Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
A discussion of the defining ethical challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, featuring world-renowned experts in ethics, public health, law, economics, public policy, and beyond. Hosted by Joshua Preiss, Director of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at Minnesota State University, Mankato and the author of Just Work for All: The American Dream in the 21st Century (Routledge 2021). Visit pandemic-ethics.com for more information on recent and upcoming episodes.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Covid-19 ethical dilemmas • vaccine allocation, trials, mandates, intellectual property • pandemic modeling and evidence for lockdowns • risk and essential workers • care work, nursing, childcare • inequality, race, poverty • business responsibilities • debt, property law, economic recovery • future of work, automationThis podcast examines the ethical challenges raised by the Covid-19 pandemic through conversations with scholars and practitioners in philosophy, law, economics, public health, and public policy. Across the series, it explores how societies should make decisions under uncertainty, weighing individual liberty against collective protection and asking what counts as adequate evidence for high-stakes interventions such as lockdowns. It also considers how scientific modeling and data limitations shape policy choices, and what it can mean to “trust the science” when knowledge is evolving.
A major thread is vaccine ethics: when, if ever, vaccination requirements are justified; how mandates differ across governments, employers, universities, and private businesses; and how to allocate scarce doses fairly, especially with attention to vulnerability and equal moral concern. The podcast also addresses the global political economy of vaccination, including intellectual property, incentives for research and development, and proposals to broaden access while compensating innovators.
Beyond immediate public health measures, the discussions connect the pandemic to structural inequality and institutional design. Topics include rising sovereign debt and the responsibilities of governments, private creditors, and international institutions; the role of property law in shaping insecurity and crisis response; and how business actors should respond amid market failures and gaps in government support. The series frequently returns to care and essential work—nursing, childcare, and other frontline services—probing the risks workers bear, whether their expertise is respected, and how policy might better support the people and systems that sustain health and everyday life. It also analyzes how race and historical injustice influence pandemic vulnerability and what reforms could promote a more just recovery.
| Episodes: |
|
Should Vaccination Be Mandatory? 2021-May-04 44 minutes |
|
Modeling the Covid-19 Pandemic 2021-Apr-05 42 minutes |
|
Responsibility for Debt and Crisis 2021-Mar-22 47 minutes |
|
Covid, Poverty, and Intellectual Property 2021-Feb-24 42 minutes |
|
Covid-19 and the Future of Work 2021-Feb-17 34 minutes |
|
Vaccine Ethics 2021-Feb-08 27 minutes |
|
Childcare in the Time of Covid 2021-Feb-01 27 minutes |
|
Nursing in a Pandemic 2021-Jan-18 31 minutes |
|
Business Ethics in a Pandemic 2021-Jan-10 48 minutes |
|
Care in Crisis 2021-Jan-04 52 minutes |
|
Race, Justice, and the Pandemic 2020-Dec-16 35 minutes |
|
Who Gets the Vaccine First? 2020-Dec-10 25 minutes |
|
Property Law and the Pandemic 2020-Dec-02 22 minutes |
|
Risk, Ethics, and Public Policy During the Covid-19 Pandemic. 2020-Nov-22 45 minutes |