Making a Commitment to Reality — with Frederica Mathewes-Green

Welcome to A Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff.

Frederica Mathewes-Green and Dave Hanegraaff explore the importance of  “shared reality” in a post-truth age—and why the most important word in the title might be commitment.

This is a wide-ranging conversation about what it means to live in alignment with reality, while also hitting topics such as how the internet is optimized for outrage, why our social muscles are atrophying, and why AI feels different from every other tool: it presents itself like a person—earning trust and authority fast. Along the way we explore how to respond with everyday practices that re-align us with reality.

See the following related resources we offer by Frederica, Welcome to the Orthodox Church: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity and Real Choices: Listening to Women, Looking for Alternatives to Abortion. 

Follow A Commitment to Reality where you get your podcasts (see below) and on YouTube for full episodes + clips: https://www.youtube.com/@ACommitmenttoReality

(Timestamps below.)

00:00 Intro

00:49 What A Commitment to Reality means

07:17 Who is Frederica Mathewes-Green?

12:35 The Glenn Beck moment: how listening changes conceptions

15:23 How is your soul?

17:20 What breaks your heart?

19:15 Social atrophy—why can’t we communicate anymore?

23:44 TV and the Internet—Architects of Anger

25:15 Why is it so hard to change our minds?

29:05 Charlie Kirk and the courage to speak up

35:00 Theology in West vs East: knowing about God vs. knowing God

40:55 Feelings and emotions are not the same (why that distinction matters)
48:20 How important is getting it right when it comes to truth?

49:55 Truth as living reality— alive like a forest, not dead like a cold statue

56:15 The Replication Crisis—A Modern Tower of Babel?

59:30 AI is dangerous, irresistible and irreversible

1:01:00 My cat died and ChatGPT comforted me—why AI feels real (and scary

1:14:25 Are we experiencing true “Future Shock” today?

1:16:13 AI as the anti-Eucharist

1:19:30 AI is already an authority and everywhere in our lives

1:21:30 Practices that can re-orient us to reality

1:28:00 The pursuit of imperfection in a world where everything is the same

1:31:00 Do we need to follow the news?

1:35:15 Why reality must include the miraculous

1:40:10 Frederica Mathewes-Green is writing a new book?

1:43:40 How well does ChatGPT handle profoundly spiritual topics?

1:47:10 In a world that feels increasingly unreal—what feels real to you?

1:48:45 Synesthesia

1:50:15 Public challenge to Frederica’s son—David Mathewes to write a song about “A Commitment to Reality”

We are living through one of the most disorienting periods in human history—leaving many to wonder: What is reality? As artificial intelligence accelerates and institutional trust erodes, our shared sense of what is real continues to crumble.

A commitment to reality is a dedication to discerning what is true and developing the discipline to live in alignment with that truth—with reality. This podcast is an apologetic for reality—each episode serving as an intentional act of grounding our existence together as we commit to what is beautiful, good, and true.

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