Humanize

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 quaking in our boots? For answers, Wesley turned to George Gilder, Read More ›

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 Humanize, Dr. Andrew V. Read More ›

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 crisis is multifaceted as it is seemingly intractable. What is the role Read More ›

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 invested years of her life to solving the crisis of contemporary childhood. Faust believes the time has come to put Read More ›

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 feeding tube, and the Schindler family that fought to save their child and sister’s Read More ›

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 societal purposes do they serve, anyway? The classical educator and Orthodox Read More ›

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 are entitled. To get to the bottom of the problem, Wesley invited Read More ›

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 expert in both fields to learn more about virology, the government’s response Read More ›

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 issues in depth — both from philosophical Read More ›

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 human being seeking care may become lost in the attempt Read More ›

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 discriminated against because of living out their faith precepts. In this episode of Humanize, Wesley focuses on the suppression of the Catholic Church Read More ›

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 substances such as Psilocybin, LSD, and the like. Enthusiasts believe that these substances offer Read More ›

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 anti-Americanism. The good news is that concerted efforts are underway to reform education to better Read More ›

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 embrace by social activists of utopianism, a zealous belief in Read More ›

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 intentional ending of the lives of the ill as a profound abandonment and a path to Read More ›

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.

For the last Humanize episode of the season, I thought it would be edifying to explore how the 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?

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 combination of both? The program features two experts who have Read More ›

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 is it the next necessary step in society's moral growth and key to preventing a catastrophic environmental collapse as its adherents claim? Let's find out. Wesley's guest is one of the primary founders of the nature rights approach. Thomas Alan Linzey, serves as Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights, an organization committed to globally advancing the legal rights of nature and environmental rights. He is the co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and is widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary “community rights” and “rights of nature” movements. Linzey is a cum laude graduate of Widener Law School and a three-time recipient of the law school's public interest law award. He is a co-founder of the Daniel Pennock Democracy School – now taught in twenty-four states across the country which has graduated over 5,000 lawyers, activists, and municipal officials – which assists groups to create new community campaigns which elevate the rights of those communities over rights claimed by corporations. Linzey is the author or co-author of several books on community activism and civil disobedience. He assisted the Ecuadorian constitutional assembly in 2008 to adopt the world's first constitution recognizing the independently enforceable rights of ecosystems, and is a frequent lecturer at conferences across the country. The Center on Human Exceptionalism is most pleased Linzey agreed to join the podcast, during which he and Wesley have a discussion not an argument. Center for Environmental Rights Nature Rights with Thomas Linzey | YouTube Rights of Nature: An Interview with Thomas Linzey | Bioneers Debate Between Wesley J. Smith and Thomas Alan Linzey on the Nature Rights movement | Discovery Institute War on Humans | Wesley J. Smith The return of nature worship | Acton Institute

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 increased access to assisted suicide or euthanasia can seem like a blithe platitude. “If you were really suffering,” I have heard repeatedly in my more than thirty years involved with these issues, “you would sing a different tune.” Perhaps. But many people who suffer intensely sing from the same songbook. One, is my good friend and guest for this episode of Humanize, Mark Pickup. Pickup has experienced the intense terror and anguish caused by disabling and progressive multiple sclerosis over several decades. Yet, in the midst of his intense pain, he became one of North America's most prominent public speakers seeking to help others maneuver their way through travail and to find meaning even in the most difficult life circumstances. He is also a noted Christian apologist. Pickup has addressed politicians in Canada and the United States, churches and denominational leaders, universities, high schools and community groups, hospital medical staffs, local, state, and provincial pro-life conventions as well as keynote speaker to U.S. National Right to Life Prayer Breakfasts (2001, 2005, and 2010). Pickup is extensively published in Canadian and U.S. media and has appeared on innumerable radio and television programs warning against a cultural drift toward euthanasia acceptance. Mark has received numerous awards for his work including the Monsignor Bill Irwin Award for Ethical Excellence (Canada) and a Governor General's Medal for community service. He writes the Human Life Matters blog that deals with issues of the sanctity of human life and other matters of cultural concern. HumanLifeMatters Mark Davis Pickup (@MarkDavisPickup) / X (twitter.com)

