Ethics Untangled – Details, episodes & analysis

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Ethics Untangled

Jim Baxter

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/12d. Total Eps: 103

Ethics Untangled is a series of conversations about the ethical issues that affect all of us, with academics who have spent some time thinking about them.

Ethics Untangled is also the long-form online presence of IDEA, edited by Danielle Bromwich and Luke Brunning, where we make room for longer interviews, staff and student profiles, articles and other forms of content.

Both are brought to you by IDEA, the Ethics Centre, a specialist unit for teaching, research, training and consultancy in Applied Ethics at the University of Leeds. IDEA offers Masters programmes in Healthcare Ethics and Applied and Professional Ethics, research degrees and consultancy services.

The Ethics Untangled podcast is edited by Mark Smith at Leeds Media Services.
Music is by Kate Wood.

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http://ethics-untangled.ghost.io/
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https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/ethics
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https://www.troyjollimore.com/
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/idea-ethics-centre/
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https://www.linkedin.com/company/idea-ethics-centre/
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-fogarty-8893298b/
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https://www.facebook.com/ideacetl
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49. Are We Deceiving Future Generations About Environmental Crises? With Catriona McKinnon

Monday, November 17, 2025 • Duration 45:34

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In this episode I talk to Professor Catriona McKinnon, a political philosopher based at the University of Exeter. The topic is the various environmental crises facing humanity today. Obviously lots to discuss there, but Catriona wants to highlight one issue in particular, which is the way one generation can, with or without knowing it, conceal information from future generations about the depth and nature of a crisis. This an issue of intergenerational justice, and its one that Catriona thinks deserves more attention.

Some links:

RENEW: Renewing biodiversity through a people-in-nature approach https://renewbiodiversity.org.uk/

Catriona's University of Exeter site: https://experts.exeter.ac.uk/32795-Catriona-McKinnon

Catriona’s book Climate Change and Political Theory https://www.waterstones.com/book/climate-change-and-political-theory/catriona-mckinnon/9781509521661

A lecture by Catriona on postericide Endangering Humanity: An International Crime: https://youtu.be/htQwrrURVOQ?si=DA17u9hBR6qn-iQm. Her book on postericide will be published in 2026 by MIT Press.

Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.

As well as the podcast, Ethics Untangled is also the name for the long-form online presence of IDEA.

Bluesky: @ethicsuntangled.bluesky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idea_leeds/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideacetl

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/idea-ethics-centre/

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48. How should you act as an in-house lawyer? With Sharon Bridglalsingh

Monday, November 3, 2025 • Duration 42:44

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For the last year and a half, Jim Baxter and the consulting team at IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds, have been working with the Law Society of England and Wales on a project looking at the ethics of in-house law. That project has involved talking to lots of lawyers who are both passionate and insightful about the job and the ethical challenges it presents. None more so than Sharon Bridglalsingh, Director of Law and Governance at Milton Keynes City Council. Sharon was kind enough to come on the podcast and share some of her insights in this wide-ranging conversation.

The In-House Ethics Framework which IDEA produced for the Law Society is here: https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/in-house/in-house-ethics-framework/.

Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.

As well as the podcast, Ethics Untangled is also the name for the long-form online presence of IDEA.

Bluesky: @ethicsuntangled.bluesky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idea_leeds/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideacetl

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/idea-ethics-centre/

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39. How should we motivate cosmopolitanism? With Luke Ulas and Josh Hobbs

Monday, May 19, 2025 • Duration 46:08

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Luke Ulas from the University of Sheffield and Josh Hobbs from the University of Leeds are both interested in cosmopolitanism. Cosmopolitanism is a name used for a few different political ideas, but the core thought, according to the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, is "the idea that all human beings, regardless of their political affiliation, are (or can and should be) citizens in a single community." One might think it's an idea that's in retreat, at least in some countries, today. That's one of the issues we discuss, as well as whether there's a crisis of motivation of cosmopolitanism, what that means and what one might do about it.

Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.

As well as the podcast, Ethics Untangled is also the name for the long-form online presence of IDEA.

Bluesky: @ethicsuntangled.bluesky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idea_leeds/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideacetl

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/idea-ethics-centre/

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38. Should we be using AI to predict patient preferences? With Nicholas Makins

Monday, May 5, 2025 • Duration 43:53

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This episode is part of what's becoming a bit of an informal series of Ethics Untangled episodes, on ethical issues relating to artificial intelligence applications. The particular application we're looking at this time comes from a healthcare setting, and is called a Patient Preference Predictor. It's a proposed way of using an algorithmic system to predict what a patient's preferences would be concerning their healthcare, in situations where they're incapacitated and unable to tell us what their preferences are. Ethicists have raised concerns about these systems, and these concerns are worth taking seriously, but Dr Nick Makins, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Leeds, thinks they can be answered, and that the use of these systems can be justified, at least in some circumstances.

Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.

As well as the podcast, Ethics Untangled is also the name for the long-form online presence of IDEA.

Bluesky: @ethicsuntangled.bluesky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idea_leeds/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideacetl

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/idea-ethics-centre/

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37. What is relationship anarchy? With Natasha McKeever and Luke Brunning

Monday, April 21, 2025 • Duration 53:04

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Relationship anarchy is a radical approach to relationships that goes beyond just rejecting traditional monogamy. Relationship anarchists believe that relationships should never involve having power over each other, in the form of holding each other to obligations. So, for example, relationship anarchists reject the idea of restricting one's partner from entering into any form of intimacy with anyone, even with mutual friends. They also reject any hierarchy of relationships - for example having a central relationship with one person whose agreement is needed for you to have relationships with other people. For relationship anarchists, all relationships should be approached individually and no relationship should involve placing restrictions on any partner. Natasha McKeever, and Luke Brunning, all based at the IDEA Centre, have been looking critically at the ethics of relationship anarchy, and I spoke to them in a wide-ranging conversation about this fascinating topic.

