Show Notes
On Racial Justice Sunday Mark Devenport talks with New York Times Bestselling author and historian Jemar Tisby about how the church fails to tackle racism. Local woman Maureen Hamblin and Tim Magowan, from the circle of change group, give an account of what is happening here in Northern Ireland. We also investigate the ethics of memory looking at how memory can be manipulated and false memories created. Psychologists Ciara Greene and Gillian Murphy tell us why having a flexible rather than a photographic memory can be a good thing. And Dr James Nelson gives us his best guess as to what the new RE Curriculum in Northern Ireland might like and what it should be called.
More from Everyday Ethics
This week is Book Week in Northern Ireland, and we begin the programme by looking at the bestselling and most distributed book the world has ever seen. According to the Guinness Book of Records the Bible has sold between 5 and 7 billion copies and has been translated into thousands of languages. But how do we read the Bible today. As the literal word of God, as fiction or as a myth where the story may not always be true it points to bigger truths about God and humanity. Audrey is joined by writer and teacher Andrew Cunning, theologian Tina Beattie and Anglican Priest Cameron Mack. We also speak to Ronnie Convery from the Archdiocese of Glasgow about plans to halve the number of parishes and close dozens of churches due to declining attendance and falling numbers of clergy. What is a Christian Nationalist? The thinktank Theos tried to answer that question by surveying the UK population and their report came out last week. Audrey talks to Andrew Flanagan the Director of Christians in Politics about how the church is engaging with Christian Nationalism. And finally as part of Book Week, we talk to historians Elaine Farrell and Louise McCormack about their book Bad Bridgets which is now being turned into a movie about Irish Women in America who ended up on the wrong side of the law.
Jeffrey Archer was a bestselling author with 300 million copies of his book sold around the world, but he was also a liar and a fraudster. His crimes eventually caught up with him and landed him in prison for two years. Audrey talks to journalist Michael Crick about the many lives that Jeffrey Archer lived and then we discuss the idea of celebrity redemption with commentator Liz Kennedy and Dr Leon Litvack. The Catholic Primate, Archbishop Eamon Martin is in Rome this week as part of a conference on the family with Pope Leo. He will tell us more about that and also his thoughts on how church leaders can help with the situation on the Garvaghy Road. It was three years ago this week that Hamas attacked Southern Israel killing almost 1200 people and unleashing a war in Gaza that killed tens of thousands more. Audrey talks to veteran peace negotiator Gershon Baskin about where things stand ahead of Israeli elections.
As the Drumcree standoff continues, we ask how much Northern Ireland has changed since the original confrontation decades ago. Audrey is joined by Professor Peter Shirlow, Director at the University of Liverpool's Institute of Irish Studies, Gladys Ganiel professor of the sociology of religion at Queen's University, author and pastoral worker Jim Deeds and Legal Project manager Tegan Nesbitt. As India celebrates the birth of Gandhi Audrey speaks to writer Mihir Bose about how his legacy has changed and how he is viewed in today’s India. And poet and broadcaster Pádraig Ó Tuama talks to Audrey about his new book Love Between Men.
If you were to listen to the people responsible for creating and developing Artificial Intelligence, you would conclude that it's the biggest danger to the planet - worse than climate change - when they tell us it might wipe out humanity in a decade and that work on it should stop. The biggest conference on AI on this island has been taking place in Belfast this week. And one of the keynote speakers was Nell Watson - she's an engineer, an independent researcher and one of the world's leading experts on the ethics of AI and she dropped in to chat to Audrey about ethics and machine learning. Does Prayer work? That's the question we're putting to Christian theologian Professor Laurence Kirkpatrick and Sr Geraldine Smyth. When is enough, enough? How about an economy that is designed for the health of people and the planet instead? What part can we all play in making this happen? Kristian Noll is a climate policy and knowledge exchange expert currently working in the London School of Economics. This week he launched a report based on a conference held at Queen's University on Earth Day. It's called 'An Economy of Enough in a time of crisis and opportunity'.
Broken relationships are a fact of life but how should we react? Should we forgive others or does there come a time when you need to draw a line under a relationship and move on. Audrey talks to Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, Jim Deeds and Dr Elaine Storkey about difficult conversations and the difference between reconciliation and forgiveness. We also talk to Vatican Correspondent Elise Ann Allen about her journey with her husband, John, as he faced terminal cancer before dying earlier this year.