Humanize
Discovery Institute Center on Human Exceptionalism
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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.
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Sep 24, 2023
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, trust is in low supply. An October 2022 Gallup Poll found that only 34% of Americans trust the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly.” Why are the media experiencing this profound crisis of trust and what can be done about it? Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize has some valuable insights. Alice Stewart has worked on both sides of the microphone, both as a source for reporters and a journalist in her own right. She was Communications Director for the presidential campaigns of Senator Ted Cruz, Governor Mike Huckabee, Senator Rick Santorum, and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Stewart has also served in government as the Arkansas Deputy Secretary of State. Stewart worked as an Anchor/Reporter in Little Rock, Arkansas and Savannah, Georgia, and also hosted “The Alice Stewart Show,” a talk radio program that featured national and local political leaders. The goal of the show was to engage in civil discussions about politics and agree to disagree in a respectful manner—a continuing professional passion for Stewart. She is currently a CNN Political Commentator, Communications Consultant, and is a resident Fellow at Harvard University, Kennedy Institute of Politics. She cohosts the weekly Hot Mics From Left to Right podcast with her CNN colleague, the liberal commentator, Maria Cardona. Here are the Links. Hot Mics From Left To Right on Apple Podcasts X: @alicetweet Insta: @alicestewartdc Website: alicestewart.com (621) Alice Stewart joins Wolf Blitzer on CNNs The Situation Room to discuss “limited gag order” on Trump – YouTube (621) Alice Stewart joins Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room on Sen. Romney not seeking re-election – YouTube Alice Stewart: Trump’s Co-Defendants ‘Would Throw Their Momma In a Whorehouse’ To Get Ahead (mediaite.com) KCRW’s Left, Right & Center: Dems at odds over support for asylum seekers on Apple Podcasts With democracy on the ballot, the mainstream press must change its ways | Margaret Sullivan | The Guardian Americans’ Trust In Media Remains Near Record Low (gallup.com)
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Sep 11, 2023
Sam Brownback on the Importance of Religious Freedom to World Peace and Prosperity
Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy once opined that freedom of religion has “a double aspect—freedom of thought and action.” In other words, to be truly religiously free, one must not only be at liberty to believe, but act consistently with those beliefs. This concept of religious freedom—the right to live and act according to one’s faith—has historically been assaulted by totalitarian government authorities. For example, early in the Second Century–when Pliny the Younger was a provincial governor in the Roman Empire–he wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan asking whether he was correct in executing Christians who refused to burn incense in worship of the emperor. Trajan said he was right to punish Christians, not because he cared what they believed, but he worried, refusing to engage in emperor worship was a means of rebellion and setting themselves apart from the reigning social order. In modern times, such oppression came to be seen as a profound violation of human rights. Thus, the very first clause of the First Amendment (1789) states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” More broadly, Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) provides: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” That’s unequivocal. Freedom of religion means the right to live according to one’s own faith, that is, to “manifest” our religion or belief in practice, both “in public or private,” without interference from the state. Alas, freedom of religion is often as much under assault these days as in the time of Pliny the Younger. Indeed, assaults on religious practice are becoming increasingly commonplace. The questions are why, and what can be done about it? No one has put more thought into this urgent matter of human freedom than my guest today, Sam Brownback. Brownback served as ambassador at large for international religious freedom from February, 2018 until January, 2021. He also served as governor of Kansas from 2011 to 2018. Prior to that, he represented his home state in the United States Senate and in the house of representatives while a member of the Senate, he worked actively on religious freedom issues in multiple countries and was a key sponsor of the international religious freedom act of 1998. When Brownback left government service, he formed the National Committee on Religious Freedom, a nonprofit organization concerned with defending religious liberty in the United States. This is his third appearance on this podcast. NCRF (thencrf.org) ChasedAway — NCRF (thencrf.org) ‘Religious cleansing’ threatens Armenian Christians’ existence, human rights leaders warn – Catholic World Report Should Muslims Really Welcome Denmark’s Proposed Anti-Blasphemy Law? | Cato at Liberty Blog Zelensky backs Expulsion of Christian Monks after Seizing the Historic Kiev Pechersk Lavra Monastery – THE INTEL DROP Should Muslims Really Welcome Denmark’s Proposed Anti-Blasphemy Law? | Cato at Liberty Blog Zelensky backs Expulsion of Christian Monks after Seizing the Historic Kiev Pechersk Lavra Monastery – THE INTEL DROP
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Jun 5, 2023
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya on the Need for a COVID Response Truth Commission
The COVID pandemic has been one of the most politically and culturally divisive events in American history. Adding to our woes, the proper approach to scientific inquiry and policy makers’ relationship with the expert class became badly skewed. Once an orthodoxy was declared by the World Health Organization or the Center for Disease Control, government leaders, the mainstream media, and Big Tech circled the wagons to prevent dissenting views from being aired — and even sought to punish those with differing opinions. This included attacking the Great Barrington Declaration — authored by notable epidemiologists, that challenged the efficacy of societal shutdowns and keeping children out of school. Now, with the COVID emergency at an end, two of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration and other notables in medicine have organized the Norfolk Group, calling for a national commission to investigate the country’s response to COVID. One of these experts is Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is a Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research. He holds an MD and PhD in economics, both earned at Stanford University, where he directs Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. Dr. Bhattacharya’s recent research focuses on the epidemiology of COVID-19 as well as an evaluation of policy responses to the epidemic. In December 2022, Bhattacharya was appointed by Florida Governor and now presidential candidate Ron DeSantis to the Public Health Integrity Committee, charged with assessing federal decisions, recommendations, and guidance related to public health and health care.
