Parhaat Life And Death Podcastit (2025)

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Circumcision: Male genital mutilation or vital symbol of religious freedom? 53:50

4d ago53:50

53:50

A listener in the United States has written in pondering the, ahem, sensitive issue of circumcision. In America it’s been commonplace as a medical procedure for newborn boys for generations, while in the rest of the world it’s almost exclusively a Jewish or Muslim religious rite of initiation. Does circumcision actually offer any real medical benef…

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Death Happens Here: Let’s Talk About It 50:42

19d ago50:42

50:42

“Reclaiming death as a community experience. It’s a normal experience” is the mission motivating Trish Fleming, Community Engagement Lead at Hospice West Auckland. She tells host, funeral celebrant, Timothy Giles, death is happening everywhere in our community; 85% of the time hospice care is in people’s chosen environments, mostly at home. With a …

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Gender dysphoria and trans children 54:41

11d ago54:41

54:41

Perhaps the most contentious political, medical and social issue of the day is how to treat and care for young people who are questioning or experiencing distress around their sex and gender. We are both away for half-term this week, so we’re bringing you an episode from 2023 when we spoke with Christian community paediatrician Julie Maxwell about …

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Making human egg cells out of skin, and other mysteries 52:42

18d ago52:42

52:42

In the first part of this episode we talk through a startling new scientific breakthrough: researchers claim they can insert genetic material from an ordinary skin cell into a human egg cell, and then use that to fertilise and grow an embryo. This means an infertile couple or a same-sex couple could theoretically have a child who was genetically re…

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Union and communion: The Trinity demystified 59:08

25d ago59:08

59:08

Of all orthodox Christian doctrines, the trinity is perhaps the one which most languishes understudied and underappreciated. Many of us see it as a baffling paradox, a riddle without an answer. Only of interest to egg-headed nerds and without any practical application to day-to-day Christian life. But have we been getting this wrong all along? Coul…

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The idolatry of Christian Nationalism, with John Heathershaw 1:05:16

1M ago1:05:16

1:05:16

It has been hard to miss the ways that right-wing political movements have become marked by Christian rhetoric and language in recent years. Clearly, something about the unstable and fractious era we live in has seen people yearning to turn Western nations back to an imagined Christian past. But is this a mirage, or even an idolatrous worship of th…

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How To Die a Natural Death 55:28

1M ago55:28

55:28

Kirjoittanut ataloss

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Why did a good God create earthquakes and volcanoes? Suffering, creation and natural evil, with Prof Bob White 1:06:00

1M ago1:06:00

1:06:00

Natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have caused untold misery, suffering and death over the centuries. Some, like the infamous Lisbon earthquake and tsunami in 1755, have even been held up as prompting turns away from belief in God entirely. How can believers account for the apparent brokenness and destructiveness of the earth…

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Elijah or Obadiah: Should our Christian witness be prophetic, incarnational or both? 51:44

2M ago51:44

51:44

Christians often find themselves disagreeing about what posture to adopt in our increasingly secular and faith-hostile culture. Should we stand apart from society, keeping ourselves unsullied by its godlessness, so we can prophetically call out evil and witness to Christ? Or should we seek to engage deeply in our context, seeing our calling as to s…

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Don’t be afraid: The promise and the peril of AI in healthcare 42:55

2M ago42:55

42:55

Artificial Intelligence is everywhere these days, and the hospital, surgery and clinic are no different. It’s getting into wearable tech, it’s assisting in making diagnoses, and much more. There’s a lot of promise, but is there also some peril? What compromises around human connection and compassionate care might we make in our rush to integrate AI…

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Euthanasia for newborn babies, pagan philosophies and Christian witness in a post-Christian age 54:35

2M ago54:35

54:35

An influential Canadian doctors’ association has proposed expanding the country’s euthanasia laws so newborn babies suffering from serious disabilities could be given lethal drugs for the first time. In light of this, we discuss the often conflicting philosophies that lie behind our medical thinking on the unborn child versus newborn babies. What w…

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How we all came to think science and religion were at war 56:57

2M ago56:57

56:57

We weren’t able to record an episode this week so please enjoy one from the MOLAD archive: This week’s guest is Nick Spencer, senior fellow at the faith thinktank Theos, and recent author of Magisteria: The entangled histories of science and religion. Nick joins us to discuss the complicated backstory to how we all came to believe science and faith…

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A Womb in Limbo: Life Support, Law, and Medical Ethics 1:02:11

2M ago1:02:11

1:02:11

In today’s Q&A episode, we first explore a question sent in about a troubling story from Georgia, USA, where a braindead pregnant woman was kept on life-support for months (against the wishes of her family) in order that once her unborn child had developed sufficiently he could be born alive. The hospital reportedly believed it was compelled to do …

