Ethics Untangled

Should pornography be authentic? Some people think so, and partly because they think this would make it better ethically rather than just, well, better. Rosa Vince disagrees!

New paper with Georgie Mills: The Ethics of Cancelling. We argue that cancelling covers a range of moral practices. It is not always punishment, it can instead involve correcting reputations, ending parasocial relationships or relationships of informal representation. Read more here: rdcu.be/e4jay

Really enjoyable conversation in today's episode with @lisamherzog.bsky.social, on a topic which is important and pressing in all sorts of ways....

Really pleased to say Tareeq is a guest on an episode we have coming soon!

Feels like a good time to be releasing this episode featuring Jeffrey Howard of
@uclspeechlab.bsky.social. How should social media platforms regulate AI-Generated Content? (Spoiler: it's not by allowing people to use AI to create non-consensual sexualised images.) www.buzzsprout.com/2113237/epis...

52. Should we all be activists? With Josh Hobbs - Ethics Untangled Josh Hobbs is back in this episode for his second appearance. Again the subject is political. This time we're discussing whether we should all be activists. More specifically, does the existence of gl...

Is being more politically active on your list of resolutions this year?

Today's episode of Ethics Untangled features Josh Hobbs of Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied asking the question, should we all be activists?

www.buzzsprout.com/2113237/epis...

Check out Josh's excellent piece for the Conversation on the same topic as this week's podcast here: theconversation.com/three-ways-t...

Hope you had a good break if you had one, and are looking forward to a fuliflling 2026.

If you enjoy the episode, please subscribe and leave us a review.

One of the criticisms sometimes levelled at that group is that their approach to doing good tends to ignore the political and structural dimensions of suffering. This conversation with Josh focuses much more on those dimensions.

Among other things, it's an interesting counterpoint to the episode from before Christmas with David Edmonds, which focused on Peter Singer and the Effective Altruists.

In particular, Josh is interested in the way the existence of global structural injustice creates obligations, and how people can fulfil those obligations.

52. Should we all be activists? With Josh Hobbs - Ethics Untangled Josh Hobbs is back in this episode for his second appearance. Again the subject is political. This time we're discussing whether we should all be activists. More specifically, does the existence of gl...

Is being more politically active on your list of resolutions this year?

Today's episode of Ethics Untangled features Josh Hobbs of Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied asking the question, should we all be activists?

www.buzzsprout.com/2113237/epis...

The Best Books of 2025 The New Yorker’s editors and critics choose this year’s essential reads in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.

The New Yorker has (rightly!) listed Death in a Shallow Pond - the subject of my discussion with @davidedmonds100.bsky.social on the latest Ethics Untangled episode - as one of the best books of 2025. www.newyorker.com/best-books-2...

51. What can a shallow pond teach us about ethics? With David Edmonds - Ethics Untangled Imagine this: You’re walking past a shallow pond and spot a toddler thrashing around in the water, in obvious danger of drowning. You look around for her parents, but nobody is there. You’re the only ...

Shallow Pond is on Ethics Untangled. Thanks to Jim Baxter and the Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds @princetonupress.bsky.social www.buzzsprout.com/2113237/epis...

Enjoy! And also, please tell your friends! And leave us a review! Etc.!

Following the shape of his new book - press.princeton.edu/.../death-in... - we started by describing Peter Singer's famous 'shallow pond' thought experiment and then spent the rest of the conversation exploring its implications.
www.buzzsprout.com/2113237/epis...

A great, wide-ranging conversation with davidedmonds100.bsky.social on today's Ethics Untangled.

And when I say 'Simon Meisch', I do of course mean bsky.app/profile/simo...

Read Heartstopper | Tapas Web Community Read Heartstopper and more premium Lgbtq+ Community series now on Tapas!

We focused on one particular comic book series, Heartstopper (tapas.io/series/Heart...). Aside from enlightening me about that series, Simon makes a convincing case that this is a good way to get at a range of ethical issues, in a way that is complex, subtle and grounded in recognisable situations.

Instead, we talk about a particular way of highlighting ethical issues and encouraging discussion of them. That's through engaging with serial narratives, including comic books and TV series...

Simon Meisch is a Senior Lecturer for Applied Ethics at the Ethics Centre of the University of Tubingen, and until recently was also a visiting scholar here at IDEA. It's an unusual episode of the podcast in that we aren't talking about a specific ethical issue...

50. What can comics such as Heartstopper teach us about ethics? With Simon Meisch - Ethics Untangled A really interesting conversation with Simon Meisch this week. Simon is a Senior Lecturer for Applied Ethics at the Ethics Centre of the University of Tubingen, and until recently was also a visiting ...

Ethics Untangled Episode 50 is out today!

What can comics such as Heartstopper teach us about ethics? With Simon Meisch

www.buzzsprout.com/2113237/epis...

Great blog post by IDEA's Matilda Carter on Power, Status and the Dementia Care Relationship. cambridgeblog.org/2025/11/powe...

New episode this morning with the fantasic Catriona McKinnon, highlighting a point in environmental ethics that has gone under-, or even unappreciated.

The podcast is here:
www.buzzsprout.com/2113237/epis...

You can see the In-House Ethics Framework, developed by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds for the Law Society here: www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/in-ho...

Today's podcast is connected to the work we've been doing with the Law Society on the Ethics of In-House Law. Sharon Bridgalsingh is a hugely articulate and insightful voice in the profession and it was great to speak to her about some of the issues and challenges in-house lawyers face.

Ethics Untangled guest Christina Nick's paper on whether politicians with dirty hands owe reparations to victims has been published. If you've got access, you can read it here: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi....

The ep (no. 15) is here: www.buzzsprout.com/2113237/epis...

Congrats Christina!

47. Should we be worried about cancel culture? With Alfred Archer and Georgie Mills - Ethics Untangled Cancelling and cancel culture are terms that we hear a lot these days, and it's one of the many areas where there seems to be more heat than light. The phenomenon of cancelling has become a front in t...

Listen at www.buzzsprout.com/2113237/epis... or wherever you get your pods, and please leave us a nice review if you can!

Great conversation on today's Ethics Untangled podcast with @alfredarcher.bsky.social and Georgie Mills. What is cancelling? What different forms can it take? What are its effects? Who is responsible for those effects? What does all this mean for how we should interact with others online?

Here's a clip of Robbie and me chatting about emotional labour...