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May 22, 2023
Stephen B. Levine M.D. on the Science of Gender-Affirming Care
The United States has become the world’s most adamant promoter of what is now called “gender-affirming care” for children and adolescents who identify as being other than their born sex. This approach ranges from “social affirmation”—the use of preferred pronouns, for example—to “medical affirmation,” such as puberty blocking, to radical “surgical affirmation,” meaning mastectomies, facial feminization or masculinization cosmetic procedures, and, in a few cases, even genital removal and refashioning. Beginning to “transition” youth while they are still immature remains intensely controversial. But the increasingly woke medical establishment and Biden administration claim that the gender-affirming approach is “settled science” and the only efficacious approach to treating these children, calling those who disagree “science deniers.” My expert guest today says not so fast. Psychiatrist Stephen B. Levine has co-authored an important paper that details the paucity of reliable data establishing the benefits gender transitioning during a patient’s youth, calling into significant question the current approach to caring for anguished children diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Stephen B. Levine is a psychiatrist known for his work in human sexuality, particularly, sexual dysfunction and transgenderism. Levine earned his MD from Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and serves as a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry there. He was co-editor for the section on sexual and gender identity disorders in the professional text Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders. Although much of his work is written for other clinicians, Levine has also written books for a lay audience, including Solving Common Sexual Problems and Sexuality in Mid-Life (2004). Levine also served on the American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders. Current Concerns About Gender-Affirming Therapy in Adolescents (springer.com) Informed Consent for Transgendered Patients – PubMed (nih.gov) Illuminate Life Processes by Taking a Sexual History (psychiatrictimes.com) https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2046221 https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2136117 https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2150346 ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ Approach Undercut by New Scientific Study | National Review
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May 8, 2023
Dr. Gale L. Pooley on the Ideology of Scarcity and the Potential to Achieve “Super Abundance”
In his first term as California’s governor, Jerry Brown famously said back in 1975, “There is no free lunch. This is an era of limits and we all had better get used to it. Small is beautiful.” Was Brown right? These days, it seems that establishment thinking and most of the content on mainstream media believes it is so. Threats from climate change, overpopulation, and environmental degradation, we are told, now force us to reduce consumption and limit growth in order to save the planet and ourselves. Wesley’s guest in this edition of Humanize takes a radically different and far more optimistic view. Gale L. Pooley has co-authored a book entitled Super Abundance in which he and co-author Marian L. Tupy argue that contrary to the roaring pessimism about the human future so often espoused these days, our earthly resources are actually unlimited and indeed, that population increases and innovation are the keys to growing our prosperity and extending our freedoms. Gale L. Pooley is an associate professor of business management at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. He has taught economics and statistics at AL Faisal University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Brigham Young University-Idaho, Boise State University, and the College of Idaho. Dr. Pooley earned his BBA in Economics at Boise State University and completed his PhD at the University of Idaho. He has published articles in National Review, Human Progress, The American Spectator, the Utah Bar Journal, the Appraisal Journal, Quillette, and RealClearMarkets. Dr. Pooley is a Senior Fellow with the Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth and Poverty and serves on the board of HumanProgress.org. He also serves on the Foundation for Economic Education Faculty Network and is a Scholar with Hawaii’s Grassroot Institute. His major research activity has been the Simon Abundance Index, which he co-authored with Dr. Marian Tupy. Economics | Discovery Institute (wealthandpoverty.center) Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet: Tupy, Marian L., Pooley, Gale L., Gilder, George: 9781952223587: Amazon.com: Books Review of “Superabundance,” by Marian L. Tupy & Gale L. Pooley (city-journal.org) After 96 Years, TV Abundance Continues to Flourish | Economics (wealthandpoverty.center)
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Apr 10, 2023
Todd Myers on Democratizing Environmentalism by ‘Thinking Small’
The environmental movement is growing ever-more extreme. Radical ideas such as granting rights to nature—including geological features like rivers, lakes, and glaciers—are gaining popularity as a means of “saving the planet.” But is there another way? Can we fulfill our human duty to be good stewards of the environment without undermining human exceptionalism and impeding our thriving? According to my guest Todd Myers, the answer is definitely, yes. In his interesting new book, Time to Think Small, Myers writes that “nimble environmental technologies can help solve the planet’s biggest problems.” Through the power of smart phones, Myers argues, coupled with the ingenuity of software apps, we can all help promote a healthy environment through millions of individual actions—and without sacrificing freedom or harming the economy. Myers is a former member of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, and a member of the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council. He currently serves as the environmental director at the Washington Policy Center, a public policy think tank in Seattle. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Seattle Times, and USAToday. He has been interviewed on numerous news network programs, including on CNN, CNBC, and Fox News. Myers has a Master’s Degree in Russian/International Studies from the University of Washington. He lives in the Cascade Mountains in Washington with his wife and 200,000 honeybees. Amazon.com: Time to Think Small: How Nimble Environmental Technologies Can Solve the Planet’s Biggest Problems: 9781623545543: Myers, Todd: Books Center for the Environment » Centers » Washington Policy Center Climate action is in our hands with tech that encourages small steps https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/climate-action-is-in-our-hands-with-tech-that-encourages-small-steps/ There’s A New Book The Climate Industrial Complex Doesn’t Want You To Read https://dailycaller.com/2022/11/13/opinion-theres-a-new-book-the-climate-industrial-complex-doesnt-want-you-to-read-bastasch/ Small Technologies: The Millions Interviews Todd Myers https://themillions.com/2022/10/small-technologies-the-millions-interviews-todd-myers.html New Congress Should Empower People — Not Politicians — for Environmental Results https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2022/11/15/new_congress_should_empower_people__not_politicians__for_environmental_results_864934.html
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Mar 13, 2023
Rod Dreher on the Crisis of Western Civilization
