a few short weeks almost taken over the pandemic. This highly transmissible version of covid is raising afresh complicated ethical questions about vaccine distribution and international solidarity between nations. How can we ascertain what is the common good during global crises affecting different countries in different ways? Does Christianity lend any intellectual backing to those who demand the state refrain from telling them how to live during a pandemic? And how might the differing legacies of authoritarian regimes in Europe and the dissenting pilgrims who founded America be playing a part in contemporary vaccine politics?   Note: This episode was recorded earlier in December so sadly the wildly explosive growth of Omicron since has meant some of the data and news we mention in passing is now quite out of date!   Also, at the end we have a special announcement about the future of Matters of Life and Death. Thanks for listening, and see you all in 2022.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This episode was inspired by John’s new book – The Robot Will See You Now – which was published last week. It’s a multi-author volume he has co-edited with the theologian Stephen Williams, where they have gathered an array of theologians, academics and thinkers to explore how upcoming advances in robotics and artificial intelligence will revolutionise society, from healthcare to employment, from art to sex. And, perhaps more critically, how we as Christians should engage with and respond to these developments in cutting-edge technology. Excitingly, we have been able to invite our first guest onto Matters of Life and Death to discuss this - Nathan Mladin. Nathan is a researcher with the religion thinktank Theos and has written a chapter for The Robot Will See You Now. With his help we bat around some of the big ideas from the book and then look in more detail as his specialism - the concerning rise of 'surveillance capitalism'. Find out more about The Robot Will See You Now, including how to pre-order it, on John's website - https://johnwyatt.com/2021/07/01/the-robot-will-see-you-now/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In today’s episode we’re returning to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s been almost six months since we last dedicated an episode to covid, and since then a lot has happened. Hundreds of millions of vaccine doses have been delivered around the world, but are they going to the right people at the right time? We now know the vaccines increase by a tiny amount the risk you might experience a dangerous blood clot in the brain – how have we done at understanding that risk and putting it in its proper context? We’re also sadly much more familiar with long covid– what’s going on there and how should we as a society look after those suffering these symptoms? And finally, does the way we count – or rather, significantly undercount – deaths caused by coronavirus really matter? Please take our three-minute listener survey to help us improve the podcast - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJjFoI3G6a-5lJ07S7vBm_yxOkDVoDQXQfI6RnrZSJNI2zuw/viewform The ONS report on how many people in the UK have long covid - https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/prevalenceofongoingsymptomsfollowingcoronaviruscovid19infectionintheuk/1april2021 The BBC Radio 4 programme on long covid - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000w4t4 The Sun's front page on the blood clot risk - https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/14589798/brilliant-front-page-oxford-astrazeneca-vaccine/ The government's information page on the blood clot risk with the covid vaccines - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-and-blood-clotting/covid-19-vaccination-and-blood-clotting See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Last week marked 100 years since the late John Stott was born and there has been a flurry of events to mark the centenary of this highly influential vicar, Bible teacher and evangelical leader. He also had a huge impact on John's own life and career and in this episode we wanted to talk about not just the legacy of Stott’s many decades of ministry, but whether his vision for how Christians can engage well in the public square is still relevant and meaningful today, more than 60 years after he began making the case. Has society long since moved on, or are there still things to learn and challenges to heed from Stott? John's talk and discussion on Stott at LICC - https://johnwyatt.com/2021/05/03/talk-and-discussion-the-life-and-legacy-of-john-stott/ Sermon on lay ministry inspired by Stott at All Souls Church - https://johnwyatt.com/2021/04/26/interview-and-talk-the-john-stott-centenary-biblical-convictions-for-the-contemporary-church/ A Glen Scrivener interview with John about his friendship with Stott - https://johnwyatt.com/2021/04/29/interview-the-life-and-legacy-of-john-stott/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today’s topic is simulation. We live in an era when digital technology is making it increasingly easy and cheap to create fake but compelling images or videos of people, or even entirely artificial human-like personalities. Machine learning tools and progress in artificial intelligence software means we are closer than ever to things previously only imaginable in science fiction: computer programs which can speak to us like a human or androids which are indistinguishable from real people. In this episode we discuss examples of this kind of tech already in the world, what impact it may have in the future, and how we as Christians should think about these forms of simulated images, relationships and personalities. Tom Cruise deep fakes on TikTok Synthesia - the company offering deep fake videos as corporate communications MyHeritage Deep Nostalgia - a family history DNA company will now use AI to animate your old photos of dead relatives, 'bringing them back to life' Affectiva - who claim to use AI to analyse human emotional states from looking at their faces Simulation and Simulacra - the seminal work by Jean Baudrillard The Truman Show film The Matrix film See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In today’s episode we’re taking a sideways step from the covid pandemic and instead are discussing social media and free speech. The banning of Donald Trump from every social media platform following the deadly riot earlier this month at the US Capitol building has prompted fierce debates, not only about free speech and censorship online, but also the role of social media in fostering hate and lies. Why is it that so much horrendous stuff accumulates and spills out of social media, from deranged conspiracy theories about coronavirus all the way up to the violent and often racist political rhetoric which inspired the Capitol insurrection? Do we need more regulation and moderation of what people are saying online, or less? What are the implications of unaccountable tech CEOs barring anyone they choose from the world’s dominant communications networks? And how should we, as Christians, think about the ethics of free speech and censorship in our always online 21st century world? Our previous episode on conspiracy theories and misinformation online about coronavirus - https://shows.acast.com/matters-of-life-and-death/episodes/coronavirus-misinformation Research on the spread of false and true news online, published in Science - https://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6380/1146 'Information Overload Helps Fake News Spread, and Social Media Knows It', published in Scientific American - https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/information-overload-helps-fake-news-spread-and-social-media-knows-it/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Microchips. Bill Gates. The mark of the beast. 5G cell towers. False positive rates. Big pharma. DNA alteration. It’s been hard to avoid the swirling morass of misinformation and conspiracy theories around the pandemic. And this confusion and fear have surged in recent weeks as the first covid vaccines have begun to be rolled out. But why have so many people, including many in the church, fallen for untruths about coronavirus? Where has all our trust – in government, in science, even in doctors – gone? How can we steer a clear path through the toxic brew of lies and misinformation swamping the internet and social media? Read the World Health Organisation's guide to navigating the 'infodemic' and verifying online information here: who.int/news-room/spotlight/let-s-flatten-the-infodemic-curve See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The first coronavirus vaccine jabs have already gone into the arms of people here in the UK, as Britain this week became the first country in the world to actually deploy a vaccine which had completed all its clinical trials and been signed off by the regulator. But there remain lots of questions about the vaccine – how has it been made so fast, can we be sure it is safe, who should get it first, and can Christians be given it without compromising on their religious convictions? Listen to previous episodes on covid vaccines here: Part 1 - https://shows.acast.com/matters-of-life-and-death/episodes/coronavirus-vaccines Part 2 - https://shows.acast.com/matters-of-life-and-death/episodes/coronavirus-vaccines-part-2 Read John's article on vaccines and Christian ethics here - https://johnwyatt.com/2020/10/08/article-coronavirus-vaccines-and-christian-ethics/ At the bottom is a document which has more detailed information on which particular vaccines have used which particular cell lines which may have ethical concerns, produced by the pro-life research centre the Charlotte Lozier Institute. John has also put together a document on his website tackling some of the frequently asked questions about the vaccine - https://johnwyatt.com/2020/12/21/faq-coronavirus-vaccines-frequently-asked-questions/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The second coronavirus lockdown started here in the UK on 5 November and is due to last the rest of the month. Unlike the first time round in the spring, we aren’t going into this with our eyes closed – we know the lockdown will cause immense economic damage, as well as impacting mental and even physical health. Is this crude, blunt instrument really the best way to tackle the second wave of the covid pandemic? What does the Christian ethic have to say about how to balance the goods of saving lives versus protecting livelihoods? Is there actually any alternative? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We received a fascinating question from a listener after our last episode on vaccines, picking up on the competing and perhaps contradictory philosophies behind the anti-vax movement. So we decided to respond to their question and thoughts with a special bonus episode looking over this issue and other developments in coronavirus vaccines since. You will probably want to listen to the main episode on vaccines first here: https://shows.acast.com/matters-of-life-and-death/episodes/coronavirus-vaccines And we subsequently made a third vaccines episode - https://shows.acast.com/matters-of-life-and-death/episodes/coronavirus-vaccines-part-3 John has also put together a document on his website tackling some of the frequently asked questions about the vaccine - https://johnwyatt.com/2020/12/21/faq-coronavirus-vaccines-frequently-asked-questions/ We're really interested in hearing more questions and comments from you - if you have something you would like us to discuss or respond to, please email mattersoflifeanddeathpodcast@gmail.com. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There are about 40 different potential covid vaccines already being tested on humans, with almost a hundred more at earlier stages of development in the lab. The delivery of a vaccine is seen by many as the silver bullet which could end the pandemic for good. But they are more morally complex than we might at first assume. Join us as we sift through the ethical questions around clinical trials, testing vaccines on humans, how they can be most equitably distributed, and even what material they are made with. John's article on the ethics of vaccines, which includes a discussion of the rights and wrongs of using tissue from aborted fetuses to develop vaccines, can be found here: https://johnwyatt.com/2020/10/08/article-coronavirus-vaccines-and-christian-ethics/ He has also put together a document on his website tackling some of the frequently asked questions about the vaccine - https://johnwyatt.com/2020/12/21/faq-coronavirus-vaccines-frequently-asked-questions/ You can listen to the next two episodes which also discuss vaccines here: Part 2 - https://shows.acast.com/matters-of-life-and-death/episodes/coronavirus-vaccines-part-2 Part 3 - https://shows.acast.com/matters-of-life-and-death/episodes/coronavirus-vaccines-part-3 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We’re back after a slightly longer than expected summer break with a new episode, all about our fears, anxieties and hopes amid the pandemic. People are afraid of the virus, and understandably so after months of the government stoking our anxiety to get us to stay at home while the media pumps grim death statistics into our screens on a daily basis. Is it healthy or wise to remain in this state of anxiety and fearfulness? How can we see God at work during times of mental health crisis and perpetual anxiety about death? And how can we foster an appropriate, grounded but Christlike hopefulness in its place? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the second part of our conversation on technology during the coronavirus pandemic, we look into our crystal balls and try to imagine what the world of tech will look like in the future, thanks to Covid-19. Are the major American tech companies are emerging from the crisis stronger than ever? Will coronavirus accelerate the rise of artificial intelligence and robotics in healthcare? And has the modernist pro-science movement struck a lasting blow in the battle of ideas against the anti-expert populists? You can listen to the first episode on coronavirus and technology here: https://shows.acast.com/matters-of-life-and-death/episodes/coronavirus-technology-part-1 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One of the perhaps unexpected results of the coronavirus pandemic is how it has thrown up some fascinating debates about technology. Many countries, including the UK, have been grappling with if and how they could use Bluetooth apps to try and trace the spread of the virus. Around the world other nations have used the ubiquity of smartphones to quarantine and control potentially infected people, while poorer states have seen their efforts hindered by a critical lack of healthcare tech. In this episode of Matters of Life and Death, we delve into some of these discussions and try and look forward to see what impact the pandemic may have on our increasingly digital lives in the future. Listen to the second part of our conversation on covid and technology here - https://shows.acast.com/matters-of-life-and-death See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For many years death has been described as perhaps the final taboo in British society. Rarely it is deemed polite to mention the uncomfortable fact that one day we all will die, let alone try to bring faith or spirituality into that conversation. But in the midst of a pandemic which has already claimed over 50,000 British lives in various ways, is that changing? And how as Christians can we be modelling a different way to approach death – and serve those in their final days – particularly in these stressful and frightening times? In this episode of Matters of Life and Death we resolutely break the taboo and talk about death, about dying and about spiritual care. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Protect the NHS. It has been one of the key government slogans, designed to inspire us to stay with the lockdown so that hospitals do not get overwhelmed by coronavirus patients and services collapse under the pressure. In today's episode we examine what life in the NHS has been like during the Covid-19 crisis. Has it been protected? Has morale held up? What can the church do to support Christian medics? Is our relentless focus on PPE and self-protection having unintended consequences for the idea of medicine as a sacrificial vocation? And what lessons for the longer term future of our health service should we as Christians be learning during this time? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

First come, first served? Or key workers and politicians before everyone else? How can doctors decide who to treat in a healthcare emergency when there are not enough beds or ventilators to go around? Triage, the practice of working out who to care for first, has been around in medicine for centuries but the concept has acquired a fresh intensity during the Covid-19 pandemic, when it was realistically feared the NHS might have significantly more patients sick with the virus than it had capacity. In this episode we discuss if it is ever right to pick between patients like this, and if so what methods might be wise - and which are ethically dubious. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our third episode on coronavirus zooms in to focus on how Christians should be thinking and acting during the pandemic. We ask how we might square this global crisis with our belief in a sovereign and loving God and if we should look for anything good to come out of it. And what shape will our faith be in when all this finally comes to an end and something like normal life resumes? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this second episode in our series on coronavirus, we explore how Covid-19 is different to plagues in the past. Building on what we learned about how Christians in generations before us responded to similar crises, how should we be navigating these unprecedented times? What does it mean for followers of Jesus to be experiencing the very first pandemic of the information age? What trends are already emerging during the first few weeks of lockdown which we need to understand, or even challenge? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.