The Veritas Forum The Veritas Forum

One of our faculty partners and frequent Veritas Forum speakers, John Inazu (WUSTL), has a new book out — Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect.

His book isn’t about the election per se, but so many of his ideas and tools will be helpful this year. As November approaches, we'll have to decide not just who or what we will vote for, but how we will engage in political conversations, especially with people we love.

In this episode, you’ll hear about his book and the empathy we need, the challenges of compromise, and his recommendations for difficult conversations. He also talks about the model of Jesus for how to disagree in truth and love.


Find additional resources and a link to John's book on the podcast episode page here.

It would be great if the world was a better place. More kindness and friendship. Less war and injustice. For “everything sad to become untrue” (to paraphrase Tolkien). 


Our speaker in this episode is Mary Poplin (Claremont), and she cares about making the world a better place. In fact, she’s dedicated her life to it. Yet her dedication was challenged when she encountered someone else who was dedicated to social justice but was going about it in a completely different way. That person? Mother Teresa.


In this episode, you’ll hear Mary Poplin share how her life was changed by Mother Teresa. Mary walks us through her personal faith journey, her time spent working with Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, and how this experience led her to better understand the inextricable role of Jesus in making the world a better place.


This forum was held at the University of Michigan in 2012. Thank you to the Forums planning team at University of Michigan for making this event possible.



Watch the full Forum event here.
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We spend — on average — 90,000 hours of our life working. So it’s no wonder we want our jobs to bring us happiness. Yet, all too often, work doesn’t make us happy. Why is that? And is there anything we can do about it?


In this episode, we discuss just that.


You’ll hear from social scientist and New York Times bestselling author, Arthur Brooks (Harvard). Arthur talks with Dean of Harvard Medical School, Bernard S. Chang, about happiness, vocation, faith, and physician burnout. They discuss Arthur’s empirical research on happiness, explore the role of transcendence in a happier life, and how to best set expectations about the role of work in our lives.


This Forum was held at Harvard Medical School in February of 2024. Thank you to the Forum planning team at Harvard Medical School for making this event possible.



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The concept of a “multiverse” — formerly an obscure idea in philosophy and theoretical physics — is now mainstream. Movies like best-picture winner Everything Everywhere All at Once or Marvel’s Spider Man: Into the Spiderverse invite us into an expansive vision of the cosmos: one where there are infinite worlds, possibilities, and comparisons. Even though these multiverse films feature outlandish sci-fi story lines (like hot dog fingers), their characters wrestle with many of the same questions we do, like, are we living in the best possible world?


In this episode, we discuss just that.


You’ll hear from mathematician John Lennox (Oxford) and moderator Daniel Lowenstein (UCLA) in a Forum event at UCLA in 2015. Together, they explore the toughest questions surrounding our existence. What do we do in the face of tragedy? Why do we experience pain? And, if there is a God who created the world, why did he make it like this?


Thank you to the Forum planning team at UCLA for making this event possible.



Watch the full Forum event here.
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Visit veritas.org to learn more about the mission of the Veritas Forum and find more resources to explore the ideas that shape our lives

Meaning can be straightforward — a red octagon means “Stop!”, a hand wave with a smile means “Hello,” or adding two and two equals four.


But meaning is often more complicated — a friend saying they’ll eat “whatever” for dinner or a significant other texting, “We need to talk.”


In this episode, our speakers invite you into the messiness of meaning — and discuss how best we can search for it.


You’ll hear a conversation between mathematician Satyan Devadoss (U San Diego) and biologist Stuart Firestein (Columbia). Satyan and Stuart bring their scientific backgrounds and religious perspectives as they explore the role of reason in the search for meaning, what can and can’t be taken at face value, and what strategies can help us find truth — from the scientific method to literary analysis to religious tradition.


This Forum was held at Columbia University in 2014. Thanks to the forums planning team at Columbia for making this event possible.



Watch the full Forum event here.
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Visit veritas.org to learn more about the mission of the Veritas Forum and find more resources to explore the ideas that shape our lives

The "group projects" of high school and college never fully go away. Even outside of the classroom, we still have to depend on people who may disappoint us, wade through tricky relational dynamics, and face goals that can’t be accomplished on our own.


One of the speakers in today’s episode invites us to embrace these group projects. In fact, he suggests that they're what we’re made for and that, ultimately, they help us better know who we are.


You’ll hear from Curt Thompson, a practicing psychiatrist, and Jill Stratton, the self-described “Dean of Joy” at Vanderbilt. Drawing from their own work, experience, and faith traditions, Curt and Jill explore the question “Who am I… really?” Their conversation touches on the role of community in identity, how to live with vulnerability, and what redemption might look like.


This conversation was held at Vanderbilt University in Spring 2023 and moderated by student moderator Alexys Ahn. Thank you to the Forum planning team at Vanderbilt for making this event possible.



Watch the full Forum event here.
Sign up for our newsletter here.
Visit veritas.org to learn more about the mission of the Veritas Forum and find more resources to explore the ideas that shape our lives