Nick Spencer: re-enchanting aliens, animals, and AI

Belle and Justin chat with Nick about what makes humans unique.

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

A podcast guest speaks in front of a mic and raises their hands to gesture.

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Nick Spencer is Senior Fellow at Theos and hosts their podcast ‘Reading Our Times’. He is the author of a number of books and reports, including Magisteria: the entangled histories of science and religion and his most recent book co-authored with Hannah Waite, Playing God: Science, Religion and the Future of Humanity.

Belle and Justin chat with Nick about aliens, animals and AI. How are the boundaries of science and technology re-enchanting what makes humans unique?

Visit Nick Spencer's page on the Theos web site

There’s more to life than the world we can see. Re-Enchanting is a podcast from Seen & Unseen recorded at Lambeth Palace Library, the home of the Centre for Cultural Witness. Justin Brierley and Belle Tindall engage faith and spirituality with leading figures in science, history, politics, art and education. Can our culture be re-enchanted by the vision of Christianity?

Podcast

Creed

Life & Death

6 September 2024

1 min read

Lydia Dugdale: the lost art of dying

New GodPod episode. How well do we deal with our own death? What is a ‘technology-dependant death’, and should we want it?

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

A medieval book illustration of a person dying in bed.

A 15th Century ars moriendi, or ‘art of dying’ image.

Basel University, via WikiCommons.

How well do we deal with our own death? What is a ‘technology-dependant death’, and should we want it? Just because we can prolong our lives, should we?

These are just some of the questions pondered by our three presenters – Jane Williams, Micheal Lloyd and Graham Tomlin – along with physician and ethicist, Dr Lydia Dugdale.

Lydia talks the presenters through the historical shifts that have caused us to go from speaking about death openly and honestly, to having a newfound societal imagination that tells us that ‘death won’t come to us’ – and why that’s a problem.

This is one of the most thought-provoking episodes of GodPod yet.

For more about Lydia and her bestselling book – The Lost Art of Dying: Lydia S. Dugdale (lydiadugdale.com)