Editor’s note: Today at this time, normally, we would be publishing another installment of Günter Bechly’s Fossil Friday series. No more. Farewell!

We were shocked and grieved to learn of the death of our friend and colleague Günter Bechly last week. Günter was a world-class paleontologist and an inspiration to many for his learned insight into the fossil record and his brave rejection of Darwinian dogma. We are sharing a two-part interview originally recorded in 2018 with host Sarah Chaffee. In this exchange, Günter spotlights some problems the fossil record poses for Darwinism and, specifically, the theory’s idea of universal common ancestry. Bechly was a proponent of Darwinism until he discovered, well into his career, what he sees as significant scientific reasons to doubt the evolutionary story. The occasion for this conversation was an essay he and Stephen Meyer contributed to Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique, an anthology from Crossway books.

This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Download the podcast or listen to it here.