Closer To Truth

Innovative theologian and neuroscientist Ilia Delio discusses Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, technology and AI, the pursuit of extraterrestrial life, and the roles of evolution, quantum physics, and neuroscience in theology.

Dr. Ilia Delio is a Franciscan Sister and a theologian from the Catholic tradition specializing in science and religion. She holds the Josephine Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University and is the founder of the Center for Christogenesis. She has earned two PhDs in neuropharmacology and historical theology, and is the author of twenty books including The Hours of the Universe and The Primacy of Love.

For subscriber-only benefits like discounts and bonus content, register for a free membership at closertotruth.com.

If life is a vast space of possibilities, then mathematics can engage with biology. Statistics analyze biological data, and mathematical models improve biological theories and reveal hidden commonalties. But could the mathematics of biology touch fundamental realities?

Featuring interviews with Leon Glass, Martin Nowak, Geoffrey West, Paul Davies, and Robbert Dijkgraaf.

For free subscriber-only exclusives, register today at closertotruth.com.

Roger Penrose—mathematician, physicist, philosopher—was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics. We speak with Roger about our favorite, fundamental questions. What things exist? What is math and why does it work? What’s fundamental in the cosmos?

All episodes of Season 22 are available now on our website: https://bit.ly/3QwMzIA

For subscriber-only exclusives, register for free today: https://closertotruth.com/register/

Mathematics describes the real world of atoms and acorns, stars and stairs, with remarkable precision. So is mathematics invented by humans-like chisels and hammers and pieces of music? Or is mathematics discovered-always out there, somewhere, like mysterious islands waiting to be found?

Featuring interviews with Roger Penrose, Mark Balaguer, Gregory Chaitin, Stephen Wolfram, and Frank Wilczek.

Register for free to get subscriber-only exclusives like early access to episodes and more.

Consider three powers of probability: refining data, assessing theories, probing ultimate reality. Watch how these work in cosmology: confidence in precise measurements; assessing competing models; revealing how quantum fluctuations became galactic structures.

Featuring interviews with Ivan Corwin, Licia Verde, Sabine Hossenfelder, David Wallace, and Aaron Clauset.

For access to subscriber-only exclusives, register for a free membership at closertotruth.com.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn speaks with Martin Rees—Astronomer Royal and co-founder of Centre for the Study of Existential Risk—about the James Webb Space Telescope, black holes, existential risk, and more.

Martin Rees is an astrophysicist and cosmologist, and the UK's Astronomer Royal. He is based at the University of Cambridge where he has been Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Institute of Astronomy. Martin is a Fellow, and was the former Master, of Trinity College, Cambridge.

For subscriber-only exclusives, register for free today: https://t.ly/Bk9Vd

What does brain damage do to people? By observing strange behaviors in brain-impaired patients, scientists discern how normal brains work. For example, what happens to “the self”?

Featuring interviews with Barry Smith, Donald Hoffman, Susan Greenfield, and Christopher Evans.

For subscriber-only exclusives, register for a free membership today: https://rb.gy/5japji

Why the astonishing claim that Jesus is God? Not like God. Not representing God. But literally God? One need not be a Christian, or even a theist, to appreciate the arguments.

Featuring interviews with Sarah Coakley, N.T. Wright, Oliver Crisp, Eleonore Stump, C. Stephen Evans, and Ian McFarland.

For subscriber-only exclusives, register for a free membership at closertotruth.com.

Freeman Dyson, visionary extraordinaire, was one of the most inventive thinkers of our age: discovering new mathematics, challenging fundamental physics, colonizing space, searching for signatures of alien civilizations, imagining the far future of intelligence.

For subscriber-only exclusives, register for a free membership today: www.closertotruth.com.

For subscriber-only exclusives, register for free at www.closertotruth.com.