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Healed by prayer: Should Christian doctors believe in faith healing? 1:00:15

3M ago1:00:15

1:00:15

A doctor listener has written in with a fascinating question about miraculous healing. It was clearly a major part of Jesus’s ministry in the gospels, and yet she has doubts despite prayer for healing becoming a larger and larger part of her church’s life. Why is it that Jesus healed profound lifelong disabilities immediately and unambiguously, whe…

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Conspiracy theories, mRNA, covid and autism: Why do so many struggle to get on board with vaccines? 1:08:29

3M ago1:08:29

1:08:29

The prominent vaccine sceptic turned US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is hard at work tearing apart America’s vaccine orthodoxy and establishment. For decades now questions have been raised about a supposed link between the MMR vaccine and autism. And the pandemic turbocharged vaccine hesitancy and the anti-vax movement. So what is the evide…

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One in five pregnancies: How we’re talking differently about miscarriage, and what that may mean for abortion 1:23:15

3M ago1:23:15

1:23:15

As we’re on our summer hols, this week we’re bringing you a classic MOLAD episode from the archive. In October, the UK marks Baby Loss Awareness Week. There’s been an enormous cultural shift in recent decades around how society talks about miscarriage and stillbirth. Today, the messaging is much more compassionate and empathetic, acknowledging the …

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AI scepticism and the end of creativity, with Caleb Woodbridge 58:45

3M ago58:45

58:45

For a technology that only really hit the public consciousness barely three years ago, AI is everywhere. Clearly it is useful, maybe even addictive, but can it also be harmful? Should we be concerned, as Christians, as creatives, as human beings even, at what AI is doing to crafts such as artistry, writing and more? No-one is arguing for a total fi…

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The Enhanced Games: Should we all want to become superhumans? 45:22

4M ago45:22

45:22

Today’s discussion begins with a maverick rival to the Olympics – The Enhanced Games – which will allow all its athletes to use whatever drugs or technology they want to try and boost their performance. It’s garnered a lot of support and investment from both Donald Trump-adjacent right-wing political forces, and techno-optimistic libertarian folk i…

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Can Christians work in the arms industry? 42:30

4M ago42:30

42:30

In this Q&A episode we begin with a query from a listener who is agonising over whether to apply for work at a defence research institution. Can believers, even those who hold to just war theory, spend their careers helping create better ways for soldiers to kill? How can we know what God’s will for our lives are in general?Then we move to a second…

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The new Pope, Catholic Social Teaching and a second industrial revolution 57:57

4M ago57:57

57:57

In just his second day in the job, the new Pope Leo XIV dropped a fascinating hint as to what his priorities may be in the Vatican. It turns out he chose his name to honour the last Pope Leo XIII, who issued a famous and highly significant teaching document back in 1893. This not only laid out a new pro-worker approach from the Catholic Church at t…

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Abortion decriminalised, part 2 45:01

4M ago45:01

45:01

Last week we set the historical context of abortion law in the UK and how a sudden imposition of decriminalised abortion in 2019 in Northern Ireland set a precedent for what happened here in England a few weeks ago. But it’s hard to imagine the situation we have today also without the covid pandemic, which pro-abortion activists used skilfully to a…

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Abortion decriminalised, part 1 50:17

5M ago50:17

50:17

Without basically any public debate or meaningful legislative scrutiny, MPs in parliament passed a major reform to Britain’s abortion laws last week. Decriminalisation now means mothers cannot be prosecuted for aborting their unborn children all the way up to birth. This radical change has caught many onlookers on the hop – where has this come from…

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Elizabeth Oldfield: Intriguing non-believers and life in intentional community 49:03

5M ago49:03

49:03

This week we’re joined by the writer and podcaster Elizabeth Oldfield. Her new book Fully Alive is a series of essays trying to introduce riches of the Christian tradition and its wisdom on everything from feminism to loneliness to non-believers who may have never considered Christianity before. We discuss trying to tap into what many see as a cris…

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WhatsApp, social media and smart devices: Persecution of Christians goes digital 46:27

5M ago46:27

46:27

Tim is on holiday, so today we’re bringing you a classic episode from the MOLAD archive. The persecuted church today lives as it always has under the threat of arrest, imprisonment, physical attack, verbal threats and harassment, and even death. But today these traditional methods are supplemented by the technological revolution. Increasingly perse…

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Is Christianity bad news for women? 57:05

5M ago57:05

57:05

Christianity is sometimes described as ‘bad news for women’. Clearly we would all disagree with this epithet, but why does it have cultural currency right now for a growing number of particularly younger women? In this episode we’re joined by Ellidh Cook, a student worker in central London whose theological studies focused on violence against women…

