The Morality of Everyday Things: An Everyday Philosophy Podcast

The first in our series on euthanasia and assisted suicide - later named with the much more provocative title, 'when is it ok to put down a human being?'. In this series we explore how much control we (and other people) should have over our own death. This is primarily focused on circumstances where death is near and inevitable, and life/treatment is becoming pretty horrible in the interim, but we do broaden the discussion a little beyond these boundaries. As we clarify in the episode, agency creates an extremely important distinction between assisted suicide and euthanasia, but even the most liberal countries draw some lines on where agency is not enough to bring us to support someone's wish for death.We'll begin the series by clarifying the terms (what's the difference between assisted suicide, euthanasia, and the active/passive forms of either) and a discussion of the current legal state of affairs across a range of countries - including how hard it is to do any of this in the UK and a little price check of a one-way trip to Switzerland.Support the show:Please leave us a review! Spotify even now let's you do it - see that little star icon - go on, give it a click. Reviews are a great way to help others find the show, and it makes us feel all warm inside. If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside too. https://www.patreon.com/moedt.Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude. Keep up to date with future episodes on our website here: https://moedt.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Third in our series (of 3 episodes) exploring the intersection of morality and public policy; generally of the form 'should X be made legal?'. We'll be exploring both the ethical arguments and some of the high level data around key policy decisions surrounding commonly banned substances and activities. A core introductory theme (and one that's consistently touched on through the series) is when and how a governing power should behave independent of morality, i.e. with a greater focus and interest in outcomes and evidence, and when the banning or legalizing of substances are perhaps more important as value statements than as policy approaches who's outcomes we should study. Ultimately, this a spectrum and we will all have different views on this, even from issue to issue.Today we consider the legality of gambling. Dissimilar to previous episodes, this is something that's is largely legal (though sports gambling is only recently permitted in the US). This means we can assess some of the impacts through studies and also that we consider the realistic efficacy of oversight bodies. In this case, the similar to the sex work, the moral imperative is protection of victims, but the victims are the purchasers rather than the sellers, and the particular difference on top of this is the awkward layering of the capitalist incentive to take advantage of those who gamble most - and are most addicted.Support the show:Please leave us a review! Spotify even now let's you do it - see that little star icon - go on, give it a click. Reviews are a great way to help others find the show, and it makes us feel all warm inside. If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside too.Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude. Keep up to date with future episodes on our website here: https://moedt.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Second in our series (of 3 episodes) exploring the intersection of morality and public policy; generally of the form 'should X be made legal?'. We'll be exploring both the ethical arguments and some of the high level data around key policy decisions surrounding commonly banned substances and activities. A core introductory theme (and one that's consistently touched on through the series) is when and how a governing power should behave independent of morality, i.e. with a greater focus and interest in outcomes and evidence, and when the banning or legalizing of substances are perhaps more important as value statements than as policy approaches who's outcomes we should study. Ultimately, this a spectrum and we will all have different views on this, even from issue to issue.Today we consider the legality of sex work/prostitution (i.e. the exchange of cash for sexual services). There are several global locations where there are legal avenues to prostitution, but largely it's illegal. This provides ample opportunity to study the impact of differences and changes and their impact on the health of sex workers. Importantly, unlike drugs, which are very multi-faceted, our main concern looking at sex work is the welfare of the providers of the service. We also touch on the moral significance of sex that delineates it from other physical pleasures - afterall, it's totally acceptable to pay for a non-sexual massage - and whether some goods should simply not have a market for their provision.Support the show:Please leave us a review! Spotify even now let's you do it - see that little star icon - go on, give it a click. Reviews are a great way to help others find the show, and it makes us feel all warm inside. If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside too.Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude. Keep up to date with future episodes on our website here: https://moedt.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we begin a series (of 3 episodes) exploring the intersection of morality and public policy; generally of the form 'should X be made legal?'. We'll be exploring both the ethical arguments and some of the high level data around key policy decisions surrounding commonly banned substances and activities. A core introductory theme (and one that's consistently touched on through the series) is when and how a governing power should behave independent of morality, i.e. with a greater focus and interest in outcomes and evidence, and when the banning or legalizing of substances are perhaps more important as value statements than as policy approaches who's outcomes we should study. Ultimately, this a spectrum and we will all have different views on this, even from issue to issue.We begin by assessing the legality of recreational drugs (recreational vs performance enhancing or other use cases). Recreational drugs are widely available legally, such as alcohol, but a large number of substances are actually prohibited (particularly many discovered/popularized within the last century or so). Why? If I can drink myself to death and our society can widely celebrate drinking culture, is it so bad if some people dabble in the use of other substances? Maybe some of these have a particular ability to cloud our judgement and limit our freedom. All of this, and more, discussed this week.Support the show:Please leave us a review! Spotify even now let's you do it - see that little star icon - go on, give it a click. Reviews are a great way to help others find the show, and it makes us feel all warm inside. If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside too.Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude. Keep up to date with future episodes on our website here: https://moedt.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we finish our series (of 3 episodes) exploring the intersection of 'God' and morality. You'll note the use of quotation marks, this is because we explore the moral implications of theism and organized religion in a way that is not limited to faith-based belief. This means both looking purely at the incentives around belief rather than basing belief on faith, but also weighing up the pros and cons of organized religion and their impact on society. Did it help to instill moral norms and unity, or more act as a basis for persecution, subjugation and undue docility.In this episode, we consider the source of moral authority when it comes to religion. Ultimately, if people say things like 'this is the correct way to interpret scripture', there must be some method they're leaning on to pick between alternative interpretations. If this is the case, is God's word not, in itself, the source of moral authority? Is God good at selecting what's good, or does he define it be choosing it? We talk through these problems and consider whether, in the context of morality, an appeal to authority is ever a compelling form of argument.Support the show:Please leave us a review! Spotify even now let's you do it - see that little star icon - go on, give it a click. Reviews are a great way to help others find the show, and it makes us feel all warm inside. If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside too.Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude. Keep up to date with future episodes on our website here: https://moedt.substack.com/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we continue our series (of 3 episodes) exploring the intersection of 'God' and morality. You'll note the use of quotation marks, this is because we explore the moral implications of theism and organized religion in a way that is not limited to faith-based belief. This means both looking purely at the incentives around belief rather than basing belief on faith, but also weighing up the pros and cons of organized religion and their impact on society. Did it help to instill moral norms and unity, or more act as a basis for persecution, subjugation and undue docility.In this episode, we weigh up some of the goods and bads that have been committed in the name of religion and whether belief even matters to the moral teachings of religions. We begin with looking at Alain de Botton and work our way through to the '4 horsemen' of atheism, with a bunch of thought experiments along the way.Support the show:Please leave us a review! Spotify even now let's you do it - see that little star icon - go on, give it a click. Reviews are a great way to help others find the show, and it makes us feel all warm inside. If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside too.Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude. Keep up to date with future episodes on our website here: https://moedt.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we begin a series (of 3 episodes) exploring the intersection of 'God' and morality. You'll note the use of quotation marks, this is because we explore the moral implications of theism and organized religion in a way that is not limited to faith-based belief. This means both looking purely at the incentives around belief rather than basing belief on faith, but also weighing up the pros and cons of organized religion and their impact on society. Did it help to instill moral norms and unity, or more act as a basis for persecution, subjugation and undue docility.We begin by assessing some of the classic arguments for either believing or not believing in god, drawing inspiration all the way from the Ancient Greece to Dostoevsky. Next we'll consider whether religion (irrespective of god's existence) has been a net good for humanity, and finally what the moral basis for god's morality could be (an appeal to authority, the definition of what is moral or something else entirely).Support the show:Please leave us a review! Spotify even now let's you do it - see that little star icon - go on, give it a click. Reviews are a great way to help others find the show, and it makes us feel all warm inside. If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside too.Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude. Keep up to date with future episodes on our website here: https://moedt.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are all the rage - at time of posting. Should we all be rushing to buy digital images of gorillas wearing sunglasses? Or are there better ways of supporting struggling artists?In this episode, Jake and Ant look at whether NFTs represent a bright future for helping artists monetize their work. They begin by discussing how NFTs work, what web3 is and why people are so excited about where this technology could lead us. Bill Gates famously warned that one of the early design flaws of the internet was that it would be hard for creators to monetise their content - and we've certainly seen the risks of this with the rise of platforms like Spotify - so does web3 hold the answers? Along the way, they look at what art is, what it means to own art and whether NFTs will actually fulfil all their promises. Is the current hype around NFT just the beginning, or is it a bubble? Or, worse, are NFTs a kind of ponzi scheme or pyramid scheme?Support the show:Please leave us a review! Spotify even now let's you do it - see that little star icon - go on, give it a click. Reviews are a great way to help others find the show, and it makes us feel all warm inside. If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside. Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude. Keep up to date with future episodes on our website here: https://moedt.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a crossover with the Good in Theory podcast. We discuss with Clif what liberal democracy is, the arguments in its favour, and some big critiques. What is the purpose of government? How much of what we look for in good governance is shaped by our liberal democratic contexts (and particularly, the Cold War)? Episode includes Plato, Nazis and of course the Lizard People. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hunting endangered animals for sport. Everyone knows it’s bad. But is it really?In this episode, Jake and Ant talk about trophy hunting and whether a moral society can permit it. They begin with an overview of how trophy hunting actually works in the nations that allow it and how it has gone wrong in the past, followed by outlining the effects it has on the environment, conservation, and local communities, which curiously, are generally positive.This leads them into a discussion of the morality of conservation in general, whether we have an obligation to maintain species, and whether conservation of the species is sufficient to justify animals suffering.They also discuss the differences in the opinions on trophy hunting in countries that have it and countries that don’t, questioning if it’s fair for the west to enforce their norms on far away places when they have no skin in the game.Want to create your own podcast?Zencastr is an all in one podcast creation studio that you can access right from your browser, no installations needed. Just get on the site and send a link to your guests and you can get started, recording studio quality audio, and now video too.Automatic post-production makes finalising your podcast easy, all guests have their own audio channels to make editing a breeze, and all files are stored on the cloud for easy access and peace of mind.Click this link to get started with 30% off your subscription for your first 3 months.Support the show:If you’re a fan of the show, please consider signing up to our Patreon. A small subscription goes a long way towards supporting the show - and it makes us feel all warm inside. Alternatively, leave us a review! We read every one and they’re a great way to help others find the show… which in turn, means we’ll make more episodes. Win-win.Know anyone who likes to think about or debate the kind of topics we cover? Spread the word - and you’ll have our gratitude. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices