Life & Faith

Unwinnable wars, fear, discrimination: we sift the long-term impact of the September 11 attacks. ------ It’s been twenty years since the attacks of September 11, 2001, when terrorist group Al-Qaeda flew two passenger jets into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City. Another plane hit the Pentagon in Washington DC, while a fourth plane – headed, it is thought, for the US Capitol – instead crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks stunned the US and shook the myth of American invincibility. Military strikes on Afghanistan followed in October 2001 as then-US President George W. Bush demanded the Taliban, the country’s de facto ruling power, hand over Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the attacks.  The US-led ‘war on terror’ expanded to include Iraq in 2003, in search of its reputed weapons of mass destruction. In August 2021, the Taliban reasserted control over Afghanistan just as the last American troops withdrew from the region. As we mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11 on Life &

Andrew McUtchen on the challenge and joy of the most important job he’ll ever have. ------ Andrew McUtchen is the co-creator of The Father Hood, an online community that supports Dads to take on the challenge of being the best Dad they can be. Father to three girls aged 6,7 and 8, along with an older stepdaughter, Andrew believes this is the best time in history to be a Dad.  Expectations of fathers have radically changed in recent decades. Andrew tells Life & Faith why that change is such a good thing. And why he wouldn’t have it any other way. In this episode Andrew and Simon share some common threads in their respective upbringings, both being one of three boys with a Dad who was a minister. This leads to a discussion of the spirituality of parenting and the things to be gained by having your life turned upside down. And along the way they touch on wonder, awe and the power of appealing to our better instincts.  "There's an opportunity to reconnect with spirituality through parenthood because ... sudde

In a world obsessed with success, plenty of us feel a compulsive need to achieve. ------ We tell ourselves - and our kids - to try hard and never give up, for this is the secret to success. But by the time young people finish school, many students find it hard not to link their efforts and abilities with their identity and their self-worth with their achievements.  CPXer Justine Toh’s book Achievement Addiction calls out our fraught relationship with success. In this episode, we talk about tiger parenting and its fixation on academic accomplishment and how meritocratic ideas associating success with effort imply that our wins and failures are always deserved. We also discuss other social cues showing the value we place on achievement - like the way former Australian Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey once described Australia as a nation of “lifters, not leaners” which distinguishes between those who contribute to the public purse and those who take from it.  We also talk to Julia, a Sydney-based cardiologist, who w

Journalist Greg Sheridan makes a compelling case for reading the Bible book by book and finding within those pages a Jesus as intriguing as he is attractive and compelling.    ------ When journalist Greg Sheridan outed himself as Christian with his book “God is Good for You”, a friend challenged him to follow it up with something that would illuminate the living Jesus of the gospels. That was enough for Greg to commit to a couple of years soaking in the New Testament in search of a way to explain the Christian story to a people largely estranged from it.    The result is Christians: The Urgent Case for Jesus in Our world.   Sheridan says of his reading of the Bible, “ ... it's so gripping. It's so immediate, it's so visceral … there's also a tremendous power to it”. Here is his attempt to convey something of that power, and he does so with a disarming honesty and wide-eyed enthusiasm. His aim is to point people to the life-giving words of Jesus and his early followers and the way that message continues to ent

Life & Faith marks a milestone, and gets a bit nostalgic.  ------ This week is the 400th episode of Life & Faith!  In this episode, Simon Smart, Justine Toh, and Natasha Moore get together (remotely) to swap stories of their favourite episodes, tech fails, meeting their heroes, and memorable surprises over the years of making the podcast. They also manage to cajole producer Allan Dowthwaite, the man who makes everything at CPX work, out from his preferred spot behind the scenes to answer a few questions in front of the microphone. Join the team on a trip down memory lane with the ghost of episodes past, and enjoy Tim Winton making a joke at his own expense, Justine reflecting on spiritual seekers, Simon and Al recalling the least amount of prep time they ever had for an interview, Natasha admitting the most intimidating person she’s ever interviewed, and the novelist Christos Tsiolkas offering a powerful distillation of what Christianity (a faith he does not share) is all about. ------ Episodes refere

