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Part of UMass Boston’s Philosophy Department, the Applied Ethics Center promotes research, teaching, and awareness of ethics in public life. In this podcast, Applied Ethics Center Director Nir Eisikovits hosts conversations on the intersection of ethics, politics, and technology.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ applied ethics, politics, technology • brain-computer interfaces, neuroethics, neurorights, brain data privacy, AI • disability and user-centered design • work futures, capitalism, meaningful work, UBI • war and diplomacy • public memory, racism, polarization • governance, mental health ethicsThis podcast from UMass Boston’s Applied Ethics Center features long-form conversations hosted by philosopher Nir Eisikovits about ethical questions that arise where politics and technology shape public life. Across episodes, guests include philosophers, neuroscientists, engineers, historians, psychologists, journalists, and policy-oriented scholars, and the discussions often connect conceptual analysis to real institutional choices and emerging governance challenges.
A major throughline is the ethics of neurotechnology, especially brain–computer interfaces and related tools such as neuroimaging, deep brain stimulation, and neural decoding. Conversations explore what “brain data” is and why it may raise distinctive privacy and consent concerns, how claims about mind-reading differ from more limited forms of decoding, and what risks follow when brain technologies are used outside clinical settings—in areas like marketing, workplace augmentation, or criminal justice. These episodes also examine how AI and machine learning intersect with neurotech, including questions about autonomy, agency, identity, and the possibility of shared or networked minds. Disability ethics and user-centered design recur, emphasizing how design choices and social models of disability shape what counts as beneficial or harmful innovation. Policy debates over “neurorights” (e.g., mental privacy and cognitive liberty) appear alongside critiques and comparisons of data-governance regimes.
Beyond neurotech, the podcast addresses the social and political impacts of technology and economic change, including debates about meaningful work, alienation, idleness, technological unemployment, and proposals like universal basic income. Other episodes focus on democratic life and public ethics: polarization and civic dialogue, public memory and monument controversies, school integration and equal education, corruption and conflicts of interest in psychiatric drug research, and ethical decision-making during public health crises such as pandemic triage.
International affairs and political order are also prominent. Discussions consider war and diplomacy—especially the war in Ukraine—along with questions about great-power politics, “spheres of influence,” and liberal internationalism (including engagements with Kant). The show occasionally broadens to scientific and cultural topics—such as studying unexplained aerial phenomena or interpreting classic texts—while keeping the emphasis on how evidence, institutions, and moral reasoning interact in contemporary public debates.
