Bioethics for the People

Devan and Tyler talk with Dr. Adam Omelianchuk about a new publication on the Dead Donor Rule. We discuss the origins of the rule and why there is controversy about when and how we can tell if someone is dead. They talk about a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine. Find it here: Carter Winberg, Ian Ball & Robert D. Truog, Contextualizing the Dead Donor Rule in an Era of Voluntary Euthanasia, 395 New Eng. J. Med. 194 (2026).

In this episode we talk with occupational therapist Dr. Sarah Jean Barton about occupation, disability, theology and more

This week we talk with primary care physician Dr. Zachary Sartor about his work in behavioral health. How are bodily health and mental health related? Why is it important for primary care physicians to treat both?

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Jada Wiggleton-Little, assistant professor of philosophy at ‘an’ Ohio State University, about fat phobia and the dismissal of fat patients' pain. She unpacks how clinicians treat such pain as normal and even deserved — a "desert pain" framing that casts patients as unentitled to further investigation, empathy, or care. Fat Phobia and the Ethics of Pain Jada Wiggleton-Little Additional Readings: Kate Manne, Unshrinking: How to Face Fat PhobiaSabrina Strings, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat PhobiaRoxane Gay, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (2017) Dr. Wiggleton-Little’s Selected Publications:"Black Women and 'Doing' Pain: An Insurgent Act," American Philosophical Quarterly (Special Issue on Contemporary Issues in Black Philosophy), forthcoming."Cure but Not Cured: Gene-Editing Therapy and The Ethics of Framing Language for Transforming Sickle Cell Disease," (with Shameka Poetry Thomas, Kristin Seastrand, and Consuela Albright), Hastings Center Report, forthcoming. "Pain Dismissal and the Limits of Epistemic Injustice," Hypatia, 1-17, 2025."Sharing Pain: A Hybrid Expressivist Account," Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 102(3): 808-822. 2024. "'Just' a Painful Period: A Philosophical Perspective Review of the Dismissal of Menstrual Pain," Womens Health (London), 20:1-6. 2024.

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Dolores Morris, Associate Professor of Instruction at the University of South Florida. In addition to being a brilliant philosopher, Dr. Morris teaches bioethics to undergraduate students using this podcast! Learn how she does it and more on this week’s episode.

In this episode, Tyler and Devan talk with longtime friend of the pod Steve Foley. Steve is a retired psychologist and a big fan of clinical ethics and deep, meaningful conversations.

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Keisha Ray about the environment as a social determinant of health and the unequal ways the environment affects our communities. Communities that live in polluted environments experience worse health outcomes.

In this introduction to Inked by Faith, we begin the story of Operation Tat-Type, a Cold War civil defense program that blood-typed and tattooed thousands of Americans in the early 1950s, including children.The series begins with a family discovery: a grandmother’s tattoo; never hidden, just never talked about. From there, we ask a larger question—not about secrets or conspiracies, but about how communities normalize extraordinary measures in moments of fear… and how those memories fade.This episode sets the stage for the stories still waiting to be told.

Devan and Tyler catch up after a busy few months. For the past several months, listeners have been asking the same questions: Did you quit? Are you guys fighting? Did the podcast die?The answer is no, no, and no.We’ve been working on a limited series that takes us deep into a particular moment in medical history. A moment with long shadows. Legal consequences. Ethical fault lines. Human impact that still echoes.This time, we’re not just talking. We’re investigating and reporting. In archives. In communities. In stories that haven’t been told this way before.This project has taken time because it demands care—care for the history, for the people involved, and for the complexity of the ethical questions it raises.We’re almost ready to share it.Stay tuned in 2026. Catching up and Preview of New Project Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

Predicting Patient Wishes with AI Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb In this episode, Tyler and Devan talk with Ray Moseley and Marcia Brown, both from the University of Florida School of Medicine. Ray and Marcia talk about their pilot project that looked at how accurately an AI tool can predict the medical decisions of a patient, compared with a family member or surrogate. The outcomes are surprising.