Brave New Us: Choosing Human in the Age of Biotechnology

What happens when technology stops serving humanity and begins redefining it?

In this episode of Brave New Us, Samantha Stephenson sits down with Dr. John Grabowski, professor of moral theology and ethics at The Catholic University of America and author of A Catholic Guide to Being Human.

Their conversation explores Christian anthropology in an age of artificial intelligence, transhumanism, reproductive technology, and gender ideology. Together they discuss why science is not the same as scientism, why technology is never entirely neutral, and how the Church's understanding of the human person provides a compelling alternative to today's culture of self-creation.

They also examine the ethics of life extension, CRISPR, designer children, contraception, and the relationship between the body, identity, and personhood—drawing on Scripture, Theology of the Body, C.S. Lewis, and Pope St. John Paul II.

In This Episode

Why Dr. Grabowski wrote A Catholic Guide to Being Human

Science versus scientism

The technological imperative

AI and whether tools are ever morally neutral

The promises and pitfalls of transhumanism

Therapy versus enhancement in medicine

CRISPR, longevity, and life-extension ethics

Why children are meant to be begotten, not made

Contraception and the transhumanist impulse

Gender ideology and "the body as screen"

Modern Gnosticism and today's cultural debates

Pope St. John Paul II as an example of authentic humanity

Resources Mentioned

A Catholic Guide to Being Human

Marriage4Life

Angela Franks, Body and Identity

Mary Eberstadt, Primal Screams

Pope St. John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis

Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas

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Chapters

00:00 Science as Truth Judge

00:24 Meet Dr. John Grabowski

01:20 Why This Book Works

05:18 Chapter Eight Focus

06:11 Science Versus Scientism

10:25 Technological Imperative

12:50 AI Not Just Neutral

15:12 Transhumanism Explained

18:24 Life Extension Ethics

23:47 Therapy Versus Enhancement

26:47 Making Versus Begetting

31:25 Designer Children Ethics

32:38 Defining Personhood

34:06 Contraception as Technology

35:47 From Contraception to Identity

39:31 Body as Screen

43:31 Transitioning Realities

46:56 DSM Terms and Treatment

50:58 Gnosticism and Gender

55:17 John Paul II Example

58:58 Resources and Wrap Up

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🌿 Newsletter: Choosing Human

🎙️ Podcast: Brave New Us

📚 Books:

Reclaiming Motherhood from a Culture Gone Mad

The Bellbind Letters

Grow Where You're Planted

Thank you for listening.

This is a FREE preview of a subscriber only podcast. To listen to the rest of the episode, become a paid subscriber and support the podcast at https://www.choosinghuman.org

Connect with Samantha

🌿 Newsletter: Choosing Human

🎙️ Podcast: Brave New Us

📚 Books:

Reclaiming Motherhood from a Culture Gone Mad

The Bellbind Letters

Grow Where You're Planted

Thank you for listening.

What happens when technology designed to save premature babies begins to make pregnancy itself seem optional? In this episode, Samantha Stephenson revisits her 2024 essay Artificial Wombs, Artificial Love and explores what has changed in artificial-womb technology—and what we risk losing if machines begin to replace the maternal womb. From maternal touch and fetal development to surrogacy, genetic selection, and the virtue of parental sacrifice, she asks whether technological progress can ever fully substitute for the embodied reality of pregnancy.

In This Episode

What artificial-womb technology can actually do—and where the research is headed

Why the maternal womb cannot simply be reduced to a mechanical environment

Maternal touch, fetal development, and the ethics of experimentation

Artificial wombs, surrogacy, and the growing desire to eliminate pregnancy

What we lose when we replace the sacrifices of parenthood with technological convenience

Connect with Samantha

🌿 Newsletter: Choosing Human

🎙️ Podcast: Brave New Us

📚 Books:

Reclaiming Motherhood from a Culture Gone Mad

The Bellbind Letters

Grow Where You're Planted

Thank you for listening.

It can hardly be a coincidence, I think, that on the day I have selected to launch a new(ish) cadence and project for Choosing Human, Netflix is releasing its new adaptation of Steinbeck’s East of Eden. When I heard they were making an updated version starring Florence Pugh, I was cautiously optimistic. When I realized the release date was today, the day I planned to share with you the origin story for the title of this newsletter, I was downright tickled.

Connect with Samantha

🌿 Newsletter: Choosing Human

🎙️ Podcast: Brave New Us

📚 Books:

Reclaiming Motherhood from a Culture Gone Mad

The Bellbind Letters

Grow Where You're Planted

Thank you for listening.

Recorded live at the Rocky Mountain Catholic Home Educators Conference (June 20, 2026)

Our homes are not just places where we live—they are places where souls are formed.

In this keynote from the 2026 Rocky Mountain Catholic Home Educators Conference, Samantha Stephenson invites parents to see their vocation with fresh eyes. In a culture saturated with anxiety, distraction, algorithms, and competing voices, mothers and fathers are called to become guardians of their homes—carefully discerning what enters their family's imagination, habits, and hearts.

Drawing from Scripture, Catholic tradition, and practical wisdom for everyday family life, Samantha explores how we can cultivate homes rooted in truth, beauty, goodness, and peace. Rather than reacting to every cultural trend or technological advance, Christian families are called to become intentional communities that form children capable of recognizing the voice of the Good Shepherd.

Whether you're homeschooling, raising young children, or simply longing for a more peaceful home, this talk offers encouragement and practical tools for reclaiming your family's attention, imagination, and mission.

