Principle of Charity

With guests, Ahmed Elgammal and Michael SacasasIn Principle of Charity on the Couch, Lloyd has an unfiltered conversation with the guest, throws them curveballs, and gets into the personal side of Principle of Charity.   ~~ 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 Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com & @JonahPrimo on Instagram. 

In 2022, an AI generated work of art won a US state art competition. The artist used Midjourney, one of the popular AI systems that also include Dall-E and Stable Diffusion. They are trained on the millions of images scattered through the internet, using a deep learning program called a ‘generative adversarial network’, or GAN for short. It works by taking in text prompts, where you type in what you want the artwork to look like, and the AI then draws on the huge database of artworks, to generate a new work that conforms to the prompts.  But to create a great AI work, it’s not as simple as typing ‘create some great art’. The artist who won that competition put in lengthy complex prompts, working up hundreds of iterations before he arrived at the final work.  So, is this really art?  When we see an AI art creation, it genuinely feels ‘creative’. But is there something humans do when we create which is qualitatively different to AI? Like AI in every domain it has touched, AI art is challenging us to rethink our categories and even to ask us to question what it means to be human.Our guests for this conversation are both experts in the intersection between art and technology.  Professor Ahmed Elgammal has actually constructed AI systems that have created artworks that are so good, a majority of people believe they are truly original human creations. Michael Sacasas,on the other hand, sees AI art as missing an essential ingredient, no matter how good its style is. It’ll never convey the deep connection between artist and viewer that we all crave.GuestsAhmed ElgammalDr. Ahmed Elgammal is a professor at the Department of Computer Science and an Executive Council Faculty at the Center for Cognitive Science at Rutgers University. He is the founder and director of the Art and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Rutgers. He is also the founder and CEO of Playform AI, a platform that is dedicated to give artist access to the latest generative AI tech. In 2017, he developed AICAN, an autonomous AI artist and collaborative creative partner, which was acclaimed in an Artsy editorial as “the biggest artistic achievement of the year.” In 2021, he led the AI team that completed Beethoven’s 10th symphony, which received worldwide media coverage. He received M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of Maryland, College Park.Michael SacasasMichael writes The Convivial Society, a popular newsletter on technology, culture, and the moral life.  Michael has written for The New Atlantis, Comment, Plough, The New Inquiry, Real Life Magazine, Mere Orthodoxy, The American, and Second Nature Journal. His work has also been featured in The Atlantic, Vox, and the New York Times. He is the Executive Director, Christian Study Centre in Florida, and earned his MA in Theological Studies from Reformed Theological Seminary in 2002. He was later a doctoral candidate at the University of Central Florida studying the relationship between technology and society with a focus on the work of Hannah Arendt.  He is an Associate Fellow in Ethics and Culture at the Greystone Theological Institute.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 Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram 

With guests, Professor Mohamad Abdalla and Professor Robyn HornerIn Principle of Charity on the Couch, Lloyd has an unfiltered conversation with the guest, throws them curveballs, and gets into the personal side of Principle of Charity.   ~~ 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 Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com & @JonahPrimo on Instagram. 

Christianity and Islam are the two biggest religions on the globe, accounting for just over half the world’s population combined. Most of us know about the religion we belong to and too often learn about other religions from the actions of extreme fundamentalists, mediated by the news, and by politics. In this episode we go back to basics, to find out what Christianity and Islam actually believe. What are the essential building blocks of their theology? What do you need to believe as true? What is god, what is a soul, and what happens after death? And what exactly is the promise of the religion, whether it’s salvation or eternal life, and how do you achieve it?The stakes are incredibly high when it comes to theology. Countless wars have been fought in the name of christianity and islam, both between these religions and between different sects within them. And whilst there are considerable overlaps which we will explore in this episode, there are also irreconcilable differences, differences not in mere preferences and values, but in the claim to the absolute truth of the nature of the universe, our place in it, the laws of how to live, our path to salvation and our purpose in life.  GuestsProfessor Robyn HornerProfessor Robyn Horner is a teaching and research academic within the School of Theology, and a member of the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry (IRCI) at Australian Catholic University. From 2010-2015, she held the position of Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) of the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy.Formerly a teacher in Catholic primary and secondary schools, Robyn is a liturgical musician and composer, Professor Mohamad AbdallaProfessor Abdalla has worked in the field of Islamic Studies for over 25 years and played a leading role in establishing Islamic Studies across Australian universities. He is currently the Founding Director, the Centre for Islamic Thought and Education (CITE). In 2020 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his outstanding service to education in the sphere of Islamic Studies. He established and led the Griffith University Islamic Research Unit (GIRU), at Griffith University in Brisbane (2006-2008); the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies (NCEIS), a dynamic collaboration between the University of Melbourne, Griffith University and the University of Western Sydney (2008-2016). ~~ 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 Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram 

With guests, Dr Patti Ashley and Dr Tanveer Ahmed.In Principle of Charity on the Couch, Lloyd has an unfiltered conversation with the guest, throws them curveballs, and gets into the personal side of Principle of Charity.   ~~ 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 Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com & @JonahPrimo on Instagram. 

