Philosopher's Zone

If someone's behaving badly, it can be hard to know how much of their behaviour stems from a deep character flaw, and how much of it is incidental - the stuff we might charitably filter out as unreflective of their true self. And the same goes for achievement: how much credit for a Nobel prize should go to the person themselves, and how much to their fortunate circumstances, or to the people who helped them? This week we're asking if philosophy can help us discern the signal from the noise.
Guest: Mark Schroeder, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California
Producer: David Rutledge
When Things Get Personal: A Philosophical Guide to Conflict by Mark Schroeder (Princeton University Press 2026)

Western feminists often express support for women in Muslim majority countries, but sometimes that support is couched in the language of pity, as though Muslim women were held captive by their religion and culture, and in need of 'rescue'. This week, a conversation about how to offer cross-cultural support without paternalism, and how the insight of Simone de Beauvoir can illuminate the issue.
Guest: Sameema Zahra, psychotherapist and Lecturer in Philosophy, Australian Catholic University Brisbane
Producer: David Rutledge
Philosophers in the Therapy Room - podcast with Sameema Zahra and Hora Zabarjadi Sar
*The 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture* - Alexandre Lefebvre on 'The return of the moral state: politics and the good life', Thursday September 24 6.30 pm - register here

If I pick up a tree branch and smash your window with it, you're going to be angry, and your anger will rightly be directed at me. But if a tree branch smashes your windscreen during a cyclone whose intensity has been caused by global warming, you're still going to be angry — but who or what exactly should you be angry with? This week, a conversation about responsibility for systemic injustice.
Guest: Stephanie Collins, Associate Professor in Philosophy, Monash University Melbourne
Producer: David Rutledge
*The 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture* - Alexandre Lefebvre on 'The return of the moral state: politics and the good life', Thursday September 24 6.30 pm - register here

Cultural Marxism is many things to many people — at one end of the political spectrum, it's the hidden force behind political correctness, identity politics and 'wokeness', while at the other end it's a shopworn conspiracy theory that explains nothing much at all. So what is Cultural Marxism? Did a group of Marxist intellectuals in the mid-20th century really set out to reshape Western culture? And if they did, how convincingly does their story stack up as a tale of secret plots and calculated ideological subversion?
Guest: Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer in English and Writing, University of Sydney
Producer: David Rutledge
'Cultural Marxism' is a conspiracy theory for our time - Alexander Howard in The Conversation July 2026
The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy: Why the Right Blames the Frankfurt School for the Decline of the West by A.J.A. Woods (Verso 2026)
Conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism and fun - The Philosopher's Zone, December 2022
*The 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture* - Alexandre Lefebvre on 'The return of the moral state: politics and the good life', Thursday September 24 6.30 pm - register here

The great German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, who died in March, wrote in his later works about what he called Unheimlichkeit — roughly translated as "the unease of the times" — to describe the global retreat of liberal democracy, the fraying of the rules-based international order, and the increasing polarisation and hostility of public discourse. And yet, to the end he defended Enlightenment reason and the utility of rational debate. In a world that seems to be losing its democratic bearings, has Habermas' day passed? Or is the problem more that we haven't read him carefully enough?
Guest: Peter J. Verovšek, Assistant Professor in the History of European Integration, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Producer: David Rutledge
Did Jürgen Habermas's death also mark the end of his vision of democratic life? - Peter Verovšek for ABC Religion & Ethics