Ethics in Action Podcast

In this ninth episode of our series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Stephen Rainey . Dr. Rainey is Assistant Professor in Philosophy and Technology at Delft University of Technology, specializing in neuroethics and neurophilosophy. He is the author of the 2023 book Philosophical Perspectives on Brain Data , which raises and addresses questions about how neurotechnologies can and oug...

In this eighth episode of our series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Stefan Lorenz Sorgner . Dr. Sorgner is a philosophy professor at John Cabot University in Rome, Director and Co-Founder of the Beyond Humanism Network, Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), and Editor-in-Chief and Founder of the Journal of Posthuman Studies . Dr. Sorgner is well known...

In this seventh episode of our series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Sara Goering . Dr. Goering is Professor of Philosophy, and Core Faculty for the Program on Ethics and the Disability Studies Program at the University of Washington. She co-leads the ethics thrust at the UW Center for Neurotechnology and also spends time discussing philosophy with children in the Seattle public sc...

In this sixth episode of our series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Frederic Gilbert . Dr. Gilbert is an Associate Professor in Ethics and the Head of the Discipline for Philosophy at the University of Tasmania. His research focuses on the ethics of novel implantable brain-computer interfaces operated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Dr. Gilbert is a pioneer in various aspects of hu...

In this fifth episode of our mini-series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Luke Roelofs . Dr. Roelofs is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is the author of numerous articles as well as the 2019 book Combining Minds: How to Think about Compositive Subjectivity , published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Roelofs’ research explores the metap...

In this fourth episode of the series, we are joined by José del R. Millán . Dr. Millán is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he runs the Clinical Neuroprosthetics and Brain Interaction Lab and holds the Linda Steen Norris & Lee Norris Endowed Chair in Neuroengineering in the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is also a professor in the Dep...

In this third episode of our mini-series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Steffen Steinert . Dr. Steinert is an Assistant Professor in the Ethics and Philosophy section at Delft University of Technology. His research focuses on fundamental theoretical issues of ethics and philosophy of technology - particularly the relationship between values and technology, and the link between emot...

In this second episode of our mini-series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Susan Schneider . Dr. Schneider is the founding director of the Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University, where she is the William F. Dietrich Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. She specializes in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of artificial intelligence, metaphysics, and the philosoph...

In this inaugural episode of our mini-series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Rafael Yuste . Dr. Yuste is Professor of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience at Columbia University, where he directs the Neurotechnology Center . Dr. Yuste is known for his pioneering work on neural circuits and the development of cutting-edge neural imaging techniques, like two-photon calcium imaging. He...

In our final episode in our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by universal basic income (UBI) advocate and writer Scott Santens. Scott is the founder and president of the  Income To Support All Foundation (ITSA Foundation) , the Senior Advisor for  Humanity Forward , and he also serves on the board of directors of the  Gerald Huff Fund for Humanity  and as the editor of  Basic Incom...

Our fourth episode of our mini-series on the future of work features Gavin Mueller, Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam and the author of  Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job . We speak with Gavin about the history of the Luddite movement, technological unemployment, and the possibilities of interstitial politi...

In the third episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by Brian O'Connor, Professor of Philosophy at University College Dublin. Brian and I discuss the value of idleness in our lives, the burnout caused by the work ethic, and the pressure to view oneself as a project to be continuously realized. We discuss the goods of learning to live more with more idleness - to place less...

In our second episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by Andrea Veltman, Professor of Philosophy at James Madison University. We speak with Andrea about what it takes for work to be meaningful, if meaningful work is available to all, and what kinds of economic and social changes are necessary to help others find meaningful work. Please check out Andrea's excellent book Mean...

In the first episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by University of Leeds economist David Spencer. We discuss the experience of alienated labor under contemporary capitalism, the importance of work for meaning and dignity in our lives, and the reduction of the working week. Spencer persuasively makes the case for less but better work and how we might imagine a better worl...

Political philosopher Chris Zurn has just published Splitsville USA , a bombshell book arguing for the dissolution of the US. We talk about why Chris thinks this has become necessary, how history unnecessarily prejudices us against such a split, and what a post Splitsville future might look like.    Draw your own new national maps !   

The IEET and the UMB Applied Ethics Center recently released a White Paper on the political, moral and psychological questions involved in regulating the metaverse. J Hughes is the Executive Director of the IEET. Alec Stubbs is the Future of Work Post Doc at the UMB Applied Ethics Center. We discuss the main findings of the paper. You can find the paper  here      

We continue our series on the war in Ukraine. In this episode Vlado and I talk to journalist and anthropologist Alisa Sopova about what everyday life feels  like in Ukraine as the war passes the 100 day mark. We discuss the regional differences in how the conflict is perceived, we ask whether Ukrainians have different views about Russian politicians and ordinary Russians, and we also talk about ho...

We continue our series on the war in Ukraine.  Our guest is Vesko Garcevic , former ambassador of Montenegro to NATO, OSCE, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Vesko is currently Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. We talk about what it means to diplomatically engage with Russia and whether it makes sense t...

Vladimir Putin wants to put Russia back on the map as a great power. But what does it even mean to be a great power in the nuclear age? Is that idea still coherent? If it is, can Russia be such a power? And how is Putin using history to frame this quest? What does his framing reveal about him and about contemporary Russia?   The second in a series of conversations with historian Vladimir Petrovic...

For a while, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we could tell ourselves that the American-led liberal internationalist order was on the rise. That story had some big holes in it, but if we squinted a bit it was almost believable. Not "the end of history", but maybe a long vacation from it. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its insistence on declaring a “sphere of influence” free from western...

How should we understand efforts at school integration? And how are they related to the idea of equal education? Larry and I consider different historical understandings of integration and the problematic idea of integration as a vehicle for gaining social capital. Larry and Zoë Burkholder just published Integrations: The Struggle for Racial Equality and Civic Renewal in Public Education .  Larry...

The New York Times 2017 front page story about UAP's (Unexplained Aerial Phenomena) spotted by Navy pilots, and the recent report to Congress by The Office of the Director of National Intelligence have generated tremendous public interest. I talk to Professor Avi Loeb about Harvard's new Galileo Project. We discuss what it means to explore UAP's scientifically, his reasons for pursuing this work,...

What happens when the ties between the people who study psychiatric drugs and the companies who make them become too cozy? A discussion with UMass Boston psychology professor Lisa Cosgrove.    Lisa Cosgrove, PhD is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston where she teaches courses on psychiatric diagnosis and psychopharmacology. She was a Research Fellow at...

  Adam and I discuss the famous, moving passage at the end of the Iliad describing the meeting between Achilles and Priam. We talk quite a bit about Achilles' curious account of how Zeus determines humans' fate by doling out happenings from jars of joy and misfortune.    Adam Beresford teaches philosophy and classics at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He has just published a translation...

Israel has signed normalization agreements with the UAE and Bahrain. These are the first Middle East peace agreements in two and a half decades. Why now? What does each of the main actors in this drama stand to gain from these accords? Can Middle East diplomacy really bypass the Israeli Palestinian conflict as these agreements attempt to do?  And does the deal signal a new alignment of power in th...