Helen Lewis: re-enchanting feminism and the culture wars

On the Re-enchanting podcast Helen Lewis talks with Belle and Justin about the religious instincts that seems to underlie secular activism, and whether she sees any way forward in re-enchanting feminism and the culture wars.

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

a woman sits at a table, with a mic in front of her, talking and holding her hands together in front of her.

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Helen Lewis is a journalist, broadcaster and staff writer for The Atlantic. She is the author of Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights and has been writing and speaking about feminism, gender, and the culture wars for several years... and occasionally gets caught up in them herself, including a viral interview with Jordan Peterson for GQ.

Justin and Belle chat to Helen about the religious instincts that seems to underlie secular activism on both the left and right, and whether she sees any way forward in re-enchanting feminism and the culture wars of our day.

For more about Helen Lewis visit her website.

There’s more to life than the world we can see. Re-Enchanting is a podcast from Seen & Unseen recorded at Lambeth Palace Library, the home of the Centre for Cultural Witness. Justin Brierley and Belle Tindall engage faith and spirituality with leading figures in science, history, politics, art and education. Can our culture be re-enchanted by the vision of Christianity?

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Podcast

Culture

Death & life

Podcasts

Re-enchanting

12 February 2025

1 min read

Dame Sue Black: re-enchanting death

The leading forensic scientist talks with Justin and Belle about her work and our reluctance to look death in the eye.

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

A woman guest on a podcast sits at a table with a mic in front, gesturing to the side with both hands.

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Professor Lady Sue Black is one of the world’s leading forensic scientists. Police forces, the Foreign Office and the UN have called upon her evidence in countless high-profile investigations. She is currently President of St. John’s College, Oxford, and in 2021 entered the House of Lords as a cross-bench peer.

She has penned numerous books, including the Saltire Prize winning All That Remains: A Life in Death and her latest book, Written in Bone: hidden stories in what we leave behind. In 2024, Professor Lady Black was also appointed to the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle – the highest honour in Scotland.

In this episode of Re-Enchanting, Justin and Belle speak to Sue about her first time working on a dead body, the stories that our bodies tell after death, her work in the wake of the Kosovo war and the 2004 tsunami, and - ultimately - how our reluctance to look death in the eye is profoundly hurting us.