Western Civilization is in crisis. It is becoming unmoored from its Judeo-Christian roots and the belief in the unique dignity of every human life, leading to destructive progressive social policies that some believe threaten us with a form of therapeutic authoritarianism. One such commentator is my guest today on Humanize. Rod Dreher is an American journalist and best-selling author. He has authored several books, including The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, How Dante Can Save Your Life, The Benedict Option, and Live Not by Lies. In his journalistic career, he has written about religion, politics, film, and culture in National Review, National Review Online, the Weekly Standard, Wall Street Journal, Touchstone, Men’s Health, and the Los Angeles Times, and until recently, hosted a popular blog at The American Conservative. His commentaries have been broadcast on NPR’s All Things Considered, and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Court TV, and other television networks. Dreher is a noted Christian apologist and writes a daily Substack newsletter. His next book will explore the importance of Enchantment to human society. https://roddreher.substack.com https://twitter.com/roddreher
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Feb 19, 2023
Alex Schadenberg on the Canadian Euthanasia Epidemic
No modern society has embraced lethal injection euthanasia with the enthusiasm of Canada, where not only the terminally ill can be killed by doctors but also people with chronic conditions and disabilities. Soon, people with mental illnesses will qualify for a doctor-hastened death. In 2021, more than 10,000 Canadians were euthanized by doctors or nurse practitioners. As recently as 2014, euthanasia was outlawed in the country. But then, the Supreme Court declared that such laws were unconstitutional. Since that event, Canada has created one of the world’s most radical lethal injection euthanasia regimes. Why has Canada, of all countries, embraced doctor-administered death? Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize has the answers. Alex Schadenberg is one of the world’s premier opponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide. He is the co-founder and executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, founded in 1998 and based in the Canadian Province of Ontario. He produced The Euthanasia Deception documentary that explores 15 years of euthanasia legalization in Belgium. Schadenberg has traveled the world speaking about the issue, authored countless opinion columns, and moderates the world’s most widely-read blog devoted to the issue, the link to which can be found in the program notes. He is also the author of Exposing Vulnerable People to Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. https://epcc.ca/ www.epcblog.org. http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com https://twitter.com/alexschadenberg?lang=en
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Feb 5, 2023
Tim Goeglein on the Case for Teaching the Great American Story
Abraham Lincoln famously called the United States of America, “the last best Hope on earth.” Throughout our history, most Americans believed that. So did countless people from other countries who left their homes behind to come here in pursuit of the American dream — including my grandmother who immigrated from Italy in 1910 as a 16 year-old to help free her family from bone crunching poverty. But now, things have changed. My guest today is Tim Goeglein, who has written a new book warning about how our educational system has corroded the belief of the young in the exceptional nature of the American Republican and our capacity to continually improve society — as we aim, in the title of his book, Toward a More Perfect Union. Goeglein was special assistant to U.S. President George W. Bush and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison from 2001 to 2008. In January 2009, Goeglein became the Vice President of External and Government Relations for Focus on the Family. Goeglein is a prolific public a speaker and the author of many commentaries as well as 3 books. His first book was Man in the Middle: An Inside Account of Faith and Politics in the George W. Bush Era, published in 2011. His second co-authored book was American Restoration: How Faith, Family, and Personal Sacrifice Can Heal Our Nation. And now, he has just published Toward a More Perfect Union: The Moral and Cultural Case for Teaching the Great American Story.
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Jan 22, 2023
Dr. Peggy Hartshorn on Heartbeat International, Pregnancy Resource Centers, and Abortion Pill Reversal
A continual criticism of the pro-life movement is that adherents only care about children before they are born. But is that true? The proliferation of Pregnancy Help Centers throughout the country and the many outreach efforts of the pro-life movement to help women and babies after birth testifies to the lie of the accusation. Wesley’s guest today has been immersed in these efforts for decades. Peggy Hartshorn Ph.D. and her husband first volunteered to house pregnant girls in their home in 1975. She is now the Chair of Heartbeat International, an international nonprofit Christian organization with a worldwide network of more than 3,000 pro-life pregnancy help centers that provide comprehensive help to women throughout their pregnancies and after the child is born. The goal of Heartbeat International is to offer compassionate support so that no woman ever feels that abortion is her only option. Dr. Hartshorn has traveled to 52 countries in support of pregnancy help organizations in Eastern and Western Europe, Australia, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. She is the recipient of many awards for pro-life work, including: the President’s Volunteer Service Award under President George H.W. Bush, the J.C. Penney Golden Rule Award, the Defender of Life Award from Students for Life, the Cardinal John J. O’Connor pro-life award from Legatus International, Dr. Hartshorn co-founded Heartbeat International’s Option Line in 2002. It is the only 24/7, bilingual, internet-based, pro-life call center in the world. Option Line handles about a quarter of a million calls for help each year, connecting callers to their community-based pregnancy help center. Dr. Hartshorn is also the co-author of The Power of Pregnancy Help: The First Fifty Years. Program Notes: Home (heartbeatinternational.org) What is a Pregnancy Center? (heartbeatinternational.org) Abortion Pill Reversal – Home Mothers share how crisis pregnancy centers helped them walk away from abortion: ‘huge enlightenment’ | Fox News More than 100 pro-life orgs, churches attacked since Dobbs leak | Fox News
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Jan 8, 2023
Steve Laufmann and Howard Glicksman on the Design of the Human Body
In this episode of the Humanize podcast we will explore the human body. Is your body “engineered” or did it evolve through impersonal and random processes over countless millions of years of natural selection? And what difference does the answer to that question make? Wesley’s guests are the authors of Your Designed Body, a new book that explores the complexity of the human physical form, not just from a biological, but also, intriguingly, an engineering perspective. As the famous atheist proselytizer and biologist Richard Dawkins has written, “However many ways there may be to be alive, it is certain that there are vastly more ways of being dead…” In other words, as the authors note, “Life’s margin of error is small,” and requires an intricate, complex and integrated systems to maintain life. These could not have arisen by mere chance, no matter the time must have been engineered to accomplish such myriad and sophisticated tasks. Whatever your views on how life came…
