Matters of Life and Death
By Premier Unbelievable?
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Category: Religion & Spirituality
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Episodes: 176
Description
In each episode of Matters of Life and Death, brought to you by Premier Unbelievable?, John Wyatt and his son Tim discuss issues in healthcare, ethics, technology, science, faith and more. John is a doctor, professor of ethics, and writer and speaker on many of these topics, while Tim is a religion and social affairs journalist. We talk about how Christians can better engage with a particular question of life, death or something else in between.
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
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An anxious generation: Are social media and smartphones ruining children’s mental health?
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Jan 15, 2025 |
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Giving, data and compassion: Should Christians all be ‘effective altruists’?
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Jan 08, 2025 |
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Surveillance capitalism: Is privacy dead and should we care?
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Jan 01, 2025 |
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The ethics of embryology: ‘Ensoulment’, the 14-day limit and co-operation with evil
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Dec 25, 2024 |
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The powers of the age: Spiritual warfare, evil and technology in the 21st century
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Dec 18, 2024 |
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The future of gender medicine and transgender children, with Dr Julie Maxwell
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Dec 11, 2024 |
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The assisted suicide bill has been passed by parliament. What comes next?
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Dec 04, 2024 |
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Should Christians abandon contraception?
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Nov 27, 2024 |
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Earthquakes and cancer: Why is God’s good world so full of suffering? with Sharon Dirckx
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Nov 20, 2024 |
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Vaccine conspiracies, mistrust and catastrophism: How the church lost its way, with Dr Francis Collins
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Nov 13, 2024 |
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DNA, parenthood and selecting for IQ: The surprising return of eugenics
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Nov 06, 2024 |
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Near death experiences
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Oct 30, 2024 |
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Prenatal screening: Is all knowledge a good thing?
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Oct 23, 2024 |
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Same-sex attraction and friendship in church, with Ed Shaw
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Oct 16, 2024 |
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Yoga, mindfulness and truly Christian meditation
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Oct 09, 2024 |
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Remembrance and forgetting: Why is nobody talking about covid any more?
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Oct 02, 2024 |
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Will anti-obesity wonder drugs save our broken NHS?
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Sep 25, 2024 |
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Stigma, anti-depressants and emotional resilience: Rethinking mental health and the church
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Sep 18, 2024 |
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Assisted suicide: Euthanasia tourism takes off in the US amid fresh push to change law in Britain
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Sep 11, 2024 |
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Should robots be given human rights?
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Sep 04, 2024 |
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Lucy Letby reconsidered: Innocence and guilt, partial evidence, and living with unknowns
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Aug 28, 2024 |
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What does it mean to be made in the image of God?
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Aug 21, 2024 |
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The infected blood scandal
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Aug 14, 2024 |
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Autonomous killer drones and the future of warfare
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Aug 07, 2024 |
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Should Christians break the law? Civil disobedience, climate protest and heavy-handed policing
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Jul 31, 2024 |
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The unintended consequences of sperm donation
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Jul 24, 2024 |
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Neo-Luddism and the ‘myth’ of progress: Should Christians be pro or anti technology?
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Jul 17, 2024 |
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Energy abundance: Is the coming solar power revolution a blessing from God?
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Jul 10, 2024 |
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Julian Assange, whistleblowers, and the Christian case for journalism
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Jul 03, 2024 |
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Physics and the gospel: Richard Cheetham on how churches can embrace science once more
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Jun 26, 2024 |
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Dependence: Should Christians embrace ‘being a burden’ on others as we get old?
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Jun 19, 2024 |
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Are smartphones damaging our children? with Andy Crouch
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Jun 12, 2024 |
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How much is too much to genetically screen your children?
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Jun 05, 2024 |
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Elections, the church and threats to democracy
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May 29, 2024 |
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Autism: Disability or superpower?
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May 23, 2024 |
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Two is the loneliest number: Can AI friends stop us feeling alone?
