Humanize

We live in an era of cultural whiplash. Never has the potential for technological advances been more pronounced, and at the same time, the potential for wrenching societal dislocations so threatening. What are we to make of such times as these? Should we be excited or fearful, optimistic or quaking in our boots? For answers, Wesley turned to George Gilder, Read More ›

These days, hedonism strikes a beat in society. We have long been told that if it feels good, if it is what we want, so long as we aren’t hurting others, then, we should do it. But does that kind of self-indulgence really lead to a successful and satisfying life? Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize, Dr. Andrew V. Read More ›

Homelessness has become a crisis in the United States. We live in the richest country in the world, and yet one can drive down main thoroughfares of our most prosperous cities and be confronted with tent encampments lining streets, squalor, open-air drug markets, and destitute people begging. The crisis is multifaceted as it is seemingly intractable. What is the role Read More ›

Childhood in America today is often troubled. Children are experiencing mental health crises, suicidal ideation, educational underperformance, social discord, sexualization at young ages, and unprecedented social challenges. What to do? Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize, Katy Faust, has invested years of her life to solving the crisis of contemporary childhood. Faust believes the time has come to put Read More ›

For those who may not remember, Terri Schiavo was a profoundly cognitively disabled woman who became the subject of a legal and cultural battle that made international headlines. The case became a bitter and protracted conflict between Michael Schiavo, Terri’s husband who wanted to pull her feeding tube, and the Schindler family that fought to save their child and sister’s Read More ›

We live in an increasingly secular age in which religious believers — particularly Christians — are accused of believing in myths, meaning false stories. But are religious myths really false? Moreover, do modernists have their own myths by which they live? And why do humans create myths and what societal purposes do they serve, anyway? The classical educator and Orthodox Read More ›

The creation of the modern hospice movement was a major advance in the care for people with terminal illnesses. Alas, in recent years, hospice has entered something of a crisis, with too many facilities offering inadequate care and some patients receiving short shrift of services to which they are entitled. To get to the bottom of the problem, Wesley invited Read More ›

The public health sector has been roiled by controversy and political turmoil in the last few years, what with the COVID pandemic, the fight over vaccine mandates, and questions about politicization of the sector. Beyond that, viruses make the news like never before. So, Wesley turned to an expert in both fields to learn more about virology, the government’s response Read More ›

What is the “mind”? Is it a pure product of raw brain activity? Or, is it something “other” — that can be experienced, but not measured, observed but not fully defined? Does free will exist? Are our brains just so many meat computers? A new anthology, Minding the Brain, explores these and related issues in depth — both from philosophical Read More ›

Medicine and healthcare have become one of the most contentious sectors of modern society. Doctors have greater scientific knowledge with which to help patients than at any time in history. But at the same time, the field seems to be heading in a more crassly technocratic direction, in which the human being seeking care may become lost in the attempt Read More ›