Francis Collins & Kristine Torjesen on The Fight for Public Health: Science, Faith, and What's at Stake?
Good Faith
Good Faith
4.8 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From Breakthroughs to Budget Cuts: The Rollercoaster of Modern Medical Research
What happens when politics wages war on science—and Christians get caught in the blast radius? In this Good Faith Podcast episode, Curtis Chang talks with former NIH director Dr. Francis Collins and BioLogos president Dr. Kristine Torjesen about Collins' forced exit from NIH, the shutdown of a major HIV prevention programs in Africa, and how cuts to vaccines, medical research, and public health are threatening lives and future breakthroughs in cancer, Alzheimer's, and pandemic preparedness. They also confront vaccine distrust, anti-institution politics, and evangelical skepticism of science, while making the case that science is not the enemy of faith but a gift from God for truth, healing, and human flourishing.
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05:56 - Political Interference in Science Roles, Research, and Aid Cuts
10:57 - Are Medical Advances Threatened by Political Decisions?
16:03 - Curtis Gets Candid About Unexpected Benefits of Medical Aid in His Life
17:34 - Vaccine Policy Changes and Anti-Vax Influence
20:46 - Engaging Christians Who Distrust Science
25:39 - What Lessons Can We Learn from COVID Vaccine Promotion
28:32 - Is Science Politically Biased?
36:15 - Distrust of Institutions and Its Roots
44:45 - Equipping Pastors and Parents for Faith-Science Conversations
46:59 - Hopeful Medical Advances Despite Setbacks
50:15 - Science as a Source of Beauty and Worship
Scriptures:
- John 14:6 (ESV)
Mentioned in This Episode:
- Check out the Biologos website
- Announcement: Dr. Kristine Torjesen becomes BioLogos' 3rd president and CEO
- Biologos: Kristine Torjesen's Professional Biography
- NIH Bio: Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
- NIH: Decades in the Making: mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines
- KFF (The independent source for health policy research and news): COVID-19 preventable mortality
- Brooke Nichols: Tracking Anticipated Deaths from USAID Funding Cuts
- Check out the Impact Counter
More From Dr. Francis Collins:
- Dr. Francis Collins' The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust
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The Good Faith Podcast is a production of a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan organization that does not engage in any political campaign activity to support or oppose any candidate for public office. Any views and opinions expressed by any guests on this program are solely those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Good Faith.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Dickens' title, The Best of Times and the Worst of Times comes to mind here. The worst of times |
| 0:05.8 | because of all of the harms that are being done to medical research and public health, but the |
| 0:10.3 | best of times because of the amazing opportunities, such things as curing sickle cell disease, |
| 0:16.7 | which we're now able to do, or such things as having people with stage four cancer who are |
| 0:22.6 | putting their affairs in order and then get into a clinical trial with some new form of |
| 0:27.1 | immunotherapy, and wow, they're in remission and maybe they're cured. |
| 0:32.6 | This sort of opportunity may be the opportunity to really figure out what to do to prevent Alzheimer's disease. |
| 0:39.1 | These are very real now. And it's particularly sad to see those now in a crunch of having trouble |
| 0:45.8 | keeping going because there's been a lot of cuts in the support for that kind of research |
| 0:50.5 | that I don't think the American public would have wanted. |
| 1:09.0 | Thank you. of research that I don't think the American public would have wanted. Welcome to the Good Faith podcast, where friends who follow Jesus help each other make sense of the world. |
| 1:14.6 | I'm your host, Curtis Chang. |
| 1:16.6 | This podcast is produced by a nonpartisan 501C3 organization. |
| 1:22.1 | For everyone listening to this, our very well-being depends on the marriage between science and public health. For |
| 1:31.0 | instance, if you take any medication for an existing condition, your drug that's helping you |
| 1:36.9 | is the offspring of science and public health. Our hope for future breakthroughs in the treatment of |
| 1:43.6 | cancer or dementia or the saving |
| 1:46.0 | of countless lives among the developing world, all of that will only happen if the marriage of science |
| 1:53.0 | and public health stays intact. So everyone in this world needs this marriage to thrive, but there are signs of trouble in that marriage, |
| 2:03.6 | and unfortunately, a subset of Christians are partly responsible for that trouble. |
| 2:08.6 | That's why we all need to pay attention to the words of Dr. Francis Collins and Dr. Kristen |
| 2:14.6 | Toriocen. Dr. Collins is arguably our generation's most accomplished scientist. |
... |
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