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May 15, 2024 |
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‘Playing God’: Science and religion in the 21st century
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May 08, 2024 |
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Assisted dying in Scotland: A bad law but also an inevitable one?
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May 01, 2024 |
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Abusive relationships and coercive control in church
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Apr 24, 2024 |
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Q&A: Did ending Roe v Wade actually save unborn children’s lives?
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Apr 17, 2024 |
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ADHD, over-diagnosis and should Christians try to enhance our brains with stimulants?
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Apr 10, 2024 |
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Tim Farron, toxic social media, and how to navigate the ‘mucky business’ of politics
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Apr 03, 2024 |
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New obesity drugs, the morality of food, and has neuroscience killed off free will?
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Mar 27, 2024 |
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Tech hype: Should Christians resist or lean into AI?
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Mar 20, 2024 |
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Q&A: Why have anti-abortion activists accidentally banned fertility treatment in Alabama?
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Mar 13, 2024 |
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How can Christian doctors approach medical-assisted dying (euthanasia)?
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Mar 06, 2024 |
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Psychedelics, spirits and the philosophy of Harry Potter
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Feb 28, 2024 |
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Q&A: Should single Christians use dating apps if they strike out at church?
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Feb 21, 2024 |
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New Creation: Reading the Bible backwards, the ‘opiate of the masses’, Physics 2.0, and the resurrected yet scarred body
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Feb 14, 2024 |
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Egg freezing revisited: What about the ‘surplus’ eggs, and is better contraception part of the solution?
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Feb 07, 2024 |
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Gender gap in church: Onward Christian Soldiers, the only man in a room full of women, Bonhoeffer’s ‘cheap grace’ and Christian dating apps
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Jan 31, 2024 |
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Q&A: The contradictions which underpin anti-suicide efforts in an era of euthanasia, and are there any honest and unbiased journalists left these days?
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Jan 24, 2024 |
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Egg freezing: The ticking biological clock, prosecco and cheese evenings, the culture war over maternal age, and living with wisdom and contentment
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Jan 17, 2024 |
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Genetics: Libraries of recipe books, BRCA1, Gattaca, and Big Data Towers of Babel
|
Jan 10, 2024 |
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Pregnancy crisis: A constructive Christian response, heads versus hearts, paternalistic gynaecologists, and ambiguity in the ultrasound clinic
|
Jan 03, 2024 |
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Climate anxiety: ’Delay means death’, Extinction Rebellion, throwing pebbles into God’s river, and rediscovering lament
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Dec 27, 2023 |
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Q&A: Should we welcome the coming wave of anti-obesity drugs, and what’s at stake in the argument over the 14-day limit on embryo research?
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Dec 20, 2023 |
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Redemption: Always Plan A, sharing in Christ’s sufferings, a Disney fairy story, and the offensive incarnation
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Dec 13, 2023 |
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Palliative care: Dogs and Guinness on the wards, complicated grief, DNAR discussions, and resisting assisted dying
|
Dec 06, 2023 |
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Q&A: Why are we ignoring rising death rates among poorer ethnic minority children, and will the flesh-and-blood girlfriend become a thing of the past?
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Nov 28, 2023 |
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Science and religion: The myth of conflict, Charles Darwin’s beetle research, epistemic humility, and English country churchyard or Californian fridge?
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Nov 22, 2023 |
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Q&A: The ‘myths’ leading women to choose abortion, and is digital slavery underpinning breakthroughs in AI?