It’s said that the world can be divided into shame based and guilt based cultures, with the west sitting firmly in the guilt side. This is because the west has prioritised this idea of the individual, with our sense of right and wrong a matter between ourself and whatever higher power we ascribe to – whether it's our god, the state laws, or our conscious itself.  In the west, guilt is seen as an appropriate and even productive emotion, with shame as the corrosive cousin. But in shame based cultures, which really make up most of the world, its shame, not guilt, that does the heavy lifting. And given most of us in the west live in rich multicultural communities, it’s important to understand shame if we’re going to understand what motivates the people around us. In this conversation, we talk with a leading world expert about the deeply corrosive aspects of shame, and how to release its grip on us. We also speak with a leading psychiatrist who’s written a book in defence of shame, to see what benefits shame can bring. We’ll also open the lens a little wider, looking at how shame is used by conservatives, liberals, but more interestingly by the progressive left, which challenges us to be careful not to shame people’s sexual expressions, weight, or in fact anything that’s seen as an authentic version of oneself. Whilst at the same time, the left has very successfully used public shaming, including through cancel culture, as a way to regulate what can and can’t be said. And finally, we’ll discuss social media as the super-fuel for shame, as it provides us with an almost infinite community within which we seek praise, and fear condemnation.Guests:Dr Patti AshleyPatti Ashley holds a doctor of philosophy degree in psychology from the Union Institute and University, a Master of Education degree in early childhood from Old Dominion University and a Bachelor of Science degree in special education from James Madison University. She is the author of Living in the Shadow of the Too-Good Mother Archetype, Letters to Freedom and Shame-Informed Therapy: Treatment Strategies to overcome Core Shame and Reconstruct the Authentic Self. An international workshop presenter, TEDxspeaker and psychotherapist, she owns and operates Authenticity Architects in Boulder, Colorado and Taos, New Mexico.Dr Tanveer AhmedTanveer Ahmed is a psychiatrist, author and columnist on social issues for the Australian Financial Review. His books include Fragile Nation about the cultural rise of mental health and In Defence of Shame. He is an adjunct lecturer for the University of New South Wales. He has served on local government, government advisory Boards and as a national representative for the Australian Medical Association. He is based in Sydney, Australia.~~ 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 Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram 

With guests Francisco Ferreira and Emma VarvaloucasIn Principle of Charity on the Couch, Lloyd has an unfiltered conversation with the guest, throws them curveballs, and gets into the personal side of Principle of Charity.   ~~ 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 Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com & @JonahPrimo on Instagram. 

How should we think and feel about so many things that are still so so bad, but, crucially here, so much better, than they were. Consider child mortality. Apparently, five million children under 5 died in the last year. Yet that number has more than halved in the last 30 years, which is again a huge reduction from the 20 million children under 5 who died each year in 1950. What do we do with information like this? Five million child deaths is an unacceptable tragedy. At the same time, 15 million children are essentially saved each year as compared to 1950. In this episode we explore the fascinating and intellectually consistent but emotionally incongruent thought - that things are bad, but better. Our guests bring to light data that seldom features in newsfeeds and help to unpack both the great advances being made on the one hand, alongside the worsening situations confronted by many millions of people.  GuestsFrancisco Ferreira is the Amartya Sen Professor of Inequality Studies at the London School of Economics, where he is also Director of the International Inequalities Institute. Francisco is an economist working on the measurement, causes, and consequences of inequality and poverty in developing countries, with a special focus on Latin America. His work has been published widely and been awarded various prizes, including the Richard Stone Prize in Applied Econometrics and the Kendrick Prize from the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth. He is also an Affiliated Scholar with the Stone Center at the City University of New York; Francisco currently serves as President of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA). Prior to joining the LSE, Francisco had a long career at the World Bank, where his positions included Chief Economist for the Africa Region He has also taught at the Paris School of Economics. Francisco was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics.Emma Varvaloucas, is the executive director of The Progress Network, where she writes the weekly What Could Go Right? newsletter and co-hosts the What Could Go Right? podcast. She was formerly the executive editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. In addition to The Progress Network and Tricycle, her writing has also appeared in the New York Post and Forbes, and has been syndicated by Apple News.Emma is a 2021 Dialog Emerging Fellow, a graduate of New York University, where she double-majored in journalism and religious studies. ~~ 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 Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram