Life is Better with Ethics

Dr. Leah M. Omilion-Hodges, Professor and Graduate Program Director in the School of Communication, and Dr. Anna Popkova, Associate Professor at Western Michigan University School of Communication and an allied faculty member at WMU Global and International Studies program, joined host Jayla Bryan, the Ethics Center's intern, to talk about what it means to speak with integrity in the field of public relations and how ethical dialogue shapes the way we communicate, lead, and build trust in a rapidly changing world. Both Dr. Omilion-Hodges and Dr. Popkova bring years of experience as communication scholars who study how messages shape relationships, organizations, and culture. Produced and edited by Jayla Bryan.

David Paul, Chair of the Department of Philosophy, and Jennifer Townsend, Executive Assistant for the Lee Honors College, joined host Sandra Borden, Director of the Ethics Center, to talk about why we should try to talk across difference about difficult issues and how can we do so with civility and respect. Paul and Townsend have been doing work in this space as two of the co-chairs for Western Michigan University’s chapter of the Heterodox Academy, also known as HxA. Along with fellow co-chair Jeff Breneman, they were awarded the 2025 HxA Community Excellence Open Inquiry Award. Produced and edited by Jayla Bryan.

Dr. Karen Korematsu, the executive director of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute, joined host Kathy Purnell, an Ethics Center affiliate and the director of the Human/Civil Rights Law Center, on October 10, 2025. They talked about the special exhibit, “Am I An American or Am I Not?” that opened October 12 at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum and continues through January 4, 2026. The exhibition’s title comes from Fred Korematsu, who famously challenged the mass imprisonment of more than 125,000 Japanese Americans during WWII. Edited by Jayla Bryan.

Host Jayla Bryan, the Ethics Center's intern, talks to the team behind the Center's National Science Foundation grant (Award #2316197): Dr. Sandra Borden, the Ethics Center’s director and a professor in the School of Communication; Dr. David Hartmann, chair and professor in the Department of Sociology; and Dr. Susan Stapleton, emeritus professor in the Department of Chemistry. The grant funded a conference in February 2024 to gather a diverse group from the STEM and responsible conduct in research communities to raise awareness about how privilege manifests in research and how its negative impacts can be addressed. 

Ryan Scrivens, assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University, joined host Sandra Borden, the Ethics Center’s director, on April 3, 2025. They talked about his research on terrorism and extremism, as well as the ethical issues involved in working with former extremists to prevent and counter violent extremism. Dr. Scrivens was the 2025 Winnie Veenstra Peace lecturer. Produced and edited by Jayla Bryan.

The Ethics Center’s founding director, Michael Pritchard, and longtime Center Advisory Board member Ronald Kramer joined host Sandra Borden, the Ethics Center’s current director, on March 13, 2025, to talk about the Ethics Center’s mission and history on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. Produced and edited by Jayla Bryan.

Award-winning photographer Jeri Love and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute members Kris Locke and Jim Bennink joined host Sandra Borden, the Ethics Center’s director, on March 10, 2025, to talk about an exhibit created by participants in an OLLI Photovoice workshop as part of the A Life Well Lived – Kalamazoo event series. Produced and edited by Jayla Bryan.

Angie Moe, a professor of sociology at Western Michigan University, joined host Olivia Munoz, the WMU Ethics Center's intern, on December 2, 2024. They talked about the role of therapy dogs, how to ensure access to their services and how to treat the dogs ethically. Dr. Moe, who specializes in interpersonal victimization and trauma-informed survivorship, works with the Therapy Dog Clinic at Western Michigan University. Produced and edited by Olivia Munoz.

Sharon Carlson, president of the Ladies Library Association in Kalamazoo, joined host Ashley Atkins, Ethics Center affiliate and associate professor in the Western Michigan University Department of Philosophy, on November 20, 2024. They talked about the association’s abolitionist history. The Ladies Library Association was only the third women’s club in the United States and the first public library in Kalamazoo.

