PODCAST · society
Humanize
by Discovery Institute Center on Human Exceptionalism
Humanize with Wesley J. Smith from Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism, where human rights meet human responsibilities. We speak on the controversial issues of human life and human thriving that impact our daily lives.
Episodes
-
Sam Brownback on Current Challenges to Religious Freedom
Religious freedom — the ability to live and act according to one’s faith — is one of our most fundamental human rights. But as Western society has secularized, religious freedom seems to have been eclipsed by other concerns. Indeed, freedom of religion is too often devalued in the public square,...
-
Mayor Warren Wilson on Environmentalists Caring More About Birds Than the Lives of King Cove Residents
King Cove is a remote town in the Aleutian Islands, adjacent to the 300,000-acre Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. In 1980, the refuge was designated a wilderness area. That caused a severe problem for the people of King Cove. The nearest full-service hospital is in Anchorage, 900 miles away. The...
-
Robert J. Marks II on the Benefits and Potential Perils of Artificial Intelligence
We are in the age of artificial intelligence. But what does that mean for the human future? Some claim that AI is merely a very sophisticated tool that will lead to stunning societal improvements such as miraculous medical breakthroughs, greater economic efficiency, and an exponential increase in...
-
Stephen C. Meyer on “The Story of Everything”
In 50 BC, the great Roman statesman Cicero expressed a thought that has been echoed by thinkers down the generations: “The celestial order and beauty of the universe compel me to admit that there is some excellent and eternal Being who deserves the respect and homage of men.” But in our own day,...
-
Timothy S. Goeglein on Restoring a Legacy of Faith, Freedom, and Family
The United States is in a cultural crisis. Our young are experiencing unprecedented levels of mental illness. Family structures are crumbling with out-of-wedlock births increasing while, at the same time, the number of children being born is decreasing. Some worry about masculinity under attack...
-
Dr. Benjamin S. Carson Sr. on His Life and the Importance of America’s Founding Principles
In our badly fractured society, can public servants and politicians act with decency and argue about policy with restraint and dignity? We believe the answer is yes, and so Wesley invited a man on the show who epitomizes such virtues to talk about his varied career and the importance of the...
-
Jan Jekielek on China’s Forced Organ Harvesting Atrocity
In one of the great atrocities in human history, Chinese political prisoners are tissue-typed and later murdered and harvested to supply the country’s thriving organ transplant black market. How long have regime enemies been so targeted and how does the system work? For years, that has been...
-
The Trouble with Transhumanism: Wesley J. Smith’s Guest Appearance on Bioethics Babe
Turnabout is fair play, they say. So on this episode of Humanize, Wesley is the guest, interviewed by the “Bioethics Babe,” the podcast of Center on Human Exceptionalism Fellow Arina Grossu Agnew. Arina and Wesley discuss the nature of transhumanism, its philosophical, moral, and political...
-
Melissa Ortiz on the Disability Rights Movement
Disability rights is a global social and civil rights movement that advocates for equal opportunities, accessibility, and freedom from discrimination. The goal is to ensure that people with disabilities participate fully and equally in society free from barriers in employment, healthcare,...
-
Dr. Casey Luskin on the Genetic Differences Between Humans and Chimpanzees and Why They Matter
Chimpanzees, we are told, are the closest relatives to human beings. Indeed, for years scientists claimed that there is only about a one percent difference separating the human genome from that of chimps. Some advocates even claimed that means humans are mostly chimps, or that chimps are mostly...
