Turnabout is fair play, they say. So on this episode of Humanize, Wesley is the guest, interviewed by the “Bioethics Babe,” the podcast of Center on Human Exceptionalism Fellow Arina Grossu Agnew. Arina and Wesley discuss the nature of transhumanism, its philosophical, moral, and political implications, its role as a substitute for religion, its threat to human equality, and whether we are quietly waging a war on human equality in the name of progress. Is transhumanism the next frontier of progress or a revival of eugenics in a biotech age? In this episode of Bioethics Babe, I sit down with attorney, award-winning author, and Humanize podcast host Wesley J. Smith to unpack the growing transhumanist movement, the push to engineer a “post-human” future …
Disability rights is a global social and civil rights movement that advocates for equal opportunities, accessibility, and freedom from discrimination. The goal is to ensure that people with disabilities participate fully and equally in society free from barriers in employment, healthcare, architecture, and education. It has been more than thirty-five years since President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act. Yet, despite many years of advocacy, the scope, breadth, and goals of the movement are less known than activism for racial and sex equality. So, Wesley thought he would look into the movement to recount its successes and goals yet to be achieved. His guest is Melissa Ortiz, founder and principal of Capability Consulting, an award-winning speaker, and a …
Chimpanzees, we are told, are the closest relatives to human beings. Indeed, for years scientists claimed that there is only about a one percent difference separating the human genome from that of chimps. Some advocates even claimed that means humans are mostly chimps, or that chimps are mostly human, eroding the principle of human exceptionalism. But research published last year disclosed that the “one percent difference” was badly off the mark and that the true genetic difference between humans and chimps is about 15%. But what does the genetic difference statistic mean scientifically, and whether one percent or fifteen, does it matter morally? Wesley invited one of Discovery Institute’s premier scholars to discuss these new findings and the meaning of it all. …
The struggle over the legality of abortion has roiled the country for more than fifty years. On one side, the pro-life movement insists that innocent life must be protected by the government and in morality from conception to natural death. On the other, “pro-choice” advocates insist that abortion is medical care and that the decision of whether to terminate a pregnancy belongs solely to the mother and her doctor. Few issues have so bitterly divided the country for as long as abortion has, with the exceptions of Abolition and the Civil Rights movements. Pro-life advocates are often stereotyped as being merely pro-birth, that is, only caring for a baby until he or she is born. But is that true? And what drives committed pro-life advocates to expend so much time and energy …
Is evil a metaphysical reality, or is it merely a word we use to describe intentionally destructive behavior or horribly painful outcomes? If evil is real, what is its nature? Can one believe in the existence of evil without having a religious understanding of reality? And if evil does exist, does that mean good must also? My guest today, a priest in the Orthodox Church, has some informed opinions on these questions. The Very Rev. Archpriest Andrew Stephen Damick is Chief Content Officer of Ancient Faith Ministries, the former pastor (2009-2020) of St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, and author or co-author of The Wolf and the Cross (2025), The Lord of Spirits (2023), and several other books, all from Ancient Faith Publishing. He has been podcasting since …