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 promotes medical ethics and public health policies that align with the “do no harm” ethic of the Hippocratic Oath. The differences in these approaches impact our very understanding about the meaning and importance of human life. How do these distinctions play are among the most important and contentious controversies of the day. To get a handle on the current bioethics landscape, Wesley interviewed one of the most impressive and energetic defenders of human exceptionalism in bioethics today. Charles C. Camosy, Ph.D, is a Professor of Medical Humanities at the Creighton University School of Medicine and holds the Monsignor Curran Fellowship in Moral Theology at St. Joseph Seminary in New York. Before that, he spent 14 years in Fordham University's theology department. Among other places, his articles have appeared in the American Journal of Bioethics, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Journal of the Catholic Health Association, New York Times, Washington Post, New York Daily News and America magazine. He has monthly columns with Religion News Service and Angelus, writes a bimonthly feature piece for The Pillar, and does regular Q&As for OSV News. He is the author of eight books with two on the way. Peter Singer and Christian Ethics (Cambridge) was named a 2012 “best book” with ABC Religion and Ethics; Beyond the Abortion Wars (Eerdmans), was a 2015 award-winner with the Catholic Media Association; Resisting Throwaway Culture (New City) was named 2020 “Resource of the Year” by the Catholic Publishers Association. He also penned Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality. Dr. Camosy is also the founding editor of a new book series with New City Press called The Magenta Project. In addition to advising the pro-life commission of the Archdiocese of New York and receiving the 2018 St. Jerome Award for scholarly excellence from the Catholic Library Association. Camosy is a proud knight of the St. Peter Claver Society. He and his wife Paulyn have four children, three of whom they adopted from a Filipino orphanage in June of 2016. Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality One Church: How to Rekindle Trust, Negotiate Difference, and Reclaim Catholic Unity: Camosy, Charles C.: 9781646801527: Amazon.com: Books For Love of Animals: Christian Ethics, Consistent Action: Camosy, Charles C.: 9781616366629: Amazon.com: Books https://www.newsweek.com/vulnerable-groups-deserve-protectionthat-includes-embryos-opinion-1873531 https://www.newsweek.com/pro-life-movement-needs-fundamentally-new-approach-opinion-1859885 https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/brain-death-at-a-crossroads

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 done about it, Wesley asked the Director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture to engage the crisis. This is Meyer's second appearance on Humanize. Dr. Stephen C. Meyer received his Ph.D. in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge and is a former geophysicist and college professor. He authored Signature in the Cell, which was named a Book of the Year for 2009 by the Times of London, the New York Times best seller, Darwin's Doubt, and most recently, The Return of the God Hypothesis. Meyer has also published editorials in national newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The National Post (of Canada), The Daily Telegraph (of London) and The Los Angeles Times.  He has appeared on national television and radio programs such as NBC Nightly News, ABC Nightly News, CBS Sunday Morning, Nightline, Fox News Live, Good Morning America and was recently heard by millions of viewers in an extended interview on the Joe Rogan podcast.  He has also been featured in two New York Times front-page stories and has garnered attention in other top national media. In 2008, he appeared with Ben Stein in the theatrical-released documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.  He has also been featured prominently in the science documentaries, Icons of Evolution, The Case for a Creator, and Darwin's Dilemma, which aired on PBS and which Meyer co-wrote with producer Lad Allen. About | Stephen C. Meyer (stephencmeyer.org) Center for Science and Culture  Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design  Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design Dr. Stephen C. Meyer on the ‘God Hypothesis' and the materialists' increasingly fringe rationales for life and the universe | Humanize New England Journal of Medicine Pushes Gender Treatments for Minors | National Review The American Anthropological Association Is Shamefully Anti-Scientific | National Review

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 Americans based on superficial and irrelevant differences of skin color and hair texture. Listening to each other's stories and understanding differing perspectives are crucial medicines in healing this great wound in our collective national soul. My guest today is an expert communicator in this regard, helping to build bridges and palliate bitterness across racial divides. The Reverand Dr. Arthur Cribbs, Jr. is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, a former network television journalist, radio talk show host, and documentarian. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, obtained his Master's of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary in 1986, and his Doctor of Ministry and Ethics from Claremont School of Theology in 2009. Cribbs produced and hosted the television special, “Stories of the Soul: Life after 9/11,” for which he received an Emmy Award. He was nominated for an Emmy for his documentary: Changing Faces of AIDS. He is the former executive director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and has been a long-time ethics instructor for the California Department of Justice working with police departments to improve law enforcement. Due to his many contributions in serving his community, the City of San Diego proclaimed, February30, 2007 as The Reverend Arthur Cribbs Day. Now, Cribbs has written what he calls an “autobiographical novel”—HollyWatts: From the Promised Land to Purgatory, actually a memoir recounting his life growing up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where he witnessed the destruction of an important African-American community under the onslaught of drugs, gang violence, and ruling class indifference. Cribbs is currently Senior Pastor of the Christian Fellowship Congregational Church in San Diego, CA. He was also Wesley's college roommate and remains one of his oldest and dearest friends Hollywatts: From the Promised Land to Purgatory: Jr Cribbs, Arthur Lawrence: 9780829800371: Amazon.com: Books R-302356.pdf (sandiego.gov) Life-Giving Acts — Little River United Church of Christ (lrucc.org)

