TrueSciPhi

Podcast Profile: Little Bad Thing

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11 episodes
2020 to 2026
Median: 18 minutes
Collection: Philosophy

Description (podcaster-provided):

True stories each week of the things we wish we hadn't done. Smart, dark, wry, and surprising, this is a show for anyone who's made a big decision or regretted a small one. Hosted by philosopher Eleanor Gordon-Smith and produced by The Ethics Centre.

Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):

➤ true-story confessions • moral regret, guilt, accountability • ethical dilemmas and unintended consequences • bystander inaction, vigilante impulses • scams, theft, plagiarism • relationships and abrupt breakups • power, rules, and harm in humanitarian settings

This podcast tells true, first-person stories about moments when ordinary people make decisions they later question—sometimes because they caused harm, broke trust, or simply revealed something unsettling about themselves. Hosted by philosopher Eleanor Gordon-Smith and produced by The Ethics Centre, it approaches confession and regret with an ethical lens, drawing out the complicated motives, pressures, and rationalizations that sit behind “bad things,” whether big or small.

Across the stories, listeners encounter moral dilemmas in both public and private life: following orders in a high-stakes workplace setting and watching the consequences unfold; choosing self-preservation or ambition at someone else’s expense; getting swept into fraud, plagiarism, or accusations of theft; or confronting the impulse to act as a vigilante and then rethinking what justice requires. Other narratives focus on intimate choices—leaving a long relationship abruptly, freezing in a moment when intervention felt necessary, or struggling with the emotional aftermath of a decision that had broad positive impact but carried personal costs.

The tone is described as smart, dark, wry, and surprising, with an emphasis on how messy moral decision-making can be: why people justify what they do in the moment, how guilt and responsibility evolve over time, and what it feels like to revisit a choice years later. The feed also points listeners to related audio from the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, which features wide-ranging conversations on contemporary social and ethical issues.

Episodes: