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How have we come to deify choice? In conversation with Sophia Rosenfeld

How have we come to deify choice? In conversation with Sophia Rosenfeld

Nick Spencer speaks with historian Sophia Rosenfeld. 08/07/2025

Choice is so important to who we are in the West is no longer feels like something we do, so much as something we are. Deny someone choice, and it feels like you are challenging their very humanity. 

Where does this obsession with choice come from, historically and philosophically? What are its foundations and justifications? And has it gone too far? Can you have too much of this particular good thing? 

This week Nick Spencer talks with Sophia Rosenfeld about her book ‘The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life’ 

Purchase a copy of her book here.


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Nick Spencer

Nick Spencer

Nick is Senior Fellow at Theos. He is the author of The Landscapes of Science and Religion (OUP, 2025), Playing God: Science, Religion and the Future of Humanity (2024), and Magisteria: the entangled histories of science and religion (Oneworld, 2023). Nick is host of the podcast Reading Our Times.

Watch, listen to or read more from Nick Spencer

Posted 8 July 2025

Podcast, Reading Our Times, 347

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