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 establishment and the Biden administration claim that immediately yielding to children's feelings that they are not the sex they were born is medically necessary, life-saving care. But is the science really settled? Recently, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, and other European countries hit the brakes on immediate gender affirmation in children—to the point that the UK shuttered its largest gender clinic for children as unsafe for patients. Even the World Health Organization—under political pressure, to be sure—just admitted that “the evidence base for children and adolescents is limited and variable regarding the longer-term outcomes of gender affirming care for children and adolescents.” The UK's National Health Service concluded that instead of encouraging transition, “the clinical approach has to be mindful of the risks of an inappropriate gender transition and the difficulties that children may experience in returning to their original gender role.” Such “returns” are known as “de-transitioning,” a phenomenon that receives far too little attention, and when it does, too often sparks bitter denunciation of detransitioners among radical gender ideologues.  My guest today has dedicated herself to raising the public profile of this important issue. Jennifer Lahl has directed, co-written, and co-produced three important documentaries on the subject. The first, Trans Mission: What's the Rush to Reassign Gender? explored the medical ethics of administering puberty blocking and cross-sex hormone in children. That film was quickly followed with the release of The Detransition Diaries: Saving our Sisters, which told the stories of three young women who transitioned to living life as if they were men—only to realize that they are, indeed, women. And. completing the trilogy, the just released, The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood, in which five young men describe their experiences with gender dysphoria and their ultimate pursuit to find peace in their natural masculine bodies. Among her many accomplishments, Lahl is a documentarian and founder of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Her writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community on various issues of bioethical concern. Board of Directors – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org). https://cbc-network.org/ The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood (youtube.com) The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org) The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org) Venus Rising Podcast: https://cbc-network.org/venus-rising-podcast/ WHO Admits Evidence Supporting ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ in Children Is ‘Limited and Variable’ | National Review

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 infrastructures, exacerbated our bitter political divisions, and called into question the ability and, indeed, willingness of the federal government to control American borders. At the same time, the system of legal immigration is strained with people waiting to come here lawfully facing complicated bureaucratic processes and long delays. Why is this happening? What can be done to improve the situation? Can America remain sovereign and treat those coming here illegally for a better life with respect and dignity and still maintain order at the border? My guest today has answers. Mark Krikorian, a nationally recognized expert on immigration issues, has served as Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) since 1995. His knowledge and expertise in the immigration field are sought by Congress, as well as the mainstream press and new media. He has published articles in numerous outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, and elsewhere. He is a contributor at National Review Online and has appeared on all major cable and broadcast news networks. Mr. Krikorian is the author of the books The New Case Against Immigration, Both Legal and Illegal and How Obama is Transforming America Through Immigration. His most recent co-authored publication is Open Immigration: Yea & Nay. Mr. Krikorian holds a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University. He spent two years at Yerevan State University in then-Soviet Armenia. Related

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 committed themselves to democratic engagement and advocacy to reverse Roe and return the struggle over the right to life to the democratic sphere. That decades-long effort bore fruit last year in the Supreme Court case of Dobbs. But that is far from the end of the story. The abortion issue continues to roil the country, with state legislatures passing dramatically different laws about the issue and voters in state initiative elections, such as in Kansas and Ohio, supporting legalization.  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 on this episode of Humanize has some answers. Clarke Forsythe is Senior Counsel at Americans United for Life (AUL) and the author of Abuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v. Wade (Encounter Books 2013), which was cited by the Supreme Court in its majority opinion in Dobbs. In his 38 years at AUL, Forsythe has been co-counsel for parties in three U.S. Supreme Court cases and has argued before federal and state appellate courts. He has also testified before Congress and state legislatures. Forsythe has authored or co-authored 20+ professional legal articles on constitutional and bioethical issues. His other articles have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, Public Discourse, The Washington Times, The Federalist, The Hill, and many other newspapers and magazines.  His first book, Politics for the Greatest Good, which draws on lessons in political prudence from Thomas Aquinas, William Wilberforce, and Abraham Lincoln, was published by InterVarsity Press (IVP) in 2009.  His new book, Pushing Roe v. Wade Over the Brink, co-authored with Alexandra DeSanctis, chronicles the 50-year legal struggle to overturn Roe v. Wade, and its implications for future bioethical issues in American law and policy. Forsythe has a B.A. from Allegheny College, a J.D. from Valparaiso University, and an M.A. in Bioethics from Trinity International University, where he has been an Adjunct Professor of Bioethics.  Clarke and his wife, Karen, married for 41 years, have five daughters and 11 grandchildren. Pushing Roe v. Wade Over the Brink: The Battle for America's Heart, the Human Right to Life, and a Future Full of Hope Abuse of Discretion – Encounter Books Crucial Priorities for Advocates and Lawmakers After Dobbs – Americans United for Life (aul.org) AUL’s 40 Year Stand Against Chemical Abortion – Americans United for Life When Congress Funds Abortion, It Funds Coercion | National Review