Dr. Mark Hoipkemier, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, joined host Sandra Borden, director of the WMU Ethics Center, on June 14, 2024. He delivered the keynote address for a workshop co-sponsored by the Center and the Department of Public Communication at the University of Navarra titled Toward Flourishing: A Theoretical Reset for Journalism Ethics on June 6-7, 2024. Participants gathered to consider how journalism’s political function could be oriented toward the common good, a topic about which Dr. Hoipkemier has written extensively.

Today we are joined by Professor Tommie Shelby--Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African American Studies and Philosophy--to discuss his book The Idea of Prison Abolition.

This episode is a recording of the 2023 Winnie Veenstra Peace Lecture. Dr. Edgar Franco-Vivanco presents his talk, “Between Violence and Resistance: The Challenges of Latin America in the 21st Century,”, where he examines the role of colonialism and US foreign policy in shaping violence in Latin America.

Today we are joined by Dr. Sandra Borden and Dr. Fritz Allhoff to discuss the benefits of studying ethics abroad. Dr. Borden spearheads a media ethics study abroad program, which takes place in London, England. Dr. Fritz Allhoff runs an Arctic Security class which travels to Iceland. For more information, you can go to https://broncosabroad.wmich.edu/

In this episode, PhD student Luke Golemon is interviewed about his project: "Redifining the Scientific Analaogy for Ethics." Broadly, Luke explores how understanding ethics as something that is influenced by the world--and perhaps even scientifc--can benefit our understanding of ethics.

Jon Milgrim, faculty specialist in the Department of Philosophy, and Alec Koppers, a second-year master's student in the same department, joined Madelyn Wallace, the intern for Western Michigan University's Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, on February 24, 2023. They talked about their upcoming talks on climate change, including the role ethics plays when it comes to nature and global issues more broadly.

Thomas Stelzl joins us again to discuss conspiracy theories. What constitutes a conspiracy theory? How do they happen? How do we talk about them? And what can an international analysis offer to our understanding of them?

In the Fall of 2022, Western Michigan University had designed a course around the Ethics Bowl. Students read moral philosophy revolving around public affairs and the ethics bowl. This is a conversation with these students after having attended the Ethics Bowl. Listen in as these students describe their experiences--with some saying that they become more independent people, and others who were just happy to re-examine their deeply held beliefs.We would like to thank Ellinor Tibbs, Emma Earl, Maureen Heuting, and Marty Podvoll. We would additionally like to thank the Ethics Center and its director Sandra Borden

Dr. Sandra Borden is joined by Dr. Elissa Allen, assistant professor in the Bronson School of Nursing here at Western, and Nayeli Guandique-Benitez, a third-year student in the Bronson School of Nursing. They discuss nursing, medical error and the line between ethical responsibility and criminal liability.

Victoria Vuletich, CEO of Ethics^2 in Grand Rapids, spoke with Sandra L. Borden, director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University, on March 14, 2022, as part of the Center's Spring 2022 lecture series. Produced and Edited by Alec Koppers.

This program was recorded on March 25, 2022. Our guests are Jeanine DeLay, president of A2Ethics, which coordinates the Michigan High School Ethics Bowl; Anna Kietzerow, a former member and coach of WMU's APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl team, now a Ph.D. student in philosophy at the University of Virginia; and Adam Waggoner, a Ph.D. student in philosophy at the University of Michigan, where he is an outreach coordinator for the Michigan High School Ethics Bowl. Hosted by Sandra L. Borden. Produced and edited by Alec Koppers.

This program was recorded on March 14, 2022, with Timothy Palmer, WMU professor of management and director of the Haworth College of Business’s Center for Sustainable Business Practices. What is sustainability, and why does it raise ethical questions? How have businesses come around to acknowledging a moral duty to protect the environment? Why is it especially important for business students to learn about sustainability? This interview previews themes in Dr. Palmer's ethics lecture on March 30, 2022. Hosted by Cara Walters. Produced and edited by Alec Koppers.

Ainsley Carry, vice-president for students, University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada), spoke with Sandra L. Borden, director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University, on April 5, 2022, as part of the Center's Spring 2022 lecture series. Produced and edited by Alec Koppers.

Timothy Palmer, WMU professor of management, spoke with Sandra L. Borden, director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University, on March 30, 2022, as part of the Center's Spring 2022 lecture series. Produced and edited by Alec Koppers.

This program was recorded on March 28, 2022, with philosophy Professor Fritz Allhoff and WMU senior Jacob Grosan who traveled to Anchorage as part of the Alaska Tax Program. The student team did taxes for approximately 200 rural households. How does this program help Alaskans from lower-income communities? What do students get out of this experience? Hosted, produced and edited by Alec Koppers.

Peter Loge, director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication at The George Washington University, spoke with Sandra L. Borden, director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University, on November 4, 2021.

This program was recorded on October 28, 2021, with Rebecca Ginsburg, director of the Education Justice Project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Dale Brown, director of the Prison Education Outreach Program at Western Michigan University. Produced and edited by Alec Koppers.

This program was recorded on February 17, 2022, with Alec Koppers, an M.A. student in Philosophy. What ethical issues are presented by the gamification of violence? How do users negotiate personal identity in digital spaces? What ethical responsibilities do game designers have? Hosted by Sandra L. Borden. Produced and edited by Alec Koppers.

Dursun Peksen, Dunavant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Memphis, spoke on April 5, 2021, about “Political Effectiveness, Negative Externalities, and the Ethics of Economic Sanctions.”

In a recent proposal issued by the European Parliament, it was suggested that robots and AI might need to be considered “electronic persons” for the purposes of social and legal integration. The very idea sparked controversy, and it has been met with considerable resistance. Underlying the controversy, however, is an important ethical question: When (if ever) would it be necessary for robots, AI, or other socially interactive, autonomous systems to have some claim to moral and legal standing? When (if ever) would a technological artifact need to be considered more than a mere instrument of human action and have some legitimate claim to independent social status? Or to put it more directly: Can or should robots ever have anything like rights?In this presentation, Gunkel offers a provocative argument demonstrating what has been previously regarded as unthinkable: that robots and other technological artifacts of our own making can and should have some claim to rights and that this assignment of moral/legal status is not something for the future, but is necessary here and now for the sake of respecting the integrity of existing moral and legal systems.

Can robots have rights? Should robots have rights? Listen in to what David Gunkel thinks!

Dr. Ashley Atkins of WMU's Philosophy department joins Ethics Center G.A. Taylor Koopman to talk about collective loss, mourning, and how grief can be used for political movements and institutions. Join us at Dr. Atkins' talk on Oct. 4. More info at wmich.edu/ethics.

The past years have been marked by a high number of conflicts with mass atrocities and humanitarian emergencies. The civil wars in Yemen and South Sudan or the fate of the Rohingya in Myanmar provide only a few examples. Most of these situations are in dire need of responsible external support for humanitarian relief or conflict solution. Yet, in the political discourses of many countries, they hardly emerge as relevant issues, if at all. This stands in stark contrast, not only to the common promise of the UN charter, but also to value-laden aims of national foreign policies. Using Germany as a case study, this talk examines the thesis that mass atrocity situations are silenced in globally influential countries, which thus fail to assume their responsibilities. By applying discourse-analysis to statements of the chancellor, foreign ministers and parliamentary faction leaders, it is argued that Germany, in fact, silences mass atrocity situations. Three silencing mechanisms - non-mentioning, trivialisation and framing - areIdentified, allowing us to draw important implications regarding future theoretical and explanatory analysis.

Welcome to Life is Better with Ethics - the official podcast for the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University. Today's episode uncovers the fall happenings at the center and our host, Taylor, is joined by Dr. Bernhard Stahl from the University of Passau to talk about the silencing of mass atrocities.