Matters of Life and Death

192 Episodes

1. Medical Assistance in Dying 1: Judicial activism, a ‘reasonably foreseeable’ death, the unacceptability of suffering, and reasons to stay alive

   Published: 18/01/2023
2. Martin Rees 3: Pre-emptive science fiction, the morality-reality gap, adventurers on Mars, and the mind of the Creator

   Published: 11/01/2023
3. Martin Rees 2: Blurred humanity, re-dignifying care work, algorithms reading lung X-rays, and the risks of virtual life

   Published: 4/01/2023
4. Martin Rees 1: Advances in artificial intelligence, the Eliza effect, passing the Turing Test, and the problem of other minds

   Published: 28/12/2022
5. Social media and politics 2: A mucky business, the ultimate conspiracy theory, ‘showbiz for ugly people’, and and atomised individuals

   Published: 21/12/2022
6. Social media and politics 1: The judgemental society, 3,000 offensive tweets a day, freedom from vs freedom to, and Elon Musk’s Twitter

   Published: 14/12/2022
7. Mental health 2: Emotional resilience, the bio-psycho-social model, the power of story, and depression in the Psalms

   Published: 7/12/2022
8. Mental health 1: Power dynamics, the psychiatrist as brick wall, casualties of social media, and over-pathologising distress

   Published: 30/11/2022
9. Dependence 2: The Panopticon at home, evangelising to retirees, existential angst in the House of Lords, and rejecting self-sufficiency

   Published: 23/11/2022
10. Dependence 1: Isolated elderly people, altruistic suicide, a second childhood, and a crucified hero

    Published: 16/11/2022
11. Protestant Social Teaching 2: The ars moriendi, open casket funerals in Derry Girls, the end of Christendom and ethical quietism

    Published: 9/11/2022
12. Protestant Social Teaching 1: Overlap with Catholicism, chronological snobbery, rejecting one-size-fits-all ethics, and ‘worldly’ versus ‘spiritual’ matters

    Published: 2/11/2022
13. AI sentience 2: I-Thou relationships, talking to stuffed animals, thanking Alexa, and Turing red flag laws

    Published: 26/10/2022
14. AI sentience 1: Blake Lemoine and LaMDA, trillions of words, mute idols, and the God who speaks

    Published: 19/10/2022
15. Matters of Life and Death: The book reconsidered, the Moscow State University reading list, audiobooks, and the decline of the reading Christian

    Published: 12/10/2022
16. Embryology 2: Psalm 139, reconsidering ‘ensoulment’, the language of right and wrong, and co-operation with evil

    Published: 5/10/2022
17. Embryology 1: A stem cell ‘Mini Me’, CRISPR, Brave New World, and extending the 14-day limit

    Published: 28/09/2022
18. Evolution 2: Tracking coronavirus variants, the immorality of mutation, roughly one thousand hominids, and intelligent uncertainty

    Published: 21/09/2022
19. The Queen: Monarchy as service, astonishing the President of Ireland, the changing Christmas Speech, and a testimonial faith

    Published: 14/09/2022
20. Evolution 1: Finding common ground, the cosmic watchmaker, interpreting Genesis, and a 6,000-year-old Earth?

    Published: 7/09/2022