Life & Faith

How do you raise kids who see the world’s problems, and believe they can do something about it?

--- 

“I guess I'm concerned that kids are becoming depressed and overwhelmed by the big problems that they see in the world. And I think if we just leave it at that, they will grow up with a worldview that says, ‘The world's a wreck. There's nothing I can do in it. I might as well just watch Netflix.’ Whereas I think if we give kids an opportunity to respond to the problems in the world when they're young, they will develop a worldview that says, ‘Oh, there's a problem in the world. There's something I can do about that.’”

Susy Lee has a background in psychology, theology, aid and development, peace and conflict, children’s and family ministry, and … computer science. Across her various jobs and studies, she’s been preoccupied with the question: how do you make the world better? 

She’s convinced that how we parent has an awful lot to do with it. In her new book, Raising Kids Who Care: Practical conversations for exploring stuff that matters, together, Susy has built a handbook for family discussions on everything from consumerism to how to listen well, conflict resolution to porn, world poverty and climate change to finding your purpose in life. 

In this episode of Life & Faith, she explains how her own family background and experience has shaped her, and offers a model for parents and others to help kids encounter the tricky realities of life in ways that are hopeful, and might just change the world.

---

Buy a copy of Raising Kids Who Care: Practical conversations for exploring stuff that matters, together https://www.amazon.com.au/Raising-Kids-Who-Care-conversations-ebook/dp/B0971FTPXR/ 

A former Yale professor on the clever but morally clueless students pursuing an elite education. 

------

In 2014, William Deresiewicz’s book Excellent Sheep: The miseducation of the American elite and the way to a meaningful life became an instant best-seller. The former Yale professor called out the way that elite American universities produced “excellent sheep”: clever, highly credentialled, and conscientious young people who were nonetheless stumped about the meaning of life. Instead, they funnelled themselves into high-paying jobs in law, finance, medicine, consulting, or tech.   

In this fascinating discussion, Deresiewicz talks about the way that words like “soul” have a gravity that non-religious language can’t replicate, why a good education is necessarily going to ask existential questions about “love and time and God and everything”, and how he annoyed Canadian psychologist and popular science writer Steven Pinker with talk about university as a time to “build your self”.

As the Australian federal government changes the pricing structure of university degrees to encourage students to pursue courses in areas of expected job growth, it’s clear that we’re also asking: what exactly is the value of an education?

------

Explore:

Excellent Sheep: The miseducation of the American elite and the way to a meaningful life

(Bill’s most recent book) The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech

A former Yale professor on the clever but morally clueless students pursuing an elite education. 

------

In 2014, William Deresiewicz’s book Excellent Sheep: The miseducation of the American elite and the way to a meaningful life became an instant best-seller. The former Yale professor called out the way that elite American universities produced “excellent sheep”: clever, highly credentialled, and conscientious young people who were nonetheless stumped about the meaning of life. Instead, they funnelled themselves into high-paying jobs in law, finance, medicine, consulting, or tech.   

In this fascinating discussion, Deresiewicz talks about the way that words like “soul” have a gravity that non-religious language can’t replicate, why a good education is necessarily going to ask existential questions about “love and time and God and everything”, and how he annoyed Canadian psychologist and popular science writer Steven Pinker with talk about university as a time to “build your self”.

As the Australian federal government changes the pricing structure of university degrees to encourage students to pursue courses in areas of expected job growth, it’s clear that we’re also asking: what exactly is the value of an education?

------

Explore:

Excellent Sheep: The miseducation of the American elite and the way to a meaningful life

(Bill’s most recent book) The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech

Mike and Steve Baird grew up as sons of prominent Australian politician Bruce Baird. Both recently moved from corporate roles into the not-for-profit sector.

------

Mike Baird had a successful career in banking before going into politics – eventually  becoming the 44th Premier of NSW. He returned  to banking after ten years in politics but recently moved to become CEO of HammondCare – a large Christian charity that provides dementia and aged care along with palliative care. Their mission – to improve the quality of life for people in need.

Mike’s younger brother Steve was also had a successful career in the corporate world, and has made a significant shift to International Justice Mission Australia - part of the largest anti-slavery organisation in the world. 

This week we hear from the brothers, Mike and Steve--what it was like growing up together, the people and experiences that have shaped them most and why they moved from the corporate world into the not-for-profit sector. What motivates them both in leading two organisations seeking to offer assistance to people in great need?

------

https://www.hammond.com.au/

https://ijm.org.au/

Think “scientific” and “creative” are opposites? Physicist Tom McLeish begs to disagree.

---

“We forget, in science, that what we call the scientific method is really only the method for a tiny bit of science. It's the only bit of science that there can be a method for, which is testing out and checking our hypotheses when we've got them. The really crucial step in science is to get good ideas going in the first place, to have great new insights, to imagine whole new structures of the world, or fungus on the trees, or black holes, or whatever it might be. Now, there really is no method for having great, innovative, scientific, imaginative, creative ideas. So where do they come from?”

Tom McLeish is a physicist and author, and talks about science more enthusiastically than anyone else you’ll ever meet. His current title is Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of York - and “natural philosophy” is far from the only unusual term he likes to use when talking about science. 

His latest book is The Poetry and Music of Science: Comparing Creativity in Science and Art, and in this conversation he explains what being a scientist and being an artist have in common; why it is that experimental science and the English novel got going at about the same time; and why he thinks the “book of nature” might be written in poetry rather than prose.

