George Gittoes tells the story behind one of his paintings.

The Night Before

Dialogues is a series of six podcasts about ethics. Philosophers and mates, Dan Halliday and Christian Barry, mull over some of the trickier ethical questions in modern life. Sometimes they bring in a guest philosopher to help them think through the ethical dilemma. 

Dan, Christian and their mate Holly Lawford-Smith discuss if we should give more to those we know well than strangers, if charity is only for those in desperate need, and who should help the needy, the government or private charities?

Dialogues 01 Charity

Dan Halliday, Christian Barry and their mate Luara Ferracioli wonder if being able to procreate is a right, if procreation is incompatible with environmentalism, and if we have the right to determine the features of our child.

Dialogues 02 Procreation

Dan Halliday, Christian Barry and their mate Simon Keller discuss if there should be limits to what parents can do to help their own children, if parents should treat their children differently from a stranger, and if parental support should be unconditional.

Dialogues 03 Parents

4. Immigration
Dan Halliday, Christian Barry and their mate Luara Ferracioli discuss if Australian should take more or less migrants, how migrants change culture and ideas of national identity, and if a country has the moral right to protect its culture against foreign influence.

Dialogues 04 Immigration

5. Morality
Dan and Christian wonder if there is more than one morality, whether respect is bound by culture, and the nature of shame.

Dialogues 05 Morality

Guest philosopher Nick Barry talks with Holly Lawford-Smith, Dan Halliday and Richard Rowland about social esteem.

Dialogues 08 Nick Barry

6. Equality
Dan and Christian unpack what a ‘fair go’ really means, if it relies on your choices or your circumstances, and if a nation should redistribute wealth among its citizens.

Dialogues 06 Equality

Guest philosopher Reene Bolinger talks with Dan Halliday, Holly Lawford-Smith and Richard Rowland about the idea that it’s wrong to put someone in a situation where they cannot know whether you’ve consented or not.

Dialogues 07 Renee Bollinger

Guest philosopher Caroline West talks with Richard Rowland, Dan Halliday and Holly Lawford-Smith about the implications that a popular view about group rights has for the permissibility of our younger selves making decisions that trap or constrain our older selves.

Dialogues 09 Caroline West

Guest philosopher Colin Klein talks with Holly Lawford-Smith and Richard Rowland about whether insects are conscious and what that would mean.

Dialogues 13 Colin Klein

Guest philosopher Christian Barry talks with Dan Halliday, Holly Lawford-Smith and Richard Rowland about the injustices consumers are implicated in through ordinary goods like smartphones and clothing.

Dialogues 10 Christian Barry

Guest philosopher Lisa Ellis talks with Dan Halliday, Holly Lawford-Smith and Richard Rowland about sea-level rise and adaptation justice.

Dialogues 11 Lisa Ellis

Guest philosopher Stephanie Collins talks with Dan Halliday, Holly Lawford-Smith and Richard Rowland about who does wrong when an organisation does wrong.

Dialogues 12 Stephanie Collins

No photos of the Djab Warrung birthing tree (image for sound file is from Ararat Advertiser). So i asked if i could record audio, they said yes. My mum and i ran across the highway clambered up the bank to a small gate where a woman let us in to the camp and told us about the tree. The birthing tree has a male counterpart (of course), the grandfather tree, he is younger than her, but their roots talk and he feeds her when she needs it. It was Sunday afternoon, there is a camp nearby, and a highway, and this is what she sounded like

Birthing Tree

"Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'?" was part of Radio National's Marshall McLuhan Project.

Discover the life and ideas of media theorist Marshall McLuhan and the effect of those ideas on 1960s Canada. Meet his son, Eric, his biographer, Terrence Gordon, and fellow Canadian philosopher, John Ralston Saul, all of whom in their own way try to explain the man and his message, or should that be the man and his massage?

First though, we travel back in time to twentieth century Canada, and visit the CBC TV studios where Marshall McLuhan is waiting to be interviewed.

Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'?

Snodger Media produces the Dialogues Podcast, and other radio works.

Snodger Media

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