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In the CAVE: An ethics podcast, is back with Season 7 of the show! Join your hosts, Professor Paul Formosa and Distinguished Professor Wendy Rogers, from the Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre, as they explore a range of philosophical topics focused on the question of how we can live well as moral agents in an ethically complex world.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ applied ethics and moral agency • AI ethics: alignment, copyright, authorship, education, work, gendered robots • bioethics/healthcare: conscientious objection, devices, uterus transplant • food/animal ethics • belief, conspiracy, attention economy • race, law, democracy, loneliness, conservation, film, responsibilityThis podcast features academic conversations in practical ethics and moral philosophy, hosted by philosophers at Macquarie University. Across episodes, the show uses contemporary controversies and everyday practices as entry points for examining what it means to live well as a moral agent in a complex social and technological world. Discussions are typically anchored in recent scholarly work—journal articles, book chapters, and monographs—and aim to clarify concepts, identify ethical tensions, and consider implications for policy, institutions, and personal conduct.
A major theme is technology and digital life. The podcast frequently examines generative AI, including copyright and compensation for creators, authorship and disclosure in creative writing, risks such as “model collapse,” alignment and safety, responsible AI in education, and the ethical effects of AI and robots on autonomy and gender norms. Related episodes consider the attention economy, mind-wandering and smartphones, and whether platforms and recommender systems contribute to radicalisation or the spread of conspiracy thinking, alongside methodological questions about what people really “believe” when they endorse conspiratorial claims.
Another strand focuses on bioethics and healthcare: conscientious objection and public reason in clinical settings, ethical challenges posed by medical device representatives, gender bias in surgery, uterus transplantation, pandemic-related duties and reciprocity, and the use of animals and AI in research and medical decision-making. The show also addresses food ethics and environmental questions, including animal welfare, meat consumption, milk production, sustainability, and whether synthetic biology should play a role in conservation.
Episodes also explore moral psychology and social philosophy—belief, emotion, empathy, psychopathy, anger, loneliness in autism, identity and memory, work and meaning, race and social construction, deliberative democracy, and the interaction of law, secularism, and religious difference.
| Episodes: |
Is pregnancy a disease? With Professor Anna Smajdor2026-Jun-16 29 minutes |
Strategic Human Rights Litigation in Australia, with Dr Ebony Birchall2026-Jun-09 36 minutes |
Digital Empathy and Social Media, with Dr Bhanuraj Kashyap2026-Jun-02 30 minutes |
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Special Episode: AI, Copyright, and Model Collapse, with Professor Alain Strowel 2025-Aug-26 30 minutes |
Ontology and the Ethics of Milk: A Relational Materialist Approach2025-Jul-22 25 minutes |
Loneliness and Being Other/ed in Autism2025-Jul-15 29 minutes |
Synthetic Biology and the Goals of Conservation, with Christopher Lean2025-Jul-08 31 minutes |
Feeling is Believing? Exploring Belief as Emotion with Professor Miriam Schleifer McCormick2025-Jul-01 31 minutes |
The Gamer's Dilemma: Navigating Morality in Virtual Worlds, with Dr. Tom Montefiore2025-Jun-25 27 minutes |
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Do People Really Believe in Conspiracy Theories? With Dr Robert Ross 2025-Apr-10 17 minutes |
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Public Reason and Conscientious Objection in Healthcare, with Dr Doug McConnell 2025-Apr-10 34 minutes |
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Can ChatGTP be an author? Exploring the ethics of AI creative writing assistance with Paul Formosa. 2025-Mar-03 33 minutes |
Exploring the roles of medical device reps in Australian hospitals: ethical challenges, with Dr Brette Blakely2025-Feb-24 30 minutes |
The law and religious privilege, with Mareike Riedel2024-Jul-16 30 minutes |
Epistemic Appropriation and the history of being “woke”, with Paul-Mikhail Catapang Podosky2024-Jul-09 27 minutes |
Film-Philosophy, Cinematic Ethics and the Transformative Experience of Film, with Robert Sinnerbrink2024-Jul-02 33 minutes |
Empathy, Moral Understandings and Psychopaths with Heidi Maibom2024-Jun-25 29 minutes |
AI Special Series Pt 3: Responsible AI and the Future of Education, with Virginia Dignum2024-Jun-18 18 minutes |
AI Special Series Pt 2: Generative AI and Copyright – Where to from here? With Rita Matulionyte2024-Jun-11 26 minutes |
AI Special Series Pt 1: The AI Alignment Problem, with Raphaël Millière2024-Jun-04 28 minutes |
Should we aim for a world without work? With Jean-Philippe Deranty2023-Dec-12 42 minutes |
From Theory to Practice: The Ethics of Uterus Transplantation with Mianna Lotz2023-Dec-05 28 minutes |
Legal Identity and Human Rights with Christopher Sperfeldt2023-Nov-28 23 minutes |
AI, Robots and Gender with Inês Hipólito2023-Nov-21 26 minutes |
AI, Ethics and Meaningful Work with Sarah Bankins2023-Nov-14 24 minutes |
Do human races exist? An exploration of social constructionism about race with Adam Hochman2023-May-15 22 minutes |
Remembering and self-narratives with Regina Fabry2023-May-08 24 minutes |
The Pleistocene Social Contract with Kim Sterelny2023-May-01 21 minutes |
Animal welfare and food ethics with Rachel Ankeny2023-Apr-24 27 minutes |
Smartphones, mind-wandering, and the attention economy with Jelle Bruineberg2023-Apr-17 17 minutes |
Exclusion and Uptake in Deliberative Democracy with Professor Sarah Sorial2022-Sep-20 18 minutes |
Bad Beliefs with Professor Neil Levy2022-Sep-13 18 minutes |
Enculturation, Cognition and Technology with Professor Richard Menary2022-Sep-06 19 minutes |
Moral Conflicts in a Pandemic with Professor Wendy Lipworth2022-Aug-30 15 minutes |
Moral Responsibility and Anger with Professor Michael McKenna2022-Aug-23 30 minutes |
In the CAVE Season Two Coming this Wednesday!2022-Aug-22 1 minute |
Gender Bias in Surgery with Dr Katrina Hutchison2022-Feb-14 29 minutes |
YouTube, Radicalisation, and Conspiracy Theories with A/Prof Mark Alfano2022-Feb-14 14 minutes |
The Ethics of using Animals in Research with Dr Jane Johnson2022-Feb-14 14 minutes |
The Ethics of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare with Professor Wendy Rogers2022-Feb-14 18 minutes |
The Ethical Impacts of Social Robots on Human Autonomy with A/Prof Paul Formosa2022-Feb-14 21 minutes |