March podcast

In this four-star edition, I talk over the background hubbub of hotel bars and conference lunch tables with Jerry Fodor about what Darwin got wrong; Ben Goldacre on good philosophy and bad science; Michael Sandel on the problem with secular liberalism; and Philip Zimbardo on good people gone bad.

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Suicide can be a rational choice

"Some argue that anyone who judges that they are better off dead has got to be mistaken. They're depressed but they don't realise it, or they have misjudged what the future is likely to hold. This is deeply patronising to the many men and women who have decided that life with their terminal conditions is not worth living. To say that they are just mistaken is to say we are better judges of the value of other people's lives than they are themselves. This is not compassion but arrogance."

Article in today's Independent

Ecobuild - 2 March

Taking part in a panel discussion on what makes a sustainable community, with Peter Head, Wilfred Emmanuel Jones and David Blunkett, chaired by Sarah Montague. 11.30, as part of Ecobuild 2010 at Earls Court. Full details here.

Bath Lit Fest - 27 February

Giving a talk on Should You Judge This Book by Its Cover? at 6.15 at the Guildhall. Full details and booking here.

Sir Nicholas not simply a first-class twit

Right now, I'm trying to do what at least one Tory MP believes is impossible: get some work done in the standard class carriage of a British train. According to Sir Nicholas Winterton: "If I was in standard class I would not do work because people would be looking over your shoulder the whole time, there would be noise, there would be distraction." The right honourable member for Macclesfield has been widely pilloried for his remarks, but as anyone who has been in the same position as I am right now knows, he has a point.

Latest post at the Guardian Comment is Free, published on Friday 19th