Extinction

Overthink · 2024-11-05

Dinosaurs, mammoths, ibexes, frogs: a great deal of animals have gone the way of the dodo. Are we next? And would the world be better off without us? In Episode 116 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about extinction, from Christian eschatology, to the perils of Anthropocene, to cutting-edge de-extinction technology. They turn to animal ethics and scientific dilemmas in search of the ethical approaches that might equip us to think about the extinction of animals, and perhaps even our own. Plus, in the bonus, they talk love, cyborgs, tech bros, and the ethics of the future.

Check out the episode's extended cut here!

Works Discussed
Thom Van Dooren, Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the Edge of Extinction
Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
Todd May, Should We Go Extinct?
Jacob Sherkow and Henry Greely, “What if Extinction is not Forever?”
Émile Torres, Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation
Children of Men (2006) dir. Alfonso Cuarón
Episode 46. Anti-Natalism

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Overthink

The best of all possible podcasts, Leibniz would say. Putting big ideas in dialogue with the everyday, Overthink offers accessible and fresh takes on philosophy from enthusiastic experts. Hosted by professors Ellie Anderson (Pomona College) and David M. Peña-Guzmán (San Francisco State University).

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