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Apocalypse: Why do so many feel like the world is coming to an end? 55:04

6M ago55:04

55:04

It’s hard to escape the fact that we live in gloomy, despairing times. Whether it is economic stagnation, pandemics, democracy under attack, unending wars or the climate crisis, more and more people feel like things are falling apart. That maybe even the world is coming to a depressing end. How did things get this hopeless, given the relatively rec…

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Sex, dinosaurs, bodies and climate change: Parenting children in our confusing and confused world 46:09

6M ago46:09

46:09

Today we’re sharing an episode of the Faith in Parenting podcast, run by the Faith in Kids team, which we took part in some months ago. We were kindly asked on to chat about being Christians and being parents, and in particular how we handle sometimes tricky questions and issues that come up from the natural world and in science. And Tim got to sha…

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Can we treat Parkinson’s disease without destroying embryos? 55:42

6M ago55:42

55:42

In the first part of today’s episode we look at some exciting new research into treatments for the degenerative brain condition Parkinsons’s disease. We’ve known since the 1980s that transplants of brain tissue can slow the disease, but the only source was from the brains of embryos created during IVF. Now, scientists have shown they can create ste…

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Shame, honour & the gospel: Recovering what we’ve missed 56:58

6M ago56:58

56:58

Is there an element of the gospel which we’ve forgotten about? That Jesus came not to just to deal with the guilt of our sin and forgive that, but to deal with the shame of being sinners and to cover that too. In this episode we dig into the differences between shame-honour cultures and guilt-forgiveness cultures. So-called honour killings, when fa…

1
[title of show] 40:19

6M ago40:19

40:19

Send us a text This episode features an interview with performer Mark Horne about his life and loves in amateur theatre, including his early days as a ‘Crescenteenie’ and his membership of the Crescent Youth Theatre. Mark also tells us about his role in the Crescent Theatre’s forthcoming production of [title of show], Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen’s w…

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What is a woman? 57:54

6M ago57:54

57:54

Two major Supreme Court rulings here in the UK have given us plenty to chew over in this episode. In the first half we explore a judgement about doctors caught up in controversial and tragic life support legal disputes with the parents of deeply ill children. The judges ruled that there should not be automatic anonymity given to these doctors and t…

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Dementia: Listening to bodies and the sacramental ministry of touch 44:49

7M ago44:49

44:49

‘Granny’s body remains, but she is gone’. The public narrative around dementia often presumes that as our ability to talk, move and think gradually withers away, so does our personhood and sense of self. But if we believe as Christians that our humanity and identity is inextricably bound up in our physical flesh and bones, how should we approach th…

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From Crisis to Care: Support Services for Survivors 46:33

7M ago46:33

46:33

In the third and final episode of our Sexual Assault Awareness Month series, your hosts Genna and Noelle sit down with Katie, the Advocacy Manager on the PAAR Victim Response Team. Katie walks us through what happens when someone reaches out for support — from the first call to the compassionate, trauma-informed services her team provides. This epi…

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Cultural witness and the purpose of theology, with Graham Tomlin 56:52

7M ago56:52

56:52

Graham Tomlin has been a vicar, a theologian, a college principal, a bishop and now spearheads a project dedicated to trying to re-enchant the UK with Christian faith. In this episode we reflect with him about his ministry, the current state and status of theology in the church, the struggles of the Church of England where he served as a bishop unt…

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It Starts with Us: Building a Culture of Consent and Safety 41:46

7M ago41:46

41:46

We’re continuing our month-long series for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. In our second episode, your hosts Genna and Noelle are joined by Will, the Director of Education at PAAR (Pittsburgh Action Against Rape). Will shares how his team leads crucial conversations around creating safe environments, setting boundaries, and using effective interven…

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Antinatalism: Should we all stop having children? 52:41

7M ago52:41

52:41

One fringe explanation for the fall in birthrates we discussed in last week’s episode is the growing popularity of the antinatalist movement. Antinatalists argue not just that people should be free to not have children if they want to, but that having children is in itself a bad idea. Antinatalists can be motived by many things: concerns over clima…

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Your Heart Could Go On 58:10

7M ago58:10

58:10

And not just your heart. Organ donation is a gift that can change, improve and enrich the lives of many others, after your death. But very few people donate their organs. In NZ less than 70 people a year donate their organs after death. Since 2020 the peak was 66 people donating in any one year.* Host Timothy Giles talks with a pioneer of organ don…

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Life After Sexual Assault – with Diane 44:01

7M ago44:01

44:01

Sexual assault changes you — not just in the moment, but in every relationship that follows. Intimacy, trust, friendships, family, dating… it all feels different. This week, Diane bravely joins us to share her story. She talks about the deep ripple effect of her experience and how she’s had to rebuild her sense of safety, identity, and connection. …

