The IDEA Pod
The IDEA Pod is a podcast that explores and interrogates applied ethics across a range of urgent and contemporary issues.
Released each fortnight, our podcast is presented by postgraduate researchers from the IDEA Centre and features selected guest speakers.
Our podcast gives us an opportunity to connect the academic world to the real world. We are always discussing pressing issues happening in our society; our concerns go beyond the merely theoretical, so being able to share this with a larger audience is an amazing chance to contribute to the public debate.
Season 4
Episode 1: Panashe ChinyaIn this episode we have special guest Panashe Chinya. Panashe is a medical student at the University of Leeds, who previously intercalated on the MA in Biomedical and Healthcare Ethics at the IDEA Centre. The presentation and subsequent discussion are based on the dissertation that Panashe completed during her MA at IDEA which asks if mandating moral enhancement for health care professionals as a means to deal with racism and implicit biases in the field could be ethically justified. Could moral enhancement really help to combat racial injustice in healthcare? Can responsibilities to patients be balanced against the autonomy and moral freedom of the health care professional? And how do we square concerns around impacts to personal identity that moral enhancement might raise with the duty of care that health care workers have to their patients? |
Episode 2: Moral responsibility and the psychopath: the value of othersIn this episode, Dr Andrew Kirton talks to Dr Jim Baxter about the issues explored in Jim’s new book, Moral Responsibility and the Psychopath: The Value of Others. Are psychopaths morally responsible? Should we argue with them? Remonstrate with them, blame them, sometimes even praise them? Is it worth trying to change them, or should we just try to prevent them from causing harm? And how should society treat them, particularly if they have committed crimes? To answer these questions, we first need to understand what a psychopath is, which means engaging with insights from psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience. We also need to know what moral responsibility is, which is a deep and difficult philosophical question. And then we need to join the dots, applying the criteria of moral responsibility to a category of person whose emotional engagement with the world may be shallow, but who are not obviously irrational. In a conversation that ranges across all of these areas, Jim ultimately argues that at least some psychopaths lack the ability to value others, which is fundamental to moral life, and are therefore not morally responsible for their actions. Finally, the discussion turns to the implications of this position for how psychopaths should be treated in the criminal law. |
Episode 3: Borderline personality disorderThis podcast discusses the ethics of the controversial medical condition of Borderline Personality Disorder, examining whether the high prevalence of diagnoses of Borderline Personality Disorder in female patients who have experienced trauma is the result of implicit biases around gender, and whether excessive blame towards patients with Borderline Personality Disorder constitutes a form of hermeneutic injustice. Along the way, we discuss the specifics of BPD, and explain the cutting-edge philosophical concepts of epistemic injustice and hermeneutic injustice – assuming no prior knowledge." |
Season 3
Episode 1: The impact of Covid-19 on sex workers’ healthThe IDEA Pod returns with special episodes on the ethics of sex work, with particular focus on the impact of Covid-19 on sex workers’ wellbeing and health. These episodes are produced, edited, and presented by IDEA alumna Georgina James. In this first episode, Georgina speaks with Bea Piper of the English Collective of Prostitutes about the issues faced by sex workers in the UK, both generally and those that have been brought into particularly sharp focus in light of the pandemic. Released November 2021. Presented by Georgina James. Georgina is a final-year medical student at the University of Leeds and is also a graduate of our Campus MA Biomedical and Health Care Ethics. Georgina returned to IDEA in the summer of 2021 for her academic elective, and produced this podcast series during this time. |
Episode 2: Outreach services for sex work in NottinghamIn this episode, medical student and IDEA alumna Georgina returns with guests Jude and Carys who work closely with sex workers in Nottingham. Jude is the Sexual Health Outreach and Health Promotion team lead at Nottingham University Hospital Trust. Carys is the operations manager for POW Nottingham, a voluntary organisation supporting those in the sex work industry. In this episode, Jude and Carys explain the outreach services that POW provides, and how this is supported by the Sexual Health Outreach and Health Promotion team. They also discuss the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on outreach services like theirs, and in particular how vulnerable sex workers have been affected by this. Released November 2021. Presented by Georgina James. Georgina is a final-year medical student at the University of Leeds and is also a graduate of our Campus MA Biomedical and Health Care Ethics. Georgina returned to IDEA in the summer of 2021 for her academic elective, and produced this podcast series during this time. |
Episode 3: The gender power imbalance in cis-hetero sexual transactionsIDEA alumna Georgina speaks to Scott A Anderson, Associate Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. In this episode, Georgina and Scott discuss the philosophical argument that the gender power imbalance between men and women can impact the sexual autonomy of sex workers in cis-hetero sexual transactions, and could have further-reaching impacts on sexual harassment in the workplace in other carers. Released November 2021. Presented by Georgina James. Georgina is a final-year medical student at the University of Leeds and is also a graduate of our Campus MA Biomedical and Health Care Ethics. Georgina returned to IDEA in the summer of 2021 for her academic elective, and produced this podcast series during this time. |
Episode 4: The potential harms of sex workIDEA alumna Georgina speaks to Anna Westin. Anna is a philosopher, artist, and musician. She is a Visiting Lecturer at St Mary’s University Twickenham, and also at LST, Canterbury Christ Church University and Azusa Pacific University. In this episode, Georgina and Anna discuss Anna’s research into the potential harms of sex work, including physical and psychological harms, and the risk of objectification. They also consider the notion of transactional relationships and Anna’s work with victims of human trafficking. Released December 2021. Presented by Georgina James. Georgina is a final-year medical student at the University of Leeds and is also a graduate of our Campus MA Biomedical and Health Care Ethics. Georgina returned to IDEA in the summer of 2021 for her academic elective, and produced this podcast series during this time. |
Episode 5: Reflecting on the ethics of sex work in the Covid-19 pandemicIn the fifth and final episode of the third series of the IDEA Pod podcast, IDEA alumna Georgina reflects on the conversations and interviews that have made up the series and considers what she has learned from her exploration into the ethics of sex work in the Covid-19 pandemic. Released November 2021. Presented by Georgina James. Georgina is a final-year medical student at the University of Leeds and is also a graduate of our Campus MA Biomedical and Health Care Ethics. Georgina returned to IDEA in the summer of 2021 for her academic elective, and produced this podcast series during this time. |
Season 2
Episode 1: Should information about a patient’s genetic condition be strictly confidential?The IDEA Pod returns as Dr Natasha McKeever, programme director for the online MA Biomedical and Healthcare Ethics, interviews Amaal Maqsood-Shah, an alumnus from our campus MA programme, about her MA dissertation topic – the confidentiality of information about patients’ genetic conditions. Despite guidance permitting clinicians the discretion to breach confidentiality, clinicians maintain confidences against a backdrop of litigation fears. As genomic medicine advances to return more information on the heritable basis of conditions, there is an increasing need for clinicians to understand when, and how, to communicate genetic information to at-risk relatives (The British Society for Genetic Medicine, 2017). Amaal’s dissertation seeks to challenge current guidance and provide an ethical case for the non-consensual disclosure of all genetic information generated by the proband to biological relatives. Released 19 January 2021. Presented by Natasha McKeever. |
Episode 2: Enron and corporate responsibilityOur special guest for this episode is Ken Lewchuk, a chartered accountant who worked for Enron before its collapse. Ken's first degree was in theology, he has an MBA from Heriot-Watt University, and he recently completed an MA in applied and professional ethics with the IDEA Centre. Graham Bex-Priestley interviews Ken about the issue of responsibility for corporate failure. In the context of Enron, Ken argues against the common view that it was "a few bad apples" that brought the house down. To understand the problem we must consider the culture that was fostered in the corporation collectively (which extends all the way back to what was taught at business school) instead of focusing on individual behaviour in isolation. Ken brings together themes from several disciplines - including psychology, economics, the philosophy of agency, and the ethics of blame and punishment - to provide an explanation for what went wrong and a suggestion for what we should do to prevent similar catastrophes from happening in the future. Released 2 February 2021. Presented by Graham Bex-Priestley. |
Episode 3: In search of a ‘good death’ – How best should doctors care for dying patients?In this episode we have special guest Matt Murray. Matt is a medical student at the University of Leeds, who previously intercalated on the MA in Biomedical and Healthcare Ethics at the IDEA Centre. The presentation and subsequent discussion are based on the dissertation that Matt completed during his MA at IDEA on the duties and ethics surrounding end of life care for the medical professional. Matt’s dissertation was supervised by IDEA lecturer Sarah Carter-Walshaw, who joins him in this episode to discuss his research. Matt and Sarah discuss how we in society understand health and death (especially the latter), and why there is an ethical imperative to change the way that the medical profession perceives and approaches death and dying. Released 16 February 2021. Presented by Sarah Carter-Walshaw. |
Episode 4: The ethics of policingWhat does an ethical police officer look like? How ought we to judge the “Dirty Harry” style cop who gets results by any means? Should police to see themselves as “good guys” out to catch villains? And, must police officers “dirty their hands” in order to be truly ethical? Detective Garda and MA in Applied and Professional Ethics, Thomas O’Connor, offers a unique and compelling perspective on these questions in conversation with his former MA supervisor, Dr Josh Hobbs. Released 2 March 2021. Presented by Josh Hobbs |
Episode 5: Is it permissible to incentivise the sterilisation of addicts?‘Project Prevention’ is a growing organisation in the US that aims to achieve the sterilisation of addicts, and offers monetary incentivisation to do so. In her dissertation, Georgina James engages with the question of whether it is morally permissible to incentivise the sterilisation of addicts, and whether something similar may be introduced to the UK. The talk discusses the concepts of autonomy, best interests, public interest and issues of exploitation and commodification. Georgina’s dissertation provided a strong argument against the permissibility of any such sterilisation of addicts. Released 16 March 2021. Presented by Tom Hancocks |
Episode 6: AI and Philosophy WorkshopIn this episode, we comment on one of the latest events held at the IDEA Centre, the AI and Philosophy Workshop. Postgraduate Researcher Gabriela Arriagada Bruneau speaks with Zach Gudmunsen, fellow co-organiser of the event and Michael Cannon, co-author of one of the presented papers. This episode covers different talks in the workshop, dividing them into two themes: Theory: Dr David Strohmaier - "Ontology, neural networks, and the social sciences" Practice: Professor David Hogg - "AI and Common sense" We finish by commenting on the Future challenges for the development of AI. Released 30 March 2021. Presented by Gabriela Arriagada Bruneau |
Episode 7: IntegrityIn this episode, we explore the concept of identity. It’s a buzzword that many businesses and institutions use and present as part of their ethos, but do we really have clarity as to what integrity actually is or what it implies? Dr Jim Baxter (IDEA Centre) and Tracey Groves (Intelligent Ethics) walk us through understanding what integrity is, how it impacts businesses and how the role and impact of integrity has changed over time. Released 27 April 2021. Presented by Gabriela Arriagada Bruneau |
Episode 8: What's wrong with formalising ethics for AI?Meet special guest Christian Herzog, a researcher at the Institute for Electrical Engineering in Medicine at the University of Lübeck and Head of the Ethical Innovation Hub. Christian recently completed an MA in Applied and Professional Ethics at the IDEA Centre and published two papers based on his research for this course, linked below. Graham Bex-Priestley interviews Christian about his work on the problems with formalising ethics for implementation in artificial intelligence. What seems at first to be a merely technical issue ends up touching on the contentious topics of inclusive deliberation, moral understanding, relationships of power, and the ideals of democracy. Is there anything wrong with an AI using "deep learning" to essentially trawl the internet and aggregate the moral opinions they find? Christian bounces off Foucault and Habermas to explain what he thinks is missing from such approaches to machine ethics. Herzog, C. On formal ethics versus inclusive moral deliberation. AI Ethics (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-021-00045-4 Herzog, C. Three Risks That Caution Against a Premature Implementation of Artificial Moral Agents for Practical and Economical Use. Sci Eng Ethics 27, 3 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-021-00283-z Released 11 May 2020. Presented by Graham Bex-Priestley. |