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Dec 25, 2022
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya on COVID-19 as One of the Most Divisive Events in American History
The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the most politically and culturally divisive events in American history. Which seems odd. Usually, a universal external threat unites societies and rallies populations to focus on the common foe. Instead, American society fractured into different tribes, which often coincided with our preexisting political factionalism. Adding to our woes, the proper approach to scientific inquiry and policy makers’ relationship with the expert class became badly skewed. Once an orthodoxy was declared by the World Health Organization or the Center for Disease Control, government leaders, the mainstream media, and Big Tech circled the wagons to prevent dissenting views from being aired—and even seeking to punish those with differing opinions. And we now know that action was taken to suppress heterodox voices. Wesley’s guest is one of those caught in this cultural oppression. Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya, making his second Humanize appearance, is a Professor of Hea…
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Dec 11, 2022
Chen Guangcheng on the Current Tyranny in the People’s Republic of China
In the current episode of Humanize, Wesley interviews Chen Guangcheng, an authentic human rights hero and adamant opponent of Chinese Communist Party tyranny that rules the People’s Republic of China. Known internationally as “the barefoot lawyer,” Chen is a renowned human rights activist who fearlessly advocated for the welfare and rights of women, the disabled, and the poor while in China, and whom today, continues to carry the banner of human freedom in opposition to Chinese totalitarianism from the United States. Chen’s ardent and courageous human rights advocacy has received extensive international acclaim and has drawn heightened international attention to the maltreatment of women and abuses of China’s domestic policies, including forced abortions and sterilizations. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, in 2005, Chen gained international recognition for organizing a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Shandong province, for the exce…
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Nov 28, 2022
Dr. Jay Wesley Richards on What Every Parent Should Know About Gender Ideology and Gender-Affirming Care
In a previous episode of Humanize, Wesley interviewed Jennifer Lahl, director of The Detransition Diaries, which documents the stories of three young women who received what is called “gender-affirming care”—including a mastectomy in one case—and later realized that they were indeed the female sex they were born. That discussion focused mostly on the radical body-altering interventions that children who question their sex too often receive. In this follow-up interview, we take a broader look at “Gender ideology” generally, and how the West got caught up in a moral panic that has seen an explosion of both adult and child cases of gender dysphoria. The discussion ranges from describing the supposed “Seven Sexes” that gender ideologues argue exist, to the role of social media in this social contagion, to how the ideology represents the hegemony of feelings over facts, and the reasons children are the prime targets of gender warriors. It is a conversation you won’t want t…
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Nov 6, 2022
Jennifer Lahl on ‘The Detransition Diaries: Saving our Sisters’
We are in the midst of a transgender moral panic. Where only a decade ago, very few people sought what used to be called a sex change, today the numbers of people seeking to “transition” is becoming a flood. It is one thing when adults decide to radically alter their bodies. But it is quite another to promote these radical “gender-affirming care” in children. And yet, the American medical establishment and the Biden administration state that the science in this regard is “settled” and that immediate affirmation is the only humane approach to treating children with gender dysphoria, interventions that can include puberty blocking, cross hormone therapy, and serious surgeries such as mastectomies. But is it settled science? Recently, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, and Finland have hit the brakes on immediate gender affirmation in children—to the point that the UK closed down its largest gender clinic as unsafe for patients. The NHS also concluded that instead of encour…
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Oct 24, 2022
Ward Connerly on Racism, Critical Race Theory, and Individual Rights
Racism is profoundly evil and a clear violation of human exceptionalism by treating inherent equals unequally. Indeed, if we are to become a truly just society, racism must be countered by people of good will whenever it is expressed. At the same time, slavery is long gone and Jim Crow is dead, never to be mourned. So, the question must be asked: Has the United States finally attained the ideal of becoming a substantially equal society, in which people are judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin, or do we remain—as some insist—a systemically racist culture threatened by white supremacy? To be sure, Martin Luther King’s ideal has not yet been fully achieved. But the white nationalism accusation seems calculatedly overblown and may be a cover for imposing new policies that, if implemented, would divide us more profoundly over race than we have been for decades. These are fundamental questions. Equality is such an important goal that Wesley wanted…
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Oct 9, 2022
Robert J. Marks II on Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism, and Whether Computers Will Ever Be More Than ‘Human’
In this episode of Humanize, Wesley focuses on the emerging computer technology known as artificial intelligence. Are we on the verge of the era of machines? Is AI destined to supplant most human endeavors and activities? Can a computer be deemed a “person” and should it be granted rights as part of the moral community. Will we ever attain immortality by uploading our minds into computers as transhumanists predict? And what the heck is AI anyway? Wesley’s guest, Dr. Robert J Marks II has the answers. An Electrical Engineer, Marks is the Distinguished Professor of Engineering in the Dept. of Engineering and Computer Science at Baylor University. He has worked in the field of artificial intelligence for more than three decades. His research supporters include NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the National Institutes of Health, the Army Research Lab, and the Office of Naval Research. He has consulted for Microsoft, and Boeing, and has authored several books and hundreds of peer-r…
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Sep 26, 2022
Ambassador Sam Brownback on the Threat to Religious Freedom in America
With Western society becoming morally polyglot and secular, religious freedom is becoming a major political clash point, and in the United States, a central front in what is sometimes called the culture war. Proponents of robust religious freedom protections see the “free exercise” of religion guaranteed in the Constitution as the “First Liberty.” But others view the same issue as an excuse to justify discrimination against the LGBT community and to thwart the free exercise of unfettered reproductive freedom. This controversy is so important to both our rights and duties as human beings that Wesley invited Sam Brownback—one of the world’s most engaged defenders of religious freedom–back for a return visit to Humanize to discuss the current scene. In the premier episode of this Podcast, Brownback discussed religious freedom internationally. Ambassador Sam Brownback on Human Rights and Religious Freedom | Humanize In this episode, he and Wesley take a deep dive into domesti…
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Sep 12, 2022
Dean Koontz on His Vocation as an Author, Art and Meaning in Life, and Human Exceptionalism
In episode one of the second season of Humanize, Wesley J. Smith’s guest is the internationally famous novelist Dean Koontz. Dean and Wesley discuss how he came to be an author, how life is filled with meaning, his art, the importance of human exceptionalism, the problem with transhumanism, and how Dean uses humor to further his plots and character development. Dean recalls his upbringing in an impoverished household that did not have running water until he was 11, how a high school English teacher changed his life, and his love for the use of the English language. He and Wesley also discuss the beauty of the human/dog relationship and his philanthropic support for Canine Companions for Independence, a school that trains service dogs to help people with disabilities lead independent lives. Any reader of Dean Koontz and supporter of human exceptionalism will want to listen to this fascinating interview with one of America’s most successful and prolific authors. Dean Koontz was born…
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Jun 28, 2022
Catherine Glenn Foster on Abortion and the Dawning of a Post-Roe America
In 1973, nearly 50 years ago, the United States Supreme Court conjured a right to abortion in the Constitution, short-circuiting the democratic debate then ongoing in the states about whether to legalize pregnancy terminations, and if so, under what circumstances. Roe v Wade tore the country apart, launching the pro-life movement into national prominence, resulting in decades of committed democratic engagement and advocacy among abortion opponents to reverse Roe and return the struggle over the right to life to the democratic sphere. That decades-long effort bore fruit in the just decided Dobbs v Jackson, that will go down in the history books as the case that overturned Roe v Wade. But what happens now? With the federal courts officially neutral on abortion, how will the Pro-Life Movement seek to achieve its stated goal of convincing the entire country that life should be protected and respected from conception to natural death? Wesley’s guest to discuss the Dobbs decision and wh…
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May 23, 2022
Robert Marbut on America’s Homelessness Crisis, Strategies for Uplifting the Homeless, and Effective Government Policies
Homelessness has reached crisis proportions. Few issues of human dignity are as heart wrenching as the wretched scenes in our most prosperous cities — San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle — where one can drive down main thoroughfares and be confronted with tent encampments lining streets that provide scant shelter for thousands of destitute people. The crisis is as multifaceted as it is seemingly intractable. What is the role of mental illness in the crisis? What about drug addiction? Is the rising cost of housing part of the problem, and if so, what can be done about it? What protections does society owe these vulnerable people based simply on their humanity and what responsibilities, if any, do they owe to greater society? It’s all such a mess, it is tempting to throw up one’s hands in despair. Thankfully, there are people willing to tackle the seemingly helpless cause. Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize, Robert Marbut, Jr., is one such man. Marbut i…
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May 9, 2022
Joseph Bottum on Cyber Ethics, Poetry, Culture, and Community
In this episode of Humanize, Wesley has a wide-ranging a conversation with his close friend Joseph Bottum, one of our most well read and original thinkers, a true intellectual in the best sense of that term. Their conversation ranges from the new field of cyber-ethics, to poetry, to the importance of cemeteries in maintaining human community, to how the laughter of a little girl he never met changed the course of Bottum’s life. Bottum is one of the nation’s most widely ranging thinkers, with hundreds of essays, reviews, poems, and short stories in publications from the Atlantic to the Washington Post. He is the former Books AND Arts Editor for the Weekly Standard and Editor of the religious journal, First Things. He is the author of the sociological study, An Anxious Age, and more recently, The Decline of the Novel. He is also a Christopher Award-winning writer of children’s verse. His popular writing ranges from obituaries in The Times of London to political essays in our…
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Apr 25, 2022
O. Carter Snead on Bioethics, ‘What It Means to Be Human,’ and the Pro-Life Movement After Dobbs
Perhaps no field in society has the naked power, as does bioethics, to impact our individual lives and those of the ones we love. Bioethics focuses on the challenges of mortality, how we care for the ill and vulnerable, and the rights and responsibilities that flow from being a member of the human family. The problem is that there is little agreement about how to define these issues and the policies that best promote human thriving. The mainstream view in bioethics rejects the intrinsic dignity of human life — and supports policies in accord with that view. The minority of the field argues that being human is — in and of itself — a crucial objective category to properly understanding our rights that compels us us to undertake crucial responsibilities toward each other, society, and the world at large. Wesley’s guest in this episode is, Dr. O. Carter Snead, is one of the world’s premier thinkers in the latter camp. He is the William P. and Hazel B White Director of the Nic…
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Apr 11, 2022
Lynn Vincent on ‘Lawless,’ the Truth About the Terri Schiavo Case, and Why Terri Still Matters
When Terri Schiavo collapsed with a cardiac arrest in 1990, she could have had no idea that 32 years later people all over the world would know her name and care very much about the manner in which she died. What began as a private family tragedy ultimately exploded into an international cultural conflagration and what was perhaps the most important legal case involving American bioethics since Roe v Wade. When it was over, Terri was dead, society was bitterly divided, and our culture changed fundamentally. Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize, journalist and best-selling author Lynn Vincent, spent more than a year researching the Schiavo case for her new podcast Lawless, which examines “the frightening fact of American life that not all crime is against the law.” In 14 detailed episodes, Vincent explores the facts, controversy, and meaning of the Terri Schiavo case. Vincent is the #1 New York Times best-selling writer of eleven nonfiction books with more than 16 mill…
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Mar 28, 2022
Roger Severino on Human Rights, Civil Rights, and Conscience Rights in a Divided America
It is no secret that our country is badly divided and riven by profound moral, religious, and political differences about what constitutes the good, the best means of promoting human flourishing, and even the proper meaning of the term, “civil rights.” The question thus becomes: How do we maintain mutual respect and comity, and retain sufficient cohesion to be considered a true society?