-
Dr. Michael J. New on Abortion, the Dobbs Decision, Sidewalk Counseling, and the Annual March for Life
The struggle over the legality of abortion has roiled the country for more than fifty years. On one side, the pro-life movement insists that innocent life must be protected by the government and in morality from conception to natural death. On the other, “pro-choice” advocates insist that…
more -
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick on the Nature of Evil
Is evil a metaphysical reality, or is it merely a word we use to describe intentionally destructive behavior or horribly painful outcomes? If evil is real, what is its nature? Can one believe in the existence of evil without having a religious understanding of reality? And if evil does exist…
more -
Robert P. George on the Reality and Importance of Human Exceptionalism
Whether or not human beings are exceptional is one of the most important questions of our age. Either we have unique value and moral responsibilities, or we are just another animal in the forest, and if that is how we perceive ourselves, it is precisely how we will act. Most contemporary…
more -
Aaron Kheriaty, MD, on How to Heal Modern Medicine
Something has gone terribly wrong with American medicine. The COVID pandemic broke the back of trust in our public health officials. There is an affordability crisis. Medical ethics have degraded to the point that doctors no longer take the Hippocratic Oath. Chronic diseases are on the rise,...
-
Olivier Bonnassies and Brian Miller on the Scientific Evidence for God
The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” That isn’t science. It is religion, and these days, many have come to believe that never the twain shall meet. But what if the reality of God could be demonstrated…
more -
Michael Grunwald on How Factory Farms Can Save the Planet
Mark Twain is generally credited with the quip, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” The same can’t be said about climate change, which has become one of our most contentious and complicated public policy controversies. It’s also divisive. According to a recent...
-
Michael Egnor, MD, and Denyse O’Leary on Evidence for the Existence of the Soul
The existence of the human soul is usually described as a matter of faith unprovable by science. But is that true? What if evidence exists that we each do indeed have souls and even, that life continues after death? Whether we have souls and what happens to us after death — obliteration,...
-
Megan Basham on Faith, a Cancer Diagnosis, and the Assassination of Charlie Kirk
It is a hard fact of life that — if we live long enough — we or those we love will receive a devastating medical diagnosis. How we cope in such difficult circumstances can both impact the course of our personal recovery and, in some cases, uplift the human condition. Christian apologist and...
-
Sam Brownback on the Urgency of Religious Freedom
Religious freedom — the ability to live and act according to one’s faith — is one of our most fundamental human rights. But as Western society has secularized, the importance of religious freedom seems to have been eclipsed by other concerns. Indeed, freedom of religion is too often devalued in…
more -
Alex Schadenberg and Roger Foley on the Cruelty of Canada’s Euthanasia Regime
Euthanasia is bad medicine and even worse public policy. Once a society accepts the principle that killing is a splendid answer to suffering, the kinds and extent of suffering that come to be seen as appropriate reasons to cause death expands continually. Often, this suicide agenda — let’s call…
more -
George Gilder on Artificial Intelligence, Economic Innovation, and the Promise of Cryptocurrency
We live in an era of cultural whiplash. Never has the potential for technological advances been more pronounced, and at the same time, the potential for wrenching societal dislocations so threatening. What are we to make of such times as these? Should we be excited or fearful, optimistic or…
more -
Andrew V. Abela on the “Super Habits” That Make for a Successful Life
These days, hedonism strikes a beat in society. We have long been told that if it feels good, if it is what we want, so long as we aren’t hurting others, then, we should do it. But does that kind of self-indulgence really lead to a successful and satisfying life? Wesley’s guest on this episode of...
-
Marvin Olasky on the Humanity of Homeless Persons
Homelessness has become a crisis in the United States. We live in the richest country in the world, and yet one can drive down main thoroughfares of our most prosperous cities and be confronted with tent encampments lining streets, squalor, open-air drug markets, and destitute people begging. The...
-
Katy Faust on Putting Children First
Childhood in America today is often troubled. Children are experiencing mental health crises, suicidal ideation, educational underperformance, social discord, sexualization at young ages, and unprecedented social challenges. What to do? Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize, Katy Faust, has...
-
Bobby Schindler on the 20th Anniversary of the Death of Terri Schiavo
For those who may not remember, Terri Schiavo was a profoundly cognitively disabled woman who became the subject of a legal and cultural battle that made international headlines. The case became a bitter and protracted conflict between Michael Schiavo, Terri’s husband who wanted to pull her…
more -
David V. Hicks on the Myths We Live By
We live in an increasingly secular age in which religious believers — particularly Christians — are accused of believing in myths, meaning false stories. But are religious myths really false? Moreover, do modernists have their own myths by which they live? And why do humans create myths and what...
