Podcast
Culture
Feminism
Re-enchanting
1 min read

Re-enchanting... sex

Justin Brierley and Belle Tindall speak with Louise Perry about the (supposed) disenchantment of sex and what that’s meant for the well-being of women.

Belle is the staff writer at Seen & Unseen and co-host of its Re-enchanting podcast.

A woman smiles as she speaks into a microphone. In the background is Big Ben.
Louise Perry recording at Lambeth Palace Library.

Was the sexual revolution the feminist triumph that we’ve assumed it was? Is there anything wrong with eradicating the unique status of sex?  

‘The problem with sexual disenchantment is that people don’t actually behave like disenchantment is true; because people don’t actually feel the sexual disenchantment is true.. we have a deep intuitive feeling that actually sex is special, for some reason…’

Louise Perry is a journalist, campaigner, advocate for women’s rights, and the author of 'The Case Against the Sexual Revolution'. She argues that sex has become disenchanted in the modern West's libertarian, pornified, hook-up culture. Although the book was not written from a Christian perspective, Louise tells Belle Tindall and Justin Brierley why she has come to some surprising conclusions about marriage, sex and relationships. 

 

Podcast
Culture
Death & life
Podcasts
Re-enchanting
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 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. 

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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