J. Scott Turner, Director of Science Programs for the National Association of Scholars (NAS), recently sat for a long-form interview about heterodox evolution on the podcast DemystifySci, hosted by Anastasia “Nastia” Bendebury and Michael “Shilo” DeLay.

“Heterodox evolution” is the signature idea of Turner’s scientific career, encapsulated by the question “What does the science of how life works have to say about how life evolves?” It says quite a lot, it turns out.

According to heterodox evolution, Darwinism is most likely mistaken, and Intelligent Design Theory, which purports to be a credible alternative to Darwinism, might be on the right track, though aiming at the wrong target. In the middle is heterodox evolution, which seeks to restore evolutionism to its status as a life science.

In Part 1 of the interview, “Where Evolution Breaks with Reality,” Turner, Nastia, and Shilo go over the history of evolutionary thought, as well as the origins, setbacks, and modifications of the Darwinian idea.

In Part 2 of the interview, “This is the purpose of ‘Life,’” Shilo, Nastia, and Scott explore the role that intentional agency plays in evolution and how this renders Darwin’s concept of natural selection a nullity.

They explore how homeostasis—life’s fundamental quality—is the modern equivalent of the Aristotelian concept of the bios—an organism’s self-knowledge of what it is supposed to be and what it strives to be—and how this organism-centered concept can be turned into the evolution of lineages of organisms.

More information about Turner and his scientific work can be found on his website: https://jcottturner.com. You can follow him on X and Facebook at the handle @macrotermiteman.

The DemystifySci podcast is available on all streaming podcast apps and on the DemystifySci Patreon page.

A profile of Bendebury and DeLay, and of how they founded DemystifySci, appears in a Business Insider article. Their story exemplifies a modern expression of science as a civic virtue—grassroots, entrepreneurial, innovative, and driven by ideas—from which, as Turner observes, today’s scientific institutions have badly strayed.