Naked Reflections, from the Naked Scientists

LOVE THE OTHER can mean many things. For a psychologist it can imply two contrasting personalities coming together in a complementary and constructive relationship. It can also be construed as avoiding excessive self- love. But as Sam Victor and Ruby Naji-Naif see it can be about coming to terms with difference and understanding the other in such a profound way that it can become love and even bring about peace. Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

How practical is Jesus's advice to turn the other cheek? Some see it as an example of the excessive passivity of Christianity. Others think it's the only way to get out of an endless spiral of violence. Meryem Kalayci and Tim Stevens discuss the matter without coming to blows... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Music - that most abstract of arts - can of course express religious feeling but it can also be directly or obliquely political, especially when lyrics are involved. Think, National Anthems or protest songs ... With Ed Kessler, Dunya Habash and Jonas Otterbeck reflect... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Can positive thinking create its own momentum, or to put it another way, does negativity reap its own bad harvest? Esther-Miriam Wagner and Robert Tombs read the runes Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

If you asked the Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, to discuss cosmology with a "flat-Earther", he would probably politely decline. But when it comes to more nuanced matters than scientific truth, is there ever a case for calling a halt to dialogue? Alfred Moore and Chris Wadibia consider the question... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

The United Nations recently announced that by their estimate World population passed the 8 billion mark in November 2022. World population is predicted to continue growing, peaking at just over 10 billion in the 2080s. Is this too high a number and if so what should we do about it? Abdallah Rothman and Ed Kessler reflect ... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

The system for those seeking asylum in the UK is not working, with damaging effects across society and for refugees. That's why the Woolf Institute has just launched its Commission on the Integration of Refugees with an aim to improve the refugee and asylum system for everyone, including refugees. Two of the Commissioners, Janice Lopatkin and Jehangir Malik share their thoughts. Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Since the COVID pandemic, satisfaction ratings with the National Health Service have plummeted. Should we look to other countries for alternative models? And Social Services, which have never been properly integrated into the NHS system, are on the brink of collapse, despite the claims of politicians to have "sorted" the problem. Sarah Smith and Gurch Randawa tackle a thorny problem... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

What do people of faith think about the psychological and psychiatric approach to dealing with mental health problems? Is there a sense for some that one's faith, one's God should be enough to quell any inner turmoil? Jamilla Hekmoun and Danny Smith reflect on the secular and the religious approaches to mental ill health... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Modern slavery is going on all around us. Brothels, nail bars, car wash outlets and some wealthy households all need victims who they can exploit, and people traffickers happily supply them. Kevin Hyland and Lauren Saunders square up to the problem... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

For Muslims it's coming, but it's shrouded in mystery; for Christians it's straightforwardly the return of Christ; for Hindus there's the get-out card of reincarnation. But the notion of apocalypse - the end of time - runs deep even for secular types. Beth Phillips and Mansur Ali check it out... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Hatred is something most people feel some of the time but how should it be controlled? Certainly not by giving free rein to social media platforms to stoke up controversy in order to maximize advertising revenues. Kitty O'Lone and Arif Ahmed discuss both the roots of hatred and its latest iterations... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

It would be an exaggeration to say that there are as many beliefs about what and how we should eat as there are beliefs about religion but sometimes it feels that way. And like religious adherents, advocates of different dietary regimes often tussle to claim the moral high ground. David Clough and Lutfi Radwan consider the issues... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

There is no orthodoxy that could not have been construed as blasphemous when it started. Christianity was accused by Jews of being blasphemous for proclaiming Jesus as divine, and Muhammad was criticised by his polytheistic Arab contemporaries for preaching monotheism. So how do the movies come into it? Emanuelle Degli Esposti and Mohammed Ahmed explain... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

We've combined extracts from two of our favourite episodes into a Summer Special covering QAnon and Sex. QAnon, the claim a pizza joint in Washington is a centre for child abuse, has become close to being a mainstream proposition for conspiracy obsessed US radio jocks. And when it comes to sex, the relatively new phenomenon of gender dysphoria presents another problem for religious traditionalists... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

When it comes to learning and education, there has always been a tension between discipline and creativity or scepticism. The balance has ebbed and flowed over the centuries and continues to do so. But perhaps you can't have one without the other? Julian Stanley and Austin Tiffany reflect on the current state of play... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Two and a half billion pounds was wagered on the last soccer World Cup in the U.K. alone. There are reckoned to be 400 thousand problem gamblers in this country and that could well be an under estimate. So should we regard gambling as a potentially serious addiction or just a bit of fun? Mark Griffiths and Ben Ryan check the odds... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Suicide is more common than we might think: no one is immune from suicidal thoughts and there are more than 5,000 actual deaths by suicide in the UK each year. Rose Doyle tells the story of her tragic experience... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Are we in danger of weaponising Christianity as a bulwark against Islam? Would it be more fruitful to pay more attention to the period in medieval Spain when the three Abrahamic faiths collaborated and prospered? Akbar Ahmed and Seherish Abrar take a long view... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Memory is unreliable and can even be treacherous. Think of all those criminal trials where two witnesses recall an event in totally contradictory ways. So how does memory operate? Amy Milton and Aliya Ali give us some answers... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

The idea of sanctuary for the oppressed individual or for groups of people fleeing persecution or war is an ancient and noble one. In biblical times there were even designated sanctuary cities for those under threat. In these gender conscious times, the Women's Refuge provides another sort of sanctuary. Sara Trewitt and Beth Phillips discuss sanctuary... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

The Archbishop of Canterbury ruffled some feathers in government circles when he said that there were "serious ethical questions about sending asylum seekers overseas". Archbishop Kirill of Moscow's intervention in favour of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, characterizing it as a defence of Orthodox Christian civilization was less nuanced. Should Archbishops get stuck into political debate? Jocelyn Cesari and Chris Cooper Davies discuss. Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

There's a pizza joint in Washington DC where a cabal of satanic child abusers meets to brag about their exploits. During his presidency Donald Trump got wind of this and as part of his plan to "drain the swamp" earmarked a day of mass arrests and executions which he nicknamed "the Storm". How are we to make sense of QAnon? Ruth Lawlor and Alfred Moore have a go... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Diasporas are often born of misfortune, the experience of homelands left willingly because of lack of opportunity, or fled because of war. In the age after Empire, many subject communities seemed to be drawn irresistibly by the magnet of the former colonial power, where they formed their own sometimes unwelcome diaspora communities. Esther-Miriam Wagner and Dragos Herescu discuss the experience... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Lots of us feel the need to believe in something in order to make sense of the world whether it takes the form of religious faith, the provability of science, or some singular strongly-held theory. But belief does not necessarily satisfy another great human need, the need to belong to a community. Joining Ed Kessler, Danny Smith and Grace Davie explore... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

"Without forgiveness there is no future." So said the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. But do we have it in us to forgive the most egregious sins? Some think that is in God's realm. Kitty O'Lone and Justin Lane tackle the F word... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

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Compassion, common sense and expert knowledge are what we would hope a good doctor would bring to the process of managing a death. But with more and more life prolonging technologies available, the danger of litigation and the growing need to consider different religious traditions, things are not straightforward. Philip Lodge and Ruwaida Randeree talk about getting ready to die... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

To read the KAMA SUTRA or the SONG OF SONGS you might feel religion is obsessed with sex. Yet so often the discussion of sex has been a problem in Churches, Temples, Synagogues and Mosques. The relatively new phenomenon of gender dysphoria presents another problem for religious traditionalists. Sonia Leach and Shanon Shah survey the territory... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

The twentieth century was littered with genocides. Those in Armenia, Nazi Germany, Rwanda and Bosnia are the most notorious ... Meryem Kalayci and James Smith discuss this most distressing of subjects. The Podcast includes some unique witness from a survivor of the Srebrenica massacre... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

We have Alexa, we have drones in the sky, killer robots on the battlefield and creepy algorithms designed to anticipate our every need. But do we lose sight of the potential benefits of A.I? Beth Singler and Hope McGovern throw some light on a much discussed subject... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

At one point in the summer of 2021, wild fires were raging all around the Mediterranean from Greece to Spain and from France to Morocco. Even the most stubborn of climate change sceptics must be starting to worry. Madeleine Ary and Shannon Shah offer some much needed policy ideas... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

It's a long way from Victorian synagogues to Twentieth Century recording studios but both provided a catalyst for musical sharing and cultural enrichment bringing, respectively, Jewish and Muslim music into the mainstream. Danielle Padley and Jonas Otterbeck survey the scene... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

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How do we measure what wisdom scientists, religious leaders or politicians have? Sometimes we intuit it without quite knowing why. Sometimes we are wrong to do so. Esther- Miriam Wagner and Tim Stevens bring their wisdom to bear on understanding wisdom... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Where do religious beliefs come from? It's a perfectly reasonable question, and it's a question that even the fervent atheist might ask, although Richard Dawkins would come to a very different conclusion from the Archbishop of Canterbury. Kitty O'Lone and Rabbi Danny Smith reflect on an age old question... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

In the Abrahamic tradition, God is nearly always referred to with a male pronoun, though presumably God has no gender. One of the dominant scientific institutions, the Linnean Society, proscribed women until 1904. Lea Taragin- Zeller and Shanon Shah consider the charge sheet... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Stephen Hawking, who died in March 2018, was no ordinary scientist. His book A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME was an international best seller and he became a very unusual sort of international celebrity, even starring in an episode of THE SIMPSONS. Marika Taylor and Hélène Mialet discuss his legacy... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Light is one of the fundamental mysteries of our world. We still don't fully understand it. As an idea it is central to both philosophy and theology. At the darkest time of the year, Ilaria Bernocchi and Christopher Wadibia explore the theological and aesthetic significance of light in all its forms... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

LIVING IN HARMONY is a Woolf Institute outreach project which promotes understanding between Jews Muslims and Christians by demonstrating the shared musical heritage of the three faiths in the Middle East. Dunya Habash and Mohammed Ahmed explain how it works and play some examples... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Was there a reluctance to follow government guidance and a tendency towards vaccine scepticism in strictly observant Jewish and Muslim communities? And does this underpin high rates of disease transmission among these groups? Speaking with Ed Kessler, the Woolf Institute's Julian Hargreaves and Shaima Hassan have each conducted some research... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

What finally made the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland work? Is it now coming under threat? Should we think of peace as a continuing process rather than as a goal? The historian Niamh Gallagher and leader of the Alliance Party John Alderdice reflect on a complex situation... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Dealing with climate change presents a huge challenge but we focus on one aspect of the problem. Tim Winter, Chair of the board of trustees of Cambridge Mosque and the architect Sam Turner discuss building more sustainably and more imaginatively... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

It is Interfaith week in the UK and two practitioners, David Hampshire and Kitty O'Lone, talk about the principles of the movement which can range from high profile diplomacy to local get togethers... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Rhetoric used to be a subject for study at schools and universities. These days, eloquence seems to be under threat from social media and the public can be suspicious of persuasive scientists and religious leaders. To mark the 100th edition of NAKED REFLECTIONS Rowan Williams and Chris Smith come together to discuss the merits and dangers of eloquence. Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Paganism was omnipresent in the worlds of ancient Greece and Rome and their gods and myths have come down to us as part of our cultural inheritance. In northern Europe it took different forms but its traditions underpin many aspects of Christian ritual and symbolism. Kitty O'Lone and Ronald Hutton join Ed Kessler to explain a much misunderstood religion... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

A disagreement over a trivial or domestic matter may be easily overcome, but what about a disagreement over something that goes to the core of your religious or ethical beliefs? Julie Siddiqi and Alissa Symon discuss the hard won art of disagreeing... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Following an increase in anti-Semitic postings on social media, the anti-Semitism Policy Trust looked into it and asked the Woolf Institute to analyse the material they discovered. Julian Hargreaves discusses what he found with Daniel Staetsky... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

When Samson inveigled his way into the Temple of Dagon, he used his superhuman strength to pull the whole thing down, killing everyone inside and himself too. Remind you of anything? Samson has been characterized as a purveyor of awesome religious terror, a sort of proto suicide bomber. This week, Lord Carlile and Hadiya Masieh get to grips with terrorism... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

When the W.H.O. visited Wuhan and reported their findings on the COVID outbreak, they acknowledged access to all the relevant data was limited. So was there a cover up? Freya Jephcott and Alfred Moore reflect on the current state of thinking... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

It was a surprise when President Joe Biden suggested suspending medical patents to speed up the global roll out of COVID vaccines, but was he missing the point? Richard Jennings, Yuan Hu and Gurch Randhawa discuss patents and "big pharma"... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review