Why? Radio Podcast Archive

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  What is Agriculture For?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Paul B. Thompson

  North Dakota is a rural state. Without family farms and ranches, we’d be a very different place with very different people. Are we just an extraction economy and how should we evolve to meet the needs of the future? This depends on what we think agriculture is for. Is its primary purpose food production, propping up rural economies, preventing climate change, or advancing technology? These are philosophical questions before they are practical ones. They reveal our values and our visions of what it means to be human being on this planet.

  Paul B. Thompson is professor emeritus at Michigan State University, where he held the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural Food and Community Ethics before retiring in 2022. He is the author or co-author of over two hundred articles and books including From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone, which won the 2015 “Book of the Year” award from the North American Society for Social Philosophy. His new book What is Agriculture For? was published last year by Oxford University Press.

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  Is Freud Still Relevant?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Susan Sugarman

  Everyone has heard of Sigmund Freud and boy, do funny images pop in our heads when we hear his name. The accent, the couch, the cigar. In part, this is because people don’t seem to take him very seriously anymore. Is this fair? Are his theories no longer helpful? What can we learn by focusing on his intellectual development? On this episode, we ask these questions and more.

  Susan Sugarman is Professor of Psychology at Princeton University. She is a developmental psychologist with an interest in unexplainable elements of the human experience and the intersections of psychology, philosophy, and the history of ideas. She is the author of seven books, most recently Sigmund Freud: A Contemporary Introduction published by Routledge.

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  What are the ethical costs of upward mobility?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Jennifer M. Morton

  Most of us strive for a better life. We want to have more money, more opportunities, and more recognition. We want to find new and exciting places to live. But what and who do we leave behind when we pursue better lives? On this episode, we ask these questions. We explore how our identity changes as our communities do and the responsibilities we have to help others after we succeed. The discussion also examines ways to tell our own stories more authentically, in line with our own values.

  Jennifer M. Morton is the Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Graduate School of Education. She is also senior fellow at the Center for Ethics and Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility published by Princeton University Press.

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  What Should We Save for Posterity?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Erich Hatala Matthes

  Everything that matters to us disappears eventually, whether it’s a beloved painting or a story passed down for generations. We buy, invent, and create stuff to replace it all, but some of it is worth saving, right? If so, which ones? A lot of it is disposable but we want some of it to be around for future generations because we think it’s important, or meaningful, or will connect the past and future in unique and valuable ways. On this episode, we explore which of our possessions and commitments deserve our attention and what the best ways to protect them might be.

  Erich Hatala Matthes is a Professor of Philosophy at Wellesley College. He is the author of two books, Drawing the Line: What to Do with the Work of Immoral Artists from Museums to the Moviesand the more recent, What to Save and Why: Identity, Authenticity, and the Ethics of Conservation, both published by Oxford University Press.

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  Why do People Deny Such Obvious Things?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Adrian Bardon

  So much of politics today is about people denying things that others know to be perfectly true. From science to economics, to religious belief, people not only wave away obvious falsities, but they proudly act inconsistently. How can someone dismiss expertise but insist on having a surgeon, when they need one? Why do some people cite research proving climate change but ignore the studies that defend genetically modified food? On this episode, we explore denialism and inconsistency, while trying to make sense of personal belief.

  Adrian Bardon is Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University. He is the author of A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time and The Truth About Denial: Bias and Self-Deception in Science, Politics, and Religion both published by Oxford University Press.

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  Privacy Isn't What You Think It Is

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Lowry Pressly

  We think of privacy in terms of keeping secrets and avoiding others, in terms of shame and indiscretion. What if there is more to privacy than that? What if it isn’t so much an act of protecting information, but instead, it is a core part of the human growth that we don’t yet understand? What if privacy is really an aspect of our identity without which we could never grow into ourselves? On this episode, we ask these questions and consider a deeper, more meaningful explanation of what it might mean to remain private.

  Lowry Pressley is a writer and teacher, currently in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University, as well as their McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society and Stanford Civics Initiative. His book, The Right to Oblivion: Privacy and the Good Life was published last year by Harvard University Press.

