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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 in public life • brain-computer interfaces, neurotechnology, neurorights, brain data privacy • AI and consciousness • disability, agency, autonomy • technology and work futures • political conflict, governance, public memory, health ethicsThis podcast, produced by UMass Boston’s Applied Ethics Center, features long-form conversations that use philosophy to examine ethical questions in public life where politics and technology intersect. Across the episodes, the host speaks with philosophers, scientists, engineers, journalists, and policy-oriented scholars about how emerging technologies reshape individual agency, social norms, and democratic governance, and what kinds of regulation or rights frameworks might be needed in response.
A major throughline is neurotechnology and brain–computer interfaces. Discussions span neural data and privacy, the boundary between neural decoding and “mind reading,” and proposals for neurorights such as mental privacy and cognitive liberty. Guests explore both therapeutic and enhancement uses, including deep brain stimulation, noninvasive EEG systems, neurorehabilitation, and brain-controlled robotics, alongside concerns about informed consent, user-centered design, disability perspectives, and the ways AI and machine learning can mediate control, autonomy, and responsibility. Related conversations broaden into philosophy of mind and consciousness, addressing questions about the self, shared or collective mental states, brain-to-brain communication, and how claims about artificial consciousness and powerful AI systems should be assessed amid uncertainty and hype.
Alongside technology, the podcast returns to political ethics and contemporary governance: polarization and civic dialogue, public memory and disputes over monuments, ethics within universities, and the moral psychology of anger, hate, and resentment. Several episodes focus on international affairs and conflict, including interpretive and diplomatic perspectives on Russia’s war in Ukraine and broader questions about great-power politics. Economic and social policy debates also appear, especially around the future of work, meaningful labor, working-time reduction, idleness, technological unemployment, and arguments for universal basic income.
