The Moral Science Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Dr. Michael McCullough is a professor of psychology at University of California, San Diego. There, he directs the Evolution and Human Behavior Laboratory, where his team studies the cognitive mechanisms that contribute to cooperation, altruism, and aggression. His work also addresses shortcomings in the measurement of forgiveness, empathy, and altruism. He has authored and co-authored five books on these topics, the most recent of which we discuss in this podcast. In The Kindness of Strangers, Mike traces the interaction of social challenges and reason throughout history. We discuss how these interactions have shaped what it means to be cooperative, and how cooperation may continue to morph in the face of ongoing challenges like poverty and climate change.

The Kindness of Strangers on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kindness-Strangers-Selfish-Invented-Moral/dp/0465064744

APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). (2021, March 30).  Evolved Reason and Shared Challenges Yield Cooperation with Michael McCullough [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep42-MikeMcCullough

Dr. Andrew Vonasch is a lecturer in psychology at the University of Canterbury where he researches moral rationality. His academic training in economics and psychology has informed his interest in agency and divergences from the rational actor model. Specifically, Andy is interested in how people will incur costs to demonstrate that they are moral, and to ensure that other people behave morally too. In this podcast we discuss his work regarding costly tradeoffs in reputation management and tendencies to project hidden motives, or so-called phantom costs, onto others.

APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). (2020, October 13).  Would You Rather, Phantom Costs, and Conspiracy Theories with Andrew Vonasch [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep41-AndyVonasch

Dr. Jennifer Cole Wright is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the College of Charleston, where she directs the Moral Lab. There, she researches meta-ethical pluralism and the foundational role of humility in virtue development. Her forthcoming book, Understanding Virtue: Theory and Measurement, written in collaboration with Nancy Snow and Michael Warren, is set for release late this year. In this podcast, we talk about how people tease diversity apart from deviance. We discuss the role of morality in producing conformity, and how perceived social domains, folk metaethical understandings, and social practices aimed at virtue development bear upon the detection of diversity and the moral judgment of deviance.

Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep32-JenColeWright

APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). (2020, March 31). Diversity and Deviance with Jennifer Cole Wright [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep32-JenColeWright

Dr. Russ Roberts is the John and Jean De Nault Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has taught economics at George Mason University, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Rochester, Stanford University, and the University of California–Los Angeles. In 2006, he launched the popular podcast, EconTalk, which he continues to host today. He has also authored 5 books, including Gambling with Other People’s Money which was released last year (2019), and How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life. In this episode, we discuss Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, and how character is a priori to the invisible hand. Russ explains that self-interest is distinct from greed.

Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep31-RussRoberts

APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). (2020, March 17). Moral Sentiments and the Mythical Homo Economicus with Russ Roberts [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep31-RussRoberts

Dr. Stephen Vaisey is a professor of Sociology and Political Science at Duke University. He is the Director of the Worldview Lab at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, where he studies the nature, origins, and effects of moral and political beliefs. Dr. Vaisey was part of the research team for the National Study of Youth and Religion, and is the Principal Investigator of the Measuring Morality Project. In this podcast, we discuss four popular theories of how morality and political ideology are related, the need for a developmental science of moralization, the power of shared communal values for behavioral mobilization, and inter-generational changes in common values.

APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). (2020, March 10). Dungeons and Dragons and Political Ideology with Stephen Vaisey [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep30-SteveVaisey

Robert Wright is a journalist and the best-selling author of Three Scientists and Their Gods: Looking for Meaning in an Age of Information, The Moral Animal, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, The Evolution of God, and Why Buddhism is True. He has edited for Time and Slate and has written for The New Yorker, The Huffington Post, and New York Times Magazine, among others. He is a visiting professor of science and religion at Union Theological Seminary and the founder of the Nonzero Foundation, as well as a director of Bloggingheads.tv and MeaningofLife.tv, where you can watch him discuss the big questions with other intellectuals. In this podcast, Bob talks about the trajectory of his interests, as well as the relationships between evolution, morality, and consciousness.

Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep29-RobertWright

APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). (2020, March 3). Consciousness, Evolution, and Morality with Robert Wright [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep29-RobertWright

Dr. Sharad Goel is a professor of Management Science and Engineering, as well as a professor of Computer Science and Law at Stanford University. He is the founder and executive director of the Stanford Computational Policy Lab, where he uses advanced data science techniques to examine the effects of social and political policies, and how those policies might be improved upon. In this episode, we discuss the intractability of algorithmic fairness. We explore how decision systems are being used and implemented in unsettling ways, and the mathematical reasons that three common goals for achieving algorithmic fairness are mutually-exclusive.

Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep28-sharadgoel

APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). (2020, February 15). Algorithmic Fairness and Its Discontents with Sharad Goel [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep28-sharadgoel

Dr. Nancy Snow is a philosophy Professor and the director of the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing at the University of Oklahoma. She co-directed the Self, Motivation, and Virtue Project, and is the principle investigator of the Self, Virtue, and Public Life Project. She has edited six research volumes, and authored two books, including one written with Jennifer Cole Wright and Michael Warren, titled Understanding Virtue: Theory and Measurement, which is set for publication next year. In this podcast, we discuss Dr. Snow’s account of how people develop virtue through the natural course of their everyday lives.

Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep27-nancysnow

APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). (2020, February 18). Becoming Virtuous with Nancy Snow [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep27-nancysnow

Dr. Darcia Narvaez is a professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame. There, she directs the Evolved Developmental Morality Lab, where her program of research concerns how provision of physical, emotional, and social resources early in life bear upon the development of ethical behavior. In this episode, we discuss her recent book, Indigenous Sustainable Wisdom: First Nation Know-How for Global Flourishing, edited along with Four Arrows, Eugene Halton, Brian Collier, and Georges Enderle. The conversation focuses on indigenous ethical traditions, and how those traditions conceptualize humanity’s relationship with and responsibilities to the natural world.

Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep26-darcianarvaez

APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). (2020, February 11). Indigenous Wisdom with Darcia Narvaez [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep26-darcianarvaez

Also see: For Life to Continue on Earth, Every Day Must Be Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Dr. Oliver Scott Curry is the research director of Kindlab, and a researcher at Oxford’s School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography as well as the London School of Economics’ Center for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science. His work weaves philosophy, psychology, and anthropology together to tackle questions about the nature of human morality. In this episode, we discuss his theory of morality as cooperation, and the evolutionary and game theory perspectives that underpin it. We also compare and contrast his theory with Moral Foundations Theory, Richard Shweder’s “big three” ethics, and the Relationship Regulation Theory of morality.

Transcript available at: https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep25-oliverscottcurry

APA citation: Cazzell, A. R. (Host). (2020, February 4). Game Theory, Evolution, and Morality with Oliver Scott Curry [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.ambercazzell.com/post/msp-ep25-oliverscottcurry