The Veritas Forum

Beauty inspires humans to great feats of imagination and discovery. Can beauty also help us find truth about the world and ourselves? Might beauty contribute to the advance of science or reveal the presence of God? An Oxford physicist and a Virginia Tech philosopher explore the relationship between aesthetics, science, and human meaning. • Panelists: Dr Ard Louis, Professor of Theoretical Phy...

Dr. Cornel West (Harvard Divinity School) and Dr. Robert George (Princeton University) discuss the value of a liberal arts education at the Veritas Forum at The Washington University (co-hosted by The Danforth Center on Religion and Politics): "Liberal Arts Education: What's The Point?" Recorded on 4/16/2019. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you...

What does math have to do with the multiverse? Is our sense of design an anthropic accident, out of the same multiverse as in Dr. Stephen Hawking’s “The Grand Design”?  What does a Christian mathematician have to add about the problem of origins, God, and the multiverse? In a Forum event from our archives, Dr. Satyan Devadoss, associate professor of math at Williams College,...

Dr. Tia Powell, Dr. Tyler VanderWeele, Dr. Richard Sloan, and Dr. Lydia Dugdale all discuss the power and peril of mixing religion and medicine at The Harvard Medical School Veritas Forum: Religion and Medicine: Should they Mix? This Forum event from our archives was recorded on 1/18/19. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, si...

Daryl Davis is a Black blues musician who builds friendships with members of white supremacy organizations. Through these relationships, he has helped convince over 200 white supremacists to renounce their ideology and leave their organizations. He is joined by one of these men, Jeff Schoep, former director of a Neo-Nazi organization, who is now a human rights advocate. • Please like, share,...

A dialogue between Dr. Miroslav Volf of Yale University and Dr. Vijay Pendakur of Cornell University discussing truth, tolerance, and safe spaces. From the Veritas Forum at Cornell University, a discussion titled "Can Truth and Tolerance Coexist?" • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each...

Dr. Curt Thompson, a board certified Psychiatrist and Neurologist, discusses the power of the narrative we tell ourselves and how it affects us throughout our lives. A lecture and conversation covering mental health, human flourishing, 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, y...

From the archives, we bring you our first ever Virtual Veritas Forum. We hear from a panel that includes Lydia Dugdale, MD and Director of Columbia Center for Clinical Medical Ethics; David Brooks, bestselling author and NYT cultural commentator; and Andy Crouch, executive editor of Christianity Today, author, and partner at Praxis Labs. Moderated by executive director of The Veritas Forum, Andrew...

Lydia Dugdale, MD, MAR is the Silberberg Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics in the Department of Medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons. • Shelly Kagan is Clark Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, where he has taught since 1995. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Th...

John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, is an internationally renowned speaker on the interface of science, philosophy and religion. In a forum event in 2021 hosted by the Veritas Forum at the University of Georgia, Yohannes Abate, Susan Dasher and Charles Dasher MD Professor of Physics, interviews Dr. Lennox. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Th...

From the Veritas Forum at Arizona State comes a series titled Pursuing Science and Christian Faith for Human Flourishing. Professor Elaine Howard Ecklund from Rice University presents, "Why Science and Faith Need Each Other." • 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 rece...

A Conversation about Forgiveness and the Ethics of Cancel Culture hosted by the Veritas Forum at Harvard University. • Speakers: Christine Emba, Columnist at The Washington Post Willie Jennings, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale University Suzanne Nossel, Chief Executive Officer at PEN America Moderated by Sung Kwang Oh and Lizzie Bond • Made possibl...

Dr. Satyan Devadoss, Professor of Mathematics at the University of San Diego, and Stuart Firestein, Professor of Neurobiology at Columbia University, discuss science, ignorance and the pursuit of meaning on the stage at Columbia. • 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 th...

Dr. Curt Thompson is a psychiatrist and the author of Anatomy of the Soul and The Soul of Shame. He is also the founder of Being Known, which develops teaching programs, seminars, and resource materials to help people explore the connections between interpersonal neurobiology and Christian spirituality which lead to genuine change and transformation. • Miwa Yasui is an Associate Professor at...

The Veritas Forum at Columbia presents a discussion on the moral power of literature. A conversation between Columbia Philosophy Professor Dr. Dhananjay Jagannathan and Dr. Tara Isabella Burton of The American Interest, moderated by Dr. Gregory Floyd. This Forum event occurred on October, 5th 2020. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our...

For many people, math is cold and lifeless, a bunch of rules to follow - a way to separate people rather than a way to bring them together. It’s no wonder that many have anxiety over their math experiences. But what if we could see how math is tied to our deepest human longings - for beauty, for justice, for love? Would we see it - and ourselves - differently? Join mathematician Francis Su (...

Perspectives on mental health and existing as a whole person from Dr. David Carreon of Stanford and Dr. John Sommers-Flanagan of the University of Montana. This archive conversation was hosted on stage on 2/4/2019. • 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 conten...

In the aftermath of a contentious election season, we may find ourselves questioning the future of a nation that seems irreparably divided. We may ask questions such as, “is political and/or social unity possible or even desirable?” and, “if unity is desirable, what is the best pathway to that unity?” • Attorney, author, and political commentator, David French, discuss...

Octet Collaborative’s founder and board chair Mia Chung-Yee, an accomplished concert pianist and professor of musical studies, spoke to students at Cal Poly about the holistic human engagement involved in making music. Mia spoke about what we have lost as our culture has adopted a consumerist, technical, and accomplishment-driven attitude to music, and about how we might recover the flourish...

Psychiatrist Curt Thompson, M.D. addresses the role of shame in our mental and spiritual lives. Presented by the Veritas Forum at Harvard University on 11/19/2020. • 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 fro...

A Conversation with a Secular Humanist, Jurist and Law Professor, Ryan Calo, and a Christian, Scientist and Bioengineer Professor, Josh Swamidass, about the philosophical and biological implications of artificial intelligence. Presented by the Veritas Forum at University of Washington. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign...

In this discussion between Christian and Atheist scientists, Dr. Josh Swamidass and Dr. Nathan Lents, they explore the building blocks of life, behavior, our evolution, and who our ancestors were. This conversation was hosted by The Veritas Forum at Columbia on 11/18/2019. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our n...

In this episode we hear from three different world views including a Christian (Kirk Durston), a Muslim (Imam Hosam Helal), and an Atheist (Matt Monrose) as they discuss their unique perspectives on faith and science. From the stage at McMaster University. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank you! • If you love our podcast, sign up for our newsletter! Each m...

Dr. Alan Lightman, Author and MIT Professor and Physicist, and Dr. Alister McGrath, Oxford Professor of Science and Religion, explore questions of suffering, hope, and the possibility of God through the lenses of their individual worldviews. This conversation was moderated by Anne Snyder, editor-in-chief of Comment Magazine. • Please like, share, subscribe to, and review this podcast. Thank y...

Lydia Dugdale — Medical Doctor, Physician, and Ethicist at Columbia University — discusses The Lost Art of Dying in this interview conducted by USC student Quincy Guenther. • 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 o...