-
Ira Byock, M.D., on the Crisis in Hospice Care
The creation of the modern hospice movement was a major advance in the care for people with terminal illnesses. Alas, in recent years, hospice has entered something of a crisis, with too many facilities offering inadequate care and some patients receiving short shrift of services to which they…
more -
Former CDC Director Robert R. Redfield on Viruses, Vaccines, the COVID Epidemic, and Distrust in Public Health
The public health sector has been roiled by controversy and political turmoil in the last few years, what with the COVID pandemic, the fight over vaccine mandates, and questions about politicization of the sector. Beyond that, viruses make the news like never before. So, Wesley turned to an…
more -
Is There a Difference Between “Mind” and “Brain”?
What is the “mind”? Is it a pure product of raw brain activity? Or, is it something “other” — that can be experienced, but not measured, observed but not fully defined? Does free will exist? Are our brains just so many meat computers? A new anthology, Minding the Brain, explores these and related...
-
Dr. Kristin M. Collier on the Importance of Recognizing the Patient as a “Person”
Medicine and healthcare have become one of the most contentious sectors of modern society. Doctors have greater scientific knowledge with which to help patients than at any time in history. But at the same time, the field seems to be heading in a more crassly technocratic direction, in which the...
-
Nina Shea on the Persecution of the Catholic Church in China
Religious persecution continues to afflict the world. Anti-Semitism abounds. Certain Islamic countries suppress minority faiths while Muslims face persecution in countries like India. Non-Orthodox Christians are persecuted in Russia, while some American Christians claim that they are…
more -
Daniel Carcillo on Psychedelics as a Treatment for Depression and Traumatic Brain Injury
People with serious mental health issues often face years, if not a lifetime, of debilitating symptoms. These traumas can sometimes be difficult to treat, much less cure. And that has some people looking for new avenues of care beyond standard medicines, including — controversially — psychedelic...
-
Dr. Keri D. Ingraham on the Most Important Issues in American K-12 Education
It’s no secret that American education is experiencing a profound crisis. Many of our children can’t read, do mathematics, or learn basic life skills. At the same time, many accuse the education establishment of imposing radical ideological views on children such as gender ideology and...
-
Timothy S. Goeglein on the Dangers of Utopianism
American institutions are less trusted than ever before, our society is deeply divided, and much of the world is in turmoil. The problem isn’t religion, atheism, or ideology, per se. Rather, the real culprit — and one that receives far too little attention in public discourse — is the widespread...
-
Richard Weikart on Medicine’s Descent from Healing to Killing
Whether to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia is one of the most culturally contentious — and important — public policy debates of our time. Supporters of legalization call it a compassionate “last resort” means of preventing unnecessary suffering and promoting autonomy. Opponents see the...
-
Sam Brownback on the Connection Between Religious Freedom and Human Rights
In the modern era, religious freedom — the ability to live and act according to one's faith — has been seen as a profoundly important human right. To a disturbing degree, that is no longer true. No one has put more thought into this urgent matter of human freedom than my guest today, Sam Brownback.
-
Steven J. Buri on the Pro-Human Mission of Discovery Institute
For the last Humanize episode of the season, I thought it would be edifying to explore how Discovery Institute's institutional programs dovetail with the work of the Center on Human Exceptionalism. Who better to ask than our intrepid president, Steven J. Buri?
