All Matters of Life and Death articles
-
ShowsMatter of Life & Death: Q&A: Did ending Roe v Wade actually save unborn children’s lives, and have we got food culture wrong in church?
Our first topic in this Q&A episode is a recent study which found that in 2023, the first full calendar year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion, total abortions actually increased. Despite 21 states enacting full or partial abortion bans, more women not fewer are ending their pregnancies. How can this have happened, and what might it tell the pro-life movement about its tactics and priorities if it seeks to make abortion not simply unlawful, but unthinkable?
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: ADHD, over-diagnosis and should Christians enhance our brains with stimulants?
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the faster growing mental health diagnoses of our age. More and more people, including those well into adulthood, are seeking out and being diagnosed with ADHD.
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Tim Farron, toxic social media, and how to navigate the ‘mucky business’ of politics
This week we’re bringing you a classic episode from the MOLAD archive, when we were joined by the former leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron to discuss social media and politics.
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: New obesity drugs, the morality of food, and has neuroscience killed off free will?
A new wave of anti-obesity drugs led by Wegovy (also known as Ozempic) are causing huge ripples in the medical world and popular culture. Astonishingly successful at helping people lose weight, these drugs both offer a tantalising solution to the obesity epidemic and its associated public health crisis, and have also made the pharma companies which own them staggeringly rich as demand rockets ever upwards.
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Tech hype - Should Christians resist or lean into AI?
In this episode we talk through the anatomy of a tech hype bubble, looking at previous cases such as the internet, cryptocurrency and smartphones to figure out where AI might be on the ‘S-curve’ of tech adoption.
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Q&A: Why have anti-abortion activists accidentally banned fertility treatment in Alabama?
Alabama’s Supreme Court has ruled that embryos in deep freeze, stored as part of IVF treatment, can be considered as legal children. This unexpected judgement has prompted many clinics to shut their doors, fearing lawsuits, as the storage and eventual destruction of surplus embryos is standard practice in IVF.
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: How can Christian doctors approach medical-assisted dying (euthanasia)?
Medical Assistance in Dying: Judicial activism, suicidal ideation, reasons to stay alive, and Hippocrates’ successful medical practice
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Psychedelics, spirits and the philosophy of Harry Potter
Culture is increasingly interested in psychedelic drugs. Whether it’s Silicon Valley execs micro-dosing LSD to turbocharge their meetings, Americans booking ayahuasca weekends in Mexico, or rafts of studies suggesting ketamine can really help in treating depression, we’re all taking drugs much more seriously than any time since the 1960s counterculture.
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Q&A: Should single Christians use dating apps if they strike out at church?
A listener has emailed in his dilemma off the back of our recent series of episodes: His small evangelical church teaches a traditional Christian message on relationships and marriage, yet offers single members like him no opportunities to meet like-minded women. Is it OK for him to turn to dating apps to fish in a deeper pool, or are the apps unavoidably commodifying his sisters in Christ and conforming him to secular cultural ethics on relationships?
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: New Creation: Reading the Bible backwards, the ‘opiate of the masses’, Physics 2.0, and the resurrected yet scarred body
Our four-part series on the deeper narrative of the Bible comes to an end with New Creation. Just as with the beginning of the story, this final chapter is often overlooked in many churches and the Christian narrative is compressed simply to fall and redemption.
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Egg freezing revisited: What about the ‘surplus’ eggs, and is better contraception part of the solution?
A listener has emailed in two excellent questions in response to our recent episode looking at egg freezing. What happens to the leftover eggs which are frozen but never reimplanted, and can Christians be relaxed about this intrinsic wastefulness of the process?
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Gender gap in church: Onward Christian Soldiers, the only man in a room full of women, Bonhoeffer’s ‘cheap grace’ and Christian dating apps
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?
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: 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?
Join us as we tackle listener questions on the ethical line crossed with euthanasia legalisation and the contradiction of suicide prevention. Can this worldview stand? We’ll also discuss finding unbiased news amidst conspiracy theories and commercial concerns.
-
ShowsMatter of Life & Death: Egg freezing: The ticking biological clock, prosecco and cheese evenings, the culture war over maternal age, and living with wisdom and contentment
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.
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Genetics: Libraries of recipe books, BRCA1, Gattaca, and Big Data Towers of Babel
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.
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Pregnancy crisis - A constructive Christian response, heads versus hearts, paternalistic gynaecologists, and ambiguity in the ultrasound clinic
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.
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Climate anxiety — ’Delay means death’, Extinction Rebellion, throwing pebbles into God’s river, and rediscovering lament
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.
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: 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?
Our year-end Q&A episode as we discuss hot topics: Wegovy, the controversial anti-obesity drug and the debate on extending the 14-day limit on human embryo research
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Redemption: Always Plan A, sharing in Christ’s sufferings, a Disney fairy story, and the offensive incarnation
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.
-
ShowsMatters of Life & Death: Palliative care, Dogs and Guinness on the wards, complicated grief, DNAR discussions, and resisting assisted dying
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.
