Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Discussions – Details, episodes & analysis

Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2023!

STORY SUMMARY: After Dinner Conversation editor Kolby wraps up the Season Five podcast and answers ten listener questions.

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short stories here.

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2022!

STORY SUMMARY: In this work of philosophical short story fiction, a civilization-sized space ship has been flying to populate the surrounding solar systems. They start with a skeleton crew, use ship resources and grow their population over generations, then arrive at a new planet. They drop off the extra people, replenish their raw resources, and do it all again. All is well until a weak radio signal makes them realize they are heading towards a planet that likely already has sentient alien life. If they don’t stop, their population will burst at the seams in the ship and they will likely run out of resources before the next solar system. If they do stop, they are likely to, over time, subjugate the indigenous population. They have just weeks to decide if they plan to make a course correction.

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

COMPANION PODCAST: Listen to our audiobook readings of After Dinner Conversation short stories (“Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Audiobooks”).

MAGAZINE: Sign up for our monthly magazine and receive short stories that ask ethical and philosophical questions. Use the discount code on our website to get the first month free or an entire year for just $4.95!

SUPPORT: Support us on Patreon.

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Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Magazine: Code “Happy” for 12 Issues/$4.95! https://www.afterdinnerconversation.com/subscribe/yearly

Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2022!

STORY SUMMARY: Should a criminal suffering from the remorse of the crime he committed be permitted to be freed of that pain? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, Mr. Henmore’s was convicted of a terrible crime many years ago. He served his time, and been paroled, and is genuinely remorseful for what he did. In fact, his pain is so great, even years later, he suffers severe, almost daily, mental anguish from the knowledge of what he did. His lawyer has gone before the Grand Rectification Council to ask permission to have Mr. Henmore’s memory wiped clean of the crime he committed so as to enter his suffering. After making his case on behalf of his client, it is now up to the Council, should Mr. Henmore forever remember the horrible thing he has done?

DISCUSSION: A hard story that caused us to go back and forth several times. First, can we really be sure that erasing the memory of the crime won’t alter the person so as to make it more likely they will commit the crime in the future? If we are absolutely sure of that, is there an argument to be made that the punishment of remembering the crime you committed should last forever? Counterpoint, does society have a duty to create useful people of those who are safe to integrate into society? And finally, from an emotional standpoint, don’t you want the person to committed the crime, simply to suffer with the knowledge of what they did? Lots of questions in this Gordian Knot of a story, but very few clear ethical answers.

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

COMPANION PODCAST: Listen to our audiobook readings of After Dinner Conversation short stories (“Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Audiobooks”).

MAGAZINE: Sign up for our monthly magazine and receive short stories that ask ethical and philosophical questions. Use the discount code on our website to get the first month free or an entire year for just $4.95!

SUPPORT: Support us on Patreon.

FOLLOW: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Magazine: Code “Happy” for 12 Issues/$4.95! https://www.afterdinnerconversation.com/subscribe/yearly

Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2022!

STORY SUMMARY: How do you find common ground with those that believe in a vast, intricate, media conspiracy to hide the truth? In this work of philosophical short story of fiction, the narrator drives out to his parent’s house to visit them for the holidays. Much to his surprise, when his parents open the door, they are only two feet tall! He is concerned that his parents, like many in the world, have shrunk to half their size. His parents, however, are equally concerned about their son because they believe he, and others in the world, have doubled in size. The son tries to explain to his parents that they have shrunk, that is why their house, and all their belongings, seem so large. However, his parents believe he, like many others, have an altered idea of what reality is, and that they have been lied to by the media and local officials. The son continues to come year after year to visit his tiny parents, who continue to refuse that they have changed, not the world around them.

DISCUSSION: Story brings up some great questions. When do you argue with people, and when do you simply write them off and let them have wrong beliefs? Does the closeness of the person matter? Would you argue with your parents if they held an idea you thought was clearly wrong, but let a distant Uncle simply keep having their wrong belief system? And what if you turn out to be the the wrong one? How do you know who is wrong? Is it just a matter of who has the larger number of people in their belief camp? And to what extent does media coverage determine the size of the people sharing that belief?

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

COMPANION PODCAST: Listen to our audiobook readings of After Dinner Conversation short stories (“Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Audiobooks”).

MAGAZINE: Sign up for our monthly magazine and receive short stories that ask ethical and philosophical questions. Use the discount code on our website to get the first month free or an entire year for just $4.95!

SUPPORT: Support us on Patreon.