In this episode:

Why parents are the primary formators of their children's hearts and minds

How modern media and technology compete for our attention

Learning to recognize the difference between God's voice and the voices of fear, consumerism, and distraction

Building a home centered on truth, beauty, and goodness

Creating habits that foster peace instead of anxiety

Practical ways to cultivate silence, prayer, and wonder in family life

Why the culture of your home matters more than the culture around you

If this episode encouraged you, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing it with another parent who could use a little encouragement.

Connect with Samantha

🌿 Newsletter: Choosing Human

🎙️ Podcast: Brave New Us

📚 Books:

Reclaiming Motherhood from a Culture Gone Mad

The Bellbind Letters

Grow Where You're Planted

Thank you for listening.

Artificial intelligence is changing how we search for information, write, create, learn, and even pray. But what happens when AI enters the life of the Church?

In this episode of Brave New Us, Samantha Stephenson sits down with Tim, creator of Chatechism, one of the most ambitious Catholic AI projects to date. Together they explore not only what AI can do for Catholics, but also where it should—and shouldn't—go.

Rather than offering easy answers, this conversation wrestles honestly with some of the biggest questions facing the Church in the age of artificial intelligence: Can an AI ever be trusted with spiritual guidance? What responsibilities do Catholic developers have toward truth, ecology, and the common good? Should AI help write homilies or daily reflections? And what might faithful innovation actually look like?

Whether you're excited about AI, deeply skeptical, or somewhere in between, this episode offers a thoughtful Catholic framework for engaging one of the defining technologies of our time.

In this episode:

Why Catholics shouldn't simply fear artificial intelligence—or embrace it uncritically.

How large language models actually work, and why hallucinations remain one of their biggest limitations.

Why Chatechism was created and the vision behind building a distinctly Catholic AI.

What makes a trustworthy Catholic AI different from a generic chatbot trained on religious content.

The ethical responsibilities of Catholic AI developers, including concerns about bias, reliability, environmental costs, and cooperation with morally problematic technology companies.

How one Catholic family is navigating AI with children of every age—from toddlers to adults.

The risks AI poses to education, creativity, and authentic human formation.

Whether AI-generated spiritual reflections and homilies enrich the Church—or risk displacing the unique work of the Holy Spirit through human authors, pastors, and communities.

Why Catholics need to help shape the future of artificial intelligence instead of watching from the sidelines.

Tim's answer to the Brave New Us closing question: Who best embodies what it means to be truly human?

Resources Mentioned

Chatechism

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For more, check out Samantha’s article “Can AI Be Redeemed?”

Connect with Samantha

If you enjoy thoughtful conversations about biotechnology, artificial intelligence, faith, and what it means to remain deeply human in an age of rapid technological change, subscribe to Brave New Us wherever you listen to podcasts.

You can also find Samantha's writing at Choosing Human, where she explores bioethics, motherhood, technology, and Christian anthropology.

What if the answer isn’t escaping modern life, but learning to inhabit it differently?

In this season finale, Samantha reflects on her own attraction to the homestead ideal — and why she ultimately reconsidered what it means to live sustainably, faithfully, and attentively in the place God has already given her.

This episode marks the beginning of a summer pause for Brave New Us and an invitation to continue the conversation through gardening, stewardship, and cultivation on YouTube.

In this episode:

The appeal and limits of the homestead dream

Stewardship versus escape

Gardening as an embodied spiritual practice

An invitation to grow where you’re planted

Summer Update:
Brave New Us will return after a seasonal break. In the meantime, join Samantha on YouTube for garden stories, practical growing, and reflections on embodiment, limits, and care for creation.

Buy the book:

Grow Where You’re Planted: Reclaming Eden in Your Own Backyard

YouTube

Medical breakthroughs often arrive faster than our moral vocabulary can keep up.

Samantha speaks with Andrew Kubick of the National Catholic Bioethics Center about uterine transplantation — from its therapeutic promise for women experiencing infertility to the profound ethical questions raised as reproductive technology expands toward increasingly experimental possibilities.

When medicine gains the power not only to heal but to redesign reproduction, how should we think about human dignity, motherhood, and the meaning of the body itself?

In this episode:

The science and ethics of uterine transplants

Therapeutic medicine vs. technological expansion

Bioethics and Catholic moral reasoning

The cultural implications of redefining reproduction

Buy the book:

Transplanting the Womb

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What if health begins not with control, but with trust?

Samantha speaks with a Catholic nutritionist about holistic health, women’s metabolism, and the growing desire to step out of cycles of restriction and anxiety surrounding food and wellness.

Together they explore how Christian anthropology offers a different starting point for health: the body as created good, meaningful, and worthy of care rather than suspicion.

In this episode:

Holistic health and the limits of modern wellness culture

Women’s health, metabolism, and stress

Faith and nutrition

Learning to cooperate with the body instead of fighting it

Buy the Book:

Made Good

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Modern culture is often described as disembodied — detached from physical reality and increasingly virtual. But is that diagnosis accurate?

In this episode, Samantha responds to arguments about “disembodiment,” proposing instead that modern life has produced a cluster of bodily effects: heightened anxiety about health, constant self-monitoring, and confusion about what the body means or how it should be understood.

Rather than abandoning the body, we may be struggling to interpret it.

In this episode:

A response to Helen Roy’s argument on disembodiment

Why modern people are hyper-focused on their bodies rather than detached from them

Technology, medicine, and the loss of bodily intelligibility

How diagnosing the problem shapes the path toward healing

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