The Moral Science Podcast

Dr. Mark D. White is the chair of the philosophy department at the College of Staten Island CUNY, where he teaches courses on philosophy, economics, and law. He is also a professor of economics at the Graduate Center of CUNY. He has written and edited ten scholarly books on the intersection of these disciplines, including the Oxford Handbook of Ethics and Economics. Additionally, Mark has written eight popular books about the ethical philosophies underpinning pop culture series. Today, we contrast the ethical philosophies of Batman and Captain America, and what these narratives might reveal about popular construals of morality. Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep22-MarkWhite APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). The Ethics of Batman and Captain America with Mark D. White (2020, January 7).  [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep22-MarkWhite

Dr. Roy Baumeister is a social psychologist known for his research in a number of diverse areas, including: self-control, decision-making, the need to belong, human sexuality, self-destructive behaviors, and free will. He has published more than 600 empirical articles and 35 books. His work has been cited more than 187,000 times, landing him on the ISI highly-cited researcher list twice. In this podcast, we discuss his work with self-control, the so-called “moral muscle,” and the challenges put forward against the strength model of self-control. Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep21-RoyBaumeister APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). The Moral Muscle with Roy Baumeister (2019, December 17).  [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep21-RoyBaumeister

Dr. Tobias Krettenauer is a professor of psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University, where he directs the Morality, Identity, and Environmental Sustainability Research Group. He is also a consulting editor for Child Development and an associate editor of the Journal of Moral Education. Dr. Krettenauer’s current work examines morality and sustainability, the relationship between moral identity and moral emotions, and how moral identity is shaped by culture. He is most known, however, for his focus on how moral identity develops in adolescence and adulthood, which we discuss in this episode. Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep20-TobiasKrettenauer APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). Moral Identity Doesn't Fall from the Sky with Tobias Krettenauer (2019, December 10).  [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep20-TobiasKrettenauer

Dr. Tage Rai is the Associate Editor for social sciences at Science magazine, and is a research associate at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. His research focuses on moral conflict, violence, and personhood, and has been published in top academic journals, including Nature, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Psychological Review, as well as a trade book titled Virtuous Violence which was published in 2014. In this podcast, we discuss his work with Alan Fiske to develop the relationship regulation theory of morality—a theory that moral judgments and actions stem from our desire to maintain certain types of relationship categories. Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep20-TageRai APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). Morality is Relationship Regulation with Tage Rai (2019, November 26).  [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep20-TageRai

Dr. Steven Hitlin is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Iowa. He has written numerous articles and book chapters on the sociology of morality, and has written and co-edited four books, including the Handbook of Sociology of Morality, as well as a second volume of the handbook to be published in 2021. His work has been supported by multiple grants, including funding from the MINERVA initiative to study “Moral Schemas, Cultural Conflict, and Socio-Political Action.” In this episode, we discuss sociology’s traditional interest in morality, Steven’s hopes for a renewed vigor in the sociology of morality and partnership between moral psychology and moral sociology, as well as comparing and contrasting the approaches these disciplines utilize in their research endeavors. Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep19-stevenhitlin APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). A Brief Overview of the Sociology of Morality with Steven Hitlin (2019, November 19).  [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep19-stevenhitlin

Dr. Gregg Henriques is a Professor of Psychology at James Madison University. Over many years, he has been working to develop an integrated way of understanding how psychological sciences are related to other physical and social sciences, and how to coherently approach the study of psychology. He is the author of A New Unified Theory of Psychology, and is a leader of the Unified Psychotherapy Movement and the Theory of Knowledge Society. In this podcast, we discuss his nested model of well-being: a unified approach to understanding well-being that moves beyond subjective judgments in order to account for physical, psychological, and ethical considerations. Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep17-gregghenriques APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). The Value-Laden Nature of Well-Being with Gregg Henriques (2019, November 11).  [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep17-gregghenriques

Dr. Christian Miller is the A.C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University. His research focuses on the philosophy of religion and contemporary ethics. He has co-directed the $3.9 million Beacon Project to examine moral exemplars and, more recently, the $5.6 million Character Project which funded 28 scholars to examine the existence and nature of character and virtue. He has published two academic books, as well as one trade book titled The Character Gap: How Good Are We? In this episode, Dr. Miller and I talk about the emergence, development, and varieties of the situationist challenge—the idea that situations dictate moral action, and that character traits may play little if any role in morality. Full transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep16-christianmiller APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). People are Mixed Bags with Christian Miller (2019, November 5).  [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep16-christianmiller

Dr. Daniel Batson has a PhD in Social Psychology and Theology, and is an emeritus professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Tennessee and the University of Kansas. His distinguished career began in graduate school, in which he and his adviser, John Darley, designed and conducted what is now famously known as the Good Samaritan Study. This study subsequently fueled the so-called “situationist challenge.” He is also renown for defending “empathy-induced altruism” against Robert Cialdini’s selfishly-motivated altruism in a professional debate which played out over many years. In this podcast, we discuss these lines of work, and how they inform his opinions regarding the situationist challenge and his conceptualization of moral motivation. Full transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep15-danbatson APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). The Good Samaritan and Moral Motivation with Daniel Batson (2019, October 29).  [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep15-danbatson

Dr. Bradford Cokelet is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kansas. He has written and coedited three books, including the Moral Psychology of Guilt, which is to be published this month. He is also the recipient of two Templeton Foundation grants to study character, virtue, and motivation. His work concerns Eastern philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and applied ethics. In this podcast, Brad and I talk about ethical traditions of the East and West, and begin to discuss how to meaningfully compare and contrast traditions. APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). (2019, October 22). Ethics of the East and West with Bradford Cokelet [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep14-bradcokelet Full transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep14-bradcokelet

Dr. Owen Flanagan is the James B Duke professor of philosophy and Neurobiology at Duke University, where he co-directs the Center for Comparative Philosophy. Recently, he was also a Rockefeller Fellow at National Humanities Center, as well as a Berggruen Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Dr. Flanagan has written and edited 13 books, including The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material World published in 2007, and The Geography of Morals published in 2017. His distinguished work concerns the philosophy of mind, moral psychology, and comparative ethics. In this podcast, we discuss the relationship between naturalism and moral realism. APA Citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). (2019, October 15). Naturalism and the Convivial Social Life with Owen Flanagan [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/ost/msp-ep13-owenflanagan Full transcripts available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep13-owenflanagan