Principle of Charity

The inimitable Annabel Crabb joins us for this special spotlight episode where we shine a light on the changing impact of journalism in a shifting media landscape. In a world where truth is increasingly contested, can the fourth estate still be trusted to deliver reliable information which brings us together into some sort of shared reality? Or has our trust in journalism been irrevocably broken by the ‘democratisation’ of information - the relentless immediacy of self-selecting delivery platforms - as well as the unabating attacks of all political sides, who too often claim that it's just a front for power or an opinion, or even worse, a home for misinformation. How can we rebuild trust in the news, recognising its limitations while understanding its critical role in a well-functioning society?As to disagree productively, we need a shared reality as our foundation.Annabel CrabbAnnabel Crabb is an Australian political journalist, commentator and television host who is the ABC's chief online political writer. She has worked for Adelaide's The Advertiser, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Sunday Age and The Sun-Herald, and won a Walkley Award in 2009 for her Quarterly Essay, "Stop at Nothing: The Life and Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull". She has written two books covering events within the Australian Labor Party, as well as The Wife Drought, a book about women's work–life balance, and two cookbooks with her friend and collaborator, Wendy Sharpe. She has hosted ABC television shows Kitchen Cabinet, The House, Back in Time for Dinner and Tomorrow Tonight. Annabel is the co-founder of the hit podcast Chat 10 Looks 3, which she co-hosts with Leigh Sales, now in its 10th year.CREDITSYour hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman This podcast is proud to partner with The Ethics CentreFind Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked inFind Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and XThis podcast is produced by Jonah Primo and Sabrina OrganoFind Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information

This week billionaire philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen and philosopher Dr David Blunt  join host Lloyd Vogelman on the couch for an unfiltered conversation that digs into the personal side of the Principle of Charity.BIOSNicolas Berggruen is the Founder and Chairman of the Berggruen Institute and has spearheaded its growth, establishing its presence in Los Angeles, Beijing, and Venice. Focusing on great transformations in the human condition brought on by factors such as climate change, the restructuring of global economics and politics, and advances in science and technology, the Institute seeks to connect and develop ideas in the human sciences to the pursuit of practical improvements in governance across cultures, disciplines, and political boundaries.Committed to visual arts and architecture, Berggruen sits on the boards of the Museum Berggruen, Berlin, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He is a member of the International Councils for Tate, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Fondation Beyeler, Basel; and of the President’s International Council for The J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles. Berggruen has also collaborated on projects with renowned architects including David Adjaye and Shigeru Ban.Berggruen is co-author with Nathan Gardels of Renovating Democracy: Governing in the Age of Globalization and Digital Capitalism (University of California Press) and Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century, a Financial Times Book of the Year, and is co-publisher of Noema Magazine. Nicolas Berggruen is Chairman of Berggruen Holdings, the investment vehicle of the Nicolas Berggruen Charitable Trust.Gwilym David Blunt is a writer and commentator on global politics and philosophy.David was born in Toronto, Canada.He has his BA (hons) in Political Science and History from the University of Western Ontario for which he was awarded a university gold medal. He has taken his MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History from the University of Cambridge. He was awarded a PhD in Political Science from University College London for his thesis Transnational Justice, Philanthropy, and Domination.He was a Temporary University Lecturer and Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge, where he was also a fellow of Corpus Christi College.From 2015-2022 he was a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in International Politics at City, University of London.He now lives and works in Sydney, Australia.CREDITSYour hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman This podcast is proud to partner with The Ethics CentreFind Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked inFind Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and XThis podcast is produced by Jonah Primo and Sabrina OrganoFind Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram   

