TrueSciPhi

Podcast Profile: Little Bad Thing

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11 episodes
2020 to 2022
Median: 18 minutes
Collection: Philosophy

Description (podcaster-provided):

True stories each week of the things we wish we hadn't done. Smart, dark, wry, and surprising, this is a show for anyone who's made a big decision or regretted a small one. Hosted by philosopher Eleanor Gordon-Smith and produced by The Ethics Centre.

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

➤ True personal confessions • regret, guilt, moral ambiguity • ethical dilemmas and consequences • obedience, bystander inaction, vigilantism • scams, theft, plagiarism • relationships, impulsive departures • power, responsibility, repairing harm

This podcast presents weekly, first-person true stories about moments when ordinary people make choices they later question, regret, or can’t fully explain. Hosted by philosopher Eleanor Gordon-Smith and produced by The Ethics Centre, it frames these confessions with an ethical lens, focusing less on neat moral lessons and more on the messy reality of decision-making: how people justify themselves in the moment, what it feels like to realize you’ve harmed someone, and what happens when your values collide with pressure, fear, desire, or loyalty.

Across the stories, the situations range from intimate personal turning points to high-stakes public consequences. Listeners hear about moral compromise at work, including following rules or orders that end up hurting vulnerable people, and about the lingering guilt of standing by during wrongdoing. Other narratives explore deception and self-interest—misleading someone into a bad deal, taking something that later looks like theft, or crossing a line in pursuit of creative or professional success. Some episodes center on impulsive or puzzling personal choices, like abruptly leaving a long relationship and later struggling to understand what drove it.

A recurring theme is the gap between intention and outcome: trying to do the right thing and still wishing you could undo it, acting as a would-be protector and then reconsidering, or discovering that what you thought you were doing was worse than you knew. The tone suggested by the show description is smart, dark, and wry, but the focus remains on the human psychology of wrongdoing—rationalization, shame, responsibility, and the stories people tell themselves before and after a “little bad thing.”

The feed also points listeners to related audio from The Ethics Centre and the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, featuring conversations with prominent thinkers on broader social and political questions.

Episodes: