The Veritas Forum The Veritas Forum

A.I. is no longer the stuff of science fiction. From Siri and Alexa to Chat GPT, our world is now inundated with artificial intelligence. One senses that it’s time to think more deeply about A.I. — its implications and its assumptions.


In this episode, you'll hear an excerpt from a Forum event at Iowa State University from March 2023. Josh Swamidass (WashU), a medical doctor and computer scientist, discusses the role of artificial intelligence today with Clark Wolf (Iowa State), a bioethicist and philosopher. Their conversation is moderatored by Alex Tuckness (Iowa State), a political science professor.



Watch the full Forum event here.
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Do the stories we tell about ourselves have the power to change us? Our guest today says they can.


To wrap up our season on meaning and purpose, we talk with author Daniel Nayeri. In his award-winning young adult novel, Everything Sad is Untrue, Daniel writes from the perspective of his twelve-year-old self, sharing the story of how he, his sister, and his mother immigrated from Iran to Edmond, Oklahoma, after his mother’s conversion from Islam to Christianity. Although this immigration kept his family out of prison (or worse), life in the U.S. came at a cost, too. Through his storytelling, Daniel also processes what he left behind: his beloved stuffed animal ("Mr. Sheep Sheep"), a life of comfort in Iran, and his larger-than-life father.


In this episode, we explore finding meaning through storytelling, the impact of an active imagination, and how the sustaining hope of the Christian story makes even a refugee camp in the Italian countryside a place of opportunity and joy.



Order Everything Sad Is Untrue here
Order Daniel's newest book, The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams, here
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For the religious believer and the atheist alike, the problem of evil and suffering is troubling. If there is a God, why does he allow so much evil? And if there isn’t a God, how can we say that anything is evil?


In this Forum event from 2014 at Harvard Medical School, Oxford mathematician John Lennox addresses one of the most challenging human questions: where is God in suffering?



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What matters isn't how much faith you have, but what you're putting your faith in.


In this forum episode, University of San Diego mathematics professor, Satyan Devadoss, talks about how he trusts in Christianity for the same reasons that he trusts in quantum mechanics — not because he is has zero doubt about their veracity, but because he has faith that they are the best explanations for what he sees in the world.



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Scholars, journalists, practitioners, and other thought leaders all agree — we’re facing a loneliness epidemic that’s as grave a threat to public health as obesity or substance abuse. Where do we go from here?


In this Forum from 2019 at the University of Minnesota, psychiatrist Curt Thompson discusses human flourishing and community. When it comes to mental health, he says, don’t go it alone.



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At every age, we ask questions of identity, community, and meaning — Who am I? Where do I belong? What is my purpose? But college students today are asking them with unique urgency and anxiety.


In today's episode, we interview Kara Powell, a researcher at Fuller Youth Institute and co-author of 3 Big Questions that Change Every Teenager. We discuss how young people can better determine their purpose in life, how they can prepare for that purpose to change, and what the Christian tradition might have to offer.



Order Kara's book, 3 Big Questions That Change Every Teenager, here.
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