Faith, Science, and More: The Purposeful Lab Podcast

Jane Korvemaker reviews a new Catholic podcast that explores the intersection of faith and science, discussing deep and meaningful questions along the way.

The Purposeful Lab podcast launched in July in order to explore, discover, and understand the wonders of creation as designed with purpose by God. Most of us know that the separation of faith and science is unfounded, but it can be difficult to know how to explain this to our kids or to be able to allude not only to the nuances present but also to the false premises. This podcast is a great tool, helping us understand amazing aspects of Creation through the lens of our Catholic faith.

20230907 JKorvemaker 1

Dr. Dan Kuebler, biologist, and Catherine Hadro, journalist, journey into the realm of science and the Catholic faith, emphasizing our belief that creation was designed by God, and is not haphazard and random. As Catholics we have a rich scientific heritage handed on to us along with the foundational lens in which to understand our world: as God’s creation.

The Purposeful Lab podcast helps us to grapple with the (sometimes confusing) intersection of faith and science through interviews with experts and discussion of deep and meaningful questions about existence. Alongside our hosts, we can discover how fields such as astronomy, evolutionary biology, physics, and philosophy impact us and how we understand our world as God made it.

Season one is comprised of six episodes. Each episode ranges from thirty minutes to seventy-five minutes in length and addresses one area of science alongside an expert in that field. The conversation is easy to follow and extraordinarily fascinating!

The fourth episode particularly spoke to me (though the fifth, which addresses philosophy, also hit my interests very well). It addresses humanity’s ability to reason and our free will. The discussion touched on evolution, the differences between animal abilities and human abilities, and how the secular approach to inquiry tries to reduce everything down to the smallest scientific component and takes a deterministic approach in the laws of physics. The limitations of this approach to science and how that narrow approach can fail to appreciate the complexity and nuances of life are brought to light throughout the conversation.

As a mother, I’m always concerned about whether the content of a podcast that I’m listening to might be appropriate or not to my littles’ ears that may be around me. This podcast is appropriate for children’s ears (though I haven’t finished all the episodes yet, but it has been far from inappropriate thus far). The content itself would be easy for teens to understand and follow along, but it may not appeal to their interest level unless they’re fond of talk radio, which is the style of this podcast. The YouTube page has the podcast outlined in segments that are easy to navigate through. The podcast is also available as audio-only on your favourite podcast app.

I recommend The Purposeful Lab podcast to all parents interested in broadening their understanding of a Catholic approach to questions of science that typically are viewed as at odds with our faith. The discussions are helpful and enlightening and can give a quick, solid background to being able to explore these types of questions better with our children when they start inquiring more deeply about the connection of our faith to science.

null