Castuner

The Minefield

ABC Australia

In a world marked by wicked social problems, The Minefield helps you negotiate the ethical dilemmas, contradictory claims and unacknowledged complicities of modern life.

Podcast website

Listen in your app

Episodes

250 episodes

  1. What Winnie-the-Pooh teaches us about friendship, care and the desire to be useful 54:37
  2. Did the US midterm elections mark the end of Trumpism? 54:36
  3. Political charisma — why is it both powerful and perilous? 54:36
  4. Will the alleged attack on Helen Haines change Australia and its politics? 54:36
  5. Why do we keep remaking films and TV shows? 54:40
  6. These days everything is political — is that bad for politics? 54:36
  7. If AI can’t be brought under human control, why are we still pressing ahead? 54:36
  8. Last Words: Is ‘Abbey Road’ a fitting end to the Beatles? 54:36
  9. Does a ‘digital duty of care’ put free speech at risk? 54:36
  10. Is loyalty a virtue? 54:45
  11. Live from the Festival of Dangerous Ideas: Does longevity threaten the future? 54:36
  12. What response does Jason Arday’s life, and death, morally demand? 53:36
  13. Is opposition to data centres good news for democracy? 54:36
  14. Should fat from cadavers be used for cosmetic procedures? 54:36
  15. How to protect democratic politics from the malign influence of money? 54:36
  16. What happens to our moral lives when we stop reading books? 54:08
  17. Do prediction markets enhance our understanding of the world or corrupt it? 54:36
  18. ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ — high fashion or vision of hell? 54:36
  19. Copyright theft is AI’s original sin — are we doomed to repeat it? 54:36
  20. Last Words: ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ — Martin Luther King, Jr in Memphis 54:36
  21. Why the anxieties over multiculturalism? What’s the appeal of a monocultural society? 54:36
  22. One Nation is on the rise — but do we know what it means? 54:36
  23. The ethics of ‘longtermism’ — what are our obligations to the future? 54:37
  24. Last Words: The ‘Farewell Sermon’ of the Prophet Muhammad 54:35
  25. The Problem of Nationalism, with David Moscrop — Live at the Sydney Writers’ Festival 54:36
  26. What is the moral of Marlowe’s ‘Doctor Faustus’? 54:36
  27. Does the budget have a coherent underlying philosophy? 54:05
  28. Are ‘reaction videos’ dulling our ability to be genuinely responsive? 54:36
  29. NDIS reforms may be necessary, but they’re also morally fraught 54:36
  30. Smart glasses — a new frontier of foreseeable digital harm? 54:36
  31. The price of sovereignty: Are we prepared to pay more for less vulnerability? 54:36
  32. Social cohesion is straining — can citizens’ assemblies help? 54:36
  33. Why do democracies seem so fragile in the face of shortages? 54:38
  34. Why Autocracy Needs Spectacle — with M Gessen 53:47
  35. Can illegal wars still be legitimate wars? 54:36
  36. Ramadan: Politics Straight from the Heart — with Christos Tsiolkas 54:36
  37. Ramadan: ‘Do Not Harden Your Heart’ — with Avril Alba 54:46
  38. Ramadan: Having a ‘Change of Heart’ — with Claire Zorn 54:36
  39. Ramadan: The Heart and the Moral Life — with Stephen Darwall 54:32
  40. What can headcoverings teach us about individuality, dignity and modesty? 54:36
  41. Can political moderation survive in an age of grievance? 54:23
  42. From Venezuela to Greenland — how to respond to Trump’s territorial ambitions? 1:02:50
  43. What does hate speech do — and why is it so hard to legislate against? 54:03
  44. Anna Funder on the ethical and aesthetic problem of monstrous artists 54:36
  45. "There's a horse loose in a hospital": Is John Mulaney a comedic genius? 54:36
  46. The importance of letting someone 'save face' 54:36
  47. How do recommendation algorithms affect our sense of taste? 54:23
  48. AI and the cost to human life — with Karen Hao 54:45
  49. What can we learn about politics from Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s ‘Good and Bad Government’? 54:36
  50. The ethics of life-writing: Memoirs may be popular, but can they be truthful? 54:37