Matters of Life & Death

What does it mean to be made in the image of God?

29 Jul 2026
01:01:58

Tim’s on holiday this week, so here’s an episode from the MOLAD archive we hope you will enjoy. Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.”’ These famous words from the first chapter of Genesis are the touchstone of the theo...

Magnifica humanitas: Will the Pope’s letter on AI make any difference?

22 Jul 2026
00:47:25

In May, Pope Leo released the first encyclical letter, a teaching document, which focused entirely on artificial intelligence. The first ever American head of the Catholic Church argued that as a new industrial revolution powered by ever-growing AI l...

Enough is enough: Can you have too much healthcare?

15 Jul 2026
00:39:47

In the modern West we normally do not question the idea that it’s always a good thing to have more medical research, more treatments, more new drugs and more money spent on healthcare. But could we be making an idol of our own bodies and health, as w...

Energy abundance: Is the coming solar power revolution a blessing from God?

8 Jul 2026
00:55:50

Even sober-minded experts are getting excited about solar power. Respectable estimates suggest the price of energy derived from sunlight will continue to drop spectacularly as the number of panels installed worldwide continues to explode exponentiall...

Why is Britain becoming ungovernable? The grey vote and the need for intergenerational justice

1 Jul 2026
01:03:48

Our first topic this morning is about the fall of yet another prime minister here in the UK, our sixth to resign since the Brexit referendum exactly 10 years ago. We explore some of the structural problems built into modern British politics which hav...

Autism: Disability or superpower?

24 Jun 2026
01:01:52

John is away this week so here’s an episode from the MOLAD vault to enjoy. Diagnosis rates for autism have been steadily rising for decades now, and as the condition has become more prevalent there has been a growing debate within the community and w...

From population bomb to fertility cliff edge: The ethics of birth rates

17 Jun 2026
00:41:06

For the first part of this episode we return to a subject we discussed last year, after new data from India showed its fertility rate had continued to plummet and was now below replacement rate. Just a few decades ago, many feared India would be amon...

‘See how they love each other’: Why are Christians so bad at HR?

10 Jun 2026
01:01:06

In the wake of its devastating abuse crises, the Church of England has poured money and effort into massively boosting its safeguarding apparatus. But a recent independent audit has warned the safeguarding team is being swamped with complaints and di...

The unintended consequences of fertility treatment breakthroughs

3 Jun 2026
00:59:33

Following on from our recent episode about making IVF more ‘ethical’, we zoom out a bit in this conversation to think about other questions presented by the huge advances made by reproductive science and medicine in the last 50 years. Has the way IVF...

Abusive relationships and coercive control in church

27 May 2026
01:04:11

Tim is away this week, so here’s an episode from the MOLAD archive. Society has been on a long and slow journey in recent decades into a richer and more sympathetic understanding of how abuse and coercion work within relationships. We are much better...

What would Christian IVF look like?

20 May 2026
00:48:37

For couples experiencing infertility IVF is often the first port of call, and today millions of children have been brought into the world through this powerful reproductive technology. But many Christians are concerned about how IVF is normally pract...

Learning from Luther how to remain faithful during pandemics

13 May 2026
01:07:05

Although we mostly try not to think about those dark days any more, the covid pandemic threw up a dizzying array of complex ethical and moral dilemmas for Christians. Should we carry on meeting in person for Sunday worship despite the risk of infecti...

The Biobank data leak: Privacy, knowledge and the humility of faith over sight

6 May 2026
00:52:31

Our discussion today begins with the concerning news that a world-leading database of medical records, the UK’s Biobank, has suffered an embarrassing leak after hundreds of thousands of confidential records were put up for sale on a Chinese website....

Does Jesus want to stop the boats? The immigration and asylum culture wars, with Krish Kandiah

29 Apr 2026
00:59:27

Much of the political conversation in the UK and the United States in recent years has been dominated by immigration and asylum. Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have been competing to offer up ever tougher approaches to cut immigration, dep...

The hollowed-out state: Can the church reinspire public service?

22 Apr 2026
00:41:43

Our conversation today begins with a report into the significant deterioration of healthcare systems across the Western world in the six years since the covid pandemic. Regardless of billions being poured into them, public satisfaction and health out...