Moral Minority

About Moral Minority

Moral Minority is a podcast on moral philosophy and the problem of moral foundations. Why does morality matter? What grounds the moral principles to which we appeal when making judgments about right and wrong, justice and injustice? Do we have good grounds for making the judgments we do make–in our everyday lives, our relationships, our work, or in politics? And if not, where does that leave us?

Publisher

Charles & Devin

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

30 Jan 2024

Latest episode

5 May 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 27 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   5 May 2026

   Moral of the Story: Hannah Smart on Meat Puppets

   Hannah Smart, the noted David Foster Wallace scholar, returns to the show to discuss her debut novel, Meat Puppets. Smart writes metafictions anchored in the anxieties of the human heart. Meat Puppets is an ambitious first novel that, like the work of the late David Foster Wallace, is alternately uproarious, absurdist, and sad. In this discussion, we talk through some key themes of her novel, including the porousness of personal identity, the alienation of celebrity, and the relationship betw...

2. 

   1 Apr 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Content of the Form: Hannah Smart on David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest

   In honor of the 30th anniversary of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, novelist Hannah Smart once again joins us for a discussion of the ethical limits and critical revaluation of this maximally ambitious and chronically misunderstood novel. A polygenetic and polyphonic novel, Infinite Jest's interlocking themes and characters circle back to the urgent need and paradoxical impossibility of self-forgetting and transcendence within the American psyche ravaged by the grotesqueries of la...

3. 

   6 Feb 2026

   Contemporary Conversations: Jonathan B. Fine on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and the German Enlightenment

   On September 7, 1945, only a few months after the Allies accepted the Nazis’ unconditional surrender, the Deutches Theater in Berlin reopened its doors with a very deliberate choice of performance. Like many theaters across the country reopening in the wake of the Second World War, Deutches Theater began its new run with a production of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s comic drama about religious tolerance and reconciliation, Nathan der Weise, or Nathan the Wise, which had been banned under the Naz...

Inside a recent episode

Content of the Form: Hannah Smart on David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest

Published 1 Apr 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] He's a heroic character in kind of the Dostoevsky mold of like a holy fool because he is profoundly disabled. He's not necessarily mentally disabled. He makes do with certainly profound physical limitations, but he does share with the patriarch of the family this joy and interest in film and particularly the technical aspects of it. And I think this is a good point to kind of delve into the family dynamics of the Incandenzas. Mario is the middle child. I said that the Incandenzas are a family of extraordinary people and Mario is no less extraordinary despite his appearance. In many ways, he's the emotional anchor of the family. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.9 / 5

32 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

34 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 21 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

13

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

71

Contact Moral Minority

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.