The Minefield ABC listen
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- Society & Culture
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In a world marked by wicked social problems, The Minefield helps you negotiate the ethical dilemmas, contradictory claims and unacknowledged complicities of modern life.
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Ramadan — the importance of friendship
If Thoreau regards withdrawal and solitude as means by which we learn to escape self-deception, then they may well be little more than preparation for the moral demands friends make of one another.
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Ramadan — the discipline of solitude
Solitude is neither alone-ness nor idleness. It is strenuous and takes practice. Solitude does not simply happen in the way that isolation or loneliness does — it must be inhabited.
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Ramadan — the necessity of withdrawing
Are periodic bouts of withdrawal from life’s urgent demands and heated debates necessary to regain a sense of our shared humanity, and to renew the commitments that sustain the moral life?
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Q+A on “the wisdom of crowds”
Waleed Aly, Scott Stephens and philosopher Stephanie Collins field questions from a live studio audience on crowd-behaviour, conformity and the importance of dissent.
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How much credence should we give to “the wisdom of crowds”?
Ever since Plato, “crowds” have been associated with irrationality, emotivism, conformism, short-term thinking, and herd-like behaviour. But what if it turns out that crowds are collectively more intelligent than their individual members?
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When is it right to call some act – or someone – “evil”?
What are we trying to convey when we reach for a word like “evil”? Is it something about a person’s actions or character? Is it what they do or the manner in which they do it?
Customer Reviews
Keeps me thinking hard
Seeing one or two controversial reviews here .. seems Aussies still have this anti-intellectualism attitude in Australia .. I love that I don’t always get it at first but this podcast makes me think HARD and contemplate .. great brain food for the mind ! How can you not love Waleed’s soothing voice ..?
Funny and wise
A huge fan. Need an episode on the virtues of Prog rock. Really enjoying the “Not quite a book club” specials. Great fun.
Ideas bank fest.
If you like listening to the self-appointed smartest men in the room, you’ll love this intelligentsia banker festival between two blokes who are so high on their own supply, they need a parachute from their superior intellectual altitude. It’s precocious, pretentiousness all the way to 11.