

Intelligent Design the Future
Discovery Institute
The ID The Future (IDTF) podcast carries on Discovery Institute's mission of exploring the issues central to evolution and intelligent design. IDTF is a short podcast providing you with the most current news and views on evolution and ID. IDTF delivers brief interviews with key scientists and scholars developing the theory of ID, as well as insightful commentary from Discovery Institute senior fellows and staff on the scientific, educational and legal aspects of the debate. Episode notes and archives available at idthefuture.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 25, 2025 • 28min
From Fantastic Four to First Causes: Why Science Has Eclipsed Darwin
If you noticed a copy of Charles Darwin’s famous nineteenth-century volume On The Origin of Species in someone's house, what would you think? Perhaps they’re committed materialists. Perhaps they simply admire Darwin’s work as a naturalist. Or perhaps they keep it around as a cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific hubris. Either way, you’d want to consider whether their experiences of the world around them matched their scientific worldview. Today on ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid explores the tenets of scientific materialism to see if they match our observations of the world around us. McDiarmid also shares a clip from Dr. Stephen Meyer as he highlights just one of the scientific discoveries of the last century showing that the 19th century science that produced today's scientific atheism has been eclipsed.
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Aug 22, 2025 • 23min
David Berlinski Challenges Prevailing Beliefs in Modern Biology and Physics
On today’s ID the Future, Science After Babel author David Berlinski continues discussing his newly released book from Discovery Institute Press. In this conversation with host Andrew McDiarmid, Berlinski explores a chicken-and-egg problem facing origin-of-life research, a blindness afflicting some evolutionists focused on human origins, and the mystery of why science almost flowered in ancient Greece, early Medieval China, and in the Muslim-Arab Medieval Empire, but did not, having to await the scientific revolution that swept through Europe beginning in the sixteenth century. Check out the endorsements and get your copy, paperback or e-book, at scienceafterbabel.com.
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Aug 20, 2025 • 30min
In a Universe of Non-Living Matter, Communication Sets Us Apart
Meaningful communication is found across all life forms, from the signals sent by trees through fungal networks to the deep conversations we can have with each other. It's one feature that makes life uniquely different from a vast universe of non-living matter. But where does our ability to communicate come from? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid continues his conversation with physicist and author Dr. Eric Hedin about the remarkable features that separate living systems from non-life. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Look for Part 1 in a separate episode.
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Aug 18, 2025 • 23min
Physicist Eric Hedin: Information Processing as a Hallmark of Life
What if life isn’t just a collection of molecules bumping around? What if every living thing, from a single cell to a human being, is doing something much more surprising—processing information and communicating in complex, purposeful ways? On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid begins a two-part conversation with Dr. Eric Hedin, a physicist and author who’s been asking bold questions about the hidden patterns of life. He’s argued recently that the way living systems handle information—and communicate—is more likely evidence of intelligent design, not blind, undirected processes. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.
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Aug 15, 2025 • 26min
How Modern Materialistic Science Resembles a Tower of Babel
On today’s ID the Future out of the vault, host Andrew McDiarmid rings up author and philosopher David Berlinski in Paris to discuss his book Science After Babel. Berlinski is at his cultivated best as the two discuss everything from the biblical Tower of Babel as a metaphor for modern materialistic science, to his friendship with the brilliant and colorful French intellectual Marcel Schützenberger, a world-class mathematician who was self-taught and, as we learn here, came within a hair’s breadth of being swept up in the Chinese Revolution. Berlinski also reflects on the seminal 1966 WISTAR symposium, which laid out some mathematical challenges to Darwinism, challenges that Berlinski says remain unanswered to this day. At the same time, Berlinski gives Read More ›
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Aug 13, 2025 • 30min
On Suffering, Intelligent Design Provides a Better Lens Than Darwinism
The presence of evil and suffering calls for justification. But which scientific view of life is better placed to help us address these issues? Today, host Andrew McDiarmid speaks with Tova Forman about her recent article tackling the profound question of suffering and the problem of evil. Tova argues that intelligent design (ID) proponents are better equipped to answer this challenge than those who adhere to neo-Darwinism or a materialistic view of life. Learn why in this stimulating discussion.
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Aug 11, 2025 • 30min
Casey Luskin Calls on the Smithsonian to Get It Right on Human Origins
The Smithsonian Institution has recently been called out by the Trump Administration for pushing "one-sided, divisive political narratives." But American history isn’t the only domain in which the Smithsonian is advancing misinformation. The National Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Human Origins vastly distorts the scientific evidence on human evolution, seeking to convince visitors that there’s nothing special about us as human beings. On today's ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid talks to attorney and geologist Dr. Casey Luskin to dissect his explosive new editorial in the New York Post calling on the Smithsonian Museum to stop "miseducating the public" on the history of human beings.
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Aug 8, 2025 • 22min
Listen to the Prologue to Stephen Meyer’s Darwin’s Doubt
On today's episode out of the archive, host Andrew McDiarmid narrates the prologue to Stephen Meyer's New York Times bestselling book Darwin's Doubt: The Explosion of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design. Whether you're new to Meyer's book or read it years ago, you're likely to hear something new as you listen. Learn more at www.darwinsdoubt.com.
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Aug 6, 2025 • 40min
From Dead Ends to Design: Meyer & Tour on Life’s Information Code
Stephen Meyer, a philosopher of science known for his advocacy of intelligent design, joins synthetic organic chemist James Tour, who is skeptical of mainstream origins theories. They discuss the critical role of information in life's beginnings, contrasting Shannon information with the specified complexity found in DNA. Meyer and Tour challenge traditional paradigms, arguing for an intelligent source behind life's intricacies. Their conversation raises philosophical questions and critiques the reluctance within science to address the unresolved mysteries surrounding life's origins.

Aug 4, 2025 • 30min
The Unsolved Mystery of Life’s Origin: Stephen Meyer & James Tour
Peter Robinson interviews Stephen Meyer, a philosopher of science and director at the Discovery Institute, alongside James Tour, a synthetic organic chemist known for his innovative work in nanotechnology. They tackle the perplexing question of life’s origin, critiquing Darwin's theories and the conventional primordial soup model. Their discussion reveals the complexities of transitioning from non-life to life and highlights the shortcomings of current scientific models. Both guests advocate for a reconsideration of intelligent design in understanding life's emergence.