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  How is it That Ordinary People can Commit Such Overwhelming Evil?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Elizabeth Minnich

  Despite everything we’ve learned, people still commit genocide and other atrocities. One can’t help but ask how a real person could actually contribute to such inhumanity, but the reasons we get are usually abstract and unsatisfying. They rely on non-answers like, “people hate” or “people ‘other’?” or “people have no choice.” These don’t feel like answers at all. On this episode, we consider a deeper and more convincing explanation.

  Elizabeth Minnich is a Distinguished Fellow at the Association of American Colleges & Universities. She taught moral philosophy and applied ethics at Queens University and is a widely published author including the book The Evil of Banality: On the Life and Death Importance of Thinking. She has dedicated her career to transformational development in education and democratic practices.

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  How do we do Philosophy in Politically Difficult Times?

  Jack Russell Weinstein, Elizabeth Anderson, and Jason D. Hill

  It’s a rough and scary time to be a college professor. Their research is being scrutinized and their opinions are being surveilled. Curriculum is being monitored and students can secretly record their teachers and share the videos with the world, even if the footage is deceptive or taken out of context. On this episode we explore how philosophers and philosophy professors manage teaching and research in these difficult times.

  Elizabeth Anderson is John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women’s & Gender Studies; Professor of Law; Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan. She is the author of four books, most recently, Hijacked: How Neoliberalism Turned the Work Ethic against Workers and How Workers Can Take It Back, from Cambridge University Press.

  Jason D Hill is Professor of Philosophy and Honors Distinguished Faculty at DePaul University. He is the author of five books, most recently Letters to God from a Former Atheist published by Vindicta Publishing.

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  What is Indigenous Philosophy?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Brian Burkhart

  It doesn’t get much attention, but Native American thought has a great deal to say about the morality, justice, the limits of human knowledge, and truth. It builds these ideas on deep rooted notions of kinship, personal experience, and the local land that they live on. It illustrates the way that colonialism and the history of philosophy can be challenged by what might be called a “trickster” approach to thinking. On this episode, we explore some of these ideas and examine what may be considered a fundamentally different worldview from what non-Natives are used to.

  Brian Burkhart is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at The University of Oklahoma and affiliated faculty in Native American Studies. He is the author of the book Indigenizing Philosophy through the Land: A Trickster Methodology for Decolonizing Environmental Ethics and Indigenous Futures published by Michigan State University Press.

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  Is Karl Marx Still Relevant?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Vanessa Christina Wills

  Karl Marx. Marxism. The Communist Manifesto. Scary stuff. Dangerous stuff. Is it really or is this just fear talking, remnants of the cold war? What is it Marx was saying? Are his theories obsolete? Or, might he still have things to teach us? These are the questions we ask on this next episode.

  Vanessa Wills is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at The George Washington University. She works on political philosophy and ethics, and is an activist based in Washington, DC. She is the author of Marx’s Ethical Vision, from Oxford University Press.

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  A Philosophical Look at Madness

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Justin Garson

  There are countless depictions of people in the throes of madness. From the Bible, to Shakespeare, to modern exposés of asylums, we think we know what mad people look like, but do we? More importantly, do we actually know what madness is and what causes it? These questions are a lot more complicated than you might think and they’ve been the subject of fascinating explorations by theologians and philosophers, long before psychiatry even existed.

  Justin Garson is Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of three books, including Madness: A Philosophical Exploration, which will be our main focus of this episode.

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  Is Virtual Reality Real?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and David Chalmers

  We have all had someone ask us whether we think reality is a dream. Movies, art, literature, all remind us that it’s hard to distinguish reality from our imagination. But what if we take this further and ask whether we are in someone else’s virtual world? What if the thing we call the universe is actually a copy of a whole different universe that we know nothing about? What if our very consciousness is someone else’s programming? What if we are all characters in a simulation?

  David Chalmers is a University Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science and co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness, at New York University. He is the author and editor of numerous books, most recently Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy.

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  Philosophy and Fashion

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Gwenda-lin Grewal

  Did you know that most philosophers hate fashion? Did you know that they claim it’s shallow and silly, and almost worthless? Did you also know that despite what they write, philosophers have been thinking about and dependent on fashion for thousands of years without knowing it? On this episode, we discuss the validity of fashion as an art form and reexamine what the word “fashion” might mean in the first place.

  Gwenda-lin Grewal is the Onassis Lecturer in Ancient Greek Thought and Language & Assistant Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. She is author, editor, and translator of multiple books, most recently: Fashion | Sense: On Philosophy and Fashion. She is also the owner of her own clothing line, Hardly Alice. Her personal website is at www.gwengrewal.com.

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  The Human Connection with Nature

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Mark C. Taylor

  Humanity is facing two great global challenges: climate change and the rise of advanced computer technology. Both have the potential of not just changing our ways of life, but our very understanding of what it means to be a human in the world. How will we as a species change to counter these powerful forces? Can we stop being so self-centered? Might we merge with computers? On thus episode we explore these crises, how humanity is connected to nature, and how we as a species might evolve.

  Mark C Taylor is a professor emeritus in the departments of religion at Columbia University and Williams College. He is the author of more than twenty books, the most recent of which is After the Human: A Philosophy for the Future.

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  Getting the Good out of Bad Feelings

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Krista K. Thomason

  We have all been told to have positive feelings, to be understanding, not angry; humble, not jealous; respectful not contemptuous. We have been led to believe we can eliminate our darker emotions and mold our feelings into what we want them to be. But what if these negative emotions are an important part of what makes life good? What if negativity actually contributes to the good life? On this episode we ask about these darker emotions and challenge those who think controlling our feelings makes us the best we can be.

  Krista Thomason is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Swarthmore College. She is the author of two books, Naked: The Dark Side of Shame and Moral Life and most recently Dancing with the Devil: Why Bad Feelings Make Life Good

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  When is a Life Good Enough?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Avram Alpert

  We have all been told to strive for greatness, to “go big or go home.” We aspire to be the top of the heap and assume that other people’s successes are our failures. What if those aspirations are unrealistic? What if the pursuit of greatness actually leads to failure and unhappiness. On this episode we challenge this paradigm and ask about the good enough life, a life with good enough success, good enough justice, good enough food, and good enough friends. What would all of this mean and how would it change the discussion?

  Avram Alpert is Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program in NYC. He teaches writing at Princeton University and is the author of three books, most recently The Good Enough Life.

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  The Importance of Touch

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Richard Kearney

  We have five senses but there is something special about touch. It is the most intimate and being deprived of it usually means a kind of isolation and loneliness that could destroy the strongest of people. The art that surrounds it from Michelangelo’s Adam touching God to photos of us hugging our loved ones speak to us in ways that no other art does. On this episode we talk about touch, it’s meaning in our lives and the symbolism that surrounds it.

  Richard Kearney holds the Charles B. Seelig Chair of Philosophy at Boston College. He is the author of over 24 books on European philosophy and literature (including two novels and a volume of poetry) and has edited or co-edited 21 more. Today we visit with him about his book Touch: Recovering our Most Vital Sense.

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  What is Dignity?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Michael Rosen

  We all use the word dignity, but what exactly does it mean? Where did it come from and what does it give us? Is it a political concept, a religious one, or both? Why do we have such clear images of what indignity looks like, but stumble at offering a clear definition of its opposite? On this episode we ask these questions, and explore dignity’s relationship to individuality, equality, freedom, and personhood.

  Michael Rosen is Senator Joseph S. Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government at Harvard University. He has worked on a wide variety of topics in philosophy, social theory and the history of ideas. He is particularly interested in 19th and 20th century European philosophy and in contemporary Anglo-American political philosophy. He is the author and editor of numerous books including 2012’s Dignity: It’s History and Meaning, which we are revisiting today.