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Nov 15, 2023 |
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Friendship 3: Ruth and Naomi, ‘chesed’, trips to the theatre with John Stott, and an unorthodox rabbi
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Nov 08, 2023 |
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The Fall: Bad actor theory, a malevolent voice in the Garden, Total Depravity and Original Sin, and the ‘Christian heresy’ of liberal humanism
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Nov 01, 2023 |
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Baby loss 2: Rising abortion numbers, pills by post, ‘the pregnancy remains’, and Schrodinger’s fetus
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Oct 25, 2023 |
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Baby loss 1: Elsie’s story, one in five pregnancies, names missing from the family tree, and the power of ultrasound
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Oct 18, 2023 |
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Women and Christianity: Purity culture, beyond complementarianism, baggy t-shirts over swimming costumes, and recovering Tamar’s voice
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Oct 11, 2023 |
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Origins of covid: Gain of function research, zoonosis, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and truth over tribe
|
Oct 04, 2023 |
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Q&A: Should Christians use homeopathic medicine and why are climate scientists self-censoring in academic journal articles?
|
Sep 27, 2023 |
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Creation: The Brethren’s suspicion of the ‘world’, an explosion of joy, Eric Liddell’s sprinting epiphany, and celebrating beauty
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Sep 20, 2023 |
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Q&A: The science of the billions-of-years-old Earth, has God deceived us, and are philosophers so useless after all?
|
Sep 13, 2023 |
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Lucy Letby: Murder on the neonatal ward, Munchausen’s by proxy, doctors versus nurses, and the banality of evil
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Sep 06, 2023 |
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Q&A: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, psychosomatic disorders, AI acing exams, and the limitations of true creativity
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Aug 30, 2023 |
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Space: The James Webb Telescope, hobbits of the universe, astrobiology, and 16 billion billion Earth-like planets
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Aug 23, 2023 |
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Evolution: The cosmic watchmaker, a 6,000-year-old Earth, the immorality of mutation, and intelligent uncertainty
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Aug 16, 2023 |
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Abusive leadership: Mike Pilavachi and Soul Survivor, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, Sigmund Freud's chaise longue, and Paul-Timothy relationships
|
Aug 09, 2023 |
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Suffering: Mystery and presence, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, rediscovering lament and the Gethsemane prayer
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Aug 02, 2023 |
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Q&A: Karl Barth’s complicated home life, and single Christians considering adoption
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Jul 26, 2023 |
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Covid reconsidered 2: Empty Nightingale hospitals, difficult triage decisions, a failure of Christian leadership, and reconsidering lockdown
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Jul 19, 2023 |
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Covid reconsidered 1: Pandemic amnesia, ‘Stay at home, Protect the NHS, Save lives’, lingering Long Covid, and 13.47 billion vaccine doses
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Jul 12, 2023 |
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Dementia: Listening to our bodies, 72 unique behaviours, multi-dimensional personhood, and the sacramental ministry of touch
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Jul 05, 2023 |
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Surrogacy: The intended parents, altruistic versus commercial, ancient Christians saving abandoned babies, and a post-genetic community
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Jun 28, 2023 |
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Digital church: Worship on Zoom, pandemic revival, time-shifting and Gnosticism (Replay)
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Jun 21, 2023 |
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Trans children: Gender dysphoria, diagnostic overshadowing, boy Lego versus girl Lego, and the non-replicated Dutch Protocol
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Jun 14, 2023 |
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Q&A: Christian pacifism in times of war and the Tower of Babel reconsidered
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Jun 07, 2023 |
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Digital persecution: Deadly rumours on WhatsApp, a ‘Panopticon’ of censorship, the corrosion of trust, and China’s spreading surveillance state
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May 31, 2023 |
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Q&A: Helping unmarried couples have children and court-ordered blood transfusions
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May 24, 2023 |
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Generative AI: Second Contact, avoiding the fate of Nokia, hacking the human operating system, and the resilience of Western democracy
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May 17, 2023 |
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Q&A: Introverts versus extroverts, faith in the consultation room, and a moratorium on AI research
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May 10, 2023 |