80 years on, Life & Faith charts the ripple effects of a much-loved book. ------ “I got out a yellow pad, cause I’m a lawyer, and I would have two columns – there is a God, there isn’t a God; Jesus Christ is God, he isn’t God – I went down that, and I went through the whole rational process and I thought to myself wow … I’ve never gone into a courtroom and argued against a mind like this.” On Wednesday 6 August 1941, a relatively unknown Oxford don fronted up to a microphone at the BBC in London to give the first of a series of talks that would evolve into what is probably one of the most influential books of the 20th century - one which continues to have ripple effects well into the 21st. C. S. Lewis spoke to his fellow citizens, during a time of crisis and hardship, about the nature of reality, morality, human nature, God, and the meaning of life. Later he referred to his account of what he believed as “mere” Christianity - the faith that has been common to Christians everywhere and at all times, expla

You’re 30 and feeling meh about life. Bridie Jabour, The Guardian’s opinion editor, knows your pain. ------ On New Year’s Day, 2020, Bridie Jabour, The Guardian’s opinion editor, published a column about millennial malaise: being in your 30s and somewhat dissatisfied with your situation in life.  She’d attended a few dinners where women around her age were facing varied challenges: relationship breakdown, fertility issues, being a parent, starting a new job. Though everyone’s situation was unique, “they all seemed to be kind of melancholy and questioning it all,” Bridie said. Bridie’s column sampled some of the experiences of her generation. It went viral overnight, racking up 600,000 views in a normally sleepy summer period. She received interview requests from New York, India, South America, as well as country Queensland.  She seemed to have touched a nerve for millennials facing a unique set of economic and social circumstances: precarious work, delay in having children, soaring house prices putting home o

The wrestle with busyness, productivity, balance, and tech easily becomes the story of our lives. --- “I don't like work-life balance. I think that it implies that work is a different thing from life. And I think that if we're doing work right, it's a part of life.” Dr Jenny George cares deeply about people’s well-being at work. She is CEO of Converge International, which provides Employee Assistance Programs among other things.  And Daniel Sih, as a productivity coach, pastor, and former physiotherapist, is all about helping busy people make space in their lives. He’s the author of Spacemaker: How to Unplug, Unwind and Think Clearly in the Digital Age. Work/life balance, digital Sabbath, tech addiction, time management, working from home, inbox zero … these things have a profound impact on how we experience our lives day-to-day. Join Simon Smart and Natasha Moore for a conversation about what mental and spiritual health looks like in our high-pressure, hyperconnected moment. “Actually we'll never get everyth

Michael Wear talks about faith, politics and having Barack Obama as a boss.  ------ Michael Wear worked in the Obama White House for 3 ½ years in the office of Faith Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships before heading out and leading religious outreach on President Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012 and then directed religious affairs for the president’s second inaugural. He is an expert on the place of faith in public life, and maintains a hopefulness that Christianity still has a deep well of resources to bring to bear on the pressing challenges of contemporary life--even being a unifying force. Michael is an optimist and believes the resources of Christian faith can be, not just a private belief system, but in fact a significant contributor to the common good. ------ Michael’s book about this period of his life is Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House about the Future of Faith in America.

The plight of the Tamil family from Biloela makes us ask: could we do refugee politics differently? ------ The story of the medical evacuation of four-year-old Tharnicaa Murugappan to a Perth hospital from detention on Christmas Island has struck a nerve in the Australian community. Tharnicaa, her sister Kopika, and their parents Priya and Nades are facing deportation to Sri Lanka after Priya and Nades were found not to be genuine refugees.  The family’s plight has shone a spotlight on Australia’s deliberately harsh policies of detaining asylum seekers. But their former community in Biloela, central Queensland, is campaigning that the family be allowed to stay in Australia. Politicians and personalities from across the political spectrum have also joined the cause. It seems that this Tamil family are helping Australians reimagine the kind of welcome the nation might offer to vulnerable people.  This Refugee Week, we bring you an interview with Mark and Luke Glanville, two brothers who’ve written a book called

