Matters of Life and Death

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1. Acceptable suffering? The ethics of animal testing

   4 november 2026 · 46 min

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   In the United States, a surprising coalition of MAGA Republicans and progressive Democrats have united in their shared opposition to animal testing in medical research, and are pushing to shut it down for good. But what should Christians think about using animals in research to find new drugs or treatments for humans? John spent years conducting just this kind of research himself as a doctor, and so we discuss how he came to believe this was morally appropriate and his own run-ins with Britain’s animal rights activists. We also think through the theological foundations of human exceptionalism, and how the idea we are different (and indeed more valuable) than everything else God has made is coming under fresh challenge today. Lees meer

   The original Economist article we cite at the start: https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2026/08/05/how-a-bipartisan-coalition-is-taking-aim-at-animal-research

   • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk
   • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173
   • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com
   • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com
   • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

2. Vaccine conspiracies, mistrust and catastrophism: How the church lost its way, with Dr Francis Collins

   28 oktober 2026 · 46 min

   Afspelen
   Tim is away this week, so please enjoy a classic episode from the MOLAD archive:
   Francis Collins is one of the leading scientists of his generation, a world-renowned geneticist who led the international project to map the human genome. Later he served under three presidents as the director of the National Institute of Health, which led him to play a pivotal role in America’s battle against the covid pandemic. He’s also an evangelical Christian who has often shared his convictions that science and Biblical faith are never in conflict. His experience trying, and often failing, to persuade sceptical American Christians to get vaccinated, while culture wars tore apart churches and communities alike, prompted him to write a book calling for a return to traditional sources of wisdom: science, truth, and faith. In this episode we talk through his experiences in public office as a Christian scientist and discuss how the US evangelical church became so polarised, divided and sceptical of good science, even when presented by faithful believers like him. Lees meer

   • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk
   • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173
   • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com
   • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com
   • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

3. Prepare for war?

   21 oktober 2026 · 45 min

   Afspelen
   An influential British church leader has issued a ‘prophetic’ warning to the church to prepare for armed conflict in the near future. This has triggered a minor frenzy, with reactions ranging from panic to suspicion. But his warnings actually echo quite a lot of what the British government and military have also been saying in recent months too. In today’s episode we consider the different ways Christians think about war and what it might look like to seriously get ready if you believe conflict is coming. Is there a piece of theological reflection on pacifism and just war theory to be done, alongside stockpiling tinned food and drinking water? How could pastors prepare their flocks for the possibility of being conscripted into World War Three? And why are some Christian voices apparently egging on the very state which is threatening to throw Europe back into war? Lees meer

   • You can listen to Pete Greig’s full prophecy here https://wildfiresfestival.com/venue/labs/ or read his statement online here https://www.dirtyglory.org/blog/2026/10/5/prepare-for-war-a-statement
   • John Heathershaw’s blog responding to Greig is here https://substack.com/@johnheathershaw/p-218503397

   • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk
   • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173
   • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com
   • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com
   • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

4. The death penalty

   14 oktober 2026 · 46 min

   Afspelen
   Two stories about capital punishment in the United States have grabbed attention across the world: the doubly-botched attempt to execute Christa Pike, which left this convicted murderer alive but hospitalised, and plans by the federal government to livestream their own execution of the army officer behind the Fort Hood shooting. In today’s episode we reflect on the death penalty, which has been abolished for most of the Western world for generations yet persists in the US, and consider the arguments for and against from a Christian perspective. Does God sanction governments to carry out this ultimate punishment? What effect does taking another’s life have on us? Can the death penalty be reconciled with the gospel of grace and God’s offer of redemption in Christ? Lees meer

   • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk
   • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173
   • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com
   • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com
   • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

5. Near death experiences

   7 oktober 2026 · 49 min

   Afspelen
   John is away, so here's a classic episode from the MOLAD vault. Once dismissed as quackery or New Age woo, near death experiences are seeing something of a modern revival. A slew of serious scientists and doctors have begun studying the phenomenon, even constructing clinical trials to try and see what, if anything, goes on when someone is on the brink of death but is resuscitated successfully. And there is now an entire Christian industry of books and films about believers who claim to have ‘gone to heaven and come back’ after nearly dying. What are the scientific claims behind these experiences, and what do we know and not know about what happens to the brain as it begins to die? Should believers embrace near death experiences as concrete proof of the afterlife? And how does Jesus and the New Testament encourage the Christian to approach questions and fears about death? Lees meer

   • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk
   • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173
   • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com
   • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com
   • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

6. How do you solve a problem like social care?

   30 september 2026 · 46 min

   Afspelen
   It’s been obvious for decades now that the UK’s system for looking after older people who need some kind of care in their later years is horrendously underfunded and riddled with holes. And yet despite numerous governments pledging to finally fix the issue and create a proper safety net for social care, nothing has actually happened even as the population ages and millions more people are faced with trying to cover the spiralling costs of care by themselves. This week we are joined by Christian economist Andrew Dilnot, who was tasked by the government 15 years ago to come up with a solution (only for his recommendation to then be jettisoned later). We discuss what he proposed, why it (and all other proposals) failed to be implemented, and whether a form of social insurance for social care is a truly Christian response to the crisis. Lees meer

   • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk
   • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173
   • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com
   • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com
   • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

7. Will AI kill us all?

   23 september 2026 · 54 min

   Afspelen
   It’s been hard to avoid the endless news stories coming out of Silicon Valley in recent weeks, as AI insiders and executives earnestly tell the world they really are now worried that the tools they are making could destroy humanity as we know it. What on earth should we as Christians make of these stark predictions, and should we be starting to prepare as a church to live in a much more dangerous, unpredictable and unstable world?
   But first, we begin this episode reflecting on the recent defeat of the assisted dying bill in the House of Commons, the second time in the last year such a proposed law has come unstuck in parliament. What happened to stymie it this time, is this the end of the road for the pro-euthanasia side, and what role did Christians play this time round? Lees meer

   • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk
   • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173
   • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com
   • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com
   • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

8. The Ebola emergency

   16 september 2026 · 54 min

   Afspelen
   You may not have read too much about it, but the current outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is by far the most serious for years, and remains far from under control months after it began. This week we interview Giles Cattermole, a British emergency doctor who has just come back from a month volunteering at a makeshift hospital in the heart of the epidemic. We talk about what life is like trying to care for people with an incurable and highly infectious disease in rural Africa, what motivated him as a Christian to risk his life to head to the midst of the crisis, and why the West seems so apathetic and uncaring about this horrific disease cutting a swathe through the DRC. Lees meer

   Find out more about Samaritan’s Purse’s work combatting Ebola - https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/EbolaResponse
   The US CDC’s page on the latest on the Ebola outbreak - https://www.cdc.gov/ebola/situation-summary/index.html
   Africa CDC also has information on the Ebola epidemic - https://africacdc.org/bundibugyo-virus-disease-bvd-ebola-outbreak/

   • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk
   • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173
   • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com
   • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com
   • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

9. Intergenerational sin, reparations and truth-telling: The church and the legacy of slavery, with Richard Reddie

   9 september 2026 · 1 uur 11 min

   Afspelen
   The Church of England has been for several years embarked on a highly controversial plan to spend £100m of its historic assets to try and make amends for the way its institutions profited from investments in the slave trade centuries ago. Plenty of other denominations are also wrestling with similar dark legacies from their past. Should the church of today be held morally accountable for the sins of their forebears? Are financial transactions the best way to atone for the past anyway? And can we still trace the impact of the enslavement and oppression of Africans centuries ago in the Western church even to this day? To discuss this, Tim is joined by Richard Reddie, the director of justice and inclusion at Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. Lees meer

   • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk
   • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173
   • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com
   • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com
   • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

10. Ethical populism: Should elites block questionable policy developments which nevertheless have strong public support?

    2 september 2026 · 43 min

    Afspelen
    A new study has revealed that ordinary people in both America and China are fairly strongly in favour of so-called liberal eugenics – using genetic screening to choose your own children’s non-medical traits like IQ, appearance or even personality. Medical and scientific figures tend to be opposed to using advanced polygenic screening for anything beyond serious medical conditions, worried by the ethics over ‘designer babies’ and unintended consequences. But is it fair or feasible in the long-term for elites to refuse to grant access to a technology which appears to have substantial backing within society?
    But first, we discuss a major legal defeat for the tech firm Meta, which has settled an £18bn lawsuit by most of the state attorney generals in the US over the harm caused by its social media apps Facebook and Instagram. This is the latest in a series of courtroom setbacks for Meta and other Silicon Valley giants, who are being forced into placing more restrictions on teenagers using their addictive and ubiquitous social networks. Lees meer

    • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk
    • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173
    • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com
    • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com
    • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

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