In our final episode in our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by universal basic income (UBI) advocate and writer Scott Santens. Scott is the founder and president of the Income To Support All Foundation (ITSA Foundation), the Senior Advisor for Humanity Forward, and he also serves on the board of directors of the Gerald Huff Fund for Humanity and as the editor of Basic Income Today. In this episode, we chat with Scott about the viability of a UBI, the philosophical and political arguments in favor of a UBI, and the importance of destigmatizing the concept of free money. Interested listeners should check out Scott's debut book about UBI and how to pay for it, Let There Be Money.

Our fourth episode of our mini-series on the future of work features Gavin Mueller, Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam and the author of Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job. We speak with Gavin about the history of the Luddite movement, technological unemployment, and the possibilities of interstitial political action. Listeners interested in working-class efforts to subvert the technology that dominates our working lives are encouraged to read Gavin's latest book.

In the third episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by Brian O'Connor, Professor of Philosophy at University College Dublin. Brian and I discuss the value of idleness in our lives, the burnout caused by the work ethic, and the pressure to view oneself as a project to be continuously realized. We discuss the goods of learning to live more with more idleness - to place less emphasis on our contemporary obsession with purposeful, achievement-oriented pursuits. We encourage listeners to read Brian's excellent book Idleness for a rich discussion of the history of idleness and a vision of freedom in aimlessness.

In our second episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by Andrea Veltman, Professor of Philosophy at James Madison University. We speak with Andrea about what it takes for work to be meaningful, if meaningful work is available to all, and what kinds of economic and social changes are necessary to help others find meaningful work. Please check out Andrea's excellent book Meaningful Work to learn more.

In the first episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by University of Leeds economist David Spencer. We discuss the experience of alienated labor under contemporary capitalism, the importance of work for meaning and dignity in our lives, and the reduction of the working week. Spencer persuasively makes the case for less but better work and how we might imagine a better world of work. Check out his excellent new book Making Light Work: An End to Toil in the Twenty-First Century.

Political philosopher Chris Zurn has just published Splitsville USA, a bombshell book arguing for the dissolution of the US. We talk about why Chris thinks this has become necessary, how history unnecessarily prejudices us against such a split, and what a post Splitsville future might look like.    Draw your own new national maps!

The IEET and the UMB Applied Ethics Center recently released a White Paper on the political, moral and psychological questions involved in regulating the metaverse. J Hughes is the Executive Director of the IEET. Alec Stubbs is the Future of Work Post Doc at the UMB Applied Ethics Center. We discuss the main findings of the paper. You can find the paper here

We continue our series on the war in Ukraine. In this episode Vlado and I talk to journalist and anthropologist Alisa Sopova about what everyday life feels  like in Ukraine as the war passes the 100 day mark. We discuss the regional differences in how the conflict is perceived, we ask whether Ukrainians have different views about Russian politicians and ordinary Russians, and we also talk about how Ukrainians perceive assistance from the west.   Alisa Sopova is an independent journalist from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. She worked as a journalist and a news editor for the largest local newspaper, Donbass. When the war broke out, she was faced with the challenge of reporting on violence in her own city. With the local journalism collapsing, she began working for international media, including The New York Times and Time magazine where her coverage focused on the war and its humanitarian impact. Alisa is an author and co-founder of a #5Kfromthefrontline project (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/5kfromthefrontline/) that aims to bring to light everyday experiences of civilian life at the frontlines. Alisa holds a BA in journalism from Moscow State University and an MA in Regional Studies from Harvard University. She is currently working on a doctorate in anthropology at Princeton. Links to some of Alisa's pieces: https://americanethnologist.org/features/reflections/be-strong-like-a-kitchen-cabinet   https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/authors/alisa-sopova   https://time.com/longform/eastern-ukraine-war-civilian-life-frontline/

We continue our series on the war in Ukraine.  Our guest is Vesko Garcevic, former ambassador of Montenegro to NATO, OSCE, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Vesko is currently Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. We talk about what it means to diplomatically engage with Russia and whether it makes sense to think of it as a pariah state. We also take up some misconceptions about the role of NATO expansion in precipitating the current war.

Vladimir Putin wants to put Russia back on the map as a great power. But what does it even mean to be a great power in the nuclear age? Is that idea still coherent? If it is, can Russia be such a power? And how is Putin using history to frame this quest? What does his framing reveal about him and about contemporary Russia?   The second in a series of conversations with historian Vladimir Petrovic about the implications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.  Resources: Putin's February 21st Speech, preceding Russia's invasion of UkraineGeorge Orwell's 1940 review of Mein KampfSalvador Dali's "Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man"On Point interview with Alexander Vindman and Larry Wilkerson

