Richard Nixon

Gerald Ford

When US President Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon of his crimes, did he thereby place the presidency above the law — or did he understand a hard reality about democratic politics that should inform the multiple prosecutions of Donald Trump?

8 September 1974: Was Gerald Ford right to pardon Richard Nixon?

It is fair to say that boredom is a distinctly modern terror. But, as Stan Grant discusses with Waleed and Scott, what if existential boredom points us to our deeper need?

Is there any benefit to boredom?

Are the doomsday scenarios associated with Artificial “Super” Intelligence distracting us from the ways that the pervasive use of AI is already corrupting our use of language and the transmission of knowledge?

Does AI pose a threat to human life — and if so, what kind?

Earlier this month, US President Joe Biden made the surprising decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions. Does the threat posed by Russia outweigh the moral considerations that place such weapons beyond the pale for many other nations?

Are cluster munitions a “lesser evil” in the war in Ukraine?

Western culture’s association of ageing with decline and obsolescence fuels (and is fuelled by) a desire to dissociate ourselves from our age — but such forms of subtle and overt ageism express contempt for something that is essentially human.

Why do we distance ourselves from our age?

The newly formed National Anti-Corruption Commission faces both unrealistic expectations and a potentially fraught political climate. Professor A.J. Brown joins Waleed and Scott to discuss how it can restore popular faith in democratic politics.

What does it take to address a “wicked problem” like political corruption?

Platforms like Spotify have transformed the way people listen to music through their use of recommendation algorithms and customised playlists designed to cater to either a particular activity or a particular mood.

What are playlists doing to our ability to listen to music?

The tendency over the past four decades has been for governments to try to shield their populations from energy shocks and their associated “cost of living” crises — but is such a response truly sustainable?

How to respond responsibly to the “cost of living crisis”?

The proposed Voice to Parliament is particularly susceptible to two arguments: that it violates the principle of equal citizenship; and that it will enshrine a divisive form of “identity politics” in Australian public life. Whether these arguments hold depends on our understanding of the meaning of democratic equality.

Does the Voice to Parliament undermine Australia’s political traditions?

The final season of HBO’s prestige television series Succession confirms that the various characters’ willingness to betray, deceive, manipulate and enact an unrelenting cruelty upon one another has all but assured that, in the end, everyone loses.

“Succession” — from tyranny to tragedy

In a world marked by wicked social problems, The Minefield helps you negotiate the ethical dilemmas, contradictory claims and unacknowledged complicities of modern life.

This is a fantastic podcast covering current hot topics from a unique and insightful way. Love RN

Insightful and unique analysis

I wish this show was called the mindfield. Nonetheless it’s a fantastic programme. Thanks guys.

Mindfield

The Minefield 

During Ramadan, we’re giving concerted attention to what makes for a healthy moral life. In a time characterised by clamour and empty chatter, it’s never been more important — or more difficult — to reclaim the importance of silence.

Needs of the Soul: Silence

Does ethics have anything to say to the prospect that some of the sexual fantasies enacted on sex robots will, undoubtedly, include 'rape'?

Would it be wrong to 'rape' a sex robot?

Is economic growth a virtuous circle or a Faustian treadmill that benefits some and immiserates others (human and not)?

False necessities: Is economic growth a moral good?

What does a society lose when it neglects the moral discipline of reading literary fiction?

Is literary fiction necessary for the moral life?

Israel Folau

Is the controversy surrounding Israel Folau just one more example of the tension between incommensurable rights claims: freedom of expression; freedom of religion; freedom from discrimination on the basis of religion or sexuality? Or has Folau simply exposed the limits of political project of liberal tolerance? Constitutional legal theorist and philosopher Patrick Emerton joins Waleed and Scott to unpick this ethical knot.

How do you solve a problem like Israel Folau?

Feminism is undeniably one of the most significant political movements of the last century. So what does feminism demand of men? Meagan Tyler joins Scott and Waleed to discuss whether men can be  "feminists"?

What moral obligations does feminism impose on men?

The invitation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart is to set off on a journey of mutual attentiveness, of truth-telling and peace-making, without a clear sense of the shared destination. Marcia Langton joins us to discuss whether Australia’s political settlement accommodate such a strenuous moral task.

Voice, Treaty, Truth: What would it mean to truly listen to the First Nations' call for justice?

This week on The Minefield, we explore what Montaigne referred to as "that accursed vice" — the most corrupt and all-corrupting of them all: lying.

Ordinary vices: What’s wrong with lying?

If conspiracism is the consequence of particular conceptions of truth, knowledge, agency, power in democratic politics, is it a problem that can be solved? Professor Sophia Rosenfeld joins us to discuss whether conspiracism become an inescapable, all-pervasive feature of modern life.

Does democracy have a problem with conspiracies?

Why it is that we want to know the 'truth' about celebrities? What happens when the very promise of transparency, of authenticity — of intimacy, even — becomes part of the carefully cultivated appearance of celebrity itself?

Why do we want celebrities to be 'authentic'?

What stands out to you about 2019? This week, for the last show of 2019, Waleed and Scott discuss the year that was, what it all meant, and what it means for the future of our common life.

2019 — the year where nothing really mattered?

Is 'goodness’ still a term that we should be using? Is there a difference between the 'good' and the 'virtuous' character? What is the relationship between action and intention, between the inner and outer life?

What does it mean to be 'good'?

Iris Murdoch

In a century that produced a dizzying array of philosophers and philosophical approaches, few philosophers were as distinctive, and stood out quite so conspicuously, as Iris Murdoch (1919-1999).

Bonus - The world in a different light: Iris Murdoch’s philosophical vision

The corporate rebranding of International Women’s Day (IWD) couldn’t be further from the day’s revolutionary roots, or any meaningful discussion of women’s liberation. It negates any discussion of the nature of power under patriarchy, and how relations of power between women and men might be genuinely transformed.

International Women’s Day – cause for celebration, or commiseration?

Over the summer months, Australia has witnessed the devastation of forests and the immolation of wildlife on an unimaginable scale. The emotional or even the tragic content of the bushfires has been — understandably — reserved for the loss of human life and home and livelihood, and for the loss of some non-human animals. But why do we grieve fauna and not flora? What if these fires present to us an invitation we refuse to heed: an invitation to rediscover moral companionship, moral community with trees?

After the fires, are we invited to moral community with trees?

What new forms of life together — of modesty, prudence, simplicity, mutuality, sociality and cooperation — might we discover under the conditions of scarcity and social isolation imposed by the coronavirus, that perhaps we didn’t envision in more 'normal' times?

What (new) forms of living might the coronavirus produce?

There is undoubtedly a great need for climate science research to be communicated to the public in a manner that is clear, compelling and that cannot readily be captured, let alone dismissed, by partisan politics. Andrew Pitman joins us to discuss whether climate research can be communicated without pandering to the epistemological and political deficiencies of our time.

Can climate science be communicated without compromising the science?

Advertising has always been about creating desires, not just appealing to an existing demand. And the tension between capitalism and democratic culture is as old as capitalism itself. Soshana Zuboff argues there’s a new form of capitalism with tentacles extending deep into our private lives to influence and modify our behaviour for profit.

Can democracy survive the rise of surveillance capitalism?

Does capitalism cultivate an ethos, an understanding of the nature of social relations and mutual obligation that is inimical to what might be called the demands of "democratic morality"?

Is capitalism inimical to ethics?

Is the damage that Trump is inflicting on US political culture and the office of the executive so egregious that legislative sanction is more important than electoral advantage? We explore the normative and pragmatic considerations of impeaching this president, with Professor Joshua Cohen.

Should Donald Trump be impeached? (take two)

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