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Contemporary spiritualities: Nominal atheism, New Age prayers for £25, moving on from Empty Tomb evangelism, and the church of social justice
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May 03, 2023 |
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Effective altruism 2: Tithing, second-hand stuffed toys in Turkey, the Parable of the Lost Sheep, and one-hundredth of a guide dog
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Apr 26, 2023 |
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Effective altruism 1: QALYs, longtermism, Jeremy Bentham’s embalmed corpse, and ethical elitism
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Apr 19, 2023 |
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Webinar 2: Totalitarian regimes, the tobacco regulation lag, eternal life for materialists, and ‘Don’t be afraid’
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Apr 12, 2023 |
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Webinar 1: Redefining human-ness, testing for consciousness, hoodwinked by ChatGPT, and a black box
|
Apr 05, 2023 |
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Friendship 2: Walks in the Garden of Eden, David and Jonathan, covenantal clarity, and red flags
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Mar 29, 2023 |
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Friendship 1: The hermeneutic of suspicion, Classical ideals, scandalising middle-class Vienna, and the ‘mysticism of materialism’
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Mar 22, 2023 |
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Listener questions: Polarised culture wars, the challenge of elder care, and childlike sexbots
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Mar 15, 2023 |
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Public sector strikes 2: Taking patients hostage, employment as service, slaves and masters, and Christian peacemaking
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Mar 08, 2023 |
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Public sector strikes 1: The Winter of Discontent, austerity-era pay freezes, Christian socialist solidarity, and continuity of patient care
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Mar 01, 2023 |
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Surveillance capitalism 2: QR codes in China, privacy, the manipulation of desire, and a neo-Benedictine Rule of Life
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Feb 22, 2023 |
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Surveillance capitalism 1: Trillions of data points, clickbait, an advertising arms race, and BF Skinner’s pigeons
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Feb 15, 2023 |
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Cryptocurrency 2: Technicism, the Parable of the Talents, get-rich-quick schemes, and the wheat and the weeds
|
Feb 08, 2023 |
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Cryptocurrency 1: Bitcoin, warehouses of computers solving maths puzzles, the dot.com bubble, and FOMO
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Feb 01, 2023 |
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Medical Assistance in Dying 2: Suicidal ideation, no crystal balls, conscientious objection, and Hippocrates’ successful medical practice
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Jan 25, 2023 |
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Medical Assistance in Dying 1: Judicial activism, a ‘reasonably foreseeable’ death, the unacceptability of suffering, and reasons to stay alive
|
Jan 18, 2023 |
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Martin Rees 3: Pre-emptive science fiction, the morality-reality gap, adventurers on Mars, and the mind of the Creator
|
Jan 11, 2023 |
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Martin Rees 2: Blurred humanity, re-dignifying care work, algorithms reading lung X-rays, and the risks of virtual life
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Jan 04, 2023 |
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Martin Rees 1: Advances in artificial intelligence, the Eliza effect, passing the Turing Test, and the problem of other minds
|
Dec 28, 2022 |
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Social media and politics 2: A mucky business, the ultimate conspiracy theory, ‘showbiz for ugly people’, and and atomised individuals
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Dec 21, 2022 |
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Social media and politics 1: The judgemental society, 3,000 offensive tweets a day, freedom from vs freedom to, and Elon Musk’s Twitter
|
Dec 14, 2022 |
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Mental health 2: Emotional resilience, the bio-psycho-social model, the power of story, and depression in the Psalms
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Dec 07, 2022 |
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Mental health 1: Power dynamics, the psychiatrist as brick wall, casualties of social media, and over-pathologising distress
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Nov 30, 2022 |
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Dependence 2: The Panopticon at home, evangelising to retirees, existential angst in the House of Lords, and rejecting self-sufficiency
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Nov 23, 2022 |
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Dependence 1: Isolated elderly people, altruistic suicide, a second childhood, and a crucified hero
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Nov 16, 2022 |
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Protestant Social Teaching 2: The ars moriendi, open casket funerals in Derry Girls, the end of Christendom and ethical quietism
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Nov 09, 2022 |
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Protestant Social Teaching 1: Overlap with Catholicism, chronological snobbery, rejecting one-size-fits-all ethics, and ‘worldly’ versus ‘spiritual’ matters
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Nov 02, 2022 |
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AI sentience 2: I-Thou relationships, talking to stuffed animals, thanking Alexa, and Turing red flag laws