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 beautiful cities to become no-go zones. But some refuse to yield. One is veteran independent journalist Jonathan Choe. Choe focuses his journalism on homelessness, drug addiction, and the mental health crisis ravaging America through hard-hitting video narratives. In this episode of Humanize, Choe will describes the horrors—and heroism—he encounters daily as he covers the homelessness beat Choe is a Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth and Poverty, covering homelessness issues for its Fix Homelessness initiative. Prior to joining Discovery, Choe spent several years as one of the lead reporters at KOMO-TV, consistently the top-rated television station in Seattle. His in depth stories on crime and deep dive investigations into the homelessness crisis led to measurable results in the community, including changes in public policy. Choe has more than two decades of experience in television news behind the scenes and in front of the camera for ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, and Tribune. He has also been nominated and honored with multiple industry awards including an Emmy. As an independent journalist, Choe also contributes regularly to the Mill Creek View and Lynnwood Times and has reported on exclusive stories in the past year for Daily Wire and The Postmillennial. Choe is a New England native and Boston University journalism school graduate. (757) Choe show – YouTube Twitter: Jonathan Choe Journalist (Seattle) (@choeshow) / X (twitter.com) https://www.discovery.org/p/choe/ (757) DOWNTOWN #seattle MADNESS CONTINUES – YouTube Donate | Fix Homelessness (1) “I have never seen this much anti-Semitism.” (substack.com) Other Humanize Interviews on the Homelessness Catastrophe Robert Marbut on America's Homelessness Crisis, Strategies for Uplifting the Homeless, and Effective Government Policies | Humanize Jim Palmer of the Orange County Rescue Mission on causes and cures for America's homelessness crisis | Humanize

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 of people no longer trust the integrity of our electoral system. As this program is being recorded, there is no Speaker of the House of Representatives. The two leading candidates to become president in 2024—President Joe Biden and Former President Donald Trump—are both highly unpopular, and most Americans don't want a rematch of 2020. How has this crisis come to be and what can be done about it? Wesley asked one of the most respected election analysts in the country to provide some insight. Henry Olsen is a Washington Post columnist and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He was the Thomas W. Smith distinguished scholar in residence at Arizona State University for the winter/spring 2023 semester. Olsen began his career as a political consultant. After three years working for the California Assembly Republican Caucus, he went to law school, and after graduating, clerked for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs on the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Olsen later joined the think tank world where he served as the President of the Commonwealth Foundation, a Vice President at the Manhattan Institute, and Vice President and Director, National Research Initiative, at the American Enterprise Institute. He left AEI in 2013 to pursue a career in political analysis and writing at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Olsen's writings have appeared in variety of leading publications throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. He is the author of “The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism” and co-authored, “The Four Faces of the Republican Party”. Olsen's biennial election predictions have been widely praised for their uncanny accuracy, and he is a frequent guest on television and radio news and commentary programs. Olsen regularly speaks about American political trends and global populism in the United States, Europe, and Australia. He is also the host of the Beyond the Polls podcast. In this interview, Wesley does not ask Olsen to take sides on the issues of the day or political personalities but solicited his dispassionate analysis of what has gone wrong in our contemporary political discourse and why. Beyond the Polls With Henry Olsen – Ricochet PowerPoint Presentation (centerforpolitics.org)

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 complicated than reading, writing, and arithmetic.

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)

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

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.

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

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)

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 Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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, Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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. Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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 Read More ›

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 Read More ›