Fear, trust, and defensive medicine
- Is the fear that non-doctor community caregivers will miss something serious unfounded?
A host names fear as the core barrier - laypeople afraid to take responsibility for someone's health - and one host confesses he is 'that guy' who shows up five years late to the doctor, joking that only TV's House could diagnose his hypothetical weird disease. Matthew replies that doctors are demonstrably bad at reading evidence and often outthink established protocols, causing harm and expense, and the hosts add that fear drives excess medicine on both sides: extra tests to avoid lawsuits or calm anxious patients. They agree community-level care is more nimble, with faster triage into the right level of care.
More on Fear
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What stops us from sharing the gospel
- Should church-service outreach and personal-life evangelism be treated differently?
- What are our biggest hangups in creating opportunities to talk about the gospel?
The hosts catalog the hangups that keep Christians from creating gospel opportunities at work and in clubs: fear of people's reactions, not knowing the right thing to say, worry…
From No. 456 · Just Do It
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Truth as healing ointment, not a shovel
- How do Christians balance telling the truth with being charitable?
A long host monologue: society's positions often come from fear of being on the wrong side rather than belief; schools' COVID measures go beyond science into fear.
From No. 424 · When Culture Lacks Objective Reality
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Dear LFTP: the family-baggage letter
- How do I handle my brother moving back to town with his criminal children and grandchildren?
The reader reads a second letter: the writer's widower brother, described as depressed and a terrible father, plans to move back to their hometown with his children and adult…
From No. 422 · Jesus, Technology and Persecution
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How much damage can misreading Revelation do?
- How much damage can a strong misinterpretation of the book of Revelation do?
A host poses the episode's hard question: how much damage a strong misinterpretation of Revelation can do.
From No. 409 · Super Sign of the End Times