-
Robert J. Marks II and Zoltan Istvan on the Promise — or Threat — of Artificial Intelligence
In this episode of Humanize, Wesley focuses on AI — artificial intelligence. Are we on the verge of an era if incalculable human progress because of the power of AI? Or are we threatened with being made obsolete and perhaps extinguished in an age of intelligent machines? Or, perhaps, a…
more -
Thomas Linzey on the Nature Rights Movement
Most people support responsible environmental policies but may be unaware of how radical the leading edge of the movement has become as an increasing number of activists support granting personhood rights to nature. Is nature rights a subversive threat to human exceptionalism and our thriving or…
more -
Mark Davis Pickup on Living with Intense Suffering and Experiencing a Miraculous Healing
We live in a time in which eliminating suffering is considered by many to be society’s ultimate purpose. Too often, this leads to policies that eliminate suffering by eliminating the sufferer. Still, for those not experiencing intense pain or anguish, arguing for improved care instead of…
more -
Dr. Charles Camosy on Current Trends in Bioethics
To say the least, bioethics is controversial. Many in the mainstream movement reject the sanctity and equal dignity of human life around issues such as abortion, assisted suicide, and biotechnology. But there is a robust pushback against such approaches—a human dignity bioethics, if you will—that...
-
Stephen C. Meyer on the Crisis of Trust in Science
It is no secret that most of society’s critical institutions are suffering from a crisis of trust. One of these is science, which heretofore enjoyed the confidence of the vast majority of the American people. To learn, what happened, whether the loss of confidence is deserved, and what can be…
more -
The Rev. Dr. Arthur Cribbs, Jr. on His Book HollyWatts: From the Promised Land to Purgatory and the Crisis in Race Relations
Racism has been America’s lingering cancer. There is no question that great strides have been made in eradicating this evil from our culture since the bad old days of slavery and Jim Crow. But alas, the urgent task is not completed, and as a result, a great divide still lingers among too many...
-
Jennifer Lahl Her Newest Film, ‘The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood’
We are in the midst of a transgender moral panic. Where only recently, very few people sought what used to be called a sex change, today the numbers of people seeking to “transition” to the other gender—particularly among children and teenagers—is becoming a flood. Much of the American medical...
-
Mark Krikorian on the Southern Border Crisis
The southern border of the United States is in chaos. Millions of people from all over the world are flooding here each year, mostly illegally, but still allowed to remain in — and be transported free — throughout the country. Matters are quickly coming to a head. The crisis has strained our...
-
Clarke Forsythe on the History and Future of the Pro-Life Movement
When the Supreme Court ruled that abortion was a constitutional right in Roe v. Wade in 1973, it not only throttled an important ongoing democratic debate in the country about legalizing abortion, but it tore this country’s culture apart. In the next fifty years, dedicated pro-life activists...
-
Jonathan Choe on the Crisis of our City Streets
The homelessness and addiction catastrophes on our city streets seem intractable. Unhygienic squatter tent cities. Human waste on our sidewalks. Used needles littering our parks. Crime. Collapsing commercial districts. It’s enough to make one turn away in despair and allow areas of our once most...
-
Henry Olsen on the Crisis in American Politics
It is no secret that American politics are in crisis. Polls show that Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives are increasingly estranged from each other, conservative red states and progressive blue states are enacting public policies that are dramatically dichotomous, and millions…
more -
Dr. Keri D. Ingraham on the Crisis in American Education
It’s no secret that American education is in a profound crisis. From dismal academic performance, to bitter contention over gender ideology taught in elementary school, the damage caused by COVID school lockdowns, a collapse in discipline, and fear of violence, “school days” have become much more...
-
Alice Stewart on the Crisis of Trust in the American Media
A vibrant and engaged media is essential to protecting American liberty—which is why the First Amendment provides such a strong protection for freedom of the press. If the media are to carry out their societal responsibilities, journalists must have the trust of news consumers. But these days,...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Humanize with Wesley J. Smith from Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism, where human rights meet human responsibilities. We speak on the controversial issues of human life and human thriving that impact our daily lives.
HOSTED BY
Discovery Institute Center on Human Exceptionalism
CATEGORIES
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Humanize have?
Humanize currently has 99 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Humanize about?
Humanize with Wesley J. Smith from Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism, where human rights meet human responsibilities. We speak on the controversial issues of human life and human thriving that impact our daily lives.
How often does Humanize release new episodes?
Humanize has 99 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Humanize?
You can listen to Humanize on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Humanize?
Humanize is created and hosted by Discovery Institute Center on Human Exceptionalism.
URL copied to clipboard!