50. What can comics such as Heartstopper teach us about ethics? With Simon Meisch

A really interesting conversation with Simon Meisch this week. Simon is a Senior Lecturer for Applied Ethics at the Ethics Centre of the University of Tubingen, and until recently was also a visiting scholar here at IDEA. It's an unusual episode of the podcast in that we aren't talking about a specific ethical issue. Instead, we talk about a particular way of highlighting ethical issues and encouraging discussion of them. That's through engaging with serial narratives, including comic books and TV series. We focused on one particular comic book series, which has been adapted for TV, which is Heartstopper. Aside from enlightening me about that series, Simon makes a convincing case that this is a good way to get at a range of ethical issues, in a way that is complex, subtle and grounded in recognisable situations.

Here's the Heartstopper webcomic.

Here's Simon's webpage.

And here are some other relevant links recommended by Simon:

• Ben Argon: Philosophy Comics
• Tim Smyth: Teaching with Comics and Graphic Novels
• Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics
• Aaron Meskin: The Philosophy of Comics
• Aaron Meskin: Teaching & Learning Guide for: The Philosophy of Comics

Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.

Bluesky: @ethicsuntangled.bsky.social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideacetl
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/idea-ethics-centre/