How do you raise kids who see the world’s problems, and believe they can do something about it? ---  “I guess I'm concerned that kids are becoming depressed and overwhelmed by the big problems that they see in the world. And I think if we just leave it at that, they will grow up with a worldview that says, ‘The world's a wreck. There's nothing I can do in it. I might as well just watch Netflix.’ Whereas I think if we give kids an opportunity to respond to the problems in the world when they're young, they will develop a worldview that says, ‘Oh, there's a problem in the world. There's something I can do about that.’” Susy Lee has a background in psychology, theology, aid and development, peace and conflict, children’s and family ministry, and … computer science. Across her various jobs and studies, she’s been preoccupied with the question: how do you make the world better?  She’s convinced that how we parent has an awful lot to do with it. In her new book, Raising Kids Who Care: Practical conversations for ex

A former Yale professor on the clever but morally clueless students pursuing an elite education.  ------ In 2014, William Deresiewicz’s book Excellent Sheep: The miseducation of the American elite and the way to a meaningful life became an instant best-seller. The former Yale professor called out the way that elite American universities produced “excellent sheep”: clever, highly credentialled, and conscientious young people who were nonetheless stumped about the meaning of life. Instead, they funnelled themselves into high-paying jobs in law, finance, medicine, consulting, or tech.    In this fascinating discussion, Deresiewicz talks about the way that words like “soul” have a gravity that non-religious language can’t replicate, why a good education is necessarily going to ask existential questions about “love and time and God and everything”, and how he annoyed Canadian psychologist and popular science writer Steven Pinker with talk about university as a time to “build your self”. As the Australian federal g

Mike and Steve Baird grew up as sons of prominent Australian politician Bruce Baird. Both recently moved from corporate roles into the not-for-profit sector. ------ Mike Baird had a successful career in banking before going into politics – eventually  becoming the 44th Premier of NSW. He returned  to banking after ten years in politics but recently moved to become CEO of HammondCare – a large Christian charity that provides dementia and aged care along with palliative care. Their mission – to improve the quality of life for people in need. Mike’s younger brother Steve was also had a successful career in the corporate world, and has made a significant shift to International Justice Mission Australia - part of the largest anti-slavery organisation in the world.  This week we hear from the brothers, Mike and Steve--what it was like growing up together, the people and experiences that have shaped them most and why they moved from the corporate world into the not-for-profit sector. What motivates them both in lead

Think “scientific” and “creative” are opposites? Physicist Tom McLeish begs to disagree. --- “We forget, in science, that what we call the scientific method is really only the method for a tiny bit of science. It's the only bit of science that there can be a method for, which is testing out and checking our hypotheses when we've got them. The really crucial step in science is to get good ideas going in the first place, to have great new insights, to imagine whole new structures of the world, or fungus on the trees, or black holes, or whatever it might be. Now, there really is no method for having great, innovative, scientific, imaginative, creative ideas. So where do they come from?” Tom McLeish is a physicist and author, and talks about science more enthusiastically than anyone else you’ll ever meet. His current title is Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of York - and “natural philosophy” is far from the only unusual term he likes to use when talking about science.  His latest book is The Poe

“As a junior doctor I went to Ethiopia to work with my aunt in the desert area, and we were just wandering around the desert with camels, treating people under trees and shrubs and things in 50-degree heat … You’d have to sleep with a guard with a gun because the hyenas get quite close, so every now and then you’d get woken up with a gunshot and this hyena yelping off in the distance. And then a bit later that night a camel was bellowing just a few metres away from my head and gives birth, and I get splattered with all this amniotic fluid.” Andrew Browning has spent more than 17 years in Africa as a missionary doctor. As a medical student, he spent time working with Rwandan refugees fleeing the genocide; as a junior doctor, he joined Catherine Hamlin at the Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia, dedicating his life to helping women who are suffering from debilitating childbirth injuries.  In this episode of Life & Faith, Andrew explains how he could give up a lucrative, comfortable life as a doctor at home in Aust