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  Is Plato Still Relevant?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Marina Berzins McCoy

  When it comes to philosophy, no one is more influential or invoked than Plato. He set the agenda for everything that came after him, and that’s probably an understatement. But that was two thousand years ago. Back then he opposed democracy and argued that a just society required everyone remain in their role determined at birth. So, should we still read him? Does he deserve the praise he gets? On this episode, we find out.

  Marina Berzins McCoy is a Professor of Philosophy at Boston College and the author of three books including, most recently, Image and Argument in Plato’s Republic.

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  Can You Be An Ethical Spy?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Cécile Fabre

  The world is full of secrets and there is a special group of professionals who try to expose them; we call them spies. In our movies and books, our spies can do anything they want to get the job done. James Bond has a license to kill. Agents Jay and Kay live complete lives in the shadows. Severus Snape is a jerk. Are spies this untethered in real life? As philosophers, we should really hope not.

  Cécille Fabre is a Professor of Philosophy and of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University. She is author of more than a half dozen books including the recent Spying through a glass darkly: The Ethics of Espionage and Counter-Intelligence.

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  What is Love?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Simon May

  “Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all,” or so we are told. But if we ask people to explain how we know love from lust, or a good deed motivated by love from one that isn’t, we often get platitudes and poetry. There are simply no foolproof tests for love itself. Instead, we bumble through our relationships, hopefully learning from our mistakes and hurting others as little as possible, along the way. Simply put, love is hard to define. On this episode, we try to do just this.

  Simon May is Visiting Professor of Philosophy at King’s College, London. He is the author of numerous books, including Love: A History, and Love: A New Understanding of an Ancient Emotion.

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  Is America’s Democracy Failing?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Adam Lovett

  Most of us agree that America’s democracy is not functioning well, these days. But what exactly is wrong with it and what should it look like instead? This is where we disagree. Do our politicians have too much leeway and are American’s themselves informed enough to vote responsibly? These questions are worth asking. On this episode we look at the philosophy behind democracy and use what we learn it to analyze our actual political behavior.

  Adam Lovett is a lecturer at Australian Catholic University and a former Fellow at the London School of Economics. His most recent book is called Democratic Failures and the Ethics of Democracy.

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  Am I Right to be Offended?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Emily McTernan

  We talk a lot about offensive speech but how much credit do we give to the people who are offended? Are they correct to be upset? Does their offense serve any good purpose? Should we dismiss those who complain as just a bunch of “Karens”? On this episode, we explore just what it means to be offended and why pushing back on offensive acts is central to a society that values respect.

  Emily McTernan is an Associate Professor in Political Philosophy at the Department of Political Science/School of Public Policy, University College London. She is the co-host of the department’s podcast and the author, most recently, of the book On Taking Offense.

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  Police and the Ethics of Lying

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Luke William Hunt

  Police lie. We know this. They do so to motivate confession, to hide undercover, and to solve cases, but is this morally acceptable? How many lies are they entitled to tell and what happens when their deceit undermines our trust in them? On this episode of Why?, we explore whether the deceptions of law-enforcement are compatible with justice, and whether dishonesty violates the social contract.

  Luke William Hunt is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama. He has a law degree and is a former FBI Agent. He is the author of three books on police ethics, most recently, Police Deception and Dishonesty: The Logic of Lying.

  This is Luke’s second time on Why? Radio. He joined us back in 2018 for “What are the limits of police power?” when his first book came out.

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  How does Luck Determine our Lives?

  Jack Russell Weinstein and Mark Robert Rank

  How much should we think about the accidents that drive our lives? How central is our lack of control? Maybe we didn’t get the flu the weekend of our big presentation or got somewhere first because the traffic jam happened on the other highway. Maybe our success isn’t our own. On this episode of Why?, we explore how chance shapes who we are and what we do.

  Mark Robert Rank is the Herbert S Hadley Professor of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of ten books, including The Poverty Paradox and the soon to be released, The Random Factor: How Chance and Luck Profoundly Shape our Lives and the World Around us.