Principle of Charity

This week leading neuroscientist Anil Seth, and spiritual leader and scholar Swami Sarvapriyananda, join host Lloyd Vogelman on the couch for an unfiltered conversation that digs into the personal side of the Principle of Charity. Can the inevitability of human suffering help us understand the existence of the ‘self’?BIOSAnil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, where he is also Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science. He is also Co-Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Program on Brain, Mind, and Consciousness. 2021 saw the publication of his best selling book, Being You - A New Science of Consciousness.Anil was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Neuroscience of Consciousness (Oxford University Press),Swami Sarvapriyananda is a Hindu monk belonging to the Ramakrishna Order and the Minister and spiritual leader of the Vedanta Society of New York. He was in the first group of Hindu swamis to participate as a Nagral Fellow for the year 2019-20 at Harvard Divinity School. He is a well-known speaker on Vedanta teachings and his talks are extremely popular worldwide. 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 

In this episode, we’re joined by one of the world’s leading neuroscientists, Anil Seth, and Advaita Vedanta spiritual leader and scholar, Swami Sarvapriyananda, to explore ideas around consciousness. When we die, does our consciousness die with us, or is our body just a vehicle, at best, for a consciousness that continues?Most mainstream forms of western knowledge are based on an understanding that nothing exists outside of the physical world which follows the fundamental laws of physics. It posits that whatever we seek to understand, we need to do so using the tools of material reality.  It seems however, that this largely shared assumption around the nature of reality falls apart for many of us when we think about what happens after death. By far the majority of people living on this planet believe in a consciousness, or a related term like ‘soul’, that exists separate to our material body and can therefore continue after death. This belief is of course the basic building block of pretty much all religions - and all these beliefs share an assumption that there’s a realm of disembodied mind, or spirit, which can continue after our body dies. In philosophy of mind, this belief is called ‘dualism’.  But for most hard-nosed scientists and philosophers, there’s something deeply problematic about dualism, of this separating out of conscious experience from the material world. Everything else can be explained using the tools of material reality. Why not consciousness?BIOSAnil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, where he is also Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science. He is also Co-Director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Program on Brain, Mind, and Consciousness. 2021 saw the publication of his best selling book, Being You - A New Science of Consciousness.Anil was the founding Editor-in-Chief of Neuroscience of Consciousness (Oxford University Press), a role he served from 2014-2024. Swami Sarvapriyananda is a Hindu monk belonging to the Ramakrishna Order and the Minister and spiritual leader of the Vedanta Society of New York. He was in the first group of Hindu swamis to participate as a Nagral Fellow for the year 2019-20 at Harvard Divinity School. He is a well-known speaker on Vedanta teachings and his talks are extremely popular worldwide. Your 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 economist Gene Tunny and activist-scholar Anitra Nelson join host Lloyd Vogelman on the couch for an unfiltered conversation that digs into the personal side of the Principle of Charity. Can two diametrically opposed thinkers meet in the middle when it’s planetary survival that’s at stake? BIOSGene Tunny is the Founder and Director of Adept Economics and the current President of the Queensland branch of the Economic Society of Australia. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in economics at Griffith University and an Adjunct Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS). He hosts the Economics Explored podcast. Gene is a former Treasury official who led teams in the Treasury’s budget and industry policy divisions.  Associate Professor Anitra Nelson is an activist-scholar with the Informal Urbanism Research Hub (InfUr-) at University of Melbourne. Her books include Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy (2022) and Small is Necessary: Shared Living on a Shared Planet (2018). She is co-author of Exploring Degrowth (2020) and co-editor of Post-Carbon Inclusion (2024), Housing for Degrowth: Principles, Models, Challenges and Opportunities (2018) and Food for Degrowth: Perspectives and Practices (2021). Anitra is on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the joint International Society for Ecological Economics–Degrowth Conference, to be held 24-27 June 2025, in Oslo (Norway) and holds a PhD from LaTrobe University (Australia). See more – https://anitranelson.info/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 

In this episode we’re joined by economist Gene Tunny and activist-scholar Anitra Nelson to ask whether degrowth can save the planet, or if we should stay the current economic course.   As recently as 150 years ago, pretty much everyone was living in what we’d now call extreme poverty. Thanks to capitalism, that rate is now just 9%, with a reduction of 38% in the last 30 years alone.  So what’s the problem? Well, for one thing, we’ve been plundering the natural world to fuel our growth, with little regard for its limitations. And it’s come back to bite us. A regular economist might say – no problem. Let’s just price in the cost of climate pollution, and natural capital, recognising that we’ll need governments to take the lead. But there’s a growing challenge to market-centrism from a number of movements who share a belief that a bit more government regulation is not going to get to the root of the problem; our erroneous assumption that the natural world is limitless.Degrowth argues that we can’t save the planet, or end the systemic ills of capitalism like inequality, using the tools that created the problem in the first place. That our addiction to growth needs to be cut at its roots. It argues for a paradigm shift which sees wellbeing decoupled from economic growth. It envisages a different way of being, of caring and relating to each other, of flourishing itself, that’s in harmony with our more noble instincts, unperverted by our current system of exploitation. BIOSGene Tunny is the Founder and Director of Adept Economics and the current President of the Queensland branch of the Economic Society of Australia. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in economics at Griffith University and an Adjunct Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS). He hosts the Economics Explored podcast. Gene is a former Treasury official who led teams in the Treasury’s budget and industry policy divisions.  Associate Professor Anitra Nelson is an activist-scholar with the Informal Urbanism Research Hub (InfUr-) at University of Melbourne. Her books include Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy (2022) and Small is Necessary: Shared Living on a Shared Planet (2018). She is co-author of Exploring Degrowth (2020) and co-editor of Post-Carbon Inclusion (2024), Housing for Degrowth: Principles, Models, Challenges and Opportunities (2018) and Food for Degrowth: Perspectives and Practices (2021). Anitra is on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the joint International Society for Ecological Economics–Degrowth Conference, to be held 24-27 June 2025, in Oslo (Norway) and holds a PhD from LaTrobe University (Australia). See more – https://anitranelson.info/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 

Lloyd meets Annabel on the couch to ask some crunchy questions. Including but not limited to: What makes a good leader? And to what extent is journalism responsible for partisan attack politics?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  

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

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