About this project
A Question of Ethics: the podcast
For twelve years, I wrote “The Ethicist” for the New York Times. Now I’d like to produce a weekly ten-minute podcast akin to that column.
In the Times column, I answered readers’ queries about their moral dilemmas: May I smuggle my own food into the movies? Must I tell my best friend that her husband is having an affair? Should I spend $3,000 on medical care for my cat even though many human beings lack real access to a doctor? In the podcast, I’ll respond to listener phonecalls about everyday ethics questions that bedevil us.
In the Times, I could respond only to a question put to me; I could not initiate the discussion. Listener questions will be at the heart of the podcast, but I’ll also be able to discuss the events of the day from an ethical perspective -- marriage equality, climate change, our nation’s bountiful supply of sex scandals -- even when no adulterous senator has sought my advice. For those segments, I’ll bring in savvy guests with interesting ideas.
The tone of the podcasts should be much like the column: serious but not somber, moral advice without a lot of damn moralizing.
I’m working with Media Syndication Services, a DC company that’s produced a lot of talk radio. They’ll handle the production and distribution, via iTunes and the like.
We hope to raise enough money to produce and distribute a ten-minute weekly podcasts for three months, giving us a chance to experiment with different kinds of segements. We think this could evolve into a weekly one-hour public radio program. Or perhaps a line of colorful sportswear or some delicious baked goods. We’ll go where it takes us.
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Funding Unsuccessful
This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on September 14, 2011.
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early delivery of each week’s podcast, along with email updates to you, the charter members of the AQoE family. Unless you have an uneasy relationship with your actual family. In which case think of it more as the AQoE friends.
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MP3 download of the haunting and lyrical A Question Of Ethics theme song, written, produced, and performed by Andy Prieboy, formerly of Wall Of Voodoo and so much more.
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autographed 5 x 7 print of the cover of the Japanese edition of my first ethics book, “The Good, the Bad and the Difference,” featuring what appears to be a highly moral dog.
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autographed copy of the American edition of “The Good, the Bad and the Difference.” Oh no, my friends, not just the cover, the entire, albeit dogless, book.
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Autographed copy of my forthcoming book, "Be Good: how to navigate the ethics of everything," to be published by Chronicle in June.
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autographed copy of pretty much any book by any long-dead author. “I’ll never forget fifth period study hall and you. Your pal, Herman Melville.” I do a fine Fitzgerald, an expressive Shakespeare. You send the book and a return envelope; I’ll inscribe it affectionately.
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You Be The Announcer. Perform that pleasant task for an episode of the podcast. If you're not in New York, we'll arrange to do it over the phone.
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Two Drinks, Two Dilemmas. I'll meet with you at a Manhattan bar, sort out two of your ethical quandaries, and pick up the check. It’s the perfect gift for that special, morally compromised, someone.
Project By
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Marguerite reared four children and wrote The Mother's Almanac, The Mother's Almanac Goes To School and Marguerite Kelly's Family Almanac--a collection of her columns carried by The Washington Post and other papers for more than thirty years. She's also been a columnist for Woman's Day and Family Life and written for the New York Times Magazine, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal.
