Philosophy in Media Initiative
Directed by Barry Lam, Associate Director of Marc Sanders Foundation, Professor of Philosophy at UC Riverside, and Host/Executive producer of the Hi-Phi Nation podcast. Philosophy in Media is aimed at bringing high-quality philosophy to the general public.
The 2024 Philosophy in Media Fellowship
Directed by Barry Lam, Associate Director of Marc Sanders Foundation, Professor of Philosophy at UC Riverside, and Host/Executive producer of the Hi-Phi Nation Podcast.
Philosophy in Media aims to identify and develop academically-trained philosophers to write, speak to, and produce for the general public in the major media market spaces. We concluded a year-long initial run of the program here with support from the John D. Templeton Foundation. Now, with a three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Princeton University’s Center for Human Values and the Department of Philosophy, and generous funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, we are pleased to share our 2024 Media Fellows. Fellows are academically-trained philosophers of all career stages who aim to write, speak to, and produce media for the general public in the form of op-eds and short essays, book reviews, long-form essays or journalism, trade-book writing, or podcasting.
Fellows are from all areas of philosophy, but indicated both their professional areas of specialization and competence, as well as the topics or areas they would like to talk about when they speak to the public. Special consideration was given to applicants whose professional or public-facing work focuses on race and racism, social justice, applied ethics of biology, technology, or other special sciences, and to applicants who are affiliated with HBCUs, Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribal colleges/universities, or underserved/under-resourced smaller regional or state schools.
Successful fellows will receive a $3000 stipend, and full room and board at one of our three media workshops, to be held between June 24 – July 2, 2024. Workshops will be held at Tarrytown Estates in Tarrytown, NY, just north of New York City. One workshop will focus on op-ed/short essay and trade books, one on long-form magazine writing, and one on podcast production and distribution. All will be led by esteemed media editors, producers, publishers, and agents.
Confirmed workshop leaders (details below) are:
- Joshua Rothman, Ideas Editor at The New Yorker
- Larissa Macfarquhur, Staff Writer, The New Yorker
- Latif Nasser, Host, WNYC’s Radiolab
- Mia Lobel, Former head of content at Pushkin Industries and Executive Producer of Revisionist History
- Christy Mirabal, Senior Director, Audience Growth at SiriusXM
- James Ryerson, Opinion Editor at The New York Times
- Margo Beth Fleming, Managing Director of Brockman, Inc
- Barry Lam, Creator and Host of Hi-Phi Nation
Each workshop will be three days long. Travel to and from the venue will be covered by Media Fellows.
The schedule of the workshops are organized as follows:
- June 24-June 26, 2024: Long-form Magazine Writing
Fellows will arrive the evening of June 23 and depart after the workshop concludes on June 26. - June 27-June 29, 2024: Op-Ed/Trade Books
Fellows will arrive the evening of June 26 and depart after the workshop concludes on June 29. - June 30-July 2, 2024: Podcasting
Fellows will arrive the evening of June 29 and depart after the workshop concludes on July 2.
The 2022 Philosophy in Media Fellowships
In the spring of 2022, we ran three workshops for philosophers committed to public philosophy:
- Podcasting: led by Alix Spiegel (This American Life, Invisibilia, NPR), Alison MacAdam (NPR, All Things Considered, WNYC Studios), and Barry Lam (Hi-Phi Nation, Slate)
- Op-Ed Writing: led by James Ryerson, New York Times
- Longform Magazine Writing: led by Joshua Rothman (The New Yorker), with Ismail Muhammad (NYT Magazine), Ross Andersen (The Atlantic), and Larissa MacFarquhar (The New Yorker).
Our 2021-22 Media Fellows were selected from a pool of 264 people applicants through a selection committee consisting of academic philosophers and media industry professionals. Media Fellows received workshop training, connections to industry professionals, and a $1500 honorarium.
To learn about our fellows, visit the announcement page HERE.
Pitching Workshops
The aim of our pitching workshops is to help philosophers craft and refine their pitches with the aim of sharing high-quality work with a public audience.
- Pitching Radiolab
In this two-hour workshop, Nasser and Bressler fielded several pitches from philosophers whose research interests ranged widely from trust in the police institution and Bohmian mechanics to consciousness and morality in AI and the importance (or non-importance) of experiencing boredom. Selected participants were invited to give their two-minute pitches to a live audience of around 80 attendees. Nasser and Bressler offered unique insight and feedback into what worked especially well about each pitch, and what would be useful to consider for Radiolab‘s listeners and for a public audience.
- Pitching Noema
In this event designed for philosophers aspiring to be public philosophers, participants heard from editors of a leading philosophical magazine about how to craft and hone a pitch. Attendees at this workshop learned how to get public philosophy pieces published with an extra opportunity, for those interested! The Vice President, Nils Gilman, and Executive Editor, Kathleen Miles of Noema Magazine heard and gave feedback on magazine pitches.
- Pitching the Point
In this hour and a half seminar, Jon and Jonny went over general tips on how to write public philosophy and gave advice about how to write for The Point in particular. They also took questions and, most importantly, pitches. One of the most useful things for a beginner to learn is what a pitch to an editor looks like, and how an editor thinks through pitches to accept or reject. So even if participants didn’t have an article planned, coming up with a pitch was a great first interaction.
Panel Discussions
The goal of our panel discussions is to bring stimulating philosophical issues to the public through the work of some of the best scholars on the topics. View the videos below.
- Individual Character and Structural Injustice
We live in a time when structural injustices and systemic problems abound, in public health, race relations, gender relations, and more. Policymakers and activists propose structural solutions targeting systems as a whole, like a sugar tax, liability insurance for police, school desegregation, or paid family leave. Policy solutions seldom include suggestions that moral and psychological traits of individuals are at fault or should be the focus of change, like moral education, empathy cultivation, or prejudice and bias reduction. Is there a role for interventions targeting individual moral character or psychology to address at least some of the “structural” problems that we face? With Sally Haslanger, Jorge LA Garcia, Alex Madva, and Nancy Snow. - Our Duty to the Past and Our Past Selves
It is taken for granted that we should often act in the best interest of our future selves, and even on behalf of future generations, but when should we act for the sake of past people, and even our own past interests? In a range of cases we find ourselves bound by our past decisions, or by the past decisions of people who have come before us. When is it okay to break from those bounds, and when are we required to abide by the decisions of the past, even when they conflict with our interests now? Our distinguished panelists will discuss cases of advanced medical directives, duties to vindicate the sacrifices of past generations, and duties to history. With Rebecca Dresser, Tania Gergel, Saul Smilanski, and SJ Beard.
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