Naked Reflections

Reflecting on recent science news stories and current events, authoritative thinkers unpack the implications for society. Naked Reflections is chaired by Ed Kessler, director of the Woolf Institute, Cambridge.

19 May 2022

Is religion as much about community as communion?

12 May 2022

Is there a science of forgiveness?

05 May 2022

For an adjective which is defined simply as “alert to racial prejudice”, WOKE seems to attract a lot of controversy...

27 April 2022

Dying is a necessary and inevitable part of living. So why are we so hung up about it?

Sex

17 April 2022

What does mainstream religion make of the Kama Sutra?

27 March 2022

Genocides, and why we as a species are capable of such things...

13 March 2022

In many ways, A.I. has crept up on us without us noticing. Beth Singler and Hope McGovern assess the current state of...

09 March 2022

Cop 26 has been and gone. Are we any the wiser? Or are we on a cliff edge?

27 February 2022

What’s the link between C20th Muslim pop music and Victorian synagogue music?

20 February 2022

Silence is much more than the absence of noise or speech. It can be contemplative, defiant, truthful or evasive...

13 February 2022

What is wisdom and how do we measure it? It’s different from brilliance but it’s difficult to pin down...

06 February 2022

Ask a person of faith and they’ll probably say God. But is it that simple?

25 January 2022

When it comes to the politics of gender, both the religious and the scientific establishments have some hard questions...

09 January 2022

Stephen Hawking’s family recently donated his entire archive, from juvenile scribbles to final scientific papers, to...

29 December 2021

在最黑暗的时候,我们探索theological and aesthetic significance of light in all its forms...

12 December 2021

We discuss the ancient shared musical heritage of the Middle East and offer some graphic musical illustrations...

05 December 2021

Why were COVID infection rates so high in some Muslim and Jewish communities?

28 November 2021

The Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland is under pressure. What does the future hold?

22 November 2021

How we can build more sustainably and improve the urban environment we've inherited...

15 November 2021

Is interfaith just slappy, clappy sarees, samosas and steel bands, or a serious engagement with difference?

08 November 2021

Marking 100 editions of NAKED REFLECTIONS, Rowan Williams and Chris Smith discuss the merits and dangers of eloquence...

01 November 2021

There's more to paganism than someone who takes their clothes off and dances round a stone circle...

24 October 2021

We seem to be drowning in a rising tide of anger and rancour. How can we disagree better?

17 October 2021

There’s a disturbing amount of anti-Semitic material on the social media, and hate postings in general are rife...