This time of year, fantasy is in the air — tales of a red-nosed reindeer, a jolly North Pole resident, a virgin birth of God incarnate, and more.

In this episode, we explore the role of fantastic stories in our lives — and what believing in them can mean for us. You’ll hear from Madeleine L’Engle, the best-selling author of A Wrinkle in Time, in a Forum presentation at UC Santa Barbara in 1998. Weaving together tales from her life and work, Madeleine invites us to consider the gift of the fantastical — and how the Christian story might be more than a fairy tale.

Thank you to the Forum planning team at UC Santa Barbara for making this event possible! The full forum is linked in the episode description.

Sometimes belief can get you the job, secure the win, or help you make a difference. And, sometimes, belief doesn't seem to help at all. So, can we know which beliefs are worth believing in? And, when do we just need to take a leap of faith?

In today’s episode, our speakers wrestle with these questions. Psychology professor Matthew Vess (Texas A&M) is in dialogue with Sean McDowell (Biola), a professor of Apologetics. They discuss how certainty and belief interact and whether the claims of Christianity could ever be worth dying for.

This Forum event was held at Texas A&M in Spring 2023. Thank you to the Forum planning team who made this discussion possible!

In the US, more and more adults believe in “nothing in particular.” Recent surveys from Pew Research and the Associated Press suggest that around 30% of American adults are religiously unaffiliated, up 10% from a decade ago.

Surveys like these are helpful for religious belief in the abstract. But, when it comes to the questions and doubts you hold about your faith — or lack thereof — you need a different tool: story.

You'll hear two such stories today — and be invited to consider your own story, too. Hear Sam Mitchell (Mount Holyoke), an atheist philosopher, in dialogue with Christian philosopher, Meghan Sullivan (Notre Dame). They share how they developed their worldviews and discuss the challenges of belief in the particular. This Forum conversation was held in 2016 at Mount Holyoke College and is moderated by economics professor Jim Hartley. Thank you to the Forum planning team who made this event possible!

Today, you may be wrestling with what "progress" means — whether it's in relation to your own journey, your family’s, or your community’s. What do you want? And how will you get there?

In this episode, two Harvard professors explore these questions. In this 40-minute Forum excerpt, you’ll hear first from Tyler VanderWeele, the director of Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program. Tyler is in dialogue with Steven Pinker, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard and author of the best-selling book, Enlightenment Now. Tyler and Steven discuss their differing beliefs about what it means to be human, the role of faith in human flourishing, and if humanity tends towards dystopia or utopia. Their discussion is moderated by Rosalind Picard, a professor at MIT’s Media Lab and an inventor. This Forum was held on MIT's campus in Spring 2023.

Much of our external circumstances differ from how they were 2,000 years ago — largely, to our benefit. However, our internal lives are surprisingly similar. Our desires for money, sex, and power — and the extreme lengths we’re willing to go to get them — remain.

In this episode, you’ll hear from best-selling author and New Testament Scholar, N.T. Wright (Oxford). He suggests that the sacrifices we make for a “ideal” life are, in a way, worship. Our sacrifices may not be the burnt incense of ancient times, but, he says, our hearts are captivated by money, sex, and power just the same. 

This Forum was held at Northwestern University in 2012 and originally titled “What Gods Do We Believe in Now?” Since then, it’s earned over 100,000 views on YouTube. Watch the full Forum — featuring great discussion with Dr. Gary Morson of Northwestern — here.

What would your life be like if you knew everything? While it would be nice to remember everyone’s names and not have to study for tests, knowing everything has its drawbacks, too. You’d no longer feel surprised, curious, or filled with wonder. And, you'd miss out on getting to know people, asking hard and big questions, and the joy of learning new things.

Our speaker today knows firsthand all the good that not knowing can bring. In fact, he’s made a career out of it. Jonathan Feng (U.C. Irvine) is a theoretical physicist researching one of the biggest unknowns in the scientific world: dark matter. In this Forum event from 2018, Dr. Feng embraces the unknowns of the universe. He discusses how our ignorance can lead us to greater appreciation of the complicated and beautiful world we live in, push us towards humility and curiosity, and, perhaps, help us better know a powerful, creative, loving God.

This Forum was originally titled "The Post Hawking Universe" and was hosted by The Veritas Forum at the University of Southern California.

Today’s guest has some unexpected news for you: being happy isn’t possible. Instead, he says, work towards being happy-er.

You'll hear today from social scientist, happiness scholar, and best-selling author Arthur Brooks (Harvard). We talk with Arthur about this journey towards happier-ness and discuss his new book with Oprah Winfrey called Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. If you struggle with turning negative emotions into positive ones, if you're curious about the science behind the promises and claims of happiness scholarship, or if you simply want to live a happier life (and wonder if faith is a part of that), then this episode is for you.

Anthropologist Ernest Becker, in his Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Denial of Death, says that denying death is a necessary part of functioning in the world. It’s what inspires us to create culture, religion, and love, allowing us to avoid death and achieve immortality.

But perhaps there is another way — besides denial — to relate to death. What should our relationship with death look like? And, how often — and to what degree — should we contemplate our mortality?

Today's episode addresses these questions. You'll hear from philosophy professor Susanna Siegel (Harvard), and medical ethicist Lydia Dugdale (Columbia) in a Forum Event hosted at Harvard University in February 2023.

On November 8th, 2013, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones in recorded history hit the Philippines. Winds as high as 145 MPH tore through communities, causing $3B damage and killing over six thousand people.

A few weeks later, the Forum in this episode took place. The world was still grappling with what happened, wondering what meaning could be found in such a tragedy — or if there was any meaning at all.

In this 27-minute excerpt, you’ll have the space to mull over these questions of meaning. You’ll hear from John Lennox, a professor emeritus of mathematics at Oxford, and moderator Rosemary Avery, a professor of public policy at Cornell. They discuss the problem of evil, the goodness of God, and what the Christian scriptures suggest we do when our “whys” remain unanswered.

Watching a few “how-to” videos on YouTube doesn’t make you an expert. To really know “how-to” change a tire, make puff pastry, or play the piano, you have to do it. Through experience, you discover new dimensions of your knowledge — from finding holes in your reasoning, to growing in flexibility and nuance, to even reassessing who you are and maybe even what you believe in.

In this episode, you’ll hear a story of such a discovery with guest Dr. Tom Rudelius, a theoretical physicist and string theory researcher with degrees from Cornell and Harvard.

Tom's story is shared in his new memoir: Chasing Proof, Finding Faith. This episode follows the arc of Tom’s book — how he and his twin grew up, to the lie detector test that sparked his faith in Jesus, to the deepening of his faith even in the face of mental illness, anxiety, and doubt.