27 episodes

Ethics and Chill explores the ethics of pop culture. We dive deep into things considered shallow, uncovering how pop culture shapes our understanding of right and wrong. Movies, TV shows, pop music, comics and more provide the modern myths which help us live our lives – and Ethics and Chill examines them all.

Ethics and Chill Ethical Society of St. Louis

    • Society & Culture
    • 5.0 • 21 Ratings

Ethics and Chill explores the ethics of pop culture. We dive deep into things considered shallow, uncovering how pop culture shapes our understanding of right and wrong. Movies, TV shows, pop music, comics and more provide the modern myths which help us live our lives – and Ethics and Chill examines them all.

    Honor and Avatar: The Last Airbender – with Prof. Helen De Cruz

    Honor and Avatar: The Last Airbender – with Prof. Helen De Cruz

    What is the meaning of honor? James is joined by Prof. Helen De Cruz, the Danforth Chair in the Department of Philosophy at Saint Louis University, to discuss the meaning of honor in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Their wide-ranging discussion goes all over the philosophical landscape, so don’t miss this one!

    • 55 min
    The Ethics of OnlyFans – with Kaden and Tyler Hylls

    The Ethics of OnlyFans – with Kaden and Tyler Hylls

    OnlyFans – a content creation network launched in 2016 – has quickly become a pop culture phenomenon, allowing fans to subscribe to creators’ channels and get privileged access to their content. Because OnlyFans is one of the few sites which allows creators to post explicit sexual and pornographic content, it has become extremely popular with sex workers: today a large proportion of the content on the site is people selling access sexy photos and video. James talks to Kaden and Tyler Hylls – two of the most successful content creators on OnlyFans – about their sex work, exploring the ethics of creating and selling sexual content. What are the reactions of fans to their work? Has it changed their relationship with each other? Do they think about sex differently now? Explore all this and more with this very adult episode of Ethics and Chill! (Seriously, this one is not for kids.)

    • 55 min
    Consequences in The Wasteland

    Consequences in The Wasteland

    Wasteland 3 – the new roleplaying game from inXile Entertainment – enables the player to make numerous choices which affect the simulated game world. As such it is a fascinating examination of consequentialist ethics in video game form! What is consequentialism, and how does Wasteland 3 help us understand it? James explores in this solo episode.

    • 18 min
    Do AI Algorithms Ruin Our Lives? with Aaron Rabinowitz

    Do AI Algorithms Ruin Our Lives? with Aaron Rabinowitz

    Aaron Rabinowitz, host of the Embrace the Void Podcast, joins James to talk about the AI algorithms which are ruining our lives! How does YouTube decide what videos we should watch next? How does Facebook determine what posts should invade our eyeballs? And do these algorithms help or hurt us? Find the answers to these questions – and hear Aaron’s 'tight five' on why Blade Runner is a bad film – in Episode 24 of Ethics and Chill!

    • 51 min
    How Pop Culture Shapes Our Identity – with Chris Stedman

    How Pop Culture Shapes Our Identity – with Chris Stedman

    Chris Stedman is an author, interfaith activist, and lover of pop culture – particularly pop music. Just before the launch of his new book “IRL: Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in Our Digital Lives”, Chris joins James to talk about how pop culture shapes our identity. How do the pop stars we love to love and love to hate shape who we are? Fine out more about Chris at his website.

    • 59 min
    Ethics of Star Trek Live Show at Virtual Trek Con – with Scott Baker

    Ethics of Star Trek Live Show at Virtual Trek Con – with Scott Baker

    In this special live show James discusses the ethics of Star Trek with filmmaker Scott Baker. Part of the Virtual Trek Con, Scott and James explore how Star Trek examines ethical themes throughout its many decades on air. Check out the video of their discussion on YouTube.

    • 56 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
21 Ratings

21 Ratings

Wellow paw ,

Pokémon

You were wrong about Pikachuin in the anime is a boy you can tell by the tail girls Pikachu have a heart shaped tail

MaxNovak ,

Satisfyingily Meaty Fun

Not all pop culture is shallow, and not all philosophy is dry. James and his guests look at fictional worlds with keen Humanist eyes. Entertaining and thought-provoking.

heaththegreat ,

Deep thoughts about pop culture

I love podcasts that look at pop culture in a thoughtful way, and interrogate the ways we interact with our media and how it affects us. This podcast does just that! I’ve really enjoyed listening so far!

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