11 episodes
Little Bad Thing The Ethics Centre
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- Society & Culture
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5.0 • 11 Ratings
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True stories each week of the things we wish we hadn’t done. Smart, dark, wry, and surprising, this is a show for anyone who’s made a big decision or regretted a small one. Hosted by philosopher Eleanor Gordon-Smith and produced by The Ethics Centre.
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FODI: The In-Between trailer
FODI: The In-Between is an audio time capsule recording this moment in time. It asks: Are we in-between two eras? And if so, what does this mean about the past and the future? 8 conversations between 16 of the world’s biggest thinkers, featuring Stephen Fry, Roxane Gay, Waleed Aly, Peter Singer, Sam Mostyn, Slavoj Žižek, Naomi Klein and more . Accompanied by 8 short creative sound responses to the themes that will be released alongside each conversation.
Two new episodes dropping weekly. Subscribe now to join us at the in-between.
Produced by The Festival of Dangerous Ideas, The Ethics Centre and Audiocraft. -
Festival of Dangerous Ideas Trailer
If you’ve been enjoying Little Bad Thing you might want to check out the audio recordings from the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. From narcissists and surveillance, to robots taking over the world, climate change, and broken systems, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas covers a lot of ground. With 10 years of the festival, the archive is deep. Search for Festival of Dangerous Ideas and subscribe.
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All's fair in love and war
Simon’s job in a Yemeni refugee camp was to enforce a new rule about food distribution. By following orders, he left people hungry and started a riot.
A production of The Ethics Centre. Mix: Bryce Halliday. Music: Breakmaster Cylinder & Blue Dot Sessions. Hosted & produced by Eleanor Gordon-Smith. Edits by Colin Ho, EP Danielle Harvey. -
And a toy xylophone
Michelle left a seven-year relationship abruptly, taking only a few clothes and a toy xylophone. Years later she wonders why.
A production of The Ethics Centre. Mix: Bryce Halliday. Music: Breakmaster Cylinder & Blue Dot Sessions. Hosted & produced by Eleanor Gordon-Smith. Edits by Colin Ho, EP Danielle Harvey. -
The sincerest form of flattery
Lukasz is a font designer who wanted desperately to complete a project he cared deeply about. He was prepared to do anything – even if it meant ripping off someone else’s work.
A production of The Ethics Centre. Mix: Bryce Halliday. Music: Breakmaster Cylinder & Blue Dot Sessions. Hosted & produced by Eleanor Gordon-Smith. Edits by Colin Ho, EP Danielle Harvey. -
Two kinds of bully
Dan saw a stranger harassing women and went over ready to punch him, to be the vigilante. When he got there he changed his mind.
A production of The Ethics Centre. Mix: Bryce Halliday. Music: Breakmaster Cylinder & Blue Dot Sessions. Hosted & produced by Eleanor Gordon-Smith. Edits by Colin Ho, EP Danielle Harvey.
Customer Reviews
Provocative and Entertaining
As an ethics practitioner, I have enjoyed every episode. They remind me that we are all human and behave at times in ways that deviate from what we would have predicted. The difference is that some people reflect on their mistakes and learn, while others rationalize and view their actions through biased filters. Well done! I am recommending this podcast to others in my profession.
Insightful and humanizing
I listened to the first two episodes of this podcast back to back, and absolutely loved them. This is a show about guilt, shame, and the excuses we make to ourselves when we know we’re doing something wrong. More than that, though, it’s an exploration of how we look back on the bad decisions we’ve made in the past, reconcile them, and try to move past them. As its name suggests, the show doesn’t deal with acts of deliberate malice and cruelty. Rather, it’s about the things we do that are in a moral grey area, where we sort of know our behavior is wrong but we find a way to justify it to ourselves anyway.
Gordon-Smith is a thought-provoking host and a skilled interviewer. She approaches her guests’ “little bad things” as mistakes, not as immutable moral failings. The perspective of the show aims not to condemn people for the decisions they’ve made, but rather to explore why they made those choices, how they feel about them after the fact, and what they can do to try to put things to rights in the future. Gordon-Smith invites us to empathize with her guests and reflect on our own regretful decisions—not out of a sense of shame and self-abasement, but as an exploration of a universal but uncomfortable part of being human. We’ve all made decisions that we regret. This show asks us to consider what those decisions mean to us and how they shape who we become.
“Little Bad Thing” is touchingly human. It shines a light on some of the uglier things people are capable of, but it’s in no way bleak, and it makes a point to show the better side of humanity, as well. I cannot recommend this podcast highly enough. Even from the first few episodes, I’ve walked away with a great deal to reflect on.
mind blown!!
excellent storytelling, humor and sincere life lessons. Super accessible and intelligent. My new favorite podcast!