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Mar 14, 2022
Emily Cook on Texas Right to Life, the Texas Heartbeat Act, and Futile Care Protocols
The usual canard about the pro-life movement goes something like this: “Pro-lifers care so much about babies before they are born, but not much after. The thing about canards is that, by definition, they are not true. Pro-lifers also work hard to protect the lives of born people—often in coalition with activists and organizations that do not oppose abortion–ranging from crisis pregnancy centers that help mothers after their babies are born, to the fight against assisted suicide and opposing the dehydration of cognitively disabled patients like Terri Schiavo. Most pro-life organizations also work against so-called “futile care” hospital protocols. Futile Care–also known as medical futility and inappropriate care–is a utilitarian bioethical policy that allows doctors to remove wanted life-sustaining treatment based on the doctors’ own beliefs about suffering, the value of life, and the costs of care. In this sense, futile care protocols are a form of ad hoc health care ra…
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Feb 28, 2022
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya on COVID-19, Authentic Public Health, and the Biosecurity State
The COVID pandemic has been one of the most politically and culturally divisive events in American history. Which seems odd. Usually, a universal external threat unite societies and rallies populations to focus on the common foe. Instead, American society fractured into different tribes, which often coincided with our preexisting political factionalism. Adding to our woes, the proper approach to scientific inquiry and policy makers’ relationship with the expert class became badly skewed. Once an orthodoxy was declared by the World Health Organization or the Center for Disease Control, government leaders, the mainstream media, and Big Tech circled the wagons to prevent dissenting views from being aired — and even seeking to punish those with differing opinions. One of those caught in this cultural oppression was Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize. He and Wesley discuss how COVID was treated differently than other pandemics, the personal costs of taking a heterodox view on…
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Feb 21, 2022
Ryan Hanlon on Adoption, the National Council for Adoption, and the Importance of Families
Adoption didn’t used to be a matter of significant controversy. Public and private adoption agencies worked diligently to place children needing families with those who wanted to love them. Private adoptions often happened without a hitch. These days, adoption has been caught up, at least to some degree, in the culture wars surrounding abortion and gay rights. Adoption of children from foreign countries also sometimes gets caught up in disputes among nations, leaving wanted children unadopted and yearning parents heartbroken. But we all need families. There are still children desperately needing permanent and loving homes in which to grow up and thrive. Adoption is an important issue about which more information needs to be known. So, in this episode of Humanize, Wesley explores the issue from all angles, including those involving controversial areas, such as those touching on LGBT issues as well as inter-racial adoption, and the abortion issue. It is an extremely informative convers…
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Feb 14, 2022
David Berlinski on Architectural Nihilism, Human Nature and the Holocaust, and Emotivism
We live in intellectually mediocre times, when commitment to true debate as a means of ascertaining truth — and the understanding that reasonable people can have different opinions — has been replaced by a desire among the culturally powerful to stifle heterodox thought and punish unapproved opinions. Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize refuses to yield to such intellectual straightjacketing. A true polymath, Dr. David Berlinski advocates heterodox ideas and thought, ranging from questioning Darwinism, to espousing the once-self-evident truth that there is such a thing as human nature. He and Wesley discuss the philosophy of mathematics, the corruption of science, and the causes of the ongoing devolution of Western society. Berlinski is stupefied to learn of the new environmental movement known as “nature rights,” which he rightly brands as “idiotic.” It’s a fascinating conversation with Berlinski, who is rightly considered one of the great minds of our time. Dav…
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Feb 7, 2022
Pat Nolan on Criminal Justice Reform, Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship, and the First Step Act
Is criminal justice a “human dignity issue?” Wesley’s guest, Pat Nolan makes a compelling case that it is and for improving the manner in which—and attention we pay to—the care and rehabilitation of incarcerated people. In their conversation, Nolan discusses his upbringing in a tough Los Angeles neighborhood and how that led him to a career got in politics as a means of protecting society from criminal predators. But when Nolan was incarcerated for a campaign finance violation, he saw the issue from the other side of the prison cell. Prisoners are too often treated in a demeaning and cruelly unjust fashion, he says, that not demeans their essential humanhood but which also does violence to their souls, making them more likely to commit crimes after they are released. While in prison, Nolan was recruited by the late Chuck Colson to work for his Prison Fellowship ministry on issues of criminal justice reform and methods of improving prisoner rehabilitation, a work that took a d…
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Jan 24, 2022
Robert P. George on teaching and free thought, defending Peter Singer, and natural law
People of true principle are rare commodities in this age of bitter political divisions and cultural discord. What matters exclusively for too many, is winning. Indeed, we live in such strident times that some find it difficult to be friends with people with whom they disagree. In this sense, we have lost the crucial understanding to living in mutual comity, that reasonable people can have radically differing opinions. Not so, Wesley’s guest on this week’s episode of Humanize, Princeton Professor Robert P. George. George describes himself as a true classical liberal. He is unapologetically pro-life. But he adamantly defends the academic freedom of people who have contrary beliefs, such as the utilitarian philosopher, Peter Singer. George is a committed Catholic. But he mixes and interacts easily with people of all faiths, and none at all. And, he is a strong advocate for natural law who respectfully debates those with diametrically opposed opinions about the means for making a good…
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Jan 17, 2022
Alveda King on the American Civil Rights Movement, Critical Race Theory, and the American Dream
Since the murder of George Floyd, the nation has been embroiled in racial unrest of a kind not seen in decades. It is a disturbing time. Is racism best struggled against through the colorblind approach of the Reverend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or a newer strategy—summarized by the term “critical race theory”—that sees race as the central fact of life. Wesley was honored to explore these and other issues in a too-short interview with Dr. Alveda C. King, the niece of Martin Luther King and the daughter of the civil rights activist, the Reverend A.D. King. Alveda takes a firm stance against critical race theory, stating forcefully that “there is only one race, the human race.” She discusses the importance of forgiveness and passionately shares her Christian faith. And contrary to the charge leveled by Planned Parenthood that the pro-life movement is racist, King asserts that abortion is the real racism as in some cities, more African-American babies are aborted than bor…
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Jan 10, 2022
Kathryn Jean Lopez on Truth, Dorothy Day, and ‘A Year With the Mystics’
“What is truth?” Pontius Pilate famously asked Jesus. That is a most human question, because of all the known species in the universe, only we even understand the concept of Truth with a capital T. As moral beings, most of us, at least to some extent, seek to live out our lives in ways that we conceive of as Truth. Thus, in an earlier Humanize interview, Wesley spoke with the animal rights leader Gary Francione, who argued on behalf of veganism in the service of a higher moral purpose. He also spoke with the transhumanism proselytizer, Zoltan Istvan about his quest to become immortal through the wonders of technology, a passion he pursued based on his committed materialistic assumption that what we see in the world is all that is. In this episode, Wesley explores a religious concept of discerning and living Truth—the practical and the mystical– with the Catholic popularizer and apologist, Kathryn Jean Lopez. They speak about the late co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement,…
