Conversations With Kate

The Morality Illusion: Who’s Really Accountable When AI Goes Wrong? A robot artist is detained at the border. A chess bot that fractures a child’s finger. A hiring algorithm that quietly sidelines women. These aren’t hypotheticals — they’re signs of a world grappling with machine morality, where we treat code as if it has a conscience. In this unflinching episode, Kate and Andrew dive into the eth...

Psych Experiments, Rogue Chatbots, and the Ethics of Influence What do a broken-fingered chess prodigy, a rogue AI chatbot, and a cafeteria fruit bowl have in common? In this wide-ranging episode, Kate and Andrew explore how power, influence, and *ethical blind spots* play out across psychology, technology, and behavioural science. From the dark legacy of the Stanford Prison and Milgram experiment...

AI, Ethics, and the Fight to Stay Human A chess robot breaks a child’s finger. A self-driving car fails to stop. A learning algorithm starts to forget how to think. In this wide-ranging and quietly provocative episode, Kate and Andrew dive deep into the ethical tensions shaping our AI future. From real-world failures to the philosophical question of whether machines should be held to human standar...

A clean interface. A focused tool. A moment of silence in the noise. None of it happened by accident. In this thoughtful, quietly revealing conversation, Kate and Andrew trace the influence of Japanese philosophy on the tech we use every day, from the Walkman and the iPhone to today’s digital environments. They unpack ideas like wabi-sabi, Kaizen, and hodo-hodo, demonstrating how concepts of imper...

What if the very tools designed to make us smarter are also making us vulnerable? A single prompt. A subtle tweak. A forgotten language. That’s all it takes. As LLMs weave themselves into the fabric of our daily lives, their promise feels limitless — until you look beneath the surface. In this wide-ranging and quietly urgent conversation, Kate and Andrew explore the evolving landscape of AI vulner...

This episode unpacks how algorithms hijack our sense of self, reward mimicry, and turn identity into performance. It's a clear-eyed look at the psychological cost of living online — and what it might take to reclaim your attention.

Explore the transformative epochs of innovation with hosts Andrew McLean and Kate Bennett as they delve into the Renaissance, the Gutenberg Printing Press, the Industrial Age, and the AI Revolution. Discover the societal upheavals and adaptations that have shaped our modern world.

René Girard's mimetic theory offers profound insights into rivalry, desire, and societal conflicts. In this episode, we discuss imitation's role in human behavior, the scapegoat mechanism, and the resonance of Girard's ideas in modern technology, social media, and cancel culture. Featuring real-world examples, we analyze how these patterns shape society and propose strategies for fostering inclusi...