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Oct 26, 2022 |
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AI sentience 1: Blake Lemoine and LaMDA, trillions of words, mute idols, and the God who speaks
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Oct 19, 2022 |
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Matters of Life and Death: The book reconsidered, the Moscow State University reading list, audiobooks, and the decline of the reading Christian
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Oct 12, 2022 |
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Embryology 2: Psalm 139, reconsidering ‘ensoulment’, the language of right and wrong, and co-operation with evil
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Oct 05, 2022 |
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Embryology 1: A stem cell ‘Mini Me’, CRISPR, Brave New World, and extending the 14-day limit
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Sep 28, 2022 |
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Evolution 2: Tracking coronavirus variants, the immorality of mutation, roughly one thousand hominids, and intelligent uncertainty
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Sep 21, 2022 |
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The Queen: Monarchy as service, astonishing the President of Ireland, the changing Christmas Speech, and a testimonial faith
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Sep 14, 2022 |
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Evolution 1: Finding common ground, the cosmic watchmaker, interpreting Genesis, and a 6,000-year-old Earth?
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Sep 07, 2022 |
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Archie Battersbee 2: Doubts over the brain scans, the end of ‘doctor knows best’, sucked into the culture wars and protective power of attorney
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Aug 31, 2022 |
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Archie Battersbee 1: The invention of ‘brain death’, a breakdown in trust, the child’s best interests, and how to turn off life support
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Aug 24, 2022 |
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Genetics 2: Whole genome sequencing, Gattaca, de-identification versus anonymity, and Big Data Towers of Babel
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Aug 17, 2022 |
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Genetics 1: Rare diseases, libraries of recipe books, BRCA1, and precision medicine
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Aug 10, 2022 |
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Suffering 2: Rediscovering lament, reciting psalms in bomb shelters, the Gethsemane prayer, and the realism of Christian hope
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Aug 03, 2022 |
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Suffering 1: ’Adamah’, mystery and presence, the ever-smiling Buddha, and the lamb slain from the creation of the world
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Jul 27, 2022 |
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Space 2: Astrobiology, 16 billion billion Earth-like planets, LUCA and the non-competitive Imago Dei
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Jul 20, 2022 |
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Space 1: The James Webb telescope, extra-terrestrial life, hobbits of the universe and the doctrine of creation
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Jul 13, 2022 |
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Simulation 2: Zoom’s face-smoothing, chatbot therapists, Trinitarianism, and evil as counterfeit
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Jul 06, 2022 |
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Simulation 1: Deep fakes, David Beckham speaking Mandarin, Jean Baudrillard’s four phases, and image as sacrament
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Jun 29, 2022 |
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Prenatal screening 2: The prohibition on soothsaying, transcending genetic determinism, a client-technician relationship and Heidi Crowter’s joyful self-advocacy
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Jun 22, 2022 |
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Prenatal screening 1: Peering into the unknown, less than 1/150, blood tests over the internet, and disability doublethink
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Jun 15, 2022 |
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Old people 2: Aging congregations, transcendence at the Arsenal, understanding life backwards, and honouring prayer warriors
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Jun 08, 2022 |
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Old people 1: The demographic transition, Reverend Thomas Malthus, Hasidic Jewish outliers, and the grey vote
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Jun 01, 2022 |
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Robot rights 2: Rejecting self-definition, the citadel of human uniqueness, rehashing ‘God of the gaps’, and evangelising at androids
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May 25, 2022 |
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Robot rights 1: Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws, fauxbots, whimpering miniature dinosaurs, and inherent or conferred personhood
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May 18, 2022 |
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Pregnancy crisis 2: Paternalistic gynaecologists, holding truth with grace, ambiguity in the ultrasound clinic, and refusing the culture war
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May 11, 2022 |
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Pregnancy crisis 1: A constructive Christian response, heads versus hearts, feeling like a ‘bad feminist’, and the three options
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May 04, 2022 |
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John Stott 2: Christians in the public square, an untried ideal, talking and living like Jesus, and the challenge of evangelical hagiography
