ID the Future

A Celebrated Life: Colleagues Remember Dr. Jonathan Wells

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Jonathan Wells
April 2, 2025}

On this ID The Future, we bring you excerpts from a recent gathering to celebrate the life of biologist Dr. Jonathan Wells, who passed away in September 2024 at the age of 82. Dr. Wells was one of the first fellows of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. In 2000, Wells took the science world by storm with Icons of Evolution, a book showing how biology textbooks routinely promote Darwinism using bogus evidence — icons of evolution like Ernst Haeckel’s faked embryo drawings and peppered moths glued to tree trunks. Dr. Wells's achievements in the field of biology are notable. In this episode you’ll get a glimpse into Dr. Wells’s life and character as well as his relentless search for scientific truth. This episode includes eulogies from Dr. John West, Dr. Paul Nelson, Dr. Richard Sternberg, and Dr. Casey Luskin. Learn more about Jonathan Wells at www.jonathanwells.org.

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Emily Reeves
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Traditional methods in biology have proven insufficient for understanding and accurately predicting complex biological systems. Why? The great majority of biologists are trained to study life from the bottom up, as the result of unguided evolutionary processes. It turns out there are better ways to observe, question, hypothesize, experiment, and analyze a complex system. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes biochemist and metabolic nutritionist Dr. Emily Reeves to the podcast to discuss her co-authored paper on how biologists can apply principles from systems engineering to biology to better approach the study of complex living systems. Dr. Reeves explains how the new methodology works and how it can produce fruitful scientific research.

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Michael Newton Keas
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David Coppedge
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Brian Miller: Transforming Lives Through the Summer Seminar

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Brian Miller
March 24, 2025}

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A Privileged Place for Life and Discovery

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Guillermo Gonzalez
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On this ID the Future out of the vault, host and geologist Casey Luskin continues his conversation with astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez about the many ways Earth’s place in the cosmos is finely tuned for life. In this second half of their conversation, Gonzalez zooms out to discuss the galactic habitable zone and the cosmic habitable age. Luskin says that the combination of exquisite cosmic and local fine tuning strongly suggests intelligent design, but he asks Gonzalez whether he thinks these telltale clues favor theism over deism? That is, does any of the evidence suggest a cosmic designer who is more than just the clock maker God of the deists who, in the words of Stephen Dedalus, “remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, …

Humility and Humor: Richard Sternberg Remembers Jonathan Wells

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Richard Sternberg
March 19, 2025}

On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid continues a series of interviews celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Jonathan Wells, our close colleague and friend who passed away in 2024 at the age of 82 years old. Dr. Wells was one of the first fellows of Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture and made significant contributions to science and to the arguments for intelligent design. Today, evolutionary biologist Dr. Richard Sternberg shares personal anecdotes and insights into Dr. Wells's character, his contributions to biology and epigenetics, and the profound impact he had on those around him.

How Jonathan Wells Dismantled the Icons of Evolution

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Casey Luskin
March 17, 2025}

On this episode of ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid invites Dr. Casey Luskin to share some of his memories of our longtime colleague Dr. Jonathan Wells, who recently passed away at 82 years old. Dr. Wells was one of the first fellows at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. In a career spanning three decades, Wells made significant contributions to our understanding of the limits of evolutionary processes and the evidence for intelligent design. In this interview, Dr. Luskin describes the powerful impact Jonathan's work had on him and how it led to meaningful reform in textbooks and classrooms. He also identifies the character traits he most admired in Dr. Wells.

Guillermo Gonzalez on Growing Evidence of Earth’s Privilege

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Guillermo Gonzalez
March 14, 2025}

On today’s ID the Future out of the archive, astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez, co-author of The Privileged Planet, begins a two-part conversation with host Casey Luskin by providing a rapid survey of some of the growing evidence that Earth is finely tuned in numerous ways to allow for life. He draws a helpful distinction between local fine tuning and universal fine tuning. And he tells us about the many extra-solar planets astronomers have discovered in recent years and how all that new data continues to undermine the misguided assumption (encouraged by the misnamed “Copernican Principle”) that Earth is just a humdrum planet. Far from it, Gonzalez argues. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.

“The Ultimate Gentleman”: Tom Woodward Remembers Jonathan Wells

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Tom Woodward
March 12, 2025}

On this ID The Future, Dr. Tom Woodward shares more memories of our longtime colleague Dr. Jonathan Wells, who recently passed away at 82 years old. Dr. Wells was one of the first fellows at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, and his contributions over the last quarter century to the intelligent design movement have been formidable. In Part 2, Dr. Woodward kicks off by describing Dr. Wells's skills as a communicator. He also discusses Dr. Wells's mind-boggling insights on the design beyond DNA in every nook and cranny of the cell, layers of information that Wells knew only strengthen the case for intelligent design at the heart of biological life. This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation.

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