FOLLOW: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Magazine: Code “Happy” for 12 Issues/$4.95! https://www.afterdinnerconversation.com/subscribe/yearly

Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: Are there certain things you shouldn’t be able to insure against? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, the narrator has an eating disorder, and mental health issues. Regardless, she is a good employee at an insurance company. Just before closing, a call arrives from a good client, the local diocese who inquires about getting insurance to protect them against sexual abuse of children by priests. She takes the issue, and her concerns, to her boss who threatens to fire her if she fails to write the policy. It’s not their job to judge, he says, it’s their job to insure. A flashback shows why this point strikes so close home with the narrator. As a young child she was bullied on the school bus for being overweight. In an attempt to lose weight she started getting off the bus early to walk the last three miles home. Later, her bully accused the bus driver of touching her when they were on the bus alone together. Having come full circle, not much has changed. The narrator writes the contract, and sends it to the diocese to sign and return.

DISCUSSION: A wonderful story set in Ireland in the 1980’s that asks an important question about risk, and what you should and shouldn’t be able to insure against. Of course, you can’t crash your car and get an insurance payout. You can’t burn down your own house and then make a claim. Can you insure against sexual assault allegations if you know those allegations are likely to be coming soon? What obligations, if any, does the insurance company have to ask questions first, or to report what they may know?

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

COMPANION PODCAST: Listen to our audiobook readings of After Dinner Conversation short stories (“Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Audiobooks”).

MAGAZINE: Sign up for our monthly magazine and receive short stories that ask ethical and philosophical questions. Use the discount code on our website to get the first month free!

SUPPORT: Support us on Patreon.

FOLLOW: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: After Dinner Conversation editor Kolby wraps up the Season Four podcast and answers ten listener questions.

DISCUSSION:

What got you interested in doing After Dinner Conversation?

How do all of you know each other from the podcast?

Why does your audio sound different each episode?

How long do you think you will do the podcasts for?

Why does Kolby always do the story introductions?

How can I submit a story for consideration for the podcast? How do you find your stories?

Do you ever talk to the authors before doing the podcast?

Would you ever consider having a guest on the podcast?

What kind of stories are you looking for?

Would you ever consider reading the stories on the air instead of just discussing them?

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short stories here.

MAGAZINE: Sign up for our monthly magazine and receive short stories that ask ethical and philosophical questions. Use the discount code on our website to get the first month free!

SUPPORT: Support us on Patreon.

FOLLOW: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: The narrator is walking down a small-town street when he comes across the devil, relaxing on vacation for the holidays. The narrator knows it is the devil because of his horns and goat legs. He also has a few small demon children in tow. The narrator, surprised, stops the devil to talk to him. The devil is cordial and says he has outsourced most of the “hell work” and spends his time traveling around the world moving from place to place. He likes the small towns during the holidays and enjoys the peace and quiet. The narrator feels he should do something, perhaps confront the devil, rather than allowing him to exist in peace. Finally, the narrator has second thoughts, in part because he doesn’t have a suitable weapon. The devil and his children continue in peace on their way.

DISCUSSION: One of our shorter stories and more to the traditional form of what we tend to discuss; a single interesting question put into a short story framework. In this case, the question is just wonderful, that being, do you always have an obligation to fight evil when you see it, even when you are fighting alone and feel (or know) that your efforts are futile, and are likely to go unnoticed? This story serves as a wonderful allegory for fighting against political or corporate abuse and how small our single vote or purchasing choice feels. Feeling, as the story says, that we are equipped with nothing more than a set of knitting needles. And yet, someone like Greta Thunberg was just a single person and her lone voice did, and does, matter. Maybe the lesson is fight futile battles and lose them in a public way?

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

MAGAZINE: Sign up for our monthly magazine and receive short stories that ask ethical and philosophical questions. Use the discount code on our website to get the first month free!

SUPPORT: Support us on Patreon.

FOLLOW: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: The prison medical doctor is called in the middle of the night to take care of Fuzzy, an uneducated, mostly toothless, prisoner who has spent the majority of his life behind bars. Fuzzy, it seems, has gotten into eating cheese, something that strongly disagrees with his stomach and causes severe diarrhea. While the doctor waits for Fuzzy on the toilet and treats him for dehydration he learns Fuzzy’s story. Fuzzy was a young child from a poor family when his brother got him into a small-time gang robbing homes. Fuzzy and his brother wanted to get out of their life and move to Houston to look for legitimate work, but need enough money from a big heist to cover their travel fees. Their final heist goes wrong and the police show up. Fuzzy watches his brother get wrongly gunned down and, in a panic, hops in the van to try to get away. In the process he hits and kills a police officer with the van. The remaining members of the gang are captured and found guilty. Fuzzy, it seems, was able to eat so much cheese as it was his “last meal” on death row and assumed he wouldn’t be around for the results. However, there was a last-minute error with the electric chair so he was forced to face the retribution of his culinary choices. Hearing Fuzzy’s story, the doctor feels greater sympathy for Fuzzy and his life.

