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Thinking Out Loud provides audio-podcasts based on a series of videos produced by Katrien Devolder in which she talks to leading philosophers from around the world on topics related to practical ethics. The podcast and videos are meant for a non-specialist audience. You can watch the videos on the Practical Ethics Channel. Katrien is a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Practical ethics with philosophers•Covid-19 pandemic ethics: vaccines, prioritisation, treatment triage, lockdowns, PPE duties•privacy risks of contact-tracing apps•inequality, corruption, racism in healthcare access•zoonoses, factory farming, animal ethics•moral questions about AI agentsThis podcast features interviews with philosophers and other experts on practical ethics, aimed at non-specialists, and uses contemporary global problems as case studies for moral reasoning and policy questions. A major focus is the Covid-19 pandemic and public health ethics, exploring how we decide when a pandemic has “ended,” what can and cannot be learned from historical outbreaks, and how to balance uncertainty, risk, and competing values in real time.
Across the discussions, recurring themes include the ethical justification and design of public health measures, such as lockdowns and targeted restrictions of liberty, as well as vaccination policy: whether and when to vaccinate young children, how to prioritize groups when doses are scarce, and whether prioritizing one’s own citizens counts as objectionable “vaccine nationalism.” The podcast also examines the ethics of allocating scarce medical resources under strain, including ICU triage, prioritization criteria, and the challenges of resuming non-Covid care amid backlogs. Several conversations highlight the moral duties and limits of healthcare workers, especially when personal protective equipment is inadequate.
Another thread addresses how pandemics intersect with social justice, including how existing inequalities can be amplified and how corruption or racism can distort fair access to treatment. The show also connects pandemic prevention to human-animal relationships, with attention to zoonotic disease risks and arguments about factory farming, dietary ethics, and responsibilities toward companion animals.
Beyond pandemics, the podcast extends practical ethics to emerging technology, considering how humans should understand and interact with AI, including the possibility of moral obligations between humans and AI agents, and the broader societal implications of AI-enabled systems such as contact-tracing apps and privacy.