The Science & Belief in Society Podcast

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What role does morality play in the relationship between religion and science? with Prof. John H. Evans

Season 4 · Episode 2

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 • Duration 28:12

John Evans, Tata Chancellor’s Chair in Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology, and Co-Director of the Institute of Practical Ethics of the University of California San Diego, talks about how his research shows that the religion and science debate should increasingly focus on moral conflict between religion and science, rather than on facts.

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The Successes of the INSBS with Prof. Fern Elsdon-Baker

Season 4 · Episode 1

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 • Duration 34:40

Fern Elsdon-Baker, Professor of Science, Knowledge and Belief in Society at the University of Birmingham, looks back at the successes of the network she founded in bringing together researchers from all over the world and from awide variety of disciplines, from psychology to politics and theology to sociology, to gain a deeper understanding of the relationships between science and belief in peoples’ lives.

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The End of the World with Dr Hauke Riesch

Season 3 · Episode 1

Monday, October 31, 2022 • Duration 44:06

The Science & Belief in Society Podcast is back - but for how much longer? In this opening episode of Season 3, James and Will welcome Dr Hauke Riesch, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Brunel University, London, to talk about the end of the world...

Narratives of the apocalypse - stories of how the world will end, and humanity's fate before, during and after these variously prophesied cataclysms, have been a central feature of many global religions. From the threat of nuclear war via global pandemics to the onset of climate breakdown, these narratives are now increasingly prevalent in scientific discourses. We discuss Hauke's work in this area, which has traced the continuities and breakages in how these narratives are deployed in both religious and scientific contexts, the different forms they take and their existential and social function. We also discuss the lighter side of the end times, contrasting apocalyptic narratives with other communication strategies for engagement, including comedy.

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Measuring Meditation: the Study of Contemplative Science with Mareike Smolka

Season 2 · Episode 9

Tuesday, July 5, 2022 • Duration 01:03:31

Religious practices and their effects are increasingly the subject of scientific investigation. In the field of Contemplative Science, mediative practices drawn from Buddhist traditions are united with techniques of analysis from cognitive and neurosciences.

In this episode, James and Will welcome Mareike Smolka, a PhD Researcher at Maastricht University in Science and Technology Studies and Fullbright Scholar at Arizona State University, who has ethnographically explored this community. Mareike’s work traces the development of Contemplative Science from fringe to mainstream interest, and demonstrates the tensions and trade-offs in play when exploring religious practices from within the boundaries of the neoliberal academy.

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Science and Colonial Legacies in East Africa with Professor Adam Chepkwony

Season 2 · Episode 8

Tuesday, June 14, 2022 • Duration 53:43

In this episode, Richard and Will talk with Professor Adam Chepkwony, a Full Professor of Religion at the University of Kabianga in Kenya. Professor Chepkwony's work covers a wide range of topics including African Religion, Inter-religious Dialogue, Science and Religion, and more. In this episode, Professor Chepkwony provides his perspective on how issues like climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic have affected, and are perceived by, people in Kenya. Additionally, Professor Chepkwony discusses the impacts of colonialism and missionary work in Kenya, including how rigid conceptualizations of Christianity, democracy, and science can sometimes lead Africans to feel like they are living "double lives".

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Science and Islam in the 19th Century with Dr Sarah Qidwai

Season 2 · Episode 7

Wednesday, June 1, 2022 • Duration 47:13

In this episode, Rachael and Richard talk with Dr Sarah Qidwai, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Regensburg, Germany. Sarah’s work explores transnational and local perspectives on scientific disciplines during the long nineteenth century. In this episode, we discuss the focus of Sarah’s doctoral thesis, the Muslim polymath Sir Sayyed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), and her latest project entitled ‘Scientism and Empire’ while examining how disciplines such as astronomy, geology, and evolutionary biology operated within the confines of Empire in the 19th Century.

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Science Scepticism around the World with Dr Baastian Rutjens

Season 2 · Episode 6

Wednesday, May 11, 2022 • Duration 57:03

Understanding public attitudes towards science has become an increasingly important area of research in recent decades, and the importance of this kind of work has only been heightened by the emergence of COVID-19, and the diverse and unpredictable public responses to scientific and medical advice during the pandemic. In this episode Will and Richard talk to Dr Baastian Rutjens, who investigates public attitudes to science around the world, with a focus on what he describes as ‘science scepticism’. Baastian explains how tools and methods from social psychology can help us to understand the motivations which underlie scepticism of science, and we discuss the wider social and political implications of these kinds of attitudes.

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Evolution and Creation in New Zealand with Dr John Stenhouse

Season 2 · Episode 5

Tuesday, March 15, 2022 • Duration 58:52

In this episode James Riley and Richard Grove talk with John Stenhouse, Associate Professor of History at the University of Otago, New Zealand. John's research interests centre on the interconnections between science, religion, race, politics and gender in the modern world, particularly using New Zealand as the major site of study. We talk about the history of creationist and evolutionary ideas in New Zealand, and how a nation cannot be separated from larger complexities of empire and globalisation when thinking about the reception of scientific ideas.

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Cultural Psychology of the Mind with Dr. Vivian Dzokoto

Season 2 · Episode 4

Tuesday, February 1, 2022 • Duration 51:08

In this episode, hosts Richard Grove and James Riley meet with Dr. Vivian Dzokoto, a Cultural Psychologist at Virginia Commonwealth University in the United States, to discuss her work on the cultural differences in how people think about "the mind." Dr. Dzokoto has published research on a wide range of topics. However, one of the key characteristics of her research is the examination of culture and religion. Much of her research focuses on people from West African countries, such as Ghana. In this episode, Dr. Vivian Dzokoto chats with Richard and James about her research on emotions and Ghanaian understandings of the mind based on an analysis of Akan proverbs.

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Varieties of Atheism in Science with Professor Elaine Howard Ecklund and Dr David R. Johnson

Season 2 · Episode 3

Tuesday, December 14, 2021 • Duration 53:08

In this episode, hosts Rachael Shillitoe and Richard Grove, meet with Elaine Howard Ecklund, Professor of Sociology at Rice University and David R. Johnson, Associate Professor of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University, to discuss their new book, Varieties of Atheism in Science, out now with Oxford University Press. Elaine and David reflect on the findings of their study which draws on surveys and interviews with atheist scientists in the UK and USA. Chatting with Rachael and Richard, Elaine and David, challenge some of the commonly held assumptions about the interrelation between atheism and science and by exploring atheist scientists’ diverse views of religion, their perspectives on the limits to what science can explain, and their views of meaning and morality.

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The Science & Belief in Society Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

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Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

The Science & Belief in Society Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other20

Wikipedia1

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other20

Wikipedia1