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Apr 27, 2022 |
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John Stott 1: Double listening, a conservative radical, redefining ‘the ministry’ and salt as preservative
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Apr 20, 2022 |
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Palliative care 2: Resisting assisted dying, the ‘superskill’ of listening, DNAR discussions, and euthanasia-free-zones
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Apr 13, 2022 |
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Palliative care 1: Dogs and Guinness on the wards, ‘living until you die’, deathbed prayers, and complicated grief
|
Apr 06, 2022 |
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Climate anxiety 2: Listening to the Global South, alienation from creation, throwing pebbles into God’s river, and rediscovering lament
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Mar 28, 2022 |
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Climate anxiety 1: ’Delay means death’, media apathy, Extinction Rebellion, and fatalism among the young
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Mar 22, 2022 |
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Human enhancement 2: Techno-optimism returns, the yuck factor, cultivating our bodies, and the divinisation of humanity
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Mar 15, 2022 |
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Human enhancement 1: Calico, the dragon tyrant, transhumanism, and monkeys playing Pong
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Mar 09, 2022 |
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Relaunch: How we started, baby boomers and millennials, the pandemic as catalyst, and the signal to noise ratio
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Mar 02, 2022 |
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Coronavirus: The Omicron variant, mandatory vaccination, pandemic solidarity, and memories of authoritarianism
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Dec 17, 2021 |
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Reproductive technologies: the ’Google baby’, Oliver O’Donovan, 14-day-old embryos, and techno-optimism
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Dec 09, 2021 |
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Infertility and IVF: Hidden wounds, premature quintuplets, embryo donation and the procreative-unitive bond
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Nov 10, 2021 |
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Assisted dying: The Meacher Bill, radicals in the Lords, Canada’s slippery slope and fragile conscience protections
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Oct 08, 2021 |
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Abusive leadership: Mark Driscoll, the hermeneutic of suspicion, Sigmund Freud’s chaise longue, and Paul-Timothy relationships
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Aug 30, 2021 |
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The Robot Will See You Now: Human uniqueness, AI musicians, surveillance capitalism and ditching Google
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Jul 20, 2021 |
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Coronavirus: Miscounting deaths, the Sun’s front page, key workers with long covid and vaccine generosity
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May 26, 2021 |
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John Stott: Double listening, salt as preservative, incarnational mission, and the challenge of evangelical hagiography
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May 04, 2021 |
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Simulation: Deep fakes, image as sacrament, David Beckham in Mandarin and therapy chatbots
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Mar 15, 2021 |
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Digital church: Worship on Zoom, pandemic revival, time-shifting and Gnosticism
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Feb 24, 2021 |
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Social media and free speech: Fake news, Facebook’s ’Supreme Court’, the Capitol riot and YouTube algorithms
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Jan 22, 2021 |
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Coronavirus: Misinformation
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Dec 16, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: Vaccines - part 3
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Dec 11, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: The second lockdown
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Nov 11, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: Vaccines - part 2
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Nov 09, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: Vaccines - part 1
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Oct 08, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: Mental health, anxiety and hope
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Sep 10, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: Technology - part 2
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Jun 24, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: Technology - part 1
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Jun 19, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: Death and spirituality during a pandemic
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May 26, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: Life in the NHS
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May 16, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: The ethics of triage
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May 13, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: Thinking as a Christian during Covid-19
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Apr 29, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: How this pandemic is unlike anything before
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Apr 27, 2020 |
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Coronavirus: Christians in times of plague
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Apr 23, 2020 |