For a while, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we could tell ourselves that the American-led liberal internationalist order was on the rise. That story had some big holes in it, but if we squinted a bit it was almost believable. Not "the end of history", but maybe a long vacation from it. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its insistence on declaring a “sphere of influence” free from western intervention, and its alliance with China change everything.   Within a few weeks an older picture of international order - where great powers check each other and make sure none becomes ascendant - reemerged. Is the Balance of Power Back? Did it ever really go away? And if it is back, what’s next?   Vladimir Petrović  is a senior research fellow at the UMB Applied Ethics Center, and a senior researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade where he heads the Digital Center. He researches mass political violence and strategies of confrontation with its legacy. He studied contemporary history (Faculty of Belgrade: BA and MPhil) and Comparative history of Central and Southeastern Europe (Central European University: MA and PhD), completing his postgraduate studies at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam. He has taught at Boston University and was a recurrent visiting professor at Central European University. Petrović’s doctoral project which started at CEU, evolved over the time into a book The Emergence of Historical Forensic Expertise: Clio takes the Stand (Routledge, 2017). It examines the role of historians and social scientists as expert witnesses in some of the most dramatic legal encounters of the 20th century. Petrovic was exploring this intersection between history and law, both in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and in the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office. Petrović published extensively on ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and attempts to undo its legacy, as well as on the history of nonalignment during the Cold War and the collapse of Yugoslavia. He is currently working on the discursive history of mass violence.   Resources:   F. Fukuyama “The End of History and the Last Man”   J. Mearsheimer “The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine Crisis”   J. Mearsheimer “Back to the Future: Instability in Europe After the Cold War”   “The Congress of Vienna” From BBC’s In Our Time

How should we understand efforts at school integration? And how are they related to the idea of equal education? Larry and I consider different historical understandings of integration and the problematic idea of integration as a vehicle for gaining social capital. Larry and Zoë Burkholder just published Integrations: The Struggle for Racial Equality and Civic Renewal in Public Education.  Larry is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, and Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston. You can find out more about his experience teaching a course on race and racism to Cambridge High School students by reading his High Schools, Race, and America's Future: What Students Can Teach Us About Morality, Diversity, and Community And Larry’s website is here

The New York Times 2017 front page story about UAP's (Unexplained Aerial Phenomena) spotted by Navy pilots, and the recent report to Congress by The Office of the Director of National Intelligence have generated tremendous public interest. I talk to Professor Avi Loeb about Harvard's new Galileo Project. We discuss what it means to explore UAP's scientifically, his reasons for pursuing this work, and about the academic community's reluctance to engage with these questions.  Avi Loeb, an Astrophysicist, is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science and former chair of the department of Astronomy at Harvard. He is Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC) , the Founding Director of the Black Hole Initiative (BHI), Chair, Breakthrough Starshot Advisory Committee ,and Chair Board on Physics and Astronomy, National Academies . Avi has authored nearly 700 research articles and written 4 books, most recently Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth. He has held appointments at the institute for Advanced Study in Princeton as well as in the Weizmen Institute and at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

What happens when the ties between the people who study psychiatric drugs and the companies who make them become too cozy? A discussion with UMass Boston psychology professor Lisa Cosgrove.    Lisa Cosgrove, PhD is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston where she teaches courses on psychiatric diagnosis and psychopharmacology. She was a Research Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University (2010-2015) and served as a consultant to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, child psychiatrist Dainius Puras. Lisa and her studentsconduct research that broadly aims to shift the current biomedical paradigm and integrate a human rights approach in mental health policies and practices. Specifically,her research addresses 1) the ethical and medical-legal issues that arise in organized psychiatry because of academic-industry relationships and 2) the ways in which commercialized science reinforces epistemic injustice and undermines an appreciation for the moral and political context of physical and emotional suffering.  She is co-author, with Bob Whitaker, of Psychiatry under the influence: Institutional corruption, social injury and prescriptions for reform. Her recent publications have addressed the ethical issues that arise with the use of digital phenotyping and digital psychotropic drugs. For information on Professor Cosgrove's work on institutional corruption as a fellow at Harvard's Safra Centre see here

Adam and I discuss the famous, moving passage at the end of the Iliad describing the meeting between Achilles and Priam. We talk quite a bit about Achilles' curious account of how Zeus determines humans' fate by doling out happenings from jars of joy and misfortune.    Adam Beresford teaches philosophy and classics at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He has just published a translation of Aristotle's Ethics which you can (and should!) buy here and you can learn more about Adam's work here. Here is a version of book 24 of the Iliad in case you want to read it for yourself.

