Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
Examining Ethics is an ethics podcast produced by The Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University. Everybody wrestles with questions about ethics. Some of those questions are easy to figure out. Should I murder someone? No! But other questions are more difficult to answer. Examining Ethics doesn’t provide answers to these ethical dilemmas, but instead leaves listeners with tools and ideas from some of the biggest names in moral philosophy and ethics. Academic philosophy and ethics can sometimes be difficult to understand, and our accessible, open-minded content bridges the gap between scholars and everyone else. Examining Ethics is hosted and produced by Christiane Wisehart.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Accessible moral philosophy interviews • Rules, discretion, accountability • Democracy, deliberation, obedience, civil disobedience • Tech ethics: bias, trust, surveillance, misinformation • Climate justice, reparations, wildlife • Identity, race, gender, disability, motherhood • Forgiveness, offense, swearing, emotions • Ethics education, ethics bowl, intellectual virtues • Philanthropy, humanitarianism, policing, immigrationThis podcast explores ethical questions through accessible conversations with philosophers, scholars, and other experts, aiming to equip listeners with concepts and analytical tools rather than definitive answers. Across the episodes, the show frequently connects moral philosophy to everyday experience, asking how people should think about familiar practices—such as swearing, taking offense, humor, forgiveness, parenting, and coping with negative emotions—and what these reveal about responsibility, respect, and social life.
A major thread is political and civic ethics: how democracy functions, when disobedience or obedience is justified, how deliberation can be taught and practiced, and how public institutions like policing, philanthropy, humanitarian efforts, and victim-advocacy shape justice and power. Related discussions address social equality, the moral weight of race and whiteness, colonialism, reproductive justice, gender norms, disability, and immigration, often emphasizing how structural conditions affect agency and ethical evaluation.
The podcast also engages ethics in science, technology, and the environment. Topics include algorithmic bias and accountability, trust and surveillance in digital life, misinformation and distorted pattern-seeking, and climate ethics framed in terms of demandingness, justice between nations, and links between racial justice and climate justice. Environmental concerns extend to biodiversity and wildlife recovery. Several episodes broaden the scope of moral consideration to nonhuman animals and emerging entities such as AI agents.
Alongside issue-focused discussions, the show also examines ethics education itself—how people cultivate intellectual virtues, how structured activities like ethics bowls work, and how tools like games and public spaces might support better moral reflection and civic capacity.