Life & Faith

The man who measures Australia: What Mark McCrindle has learned over 20 years.

Social researcher and demographer Mark McCrindle tells us how Australia is changing (and sometimes staying the same). What are the likely impacts of generational shifts and trends? Mark McCrindle is a social researcher and demographer who has been studying Australian life for twenty years. He and his team have gathered important insights into who we are, what we love, how we have changed and how we have stayed the same. Also, where we are finding meaning, purpose and joy, and what’s driving our behaviour. Mark discusses with Life & Faith the prevalence and likely causes of loneliness and the place of faith and faith communities in Australian life. Are we more open to spiritual conversations than we once were? In a rapidly changing world what are the positive changes signs and signs of hope? What are the likely future directions of the country? Explore: https://mccrindle.com.au/ [https://mccrindle.com.au/] Generation Alpha: Understanding our children and helping them thrive [https://mccrindle.com.au/resource/book/generation-alpha-book/] Work Wellbeing: Leading thriving teams in rapidly changing times [https://mccrindle.com.au/resource/book/work-wellbeing-book/] Word up: A lexicon and guide to communication in the 21st century [https://mccrindle.com.au/resource/book/word-up/] The Generations Defined: Navigating the New Landscape of employees and consumers (report) [https://mccrindle.com.au/resource/report/the-generations-defined-report/]

Mary Magdalene was present at the crucial moments of Jesus’ story. Why do we get her so wrong?

Jennifer Powell McNutt has spent years studying Mary Magdalene. She wants us to know who she really is. Mary Magdelene is both well-known and yet not known at all. She has appeared prominently in art and popular culture in things like the musical Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) or in the film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) or Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (2003). She has often been inaccurately portrayed as a penitent prostitute and is sometimes presented as a romantic partner of Jesus. She was present at all the crucial moments of Jesus’ story, but history has frequently failed to recognise her remarkable contribution. Jennifer Powell McNutt wants to correct that error. She is a Professor of Theology and History at Wheaton College in Illinois and the author of The Mary We Forgot. She thinks we are right to remember Mary Magdelene, but not for the reasons that many people think. Explore: The Mary We Forgot: What the Apostle to the Apostles Teaches the Church Today [https://www.amazon.com.au/Mary-We-Forgot-Apostle-Apostles/dp/1587436175?tag=googhydr0au-22&hvadid=792401821324&hvpos=&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14461651088431225962&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9071777&hvtargid=dsa-1595363597442&ref=pd_sl_72ekj6elm9_e]

The times are chaotic. Is being Stoic the answer?

Brigid Delaney, Australia’s resident expert on Stoicism, draws on ancient wisdom to survive the storm of modern life. --- How do you cope when things seem to be spinning out of control? In recent years, the ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism has made a comeback. It’s especially big in Silicon Valley, where modern Stoics pore over the writings of the ancient Stoics – Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Roman statesman and philosopher Seneca, and Greek slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus – to work out how to thrive in challenging times. The philosophy has a reputation for being dour and stiff-upper-lipped. But if this world is all there is and there is no one coming to save us, then for Stoics it makes sense to face reality and get on with life. Brigid Delaney is enormously prolific. She has worked as a political speechwriter, lawyer, journalist, travel writer and screenwriter. She’s also written two books on Stoicism: The Seeker and the Sage: A Stoic Conversation to Hold You Together in a Fractured World, published late in 2025, and Reasons Not to Worry: How to Be Stoic in Chaotic Times, published in 2022. Brigid explains how Stoicism has made her less angry and reactive, and changed how she thinks about the world. Also how, in places, it overlaps with Christian thought and practice – to the degree that someone even forged a correspondence between Seneca and the Apostle Paul, who were contemporaries of each other. In this episode, we also talk to Louis Markos, the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities at Houston Christian University, and a passionate devotee of ancient Greek thought, to get a sense of how Christianity differs from Stoicism. Stoicism assumes an impersonal, yet ordered universe. Christianity asserts that the order guiding the universe is personal, that in Jesus, “the Word became flesh”. Explore: Brigid Delaney’s The Seeker and the Sage [https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Brigid-Delaney-Seeker-and-the-Sage-9781761470776] and Reasons Not to Worry [https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Brigid-Delaney-Reasons-Not-to-Worry-9781743310496]. Brigid Delaney’s previous interview [https://publicchristianity.org/podcast/misadventures-in-wellness/] on Life & Faith: Misadventures in Wellness. Brigid Delaney’s column [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/13/ai-is-filling-the-god-void-for-many-but-is-chatgpt-really-something-to-worship] in The Guardian on the experience of attending two funerals – one secular, one faith-based – in quick succession. Follow Brigid Delaney on Substack [https://substack.com/@brigidwd] or Instagram [https://brigidwd/], or check out her consultancy Stoic Solutions [https://stoic-solutions.com.au/]. Lou Markos explains [https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/free-ancient-guide-stoic-life/] the similarities and differences between Christianity and Stoicism, and why he thinks the latter is the sanest, most reasonable option out there – if Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead. Lou Markos’ From Aristotle to Christ [https://www.amazon.com.au/Aristotle-Christ-Aristotelian-Clarified-Christian/dp/1514011328], From Plato to Christ [https://www.amazon.com.au/Plato-Christ-Platonic-Thought-Christian/dp/0830853049], From Achilles to Christ. [https://www.amazon.com.au/Achilles-Christ-Christians-Should-Classics/dp/0830825932]

David French fought for the US. He’s worried about it now.

New York Times columnist and ex-soldier David French on his surprising career trajectory, faith and politics, and what Jesus has to say about power. --- David French has a fascinating life story that has seen him work as a constitutional lawyer for 20 years, a journalist and writer for places like the National Review, the Atlantic, and now the NYT. He is a writer and commentator with a conviction to wrestle with and try to make sense of the country that he loves – its history, its possibilities and its faults, and how it can be the best version of itself that it can be. It was at least partly that conviction that led him, at age 37, to sign up to the U.S. Army where he deployed to Iraq. That experience changed him in many different ways, he says, for better and also worse. In this interview with Life & Faith, French talks about polarisation, faith and politics, Jesus and power, Christian nationalism, and where he sees green shoots of hope in an otherwise troubling landscape. Explore: David’s New York Times [https://www.nytimes.com/by/david-french] Columns. His book, Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation. [https://www.amazon.com.au/Divided-We-Fall-Americas-Secession/dp/1250201977]

The Year of Getting Off Your Phone

Some principles, some practices, and a bit of inspiration for the digitally exhausted. We pick up our phones 150 times per day on average. Three out of four Australians check social media as soon as they wake up. Four out of five check it before they go to bed. These ‘micromoments’ add up – the ways we choose (consciously or not) to spend our time shape us. Many of us find ourselves dissatisfied in the ‘relationship’ we have with our phones, and wanting to make a change. But breaking up is hard! In this first episode of Life & Faith for 2026, we consider the forces at work when it comes to our digital habits, why we might choose to reduce our phone use, and how. Simon, Justine, and Natasha confess and compare their daily average screen time. Felicia Wu Song, author of Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age, describes the ‘digital ecology’ we inhabit and the ‘liturgies’ we participate in – and proposes some practices, or ‘counterliturgies’, that might help us move in a different direction. Plus, a bunch of people who’ve taken various steps to get off their phones tell a remarkably consistent story about why they did it, and how it’s changed their lives. More and more of us are joining the ranks of the ‘digitally exhausted’, and looking for a better way forward. If you want it to be, this is the year of getting off your phone. Explore: Felicia Song’s book Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age [https://www.ivpress.com/restless-devices]