TrueSciPhi

Podcast Profile: Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Discussions

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77 episodes
2019 to 2023
Median: 38 minutes
Collection: Philosophy

Description (podcaster-provided):

Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):

This podcast centers on conversational discussions of philosophical and ethical questions prompted by short fiction from the After Dinner Conversation magazine. Across episodes, hosts summarize a story premise and then use it as a structured “what-if” scenario to test moral intuitions, compare frameworks (such as utilitarianism, rights-based ethics, and moral relativism), and examine how personal identity and social power shape what people consider justified.

A recurring theme is how institutions—governments, corporations, courts, and cultural traditions—define the boundaries of freedom and responsibility. Many stories imagine near-future policies or technologies that make ordinary choices morally charged: pervasive public-health monitoring of intimacy, AI systems that nudge or govern decisions, legal pathways for assisted death, or bureaucracies that assign “dreams” and social roles. These setups invite debate about autonomy, consent, coercion, and whether safety, efficiency, or social stability can justify intrusive control.

Another major throughline is justice and punishment, especially when the person being judged changes over time. Scenarios explore lifelong sentencing for youthful crimes, the ethics of memory erasure for remorseful offenders, accountability for past political actions, and whether punishment can be proportional when extended indefinitely or applied after death. Related questions about truth and narrative appear in discussions of rewriting history, propaganda, and how communities decide which beliefs are tolerable versus dangerous.

The podcast also frequently interrogates inequality and moral complicity: distributing scarce medical treatments, labor conditions behind consumer goods, insurance and institutional risk around abuse, and class stratification amplified by genetic enhancement or life-extension schemes. These dilemmas connect personal benefit to systemic harm, asking what individuals owe to others when markets reward exploitation or when “helping” may still reinforce unjust structures.

Interwoven with these societal questions are intimate ethical conflicts involving family loyalty, caregiving, religious conviction, identity formation, and cycles of trauma. The fiction ranges from realistic social drama to science fiction, fantasy allegory, and theological thought experiments, but consistently aims at practical questions about how people should live with uncertainty, competing values, and imperfect choices.

Episodes:

E71. "Season Five Recap" - After Dinner Conversation editor Kolby answers listener questions. 2023-Jan-29 18 minutes

E70. "The Growing And Weeding Of Dandelions" - Can the stakes ever be so high that genocide of a species is a reasonable option? 2022-Nov-06 40 minutes

E69. "For Your Safety" - How do you know if the government-imposed limits on personal freedom “for your protection” have gone too far? 2022-Oct-20 40 minutes

E68. "Cruel Means, Bitter Ends" - Should war be "won" at any cost? 2022-May-10 36 minutes

E67. "Exodus" - What makes a “religious” holiday? 2022-Apr-18 26 minutes

E66. "Rose-tinted Glasses" - Can you stop yourself from "growing up?" 2022-Apr-04 33 minutes

E65. "The Wrong Side Of History" - How far would you go to protect your legacy? 2022-Mar-21 37 minutes

E64. "The Machine" - Would you help create general AI? 2022-Mar-07 25 minutes

E63. "Bugs In The Valley" - How do you decide who gets scarce medical treatments? 2022-Feb-21 31 minutes

E62. "Appreciating Hate" - Should we stop consuming art from vile artists? 2022-Feb-07 37 minutes

E61. "Conscience Cleaners" - Does a criminal need to remember his crime? 2022-Jan-24 33 minutes

E60. "Home For The Holidays" - Do you ever give up on family? 2022-Jan-10 33 minutes

E59. "Claim" - Should sexual assault allegations be an insurable risk? 2021-Dec-27 29 minutes

E58. "Season Four Recap" - After Dinner Conversation editor Kolby answers listener questions. 2021-Nov-29 21 minutes

E57. "The Devil You Know" - Do you ALWAYS have an obligation to confront evil? 2021-Nov-15 47 minutes

E56. "Blackorwhite" - At what point are you old enough to be punished for life? 2021-Nov-01 45 minutes

E55. "The Perfect Daughter" - Should you betray your morals to give your child every legal advantage in life? 2021-Oct-18 38 minutes

E54. "The Freedom Machine" - What's wrong with getting a little AI advice? 2021-Oct-04 44 minutes

E53. "Step Back" - Is our "natural" biology always the best choice? 2021-Sep-20 42 minutes

E52. "Guilt-Edge Security" - How would you live your life, if you lived forever? 2021-Sep-06 32 minutes

E51. "A Wolf On The Bus" - How do you know if you’ll protect others? 2021-Aug-23 26 minutes

E50. "Prey" - How do you break the cycle of living? 2021-Aug-09 52 minutes

E49. "Take-em!" - When is a request from a loved one emotional manipulation? 2021-Jul-26 42 minutes

E48. "Reach" - Should we know "the story" of the people behind the products we purchase? 2021-Jul-12 33 minutes

E47. "Echo" - What natural rights does a human in an artificial body deserve? 2021-Jun-28 48 minutes

E46. "Sienna's Monster" - How do you escape the monster inside you? 2021-Jun-14 54 minutes

E45. "Bill And The Tooth Fairy" - When is it wrong to have a sincerely held belief? 2021-May-31 52 minutes