DISCUSSION: Fuzzy is an interesting character. Clearly, he is meant to be a sympathetic character, and he is. However, he might be someone we feel empathy for, but don’t all actually like. And who’s story is this? Is it the doctor’s story? We think so. We think the story is the arc of the doctor that goes from seeing Fuzzy as a inmate who forced him out of bed in the middle of the night, to a human being who was wrongly put in jail for the rest of his life for a crime he committed when he was a child. This story, of course, begs the question, what is the purpose of putting Fuzzy in jail for his entire life? It’s clearly not to reform him. It must be simply to punish him as it seems unlikely any of this is a deterrent of any kind to others. We also don’t really know the truth. After 50 years of telling the same story over and over again, he will have crafted every word to be the perfect telling of his version of events. What we do know is the system failed in this case, and the author wants us to understand that that may often be the case for our judicial system.

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

MAGAZINE: Sign up for our monthly magazine and receive short stories that ask ethical and philosophical questions. Use the discount code on our website to get the first month free!

SUPPORT: Support us on Patreon.

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: Jane goes to visit her parents over the Christmas holiday. She has recently learned that her parents, under a program that favors the rich and elite, had had her genetically modified before she was born to be the best possible version of herself. Jane is crushed at learning that her life success has nothing to do with her hard work and is angry at her parents for having genetically modified her. Her father argues the problem of evil; that it was in his means to do good, and had he failed to do so, he would have been a god that allowed evil to exist. Jane is unhappy with his responses, but now must move forward with the choice of what she will do, when it is her time to have children.

DISCUSSION: This discussion didn’t go the way I thought it would. Jeremy and Sarah are both parents, but also have expressed a strong dislike for gene editing for the wealthy as a form of class-ism. Therefore, it was assumed they would be against gene editing your own child. However, they both agree that when it comes to our own child, you have a moral obligation to do everything you are legally allowed to do to give them the best chance at success in life, including doing legal things that violate your own personal morals. We also discuss the “problem of evil” and if a parent who fails to give their child the best chance of success, is, in fact, guilting for allowing the evil of lessor traits to exist. Can’t lie, this discussion did not go the way I expected!

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

MAGAZINE: Sign up for our monthly magazine and receive short stories that ask ethical and philosophical questions. Use the discount code on our website to get the first month free!

SUPPORT: Support us on Patreon.

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Named “Top 20 Philosophy Podcast” for 2021!

STORY SUMMARY: Kiki has a problem, the computer program that continually whispers the best choices, the Infinity System, is broken. She has been using it for years and simply doing what it says. Following its advice has become second nature to her. She heads into the shop to get it looked at, and finds out it must be sent off for repairs. She will be making choices on her own for a few days. The friendly “Mastermind” service representative at the shop asks her out on a date. Without her Infinity System giving her advice, she decides to take a chance and say yes. She ends up getting drunk and sleeping with him. When she heads into the store to check to see if her Infinity System is repaired, she sees the same “Mastermind” using the same pickup lines on a new woman. She storms out. Finally, after several lost days, her repaired Infinity System is repaired and sent to her house. Now she is stuck with the final decision, will she start using it again?

DISCUSSION: Interesting story that brings up important discussions about when services to help you go too far. Also, there is the issue of AI trying to decide what kind of life you should be leading. Someone is programming that AI, and that person is making choices. Not to mention, how do you know the company is really acting in your best interest and not giving you advice that other companies paid them to give you? Even assuming all that isn’t happening, there is still the question of if you are using the tool in a way to help you, or you are deferring to it and it is becoming a crutch. It seems the people that would most use it (people who need help making choices) are the people who should least use it (people who need practice making decisions). Still, it’s an interesting idea of running the thin line of when technology makes your life better or worse.

BOOK LINK: Download the accompanying short story here.

MAGAZINE: Sign up for our monthly magazine and receive short stories that ask ethical and philosophical questions. Use the discount code on our website to get the first month free!

SUPPORT: Support us on Patreon.

FOLLOW: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook