Naked Reflections, from the Naked Scientists

LOVE THE OTHER can mean many things. For a psychologist it can imply two contrasting personalities coming together in a complementary and constructive relationship. It can also be construed as avoiding excessive self- love. But as Sam Victor and Ruby Naji-Naif see it can be about coming to terms with difference and understanding the other in such a profound way that it can become love and even bring about peace. Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

How practical is Jesus's advice to turn the other cheek? Some see it as an example of the excessive passivity of Christianity. Others think it's the only way to get out of an endless spiral of violence. Meryem Kalayci and Tim Stevens discuss the matter without coming to blows... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Music - that most abstract of arts - can of course express religious feeling but it can also be directly or obliquely political, especially when lyrics are involved. Think, National Anthems or protest songs ... With Ed Kessler, Dunya Habash and Jonas Otterbeck reflect... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Can positive thinking create its own momentum, or to put it another way, does negativity reap its own bad harvest? Esther-Miriam Wagner and Robert Tombs read the runes Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

If you asked the Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, to discuss cosmology with a "flat-Earther", he would probably politely decline. But when it comes to more nuanced matters than scientific truth, is there ever a case for calling a halt to dialogue? Alfred Moore and Chris Wadibia consider the question... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

The United Nations recently announced that by their estimate World population passed the 8 billion mark in November 2022. World population is predicted to continue growing, peaking at just over 10 billion in the 2080s. Is this too high a number and if so what should we do about it? Abdallah Rothman and Ed Kessler reflect ... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

The system for those seeking asylum in the UK is not working, with damaging effects across society and for refugees. That's why the Woolf Institute has just launched its Commission on the Integration of Refugees with an aim to improve the refugee and asylum system for everyone, including refugees. Two of the Commissioners, Janice Lopatkin and Jehangir Malik share their thoughts. Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Since the COVID pandemic, satisfaction ratings with the National Health Service have plummeted. Should we look to other countries for alternative models? And Social Services, which have never been properly integrated into the NHS system, are on the brink of collapse, despite the claims of politicians to have "sorted" the problem. Sarah Smith and Gurch Randawa tackle a thorny problem... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

What do people of faith think about the psychological and psychiatric approach to dealing with mental health problems? Is there a sense for some that one's faith, one's God should be enough to quell any inner turmoil? Jamilla Hekmoun and Danny Smith reflect on the secular and the religious approaches to mental ill health... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Modern slavery is going on all around us. Brothels, nail bars, car wash outlets and some wealthy households all need victims who they can exploit, and people traffickers happily supply them. Kevin Hyland and Lauren Saunders square up to the problem... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

For Muslims it's coming, but it's shrouded in mystery; for Christians it's straightforwardly the return of Christ; for Hindus there's the get-out card of reincarnation. But the notion of apocalypse - the end of time - runs deep even for secular types. Beth Phillips and Mansur Ali check it out... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Hatred is something most people feel some of the time but how should it be controlled? Certainly not by giving free rein to social media platforms to stoke up controversy in order to maximize advertising revenues. Kitty O'Lone and Arif Ahmed discuss both the roots of hatred and its latest iterations... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

It would be an exaggeration to say that there are as many beliefs about what and how we should eat as there are beliefs about religion but sometimes it feels that way. And like religious adherents, advocates of different dietary regimes often tussle to claim the moral high ground. David Clough and Lutfi Radwan consider the issues... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

There is no orthodoxy that could not have been construed as blasphemous when it started. Christianity was accused by Jews of being blasphemous for proclaiming Jesus as divine, and Muhammad was criticised by his polytheistic Arab contemporaries for preaching monotheism. So how do the movies come into it? Emanuelle Degli Esposti and Mohammed Ahmed explain... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

We've combined extracts from two of our favourite episodes into a Summer Special covering QAnon and Sex. QAnon, the claim a pizza joint in Washington is a centre for child abuse, has become close to being a mainstream proposition for conspiracy obsessed US radio jocks. And when it comes to sex, the relatively new phenomenon of gender dysphoria presents another problem for religious traditionalists... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

When it comes to learning and education, there has always been a tension between discipline and creativity or scepticism. The balance has ebbed and flowed over the centuries and continues to do so. But perhaps you can't have one without the other? Julian Stanley and Austin Tiffany reflect on the current state of play... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Two and a half billion pounds was wagered on the last soccer World Cup in the U.K. alone. There are reckoned to be 400 thousand problem gamblers in this country and that could well be an under estimate. So should we regard gambling as a potentially serious addiction or just a bit of fun? Mark Griffiths and Ben Ryan check the odds... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Suicide is more common than we might think: no one is immune from suicidal thoughts and there are more than 5,000 actual deaths by suicide in the UK each year. Rose Doyle tells the story of her tragic experience... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Are we in danger of weaponising Christianity as a bulwark against Islam? Would it be more fruitful to pay more attention to the period in medieval Spain when the three Abrahamic faiths collaborated and prospered? Akbar Ahmed and Seherish Abrar take a long view... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review

Memory is unreliable and can even be treacherous. Think of all those criminal trials where two witnesses recall an event in totally contradictory ways. So how does memory operate? Amy Milton and Aliya Ali give us some answers... Like this podcast? Please help us by writing a review