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Jan 3, 2022
Nina Shea on the Chinese Communist Party, Minority Rights, and Religious Freedom
Since the Holocaust, we have agreed to the idealistic vision of “Never Again,” that is, the kind of evil perpetrated by the Third Reich against Jews and others can never be allowed to be repeated. But do we mean it? Today, the Chinese Communist Party is carrying out what can only be described as “Fourth Reich” policies to suppress religion in China and oppress the county’s ethnic minorities. Active genocide is being committed against the Uighur Muslim community, including mass imprisonment in concentration camps, forced relocation throughout the country into what amounts to chattel slavery. Women are forced into abortions and sterilized. Children are removed from homes to boarding schools, where they are indoctrinated in communist ideology and prevented from learning about the faith of their parents. Meanwhile, Falon Gong practitioners have been disappeared into prisons and are the victims of tissue-typing and organ harvesting, that is strip mined for the thriving private org…
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Dec 20, 2021
Zoltan Istvan on Transhumanism, ‘Good Eugenics,’ and Immortality
Every now and then, our electoral system produces one of those quintessentially American characters who coopts the energy of the presidential voting cycle to become a national celebrity and elevate an obscure social movement into greater popular visibility. In 2016 that person was Wesley’s guest Zoltan Istvan, who propelled himself and transhumanism into international notoriety by touring the United States as a candidate for president on the Transhumanist Party ticket, promising to end death as he drove across the country in the “immortality bus” designed to look like a coffin. In 2020 Istvan made headlines again, this time, by running in the Republican presidential primaries. His purpose in all he does is to popularize transhumanism, a futuristic social movement that seeks to create a “post-human” future freed from suffering. The movement looks to technology as the means of attaining the long-held human dream of immortality and the more modern yearning for radical individua…
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Dec 13, 2021
Dr. J. Benjamin Hurlbut on science, restoring public trust, and transcending ideology
There was a time when the fields of “science” and “public health” were not controversial. There were good reasons for that widespread public trust. Because of advances in fighting infectious disease, life expectancy materially increased. The scourge of smallpox was eradicated and the polio vaccine brought the crippling disease under substantial international control. Those days are long gone. We live in bitterly divisive times and the authority of science, as it is applied in public policy, no longer necessarily prevails. Indeed, some worry that “science” has become unduly ideological. There is no question that the science sector is sometimes used as a political cudgel in our culture wars. With the coming of the COVID pandemic, the public health is also looked upon by some with increasing suspicion. To say the least, this isn’t a healthy atmosphere for the country or for the furtherance of scientific advancement. What can be done ease these divisions? How can “science…
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Dec 6, 2021
Rebecca Friedrichs on exposing the sexualizing of children in schools and ‘For Kids and Country’
In a previous program with Donna Rice Hughes, Wesley discussed how children are victimized by commercial sources of pornography and obscene Internet content. It was an important conversation, and if you missed it, you can listen to it here: Donna Rice Hughes of ‘Enough Is Enough’ on Porn, Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), and Healing Our Culture | Humanize Unfortunately, commercial pornography may not be the only such threat to children. Some critics claim that a sex education materials and social justice school courses also expose young students to inappropriate sexual content and to issues, such as transgenderism, for which they are not prepared. But is it true? Yes, according to Rebecca Friedrichs, an elementary school teacher and activist who has been exposing the sexualizing of children in the schools through her non-profit organization For Kids and Country. Among its other projects, FKAC tracks the sexualizing of students in school through its SeXXX Ed project, which Wesl…
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Nov 29, 2021
Joni Eareckson Tada on embracing life, disability rights, and choosing solidarity and hope
In this edition of Humanize, Wesley hosts one of the people he most admires in the public sphere. Joni Eareckson Tada is an artist, an international humanitarian, a disability rights activist, a Christian evangelist, and a defender of the sanctity and equality of human life — not just in the comfort of the United States but around the world, including in places of extreme poverty and societal discord. Tada was paralyzed from the shoulders down in a swimming accident in 1967. During her two years of rehabilitation, according to her autobiography Joni, she experienced anger, depression, suicidal thoughts, and religious doubts. However, during occupational therapy, she learned to paint with a brush between her teeth and began selling her artwork. The rest, as the cliché goes, is history. To date, Tada has written over forty books, recorded several musical albums, starred in an autobiographical movie of her life, and is an advocate for people with disabilities She founded Joni and Frie…
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Nov 22, 2021
Dr. Stephen C. Meyer on the ‘God Hypothesis’ and the materialists’ increasingly fringe rationales for life and the universe
In this episode of the Humanize podcast, Wesley interviews Stephen C. Meyer, Director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, about his new book The Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries that Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe.
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Nov 15, 2021
Dr. David Prentice on the Ethics of Science, Stem Cell Therapies, and Biotechnology
It has been said that the 21st Century is the century of biotechnology. And that has certainly proved to be true. From embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, adult stem cell therapies, gene editing of babies, and research that blends human and animal DNA into a single organism, biotechnology offers both hope of great scientific advances to alleviate human diseases—and distinct ethical perils that would treat nascent human life as a thing to be molded like a clay pot.
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Nov 7, 2021
Dr. Aaron Kheriaty on COVID vaccine mandates, conscience rights, and medical ethics
We live in a time in which coercion in public health policy threatens to corrupt medical ethics. Efforts to combat the pandemic acerbated this trend — for example, vaccine mandates — but it did not start with COVID. For years, the medical establishment has been at war with “medical conscience,” that is, pushing polices that would force doctors to participate in abortion, assisted suicide, and transgender transition interventions—even when they have religious objections or don’t wish to participate because they accept the maxims of the Hippocratic Oath. Meanwhile, Catholic hospitals are under unprecedented threat to force these important institutions to adopt the ethics of secular medicine. Dr. Aaron Kheriaty is at the center of these contentious social controversies. A Professor of Psychiatry at University of California Irvine School of Medicine, Dr. Kheriaty joins Wesley to discuss the federal lawsuit he filed when told to either accept the COVID vaccine or face the los…
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Nov 1, 2021
Jim Palmer of the Orange County Rescue Mission on causes and cures for America’s homelessness crisis