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Is this the end? Plummeting birth rates, the future of humanity and the meaning of children 1:06:52

7M ago1:06:52

1:06:52

With unerring regularity, birth rates are dropping in almost every country on Earth. What was once assumed to be a rich world problem is now a reality in places as diverse as Chile, Russia, Thailand and the Caribbean. Almost everywhere people are having fewer and fewer children. Many nations, including the UK and the US, are now well below the magi…

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Just the Two of Us 34:29

7M ago34:29

34:29

Welcome back to Life and Death with Genna and Noelle! Today, it’s just the two of us having a much-needed check-in—talking about life, big transitions, and preparing for all the changes ahead. From the excitement (and chaos) of getting ready for a baby to the curveballs life continues to throw, we’re diving into it all. So whether you’re out for a …

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Spiritual, but not religious: What do people actually believe these days? 50:47

8M ago50:47

50:47

The non-religious are an ever-increasing segment of the population, in the UK, the United States and across the Western world. But what do they actually believe, and indeed not believe, in? In this classic episode from the MOLAD archive we’re joined by evangelist and author Glen Scrivener to discuss the different spiritualities we encounter, especi…

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Beneath the Surface: Rachel's Story of Endurance, Endometriosis, and IVF 43:54

8M ago43:54

43:54

This week on the podcast, we’re joined by Rachel, who shares her powerful journey through IVF and living with endometriosis. From navigating pain and uncertainty to holding onto hope, Rachel opens up about the emotional and physical toll — and the strength it took to keep going. Her story is one of resilience, honesty, and the realities many face b…

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Arrested for praying in your head? Abortion clinic buffer zones and 21st century thoughtcrime 49:08

8M ago49:08

49:08

Somewhat unnoticed by many in the British church, in the last few years the UK has imposed draconian new laws which can in some circumstances curtail fundamental religious liberties. In the name of protecting people from intimidating pro-life protests, 150-metre buffer zones now exist around every clinic and hospital which performs abortions in the…

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A Realistic and Positive Perspective on Raising a Child with Special Needs 42:46

8M ago42:46

42:46

This week, we’re joined by Carri—a mother of two young men, one of whom lives with autism and verbal apraxia. Carri shares her honest, hopeful perspective on receiving a diagnosis, navigating lifelong support, and celebrating growth along the way. She also opens up about the impact on the whole family, including siblings, and how she balances mothe…

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Nora: A Doll's House 51:25

8M ago51:25

51:25

Send us a text This month we welcome actor and director Steph Urquhart onto the podcast to share her life and loves in amateur theatre. Steph is also directing the Crescent Theatre's forthcoming production of Nora: A Doll's House by contemporary playwright Stef Smith, a powerful reimagining of Ibsen's classic play. Steph tells us more about the cha…

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What is the Trump government doing to medical research and international aid, and why should we care? 49:19

8M ago49:19

49:19

An under-reported story of the tumultuous first months of the second Donald Trump administration is how his team are brutally cutting back long-established federal institutions. The National Institutes of Health and the US Agency for International Development have seen huge swathes of staff fired, grants paused, funding slashed and projects reliant…

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Aimee's Story -- Divorce, Motherhood, and Finding Herself Again 40:26

8M ago40:26

40:26

In this episode of Life and Death, we sit down with Aimee, a single mother who navigated the emotional and practical challenges of a difficult divorce while raising her two daughters. Aimee opens up about the struggles of redefining her identity, the resilience it took to move forward, and the lessons she’s learned along the way. From co-parenting …

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What are chatbots doing to us? Personhood in an age of AI 1:07:40

8M ago1:07:40

1:07:40

AI-driven chatbots are becoming a major industry, with hundreds of millions of people spending hours every day talking to non-human personas. They can be friends, therapists, lovers, work colleagues or fantastical invented characters. Or even an uncanny replica of an actual loved who has died. But should we be worried about the rise of AI chatbots?…

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Grief, Growth, and the Fight for Tomorrow: Cara's Story 48:29

8M ago48:29

48:29

On this episode of Life and Death, Genna and Noelle welcome Cara to the podcast. Together, they explore the complexities of losing a parent when the relationship wasn’t always easy, and how that shaped Cara’s grief journey. Cara also shares her experience of facing breast cancer from a unique perspective and how it led her to become a passionate ad…

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Bonus Episode: A Deeply Personal Conversation 14:09

8M ago14:09

14:09

Some conversations are harder than others, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be had. In this special bonus episode of Life and Death, it’s just the two of us—one listening, one sharing—holding space for an open and honest discussion about sexual assault. This is a deeply personal episode, one that unpacks the layers of trauma, survival, and the …

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