The Veritas Forum

What do you want? Our answer to this question, argues author and philosopher James K.A. Smith (Calvin), reveals the habits that shape our lives. Yet we often remain unaware of those habits and how they motivate us. In this talk, from a recent Veritas Forum at the University of Michigan, Smith helps us to recognize the structure of desire and reorient its place within the human person. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each month, you'll receive thoughtful content about the ideas that shape our lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

This October, over 1,000 students and community members packed out Shannon Hall at the University of Wisconsin in Madison to hear John Lennox (Oxford) and Larry Shapiro (UW-Madison) discuss, "Is There Truth Beyond Science?” In a conversation that featured as much humor as sincerity, Lennox and Shapiro fostered a unique space for honest dialogue and reflection, even in places of disagreement. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each month, you'll receive thoughtful content about the ideas that shape our lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

In 2011, The Veritas Forum at Caltech hosted Satyan Devadoss, who, at the time, was an associate professor of math at Williams College. Devadoss talks about String Theory the way most people talk about their favorite piece of art. In the numbers and symbols of mathematical equations, he experiences beauty, unity, and wonder. In our post-Enlightenment world, we forget that the beauty in Michelangelo's sculptures draws from the same well as the beauty on display in quantum mechanics. When we learn to reunite these often divided realms, we may regain our vision of the Wellspring. Devadoss helps us bring these together in this wonderful Forum event. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each month, you'll receive thoughtful content about the ideas that shape our lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

Earlier this year, we hosted New Testament theologian N.T. Wright in dialogue with professor of philosophy Heidi Lene Maibom at the Veritas Forum at the University of Cincinnati. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each month, you'll receive thoughtful content about the ideas that shape our lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here! Unlike many Forums, where dialogue focuses on a singular topic or question, this Forum widened the purview. In the vein of a ‘greatest hits’ album, we asked these scholars the most fundamental human questions: Who are we? How do we know what we know? What is the meaning of life? While each of these questions could occupy an entire Forum, the scope of this conversation allowed for a meaningful survey of two different worldviews, while cultivating a space for further discussion.

Madeleine L'Engle, award-winning author of A Wrinkle in Time, defines "fantasy" as that which "pushes us, opens us, makes us aware of who we are and who the other is.” In this recording from 1998 at a Veritas Forum at UC Santa Barbara, L’Engle draws from her experiences in school, church, and life to explore the relationship between fantasy and truth. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each month, you'll receive thoughtful content about the ideas that shape our lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

Last Spring, Ian Hutchinson (MIT) and Robert Lue (Harvard) sat down at Harvard’s Science Center with Anne Harrington (Harvard) to discuss miracles. Do they happen? Does scientific thinking undermine belief in them? What does the existence (or non-existence) of miracles mean for the larger discussion on science and faith? • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each month, you'll receive thoughtful content about the ideas that shape our lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

Can Christians and Muslims get along in America? That’s the question we asked Christian intellectual and Princeton law professor Robert George and Islamic scholar and Zaytuna College president Shaykh Hamza Yusuf at the San Francisco Jazz Center this Spring. George and Yusef, who are good friends, believe that unity across religious backgrounds is not only possible but also necessary, and their friendship serves as an embodiment of that belief. Over the course of their conversation, moderated by Trae Stephens, principal at Founders Fund, they discuss unresolved tensions, the role of religion in civic life, and a potential path forward. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each month, you'll receive thoughtful content about the ideas that shape our lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

Bill Burnett and Dave Evans teach the most popular class at Stanford, "Designing Your Life." It helps students reframe the question, "How do I live a meaningful life?" Burnett, an atheist, and Evans, a Christian, believe the key to a joyful and fulfilling life starts with thinking like a designer. At a recent Veritas Forum, Burnett and Evans, co-authors of a New York Times Best Seller, sat down with Berkeley professor Amani Nuru-Jeter to discuss how to design a worthwhile life and how they do it themselves from their respective worldviews. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each month, you'll receive thoughtful content about the ideas that shape our lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

This week on The Veritas Forum podcast we’re featuring a conversation with Rosalind Picard, an internationally-recognized researcher in affective computing. Rosalind is the founder and director of the affective computing group at MIT, a co-founder of Affectiva, Inc., a co-director of the MIT Autism and Communication Technology Initiative, and the author of over two hundred peer-reviewed scientific articles. In this interview with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, Rosalind discusses her work in affective computing, her spiritual journey, and how she contextualizes her vocation in light of her Christian faith. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each month, you'll receive thoughtful content about the ideas that shape our lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!

This week on The Veritas Forum podcast we’re featuring a conversation with Ian Hutchinson, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT. A powerful advocate for the compatibility of scientific inquiry and religious belief, Ian has been a featured speaker at Veritas Forums since we began in 1992. In this interview with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, Ian discusses his work in the field of nuclear science, his journey to Christian faith, and his hope for a more fruitful dialogue surrounding science and religion. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each month, you'll receive thoughtful content about the ideas that shape our lives, updates from our student and faculty partners, and other Veritas news and events. Sign up here!