E44. "Simon" - What would happen if you killed the devil? 2021-May-17 39 minutes

E43. "Season Three Recap - Listener Questions" 2021-May-03 22 minutes

E42. "People Used To Die Every Day" - Is sleep a waste of time? 2021-Apr-19 54 minutes

E41. "Teddy And Roosevelt" - Do role models really matter? 2021-Apr-05 37 minutes

E40. "The Waiting Room" - Is it selfish to abandon your natural abilities to follow your dream? 2021-Mar-22 50 minutes

E39. "The Crate" - Is it better to strip away judgment, or to be judged? 2021-Mar-08 43 minutes

E38. "In Their Image" - What happens when a Teddy can't find its purpose? 2021-Feb-22 39 minutes

E37. "Externalities" - While facts are unchanging, is 'truth' contextual? 2021-Feb-08 45 minutes

E36. "Everyone's Gay In Space" - What if your clone was gay? 2021-Jan-23 38 minutes

E35. "Sacrificing Mercy" - Would you let your spouse die for their faith? 2021-Jan-10 33 minutes

E34. "Performance" - Are you simply what you repeat? 2020-Dec-28 40 minutes

E33. "Love Sounds" - How much should you let family with mental health issues into your life? 2020-Dec-13 39 minutes

E32. "The Mind Reader" - Is it in our nature to be ruled by a Fascist? 2020-Nov-29 45 minutes

E31. "Idle Horns" - What do you do when it's punishment to punish? 2020-Nov-16 37 minutes

E30. "Farewell, Odysseus" - Would you get a human as a pet? 2020-Nov-02 43 minutes

E29. "All My Tomorrows" - How many tomorrows would you give up for a single yesterday? 2020-Oct-19 47 minutes

E28. "The Seven Absent Sins" - Are all sentient species hard-wired to sin? 2020-Oct-05 55 minutes

E27. "Two-Percenters" - Should we make everyone special? 2020-Sep-21 44 minutes

E26. "Snitch" - When doing a moral good, do the ends justify the means? 2020-Sep-07 56 minutes

E25. "Pneumadectomy" - Would you remove your soul, to save your life? 2020-Aug-24 54 minutes

E24. "Choose" - What if death is the only option? 2020-Aug-10 50 minutes

E23. "Prevention" - Would you turn on your son, to save his school? 2020-Jul-27 48 minutes

E22. "An Infinite Game" - Is everyone selfish, when death is on the line? 2020-Jul-13 44 minutes

E21. "Prohibition" - Can you blame an addict for not following the law? 2020-Jun-29 40 minutes

E20. "How The Cockroach Lost Its Voice" - When cockroaches could talk, and humans were still unhappy. 2020-Jun-15 30 minutes

E19. "The Orphan's Dilemma" - Is getting a future worth forgetting the past? 2020-Jun-01 41 minutes

E18. "The Book Of Approved Words" - Are there words so horrible they shouldn’t even exist? 2020-May-18 35 minutes

E17. "A Change Of Verbs" - What if you just said what you meant? 2020-May-04 39 minutes

E16. "Abrama's End Game" - If god told you she was ending your world, would you fight back? 2020-Apr-20 29 minutes

E15. "Ruddy Apes And Cannibals" - If a civilized cannibal invited you to dinner, would you attend? 2020-Apr-06 37 minutes

Video Podcasts And More! 2020-Apr-05

E14. "Give The Robot The Impossible Job!" - Can teaching methods go too far when murder is on the line? 2020-Mar-23 43 minutes

E13. "Believing In Ghosts" - How much power are you willing to give to AI? 2020-Mar-09 43 minutes

E12. "A Community of Peers" - Would you cast the first stone? 2020-Feb-24 34 minutes

E11. "Rainbow People Of The Glittering Glade" - Does society have the right to tell you you’re worthless? 2020-Feb-10 37 minutes

E10. "The Alpha-Dye Shirt Factory" - Is suicide ever the rational choice? 2020-Jan-27 29 minutes

E9. "The Truth About Thurman" - Is there a "better" decision, when both cause someone to die? 2020-Jan-13 31 minutes

E8. "Lay On" - Can a person be evil in their mind, or must it be in the act? 2019-Dec-30 31 minutes

E7. "Are You Him?" - If someone is crying, are you the kind of person that would stop? 2019-Dec-16 35 minutes

E6. "As You Wish" - If you could change anything about yourself, would you ever stop? 2019-Dec-02 29 minutes

E5. "Pretty Pragmatism" - Can a good idea come from a horrible source? 2019-Nov-18 34 minutes

E4. "This I Do For You" - Can you be a hero, if you didn’t know you volunteered? 2019-Nov-04 30 minutes

E3. "The Shadow Of The Thing" - Would you take a pill that showed you the truth about the world? 2019-Oct-21 33 minutes

Podcast Release Schedule 2019-Oct-17

E2. "My Fellow (Immortal) Americans" - Don't you have a right to immortality? 2019-Oct-06 30 minutes

2nd Podcast This Monday @ 8am 2019-Oct-05

E1. "Patchouli Lost" - How far would you go to help a friend, who is unwilling to help themselves? 2019-Sep-24 27 minutes

Done Taping! 2019-Sep-22

Working on the podcast intro 2019-Sep-13

Podcasts - Coming Soon! 2019-Aug-15