The Science & Belief in Society Podcast

The Media of Mediumship project is running jointly at the University of Stirling and the Science Museum Group. The project team comprises Principal Investigator Professor Christine Ferguson, Co-Investigator Dr Efram Sera-Shriar and Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Emma Merkling. In this very spooky episode, Christine, Efram and Emma tell us how from the late-19th Century on, novel technologies of the period - including photographic cameras, radio transmitters and devices for producing and recording different types of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays - were used to explore what we now think of as the 'supernatural'. The team show that during this period, phenonema such as the ability of a medium to channel the spirits of the dead, or the physical manifestations of this ability such as the production of ectoplasm, were open to scientific debate, having not yet fallen outside the boundaries of legitimate scientific study. Similarly, what phenomena it was possible for novel technologies such as radio and photography to record or capture was not yet settled. Spiritualists, occultists, scientists, as well as magicians and outright con-artists (with more than one of these labels often applying to the same individual) used these novel technologies variously to evidence or debunk various claims, draw boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate scientific and spiritualist or occult practises, whilst also satisfying a Victorian public for whom attending a séance, for example, was a popular form of entertainment. The team discuss this fascinating history with reference to some of the technological artefacts and other objects of the period, which are held by the Science Museum Group and Senate House Library, and which were implicated in some of the most high-profile contemporary controversies e.g. the Cottingley fairies.

A sneak peak of what's coming up in Season Two of The Science & Belief in Society Podcast

In the final episode of Season 1 of the Science & Belief in Society Podcast, we’re re-joined by Dr Tom Aechtner, Senior Lecturer in Religion and Science in the School Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland. Tom talks us through the persuasive and rhetorical tactics used by both pro- and anti-evolutionist media and explains what science communicators can learn from their anti-evolutionary counterparts. Alongside his work on science and religion in mass media, Tom’s currently working on a project investigating vaccine hesitancy and vaccine scepticism in Australia titled “Improving Vaccination Rates in Australia: Analysing Media, Religion and Policy.”. You can listen to a special podcast we recorded with Tom on this topic here. You can read Tom’s Researcher Profile here.

In this episode, we talk with Dr Lois Lee about the relationship between science and non-religion and the perceived affinity between the two. Through her ground-breaking research on non-religion and unbelief, Lois discusses the role that science plays in lives of the non-religious and how this role varies across different non-religious groups. Drawing on empirical research and disaggregating what it means to be non-religious, Lois reveals the myriad ways science is and is not intertwined within the cultural and social identities of the non-religious and how this interrelation can be related to different existential outlooks. Dr Lois Lee is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Kent, and is the Principal Investigator on the Understanding Unbelief programme. You can read her Researcher Profile here.

In this episode James and Will welcome Dr James Ungureanu, Historian in Residence in the George L. Mosse Program in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Queensland. Dr Ungureanu discusses his recent book Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict in which he reinterprets the origins, development, and popularization of the “conflict thesis,” the idea that science and religion are fundamentally and irrevocably at odds. The book recasts the role of two influential figures in the history of the ‘conflict thesis’, John William Draper and Andrew Dixon-White, and relocates the origins of the view of science and religion as being in perennial and irreconcilable conflict in a specifically liberal protestant tradition. In the episode, Dr Ungureanu also tells us a bit about his historical method and describes his dream library…

In this episode we talk with Dr Bankole Falade about his recent social psychological and media research on science and religion in South Africa and Nigeria. Bankole introduces the concepts of polyphasia and cognitive dissonance, explains how they are helpful in understanding how and why individuals are able to reconcile apparently contradictory beliefs, and why these concepts are useful for researchers interested in understanding science and belief in diverse social contexts. Bankole also provides an insight into the (social and traditional) media landscapes in South Africa and Nigeria, and how these in turn shape and influence beliefs, including shaping public attitudes during the COVID19 pandemic.

In this episode, we welcome Dr Alexander Hall, who discusses his research into the popular media representation of science and religion in the 20thcentury. He introduces us to ways of presenting science which became common on television and radio over the second half of the 20th century, which he calls the ‘evolutionary epic’ and the ‘humanist blockbuster’: grand, sweeping stories about nature and evolution, that takes us from the earliest moments of creation to now, and which in many ways echo religious creation myths. Alex will help us trace the history and development of these ways of presenting science, through influential figures such as David Attenborough, Julian Huxley, and the archetypal work of Jacob Bronowski, to help us understand where this kind of storytelling style comes from, and why it’s so common in Science and Nature TV. Alex will also tell us why it’s so important to investigate media presentations of Science and Religion if we want to understand the relationship between science and belief in society – and as a bonus he’ll also recommend his favourite science and religion TV and radio programmes!

The Pew Research Centre is a fact tank which focuses on issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. They study U.S. politics and policy; journalism and media; internet, science and technology; religion and public life; global attitudes and trends; and U.S. social and demographic trends. To carry out such research, the team at Pew Research Centre conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. You can read more about Pew Research Centre on their website. In this episode, we speak to Drs Cary Funk and Courtney Johnson. Cary is the director of science and society research at Pew Research Centre, where she leads the Centre’s efforts to understand the implications of science for society.  She has authored or co-authored a number of reports focused on public trust in science, scientific experts and science news and information. Dr Courtney Johnson is a research associate at Pew Research Centre whose work focuses on interrelation between science and society. Cary and Courtney discuss some of the research conducted by Pew into public perceptions of the relationship between science and religion, and in particular, on beliefs about evolution. Focusing on the methodological approach taken at Pew, our guests reflect on the importance of survey design and how the way in which questions are asked can impact the data generated.

In this episode, Dr Renny Thomas introduces his research on science and religion in India. Renny explains how his ethnographic work in Indian laboratories allowed him to explore belief systems among Indian scientists. He discusses some of the challenges of ethnographic research in scientific settings, from gaining access to negotiating insider/outsider status in the field. Renny’s work challenges orientalist assumptions and helps us to move beyond science and religion literature dominated by Western perspectives by examining the science-religion relationship in spaces and places that have been previously overlooked. In considering the experience of Indian scientists, Renny rethinks what atheism(s) mean in such contexts, how we think of culture in relation to religion and the key role Science and Technology Studies (STS) can play in investigating science and religion. Dr Renny Thomas is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi (India). Renny received his PhD in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and was the 2017-2018 Charles Wallace Fellowship in Social Anthropology at Queen’s University, Belfast, UK. 

Our guest for this latest instalment of the Science & Belief in Society Podcast is Dr. Kimberly Rios, Associate Professor at Ohio University, whose research explores the relationship between science, religion and identity from a social psychological perspective. In this episode, Kim talks about how our perception of things as seemingly fixed as the length of a straight line are shaped by group pressures, discusses the differential impacts membership of majority and minority social groups have on our identity and the potential for us to ‘choke’ under pressure, and even introduces us to her dog Jimmy!