Israel has signed normalization agreements with the UAE and Bahrain. These are the first Middle East peace agreements in two and a half decades. Why now? What does each of the main actors in this drama stand to gain from these accords? Can Middle East diplomacy really bypass the Israeli Palestinian conflict as these agreements attempt to do?  And does the deal signal a new alignment of power in the region?  Dr. Ehud (Udi) Eiran is a Senior Lecturer (US Associate Professor) of International Relations, University of Haifa, Israel, and an (active!) Board member at Mitvim – a leading Israeli think tank. He is also a senior fellow at the center for the Research of Intelligence Methodology.  Dr. Eiran directed the University of Haifa’s center for national security, and was one of the co-founders of its center for maritime strategy. He also served as the academic director of Israel’s National Security College, (on behalf of the University). Dr. Eiran held research appointments at Harvard Law School, Harvard's Kennedy School, and Stanford’s Department of Political Science, and was a visiting lecturer in the Department of Political Science at MIT. Prior to his academic career Dr. Eiran held a number of positions in the Israeli civil service including as Assistant to the Prime Minister's Foreign Policy Advisor. He is the author of two books and some fifty scholarly articles, book chapters, and policy briefs, as well as numerous op-eds mostly in American and Israeli outlets. His research interests include spatial technological and legal aspects of international conflict (mostly in the Arab-Israeli context), negotiation and conflict resolution, maritime strategy, and intelligence studies.      Udi is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a visiting professor of Israel studies at UC Berkley.

The US seems more polarized than it's been in decades. Can we communicate across ideological and political chasms? What does it mean to have a dialogue with someone we profoundly, even vehemently disagree with? If we do have such a dialogue, does it make us any less polarized? Do the effects last?  We talk with Professor Barthold about her new book: Overcoming Polarization in the Public Square: Civic Dialogue Lauren Swayne Barthold (PhD, Philosophy) teaches Ethics at Emerson College and is also co-founder and program developer of the Heathmere Center for Cultural Engagement, whose mission is to build stronger communities through empowering marginalized voices. She has taught philosophy at Endicott College, Haverford College and Gordon College, where she co-founded and co-directed the gender studies minor. Overcoming Polarization in the Public Square: Civic Discourse, is her third book.   Some additional resources: laurenswaynebarthold.wordpress   heathmere.org   Voters Attitudes About Race and Gender are event more Divided than in 2016 (Pew Research Center)

In the last few months, in the wake of recent protests against systemic racism, Confederate and other monuments have been torn down and defaced. What are these monuments supposed to convey?  What's the argument for taking them down? Dana and I revisit our conversation about the ethics and politics of monument removal in light of recent events. Take a look at Dana's recent essay on the Politics of Monuments over at the APA's Black Issues in Philosophy BlogThis is a good background piece from the Guardian   Dana Francisco Miranda is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts–Boston and a Faculty Fellow at the Applied Ethics Center there. His work is in political philosophy, Africana philosophy, and Madness Studies. He earned his doctorate at the University of Connecticut, where he completed his dissertation, “Approaching Cadavers: Suicide and Depression in the African Diaspora,” which investigated the philosophical significance of suicide, depression and well-being for members of the African Diaspora. He currently serves as the Secretary of Digital Outreach & Chair of Architectonics for the Caribbean Philosophical Association. Follow him on Twitter @DanaFMiranda.

Before Covid 19 turned the world upside down we worried about Artificial General Intelligence and, ultimately, Super-intelligence - the moment when our machines, powered by sophisticated AI, catch up with us and, ultimately, out-perform us. But how coherent, how pressing, are these concerns, really?  Dan Feldman is a senior research fellow at the UMB Applied Ethics Center. He is a software engineering executive and advisor to startups. He has more than 40 years of experience developing leading edge computing systems in a wide variety of industries, including financial services, health care, and wearable computing. He has served as the senior engineering executive in a number of startups, including two MIT Media Lab spin outs and an early e-health company that received a Computerworld Smithsonian Innovation award. He has served in leadership roles at IBM, Thomson Financial Services, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Kayak. He is currently Chief Technology Officer at Touchplan, a construction collaboration technology company.

In the History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides provides a vivid description of the physical and social toll that a terrible plague took on Athens, a year or so into its war with Sparta. What explains the staying power of Thucydides' account? And what can we learn from it as we grapple with our own (albeit far less deadly) Covid 19 crisis?  Greg Fried is Professor of philosophy at Boston College. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Boston University, California State University Los Angeles, and Suffolk University. He teaches and publishes in political philosophy, with a particular interest in responses to challenges to liberal democracy and the rise of ethno-nationalism. He also works in philosophy of law, especially law and hermeneutics; philosophy and race; practical ethics, including just war theory; public philosophy; the history of ethics; Ancient philosophy; and 20th century Continental philosophy, especially Heidegger. Greg's upcoming book is Towards a Polemical Ethics: Between Heidegger and Plato (London: Rowman & Littlefield International, forthcoming 2020). Other works include Confronting Heidegger: A Critical Dialogue on Politics and Philosophy (London: Rowman & Littlefield International), Because It Is Wrong: Torture, Privacy and Presidential Power in the Age of Terror (With Charles Fried. New York: W. W. Norton, 2010) and Heidegger’s Polemos: From Being to Politics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000). Reading Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II (see chapter VII for his account of the plague) http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.2.second.htmlKatherine Kelaidis, "What the Great Plague of Athens Can Teach Us Now." From The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/great-plague-athens-has-eerie-parallels-today/608545/