Some links to further reading:

An article by Luke in The Conversation about relationship anarchy.

An ABC article about relationship anarchy.

A new book about relationship anarchy.

A 'Short Instructional Manifesto for Relationship Anarchy'

An article by Aleksander Sørlie, Ole Martin Moen on The Ethics of Relationship Anarchy.

A book about relationship anarchy by by Juan-Carlos Pérez-Cortés.

36. Is drag problematic? With Simon Kirchin

Monday, April 7, 2025 • Duration 52:53

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Drag is a type of performance which uses clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles. It's an activity with a long and varied history, and continues to be a very popular form of entertainment, as attested by TV shows such as Ru Paul's Drag Race. It's also distinctive in having faced criticism from several different political directions, including conservative, transgender and feminist perspectives. In this conversation with Simon Kirchin, who is Professor of Applied Ethics, Director of IDEA, The Ethics Centre and someone who has experience as a drag performer himself, we mainly focused on the feminist critique. The problem is that drag typically involves men (a relatively advantaged group) imitating women (a relatively disadvantaged group), in a way that plays on often offensive stereotypes about women, for entertainment. Described in that way, it seems uncomfortably similar to blackface, a form of entertainment which follows a very similar dynamic, at least superficially, on racial lines. Professor Kirchin thinks a moral difference between these two activities can be identified, though, and in the conversation he explains why.

You can read Simon's article on the topic here.

Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.

As well as the podcast, Ethics Untangled is also the name for the long-form online presence of IDEA.

Bluesky: @ethicsuntangled.bluesky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idea_leeds/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideacetl

LinkedIn:

35. What should we do about disruptive speech? With Carl Fox

Monday, March 17, 2025 • Duration 47:36

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Misinformation, fake news, hate speech, satire, the arts, political protest. These are all examples of what you might call disruptive speech. A free speech absolutist would say that all of these forms of speech should be tolerated, if not welcomed. On the other hand, it does look as though some of them are disruptive in a good way, and others are disruptive in a bad way. But can we tell the good from the bad in a way that isn't just politically partisan? Carl Fox, Lecturer in Applied Ethics at the IDEA Centre, thinks we can, and that we should treat different forms of disruptive speech differently.

Here is Carl's paper on the subject in the Journal of Social Philosophy.

Carl co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Media Ethics with fellow Ethics Untangled alumnus Joe Saunders, which contains a chapter by Carl on satire and stability.

For further reading, there's Amy Olberding's book on manners and civility.

In the interview, Carl mentions a paper on lying by Don Fallis. That's here:

Fallis, D. 2009. “What Is Lying?” Journal of Philosophy 106(1): 29–56.

And then there's the classic text on freedom and its limits, John Stuart Mill's :

34. Is AI stealing artists' labour? With Trystan Goetze

Monday, March 3, 2025 • Duration 47:52

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Recent developments in AI, including image generation and large language models, have created huge excitement and opened up some really interesting possibilities. But they've also attracted significant criticisms, not least of which is the accusation that they involve large scale theft. This is because they are trained on huge datasets that include the original work of many people, who go uncredited and are unlikely to have given consent to their work being used in this way. Focusing on AI art and the work of artists on which it is built, Trystan Goetze, Senior Lecturer in the Ethics of Engineering at Cornell University, argues that these criticisms are well founded. In Dr Goetze's view, these systems are guilty of stealing artists' labour.

Here's a link to Dr Goetze's paper on the topic.

Here's a transcript of Bob Dylan's Musicares acceptance speech, that I mention towards the end of the conversation.

Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.

As well as the podcast, Ethics Untangled is also the name for the long-form online presence of IDEA.

Bluesky: @ethicsuntangled.bluesky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idea_leeds/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideacetl

LinkedIn:

33. Is Internet access a human right? With Merten Reglitz

Monday, February 17, 2025 • Duration 45:46

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When I was doing my undergraduate degree back in the 90s, the Internet was a bit of a novelty. It was fun to play with, and you could see theoretically how it was probably going to be quite important. I'm not sure I would have predicted how completely it now pervades every area of human life, though: work, civil society, leisure and social interactions. There's still, however, a significant digital divide. Not everyone has easy access, or any access to the internet, and its systemic importance in all of these areas means this is more of a disadvantage than it's ever been.

Merten Reglitz, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham, thinks it's time we recognised internet access not just as a significant good, but as a human right.

Here is Merten's recently published book on the topic, an overview of it and an article that sets out the book’s main defence of the idea of a new right.

An article and another article opposing the idea that internet is a human right.

The latest figures on global connectivity from the ITU.

Freedom House’s ‘Freedom of the Net’ reports on internet freedom.

Ethics Untangled is produced by at the University of Leeds.

32. Where's the harm in health and safety? With Simon Cassin

Monday, February 3, 2025 • Duration 46:07

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After time in the army and the fire service, Simon Cassin became a health and safety professional, and is now the managing director of a training and development consultancy called Ouch. Unusually for someone working in health and safety, he's dedicated some serious study to understanding the deep philosophical ideas underlying the profession, focusing particularly on the idea of harm.

When do consequences caused or made worse by work become harm? What are an organisation's responsibilities regarding harm? And what are the responsibilities of health and safety professionals related to harm and doing good?

Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.

As well as the podcast, Ethics Untangled is also the name for the long-form online presence of IDEA.

Bluesky: @ethicsuntangled.bluesky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idea_leeds/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideacetl

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/idea-ethics-centre/

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Ethics Untangled – Details, episodes & analysis

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Ethics Untangled – Details, episodes & analysis

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