

Humanize
Discovery Institute Center on Human Exceptionalism
Humanize with Wesley J. Smith from Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism, where human rights meet human responsibilities. We speak on the controversial issues of human life and human thriving that impact our daily lives.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 14, 2025 • 1h 2min
Michael Egnor M.D. and Denyse O’Leary on Evidence for the Existence of the Soul
The existence of the human soul is usually described as a matter of faith unprovable by science. But is that true? What if evidence exists that we each do indeed have souls and even, that life continues after death? Whether we have souls and what happens to us after death — obliteration, reincarnation, heaven, hell — is a question about Read More ›

Sep 29, 2025 • 1h 2min
Megan Basham on Faith, a Cancer Diagnosis, and the Assassination of Charlie Kirk
It is a hard fact of life that — if we live long enough — we or those we love will receive a devastating medical diagnosis. How we cope in such difficult circumstances can both impact the course of our personal recovery and, in some cases, uplift the human condition. Christian apologist and journalist Megan Basham has walked this difficult Read More ›

Sep 15, 2025 • 55min
Sam Brownback on the Urgency of Religious Freedom
Religious freedom — the ability to live and act according to one’s faith — is one of our most fundamental human rights. But as Western society has secularized, the importance of religious freedom seems to have been eclipsed by other concerns. Indeed, freedom of religion is too often devalued in the public square, and in some places in the world, Read More ›

Jun 9, 2025 • 1h 3min
Alex Schadenberg and Roger Foley on the Cruelty of Canada’s Euthanasia Regime
Euthanasia is bad medicine and even worse public policy. Once a society accepts the principle that killing is a splendid answer to suffering, the kinds and extent of suffering that come to be seen as appropriate reasons to cause death expands continually. Often, this suicide agenda — let’s call it — advances so slowly that, over time, people become acclimated Read More ›

May 28, 2025 • 1h 4min
George Gilder on Artificial Intelligence, Economic Innovation, and the Promise of Cryptocurrency
We live in an era of cultural whiplash. Never has the potential for technological advances been more pronounced, and at the same time, the potential for wrenching societal dislocations so threatening. What are we to make of such times as these? Should we be excited or fearful, optimistic or quaking in our boots? For answers, Wesley turned to George Gilder, Read More ›

May 12, 2025 • 1h 1min
Andrew V. Abela on the “Super Habits” That Make for a Successful Life
These days, hedonism strikes a beat in society. We have long been told that if it feels good, if it is what we want, so long as we aren’t hurting others, then, we should do it. But does that kind of self-indulgence really lead to a successful and satisfying life? Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize, Dr. Andrew V. Read More ›

Apr 28, 2025 • 1h 15min
Marvin Olasky on the Humanity of Homeless Persons
Homelessness has become a crisis in the United States. We live in the richest country in the world, and yet one can drive down main thoroughfares of our most prosperous cities and be confronted with tent encampments lining streets, squalor, open-air drug markets, and destitute people begging. The crisis is multifaceted as it is seemingly intractable. What is the role Read More ›

Apr 7, 2025 • 1h 10min
Katy Faust on Putting Children First
Childhood in America today is often troubled. Children are experiencing mental health crises, suicidal ideation, educational underperformance, social discord, sexualization at young ages, and unprecedented social challenges. What to do? Wesley’s guest on this episode of Humanize, Katy Faust, has invested years of her life to solving the crisis of contemporary childhood. Faust believes the time has come to put Read More ›

Mar 17, 2025 • 1h 8min
Bobby Schindler on the 20th Anniversary of the Death of Terri Schiavo
For those who may not remember, Terri Schiavo was a profoundly cognitively disabled woman who became the subject of a legal and cultural battle that made international headlines. The case became a bitter and protracted conflict between Michael Schiavo, Terri’s husband who wanted to pull her feeding tube, and the Schindler family that fought to save their child and sister’s Read More ›

Mar 3, 2025 • 1h 11min
David V. Hicks on the Myths We Live By
We live in an increasingly secular age in which religious believers — particularly Christians — are accused of believing in myths, meaning false stories. But are religious myths really false? Moreover, do modernists have their own myths by which they live? And why do humans create myths and what societal purposes do they serve, anyway? The classical educator and Orthodox Read More ›