In this episode of Humanize, Wesley J. Smith speaks with Jim Palmer, the president of the Orange County Rescue Mission about the many causes and potential cures of America’s seemingly intractable homeless crisis. It is a crucial, if disturbing, conversation that touches upon the most existential needs of people and our mutual responsibilities to each other. Homelessness has reached crisis proportions in which even our most prosperous cities — such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle — witness thousands of people living in squalid tent encampments lining streets that provide scant shelter for people that many of us would rather ignore. It’s all such a mess, it is tempting to throw up one’s hands in despair. But understanding the causes of homelessness is the key to solving the crisis. Palmer describes the role government policy plays in creating and perpetuating homelessness, he reveals how addiction and mental health issues culminate with people living in a t…
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Oct 25, 2021
Dr. Ira Byock on Living Well, Dying Well, and Proper Care Throughout Life
Dr. Ira Byock, Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, joins Wesley J. Smith on Humanize. Dr. Byock is a leading palliative care physician, author, and public advocate for improving care through the end of life. Dr. Byock is an acknowledged visionary and pioneer in palliative care who has made important contributions as a clinician, author and educator. He is founder and serves as chief medical officer of the Institute for Human Caring, a component of Providence St. Joseph Health. The Institute drives transformation in clinical systems and culture to make caring for whole persons the new normal. The Institute for Human Caring’s change strategies produce measurable and scalable improvements in health care quality and efficiency. Dr. Byock has been involved in hospice and palliative care since 1978. His research has contributed to conceptual frameworks for the lived experience of illness along a continuum from suffering to wellbeing; measures for subjectiv…
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Oct 18, 2021
Gary Francione on Animal Rights, Veganism, Abortion, and the Future
Is animal rights a subversive threat to human exceptionalism, or is it the next necessary step in society’s moral growth — as its adherents claim? Today’s episode of Humanize features a respectful conversation between Wesley and the animal rights philosopher Gary Francione, the leader of what is known as the “Abolitionist Movement,” that seeks to end all instrumental use of animals by human beings. Is meat eating an act of violence, as Francione contends — or are we naturally omnivores that benefit nutritionally from eating meat? Indeed, is meat eating just a matter of “taste,” or — as Smith argues — part of the “natural” human condition that goes back to the days of our living in the cave? Would any other species give up a natural diet, and if not, doesn’t that mean humans are indeed exceptional? Or is mere sentience or consciousness the proper measure of moral worth? Is the “animal welfare” approach to our treatment of animals best and moral, or are we d…
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Oct 11, 2021
Donna Rice Hughes of ‘Enough Is Enough’ on Porn, Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), and Healing Our Culture
Pornography has become a scourge in the United States. Today on Humanize, Wesley J. Smith speaks with internet safety and anti-obscenity activist Donna Rice Hughes. Donna and Wesley have a mature discussion about one of the great affronts to human dignity, which is pornography. Donna discusses the impact porn has on children—both as victims of child pornographers and as consumers of adult content that they access on the Internet. She describes how pornography is a major cause of social dislocation, leading to divorce, abuse, rape, and a breakdown in healthy sexual relationships. Wesley and Donna discuss how the obscenity industry is a major driver of human trafficking and how “free” online internet sites lure people into viewing ever more dark and violent images. Donna describes ways to keep children safe from pornography on the Internet, warns against the pornification of popular culture, and offers compassionate advice about how those who are addicted to pornography can escape…
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Oct 4, 2021
Bobby Schindler on Terri Schiavo, protecting at-risk persons, and true healthcare
This week on Humanize, Wesley interviews Bobby Schindler. Schindler came to international prominence when he and his family launched a multi-year legal and public campaign to save his sister, Terri Schiavo’s, life. After her death by court-ordered dehydration, the family launched the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network that advocates for the medically vulnerable, which Bobby currently leads. Wesley and Bobby discuss Terri’s life, the campaign to prevent her from having tube-supplied food and water removed, the bias against the family repeatedly exhibited in the media, what people don’t know about the controversy, and the misconceptions about the federal law passed in an unsuccessful attempt to save her life. They also discuss the current work of the Network, and Bobby’s involvement in the Jahi McMath “brain death” case, as well as the Charlie Gard controversy, in which a UK court-ordered life support removed from a terminally ill baby against his parents, wishes—and also,…
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Sep 27, 2021
Jennifer Lahl on ‘Breeders,’ ‘Trans Mission,’ and the ethical and human rights threats promoted in our culture
Jennifer Lahl joins Wesley J. Smith to speak on her work with The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network and her films including “Breeders: A Subclass of Women?” and “Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Reassign Gender?” as well as other ethical and human rights threats promoted in our culture. In this week’s episode, Jennifer describes what she learned as a pediatric intensive care nurse that has contributed to her work defending human dignity as one of the world’s most prominent critics of radical reproductive technologies. She and Wesley also discuss the dangers presented to young women who donate their eggs for IVF, the eugenics implications of paying college women for their ova, and the exploitation of poor women in the surrogacy industry. They also delve into the dangers presented to children by the transgender movement. She also describes the strange political bedfellow coalition between feminists and pro-life women that has come together to protect those most at…
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Sep 20, 2021
Dr. Charles Camosy on Dignity, Fundamental Human Equality, and Secular Medicine
Wesley J. Smith speaks with Dr. Charles Camosy, associate professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University and author of “Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality” on fundamental human equality and the threats of secularized medicine. Camosy has vigorously entered the public square in word and electronic media appearances to defend the equal dignity and intrinsic moral worth of every human being. “Losing Our Dignity” is a highly approachable volume that presents a stalwart critique of contemporary bioethics without getting too deep into the philosophical weeds. Wesley and Charles discuss the factors that make us exceptional, the dangers to human equality posed by utilitarian bioethics, the place plays in important bioethics controversies, and recent bioethics controversies, such as the Terri Schiavo and Jahi McMath cases. They also focus on the peril of dehumanizing patients with dementia, and how to best provide car…
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Sep 13, 2021
Ambassador Sam Brownback on Human Rights and Religious Freedom
Wesley J. Smith talks with Senator Sam Brownback, who served as Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom and as governor of Kansas from 2011 to 2018. Religious freedom is a crucial aspect of human exceptionalism because it is a fundamental human rights issue. Smith and Brownback discuss COVID, free exercise versus the freedom to worship, issues in China, India, and Turkey, and much else. Transcript Automatic transcription contains errors. Welcome to Humanize from Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism, where human rights meet human responsibilities. We speak with writers, thinkers, and newsmakers on the controversial issues of human life and human thriving that impact our daily lives. We are exceptional as creatures in the cosmos, as equal members of the human family, and as ethical beings. Humanize explores some of the fundamental questions. How do we thrive? How do we live well and care for what we’ve inherited? How do we act responsibly with one anot…
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Aug 5, 2021
Trailer
Introducing “Humanize with Wesley J. Smith” from Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism, where human rights meet human responsibilities. Wesley J. Smith speaks with writers, thinkers, and newsmakers on the controversial issues of human life and human thriving that impact our daily lives.
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