And in the spirit of bringing art and science together, the American poet Mary Peelen reads two of her poems, “Chaos Theory” and “Supernova”, from her award-winning collection Quantum Heresies.

---

Check out The Poetry and Music of Science by Tom McLeish: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-poetry-and-music-of-science-9780198797999

Read or listen to the Mary Peelen poems found in this episode at Radar Poetry, used with permission:

“Chaos Theory”: https://www.radarpoetry.com/chaos-theory

“Supernova”: https://www.radarpoetry.com/supernova

Discover more of Mary’s poems at http://marypeelen.com/

Think “scientific” and “creative” are opposites? Physicist Tom McLeish begs to disagree.

---

“We forget, in science, that what we call the scientific method is really only the method for a tiny bit of science. It's the only bit of science that there can be a method for, which is testing out and checking our hypotheses when we've got them. The really crucial step in science is to get good ideas going in the first place, to have great new insights, to imagine whole new structures of the world, or fungus on the trees, or black holes, or whatever it might be. Now, there really is no method for having great, innovative, scientific, imaginative, creative ideas. So where do they come from?”

Tom McLeish is a physicist and author, and talks about science more enthusiastically than anyone else you’ll ever meet. His current title is Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of York - and “natural philosophy” is far from the only unusual term he likes to use when talking about science. 

His latest book is The Poetry and Music of Science: Comparing Creativity in Science and Art, and in this conversation he explains what being a scientist and being an artist have in common; why it is that experimental science and the English novel got going at about the same time; and why he thinks the “book of nature” might be written in poetry rather than prose.

And in the spirit of bringing art and science together, the American poet Mary Peelen reads two of her poems, “Chaos Theory” and “Supernova”, from her award-winning collection Quantum Heresies.

---

Check out The Poetry and Music of Science by Tom McLeish: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-poetry-and-music-of-science-9780198797999

Read or listen to the Mary Peelen poems found in this episode at Radar Poetry, used with permission:

“Chaos Theory”: https://www.radarpoetry.com/chaos-theory

“Supernova”: https://www.radarpoetry.com/supernova

Discover more of Mary’s poems at http://marypeelen.com/

We assume - but rarely name - the elephant in the room when we talk about consent: human dignity.

-----

Grace Tame. Brittany Higgins. Chanel Contos.

These young women have put consent and sexual assault front and centre of the national agenda, raising troubling concerns about the way men treat women.

In this episode, we step back from the immediate headlines generated by the crisis. Instead, we explore what is core to all discussions of consent, but rarely named: the concern that all people - but especially women - are treated with dignity. 

Tim Bowden, principal of Trinity Grammar School in Sydney, and Lynda Dunstan, Domestic and Family Violence Advisor at Anglicare, explore the environmental influences shaping the way men and women relate to each other. 

Lynda particularly focuses on patterns of gender inequality that drive injustices against women, while Tim reflects on the challenge facing him as principal of an all-boys school: turning boys into men.

Moral philosopher Emma Wood identifies competing visions of sex in contemporary culture that have very different implications for how we treat each other. She joins theologian John Stackhouse in calling for a substantial story promoting human dignity to ground ideas about consent. 

As John Stackhouse says, “What we do with our bodies is sometimes trivial and fairly unimportant. But when we get into the zone of relating to other people and touching other people, it’s always important. Touch is never trivial. And sex is really never trivial.”

----

Emma Wood’s article on ABC Religion & Ethics

1800 Respect or 1800 737 732

Men’s Referral Service or 1300 766 491

Lifeline or 13 11 14

“As a junior doctor I went to Ethiopia to work with my aunt in the desert area, and we were just wandering around the desert with camels, treating people under trees and shrubs and things in 50-degree heat … You’d have to sleep with a guard with a gun because the hyenas get quite close, so every now and then you’d get woken up with a gunshot and this hyena yelping off in the distance. And then a bit later that night a camel was bellowing just a few metres away from my head and gives birth, and I get splattered with all this amniotic fluid.”

Andrew Browning has spent more than 17 years in Africa as a missionary doctor. As a medical student, he spent time working with Rwandan refugees fleeing the genocide; as a junior doctor, he joined Catherine Hamlin at the Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia, dedicating his life to helping women who are suffering from debilitating childbirth injuries. 

In this episode of Life & Faith, Andrew explains how he could give up a lucrative, comfortable life as a doctor at home in Australia to help thousands of women halfway round the world. He explains the risks of childbirth in rural places, what a fistula is, and his hope for a future where women don’t have to face this kind of suffering. 

He also talks about the difference between being a missionary doctor or a secular healthcare worker somewhere like Africa – as well as how African and Western people respond differently to illness, suffering, and death. 

“I remember telling people in Australia they’ve got cancer, or ‘You’ve got a life-threatening condition’, and the immediate reaction was ‘No, no, you’re wrong’ or ‘Give me a second opinion; that can’t be true’, or they’re angry. Whereas if you do that in Africa it’s much more ‘Oh, okay, sure. My time is up.’ I mean they’re much more attuned to death and accepting of suffering as part of life, they see it every day … The poor in Africa, the physically poor, people say that they’re spiritually rich, and the materially rich are often spiritually poor – at least in my experience.”

—

Content warning: This episode contains explicit medical details, as well as descriptions of violence, that you may find distressing and that probably aren’t appropriate for kids. 

Find out more about Andrew’s ongoing work to end obstetric fistula globally through the Barbara May Foundation. 

The book inspired by this episode, A Doctor in Africa, is published by Pan Macmillan.

This episode was first broadcast on 23 May 2019