Public Philosophy

Philosophy isn’t just for those in ivory towers (or, in my case, brick building). Below are some attempts of mine to discuss ethical issues in public forums, through opinion pieces, interviews, and blog posts. There’s also some links to music I made back in my youth…

Opinion Pieces

• A Ban on Lab-grown Meat Would Take a Bite Out of Freedom – AL.com (w/V. Kumar)
• What Can We Learn from Those Who Have a Moral Change of Heart? – Psyche
• Can Relationship Science Teach Us to Talk Politics Again? – The Prindle Post
• The Thing that Could Finally Get Us to Eat Less Meat is—Meat – The Boston Globe (w/V. Kumar)
• Why Bother with Political Arguments? – The Prindle Post (w/Victor Kumar)
• You Don’t Have to be a Vegan to Save the Earth – WBUR’s Cognoscenti (w/Victor Kumar)
• The Impossible Whopper, Reviewed – Al.com
• Why Do Politicians Appeal to Our Disgust? – Al.com
• What’s the Real Threat to Family Values? A Workforce that Devalues Parenting – The Birmingham News

Interviews

• Neuroethics Today – podcast interview about the book.
• New Books Network – interview about neuroethics.
• The Free Will Show – unconscious brain processes, mental disorder, neurodiversity.
• Moral transformations – ABC radio’s Counterpoint program (interview starts at 39 mins).
• Tastes Like Chicken? Cultured Meat Arrives on Menus – quoted in article at the CS Monitor.
• Why Giving Up Meat Is So Hard… – NPR’s Here & Now (not me, but my co-author Victor Kumar)
• Ethics of Meat: How about Going Reducetarian? Q&A at Futurity (with not me, but my co-author Victor Kumar)
• Interview about Neuroethics – UAB’s The Mix.

Videos

• Harnessing Moral Psychology to Reduce Meat Consumption – 5 minute presentation of the article.
• How to Have Productive Political Discussions – 34 mins (can be paired with this piece for teaching purposes)
• Moral Rationalism on the Brain – see first 15 mins
• Bias in Science: Natural and Social – 3 min summary of this paper

Blog Posts

• Neuroethics Syllabus Showcase, APA blog (2023)
• Motivated Reasoning in Science, Imperfect Cognitions (2021)
• Moving the SSPP Online During the Pandemic, Brains Blog (2021)
• How We Feel about Human Cloning, Journal of Medical Ethics Blog (2016).
• Can We Have Free Will and Lack It Too? Experimental Philosophy (2015).
• Getting Along with Moral Disagreement, The Dance of Reason (2014).
• Recommendation of “Morality in Everyday Life” (w/David Allison)  F1000Prime (2014).
• Mixed Thinking about Free Will & Responsibility, Experimental Philosophy (2013).
• Measuring Moral Judgment, Experimental Philosophy (2013).
• Practical Interests, Relevant Alternatives, and Knowledge Attributions, Experimental Philosophy (2008)

Music

I used to play in bands and record music (mostly “indie rock”). You can listen to some of that old work on SoundCloud.