In this episode we’re joined by billionaire and philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen and philosopher David Blunt, to consider the merits and pitfalls of charitable giving in a world rife with inequity. Whether we think of inequality as simply an outcome of meritocracies that reward talent and ambition, or we’re suspicious of the system itself, there seems to be one thing we can all agree upon: it’s important for those who do disproportionately well to help those in need, beyond just paying their fair share of taxes.In fact, charity is a fundamental virtue across any religion worth its name. And in the secular morality of liberal democracies, it’s axiomatic to say that we have a duty to those who are less fortunate. And while we might prefer that governments solve all social ills, we recognise the need for not-for-profits to fill gaps left unattended by public programs - a need bolstered by the recognition that private philanthropy may be more nimble, experimental and adaptive, and ultimately more effective than their cumbersome government cousins.  But like any virtue, philanthropy has been accused of casting a shadow - one that calls into question the whole endeavour itself. Philanthropy has become a $2.3 trillion USD per annum worldwide industry. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, the largest private philanthropic foundation in the world, provides grants of over $8 billion per annum - nearly double the total foreign aid budget of Australia.Without the accountability that binds programs run by democratically elected governments, the biggest private foundations can have oversized influences on the choice of recipients, the issues and the approaches that are deemed most worthy. And because they often partner with governments, they can have a huge impact not just on how their own giving is distributed, but on the way taxpayer foreign aid is handed out. This can leave the super rich, turned super philanthropists, with an ability to exert significant control over the lives of the needy, even stripping them, as some critics argue, of their basic agency and autonomy. There is also the question of the benefits that flow to philanthropists – either directly through related business interests, or in the way their power, influence and connections are enhanced through their philanthropic endeavours. Nicolas Berggruen is the Founder and Chairman of the Berggruen Institute and has spearheaded its growth, establishing its presence in Los Angeles, Beijing, and Venice. Focusing on great transformations in the human condition brought on by factors such as climate change, the restructuring of global economics and politics, and advances in science and technology, the Institute seeks to connect and develop ideas in the human sciences to the pursuit of practical improvements in governance across cultures, disciplines, and political boundaries.Gwilym David Blunt is a writer and commentator on global politics and philosophy. He has his BA (hons) in Political Science and History from the University of Western Ontario for which he was awarded a university gold medal. He has taken his MPhil in Political Thought and Intellectual History from the University of Cambridge. He was awarded a PhD in Political Science from University College London for his thesis Transnational Justice, Philanthropy, and Domination. From 2015-2022 he was a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in International Politics at City, University of London.Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile ShermanThis podcast is proud to partner with The Ethics CentreFind Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in, Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and XThis podcast is produced by Jonah Primo and Sabrina Organo, Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram

Do books have a future in the new digital world order? And can we engage productively with problematic cultural content?This week luminary philosopher A.C Grayling and cultural content creator Mary McGillivray join host Lloyd Vogelman on the couch for an unfiltered conversation that digs into the personal side of the Principle of Charity.A. C. Grayling CBE MA DPhil is the Principal of Northeastern University London and its Professor of Philosophy. He is a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He is the author of over thirty books of philosophy, biography, history of ideas and essays. He was a columnist for The Guardian, The Times and Prospect Magazine. He has twice been a judge for The Booker Prize, in 2014 serving as the Chair of the judging panel. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Vice President of Humanists UK, Patron of the Defence Humanists, Honorary Associate of the Secular Society and a Patron of Dignity in Dying.Mary McGillivray is a content creator making visual culture analysis accessible for the next generation. She holds a Masters degree in History of Art and Architecture from The University of Cambridge and is currently a PhD candidate at The University of Melbourne. Mary has worked with art galleries and cultural institutions across Australia, the UK and Europe to bring their collections to a massive online audience of highly engaged young viewers and she also appears on ABC Arts.CREDITSYour hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman This podcast is proud to partner with The Ethics CentreFind Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked inFind Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and XThis podcast is produced by Jonah Primo and Sabrina OrganoFind Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information

This special episode was recorded live at the 2024 Sydney Writers’ Festival with Emile and Lloyd joined on stage by eminent philosopher A.C Grayling and digital content creator Mary McGillivray. Together they consider the merits and pitfalls of various forms of factual information distribution. This is arguably the greatest time in the history of the world for reading, with literally the entirety of human knowledge available in books or in the online world of articles, blogs etc. If you want to develop a deep understanding of the world we live in, you just have to read.  But with the rise of online video platforms like YouTube and TikTok, many people - young people in particular, are getting their factual content, not from reading, but from these alternative sources. Research has shown that we are evolutionarily adapted to taking in knowledge audiovisually - we apparently process video images 60,000 times faster than text - and that reading, as a form of communication is complex and inefficient.For a long time, reading was the only available technology to disseminate ideas beyond the campfire, fuelled most powerfully by the invention of the printing press. Now that we have the technology to create video content, which sits most naturally with the way we’re evolved to take in information, maybe we should thank reading for its help in bridging the techno- gap, and let our books collect dust as we finally return to the way we most naturally absorb knowledge about the world.In this conversation we look at the tsunami of non-fiction video content that has taken so many young people’s attention away from the written word, and ask whether it’s a merciful release from the boring and inefficient world of reading, a release into a promised land of enlivened, engaging, memorable video content, or whether it signals a slow spiral into a shallow, unfocused, unimaginative and insubstantial way of understanding of the world we live in.~~~~You can be part of the discussion @PofCharity on Twitter, @PrincipleofCharity on Facebook and @PrincipleofCharityPodcast on Instagram. Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman. Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter. This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo and Sabrina Organo Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram