Philosophy Talk Live at The Marsh SF this Sunday

Devon

This Sunday we kick off another series of live recordings at the Marsh theater with two new shows in San Francisco:

  • 12 pm: The Moral Costs of Free Markets.  We live in a market-driven society—our day-to-day lives consist of buying and selling goods and services, and to some, our ability to do so without government regulation is the underpinning of democratic freedom itself.  Everything has a price, and pretty much everything is for sale, from concert tickets to political influence. But should it be this way?  John and Ken to discuss the moral limits of the free market with Stanford philosopher Debra Satz, author of Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets.
  • 3pm: Abortion.  Nothing stirs up controversy like abortion. To some, it carries the steep moral cost of destroying human life, and to others, it represents an inviolable bastion of women’s rights over their own bodies. Despite the polarizing nature of the debate, it covers broad philosophical ground, and touches on religious, political, social and moral considerations.  John and Ken unravel the complicated issues surrounding abortion and see what can be gained by a rational philosophical approach to the discussion with UC Berkeley Journalism professor Cynthia Gorney, author of Articles of Faith: A History of the Abortion Wars.

Tickets for these shows can be pruchased through Brown Paper Tickets or by calling the Marsh box office at 1-800-838-3006.

This year, we’re also offering advance-ticket and multiple-show discounts.

Speaking as one of the men behind the Philosophy Talk curtain (official title: Production Coordinator), I can say that putting the program on for a live Bay Area audience is both a ton of work and incredibly rewarding. There are a lot of individual elements to line up for everything to run smoothly and coherently: tables, microphones, music, visuals, etc. Not to mention making sure everyone is in the right place at the right time with the right material. And once the tape is rolling (so to speak), I tend to focus on what’ll need to happen production-wise to get the program ready for broadcast.

But what unique radio it is! And as we start our second full season of Marsh tapings, I can only hope that if you haven’t yet made it out for a live event you’ll make the trek to the Mission district. And if you have been to one before, we hope you’ll be enticed by this year’s lineup. Philosophy Talk is nothing without its audience (Ken refers to the callers on the radio broadcast as a “second guest”), so this Sunday come down and question everything — except your desire for thought-provoking, audience-engaging radio.