Ethics in Action Podcast

Breaking Things at Work: A Conversation with Gavin Mueller

Our fourth episode of our mini-series on the future of work features Gavin Mueller, Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam and the author of Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job. We speak with Gavin about the history of the Luddite movement, technological unemployment, and the possibilities of interstitial political action. Listeners interested in working-class efforts to subvert the technology that dominates our working lives are encouraged to read Gavin's latest book.

The Value of Idleness: A Conversation with Brian O’Connor

In the third episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by Brian O'Connor, Professor of Philosophy at University College Dublin. Brian and I discuss the value of idleness in our lives, the burnout caused by the work ethic, and the pressure to view oneself as a project to be continuously realized. We discuss the goods of learning to live more with more idleness - to place less emphasis on our contemporary obsession with purposeful, achievement-oriented pursuits. We encourage listeners to read Brian's excellent book Idleness for a rich discussion of the history of idleness and a vision of freedom in aimlessness.

Meaningful Work: A Conversation with Andrea Veltman

In our second episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by Andrea Veltman, Professor of Philosophy at James Madison University. We speak with Andrea about what it takes for work to be meaningful, if meaningful work is available to all, and what kinds of economic and social changes are necessary to help others find meaningful work. Please check out Andrea's excellent book Meaningful Work to learn more.

Making Light Work - A Conversation with David Spencer

In the first episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by University of Leeds economist David Spencer. We discuss the experience of alienated labor under contemporary capitalism, the importance of work for meaning and dignity in our lives, and the reduction of the working week. Spencer persuasively makes the case for less but better work and how we might imagine a better world of work. Check out his excellent new book Making Light Work: An End to Toil in the Twenty-First Century.

Breaking up the United States: A Conversation with Chris Zurn

Political philosopher Chris Zurn has just published Splitsville USA, a bombshell book arguing for the dissolution of the US. We talk about why Chris thinks this has become necessary, how history unnecessarily prejudices us against such a split, and what a post Splitsville future might look like. 

 

Draw your own new national maps! 

 

Regulating Virtual Reality: A Conversation with J Hughes and Alec Stubbs

The IEET and the UMB Applied Ethics Center recently released a White Paper on the political, moral and psychological questions involved in regulating the metaverse. J Hughes is the Executive Director of the IEET. Alec Stubbs is the Future of Work Post Doc at the UMB Applied Ethics Center. We discuss the main findings of the paper.

You can find the paper here

 

 

 

Report from Kyiv: A Conversation with Journalist Alisa Sopova

We continue our series on the war in Ukraine. In this episode Vlado and I talk to journalist and anthropologist Alisa Sopova about what everyday life feels  like in Ukraine as the war passes the 100 day mark. We discuss the regional differences in how the conflict is perceived, we ask whether Ukrainians have different views about Russian politicians and ordinary Russians, and we also talk about how Ukrainians perceive assistance from the west.  

Alisa Sopova is an independent journalist from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. She worked as a journalist and a news editor for the largest local newspaper, Donbass. When the war broke out, she was faced with the challenge of reporting on violence in her own city. With the local journalism collapsing, she began working for international media, including The New York Times and Time magazine where her coverage focused on the war and its humanitarian impact. Alisa is an author and co-founder of a #5Kfromthefrontline project (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/5kfromthefrontline/) that aims to bring to light everyday experiences of civilian life at the frontlines. Alisa holds a BA in journalism from Moscow State University and an MA in Regional Studies from Harvard University. She is currently working on a doctorate in anthropology at Princeton.

Links to some of Alisa's pieces:

https://americanethnologist.org/features/reflections/be-strong-like-a-kitchen-cabinet

 

https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/authors/alisa-sopova

 

https://time.com/longform/eastern-ukraine-war-civilian-life-frontline/

Reading Between The Lines in Russia and Ukraine: A Conversation with Ambassador Vesko Garcevic

We continue our series on the war in Ukraine.  Our guest is Vesko Garcevic, former ambassador of Montenegro to NATO, OSCE, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Vesko is currently Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University.

We talk about what it means to diplomatically engage with Russia and whether it makes sense to think of it as a pariah state. We also take up some misconceptions about the role of NATO expansion in precipitating the current war. 

Making Russia Great Again?

Vladimir Putin wants to put Russia back on the map as a great power. But what does it even mean to be a great power in the nuclear age? Is that idea still coherent? If it is, can Russia be such a power? And how is Putin using history to frame this quest? What does his framing reveal about him and about contemporary Russia?

 

The second in a series of conversations with historian Vladimir Petrovic about the implications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

Resources:

• Putin's February 21st Speech, preceding Russia's invasion of Ukraine
• George Orwell's 1940 review of Mein Kampf
• Salvador Dali's "Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man"
• On Point interview with Alexander Vindman and Larry Wilkerson

 

Empires Strike Back - Did the “Balance of Power” Just Make a Comeback?: A Conversation with Vladimir Petrovic

For a while, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we could tell ourselves that the American-led liberal internationalist order was on the rise. That story had some big holes in it, but if we squinted a bit it was almost believable. Not "the end of history", but maybe a long vacation from it. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its insistence on declaring a “sphere of influence” free from western intervention, and its alliance with China change everything.

 

Within a few weeks an older picture of international order - where great powers check each other and make sure none becomes ascendant - reemerged. Is the Balance of Power Back? Did it ever really go away? And if it is back, what’s next?

 

Vladimir Petrović  is a senior research fellow at the UMB Applied Ethics Center, and a senior researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade where he heads the Digital Center. He researches mass political violence and strategies of confrontation with its legacy. He studied contemporary history (Faculty of Belgrade: BA and MPhil) and Comparative history of Central and Southeastern Europe (Central European University: MA and PhD), completing his postgraduate studies at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam. He has taught at Boston University and was a recurrent visiting professor at Central European University.

Petrović’s doctoral project which started at CEU, evolved over the time into a book The Emergence of Historical Forensic Expertise: Clio takes the Stand (Routledge, 2017). It examines the role of historians and social scientists as expert witnesses in some of the most dramatic legal encounters of the 20th century. Petrovic was exploring this intersection between history and law, both in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and in the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office. Petrović published extensively on ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and attempts to undo its legacy, as well as on the history of nonalignment during the Cold War and the collapse of Yugoslavia. He is currently working on the discursive history of mass violence.

 

Resources:

 

F. Fukuyama “The End of History and the Last Man”

 

J. Mearsheimer “The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine Crisis”

 

J. Mearsheimer “Back to the Future: Instability in Europe After the Cold War”

 

“The Congress of Vienna” From BBC’s In Our Time