In the latest book from the CPX team, Mark Stephens asks: why is it so hard to think well? --- “Pretty much, this book is a recount of all of the ways that I’ve failed at thinking. So it’s really a confession from start to finish, because we’re all susceptible to this.” Thinking is one of the most basic and obvious things we do - but that doesn’t mean we do it well. Mark Stephens says it’s actually quite hard, and that thinking about thinking is uncomfortable … but that it’s very much worth doing.  His brand new book The End of Thinking? is the latest release in the Re:considering series. In this conversation with Simon and Natasha, Mark helps us navigate the topic of thinking: from terms like the Dunning-Kruger effect, steelmanning, and ultracrepidarianism to why we should care about it in the first place - and what kind of person it will make you. --- Get your copy of The End of Thinking? here

Makoto Fujimura and the healing power of art and faith --------  Acclaimed artist Mako Fujimura talks to about the connection between beauty, art and faith. A particular emphasis is on the Japanese tradition of Kintsugi which repairs broken bowls, reassembling them with lacquer and then covering that in gold. The whole idea is that it takes broken things and not only restores them but makes them more beautiful than the original. Beauty out of brokenness is the idea - which has profound resonance with Fujimura’s understanding of his Christian faith and echoes his own experience in dealing with trauma and loss. ---- Links: Makoto Fujimura Art & Faith: A theology of Making. https://www.waterfall-gallery.com/makoto-fujimura https://makotofujimura.com/

Why do Austen’s novels inspire an almost religious fervour? --- “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight spot,” declares a character in the Kipling short story “The Janeites”, in which a group of soldiers in the trenches of World War I bond over their shared love of Austen. Today, Austen fandom approaches levels of devotion unrivalled by almost any other author. At the same time, her six novels are often dismissed as “chick lit”. In this episode, Simon agrees (with some reluctance) to finally read Pride and Prejudice - and is surprised by what he finds. Natasha speaks with Katrina Clifford, Dean of Academics at Robert Menzies College and a scholar of eighteenth-century literature, about why so many people over the last two centuries have been so obsessed with Austen. From Mormon or Amish adaptations to the handful of surviving prayers we have from Jane’s pen; from Austen’s male historical mega-fans (Churchill, Tolkien) to the BBC’s famous lake scene; this conversation has something for everyone -

If Jesus offers wisdom for how to live, how necessary is the “Son of God” stuff? --- “I do think Jesus is a much more challenging figure than he is often presented to be. And a lot of the challenges he presents I think Christians find it quite hard to really look square in the eye.” Julian Baggini is a philosopher, an atheist, and the author most recently of The Godless Gospel: Was Jesus A Great Moral Teacher? It’s the latest contribution to a centuries-long effort to discover what’s left of Jesus of Nazareth if you subtract the miracles and “God talk”.  Jonathan Pennington is a New Testament scholar at Southern Seminary in Kentucky, and his book Jesus the Great Philosopher also places Jesus within a tradition of offering wisdom for life. However, he thinks that ultimately, you can’t separate the moral teaching of Jesus from the Easter story of his crucifixion and resurrection. His argument is that Jesus is more than a philosopher - but not less than one.  “When you study philosophy, you recognise the best ph

An aerospace engineer and an astrogeologist discuss the whether and why of space exploration. --------- "For all these wonderful technologies, for all these incredible achievements that you see – rockets that can be reused, drones that can fly long missions, every discovery by the Hubble or the Kepler – there’s this realisation that when all the really, really good stuff comes along, I’m going to be dead." When James Garth was a young, budding aerospace engineer, he came across an ad in his copy of Aviation Week that read: "In 200 years, space flight will be routine. You, however, will be dead." It was an existential-angst-inducing moment. But it hasn’t kept him from being constantly excited about the work he gets to do now. "My main job is to make sure the wings don’t fall off – if the wings fall off, it’s a bad day, and if the wing stays on, it’s a good day," James says. He’s not being flippant – the wings of an aircraft, he explains, are designed to not fall off, of course, but only just. "Aerospace is a r