Public Philosophy

Entitled Opinions


Recent and upcoming events


  • Night Of Ideas Santa Cruz: April 4, 2025. The Future We Share: Activism, Creativity, and Collective Imagination.

    • I was again the lead organizer for our April 2025 Night of Ideas on behalf of The Center for Public Philosophy, partnering again with the Institute of the Arts and Sciences, The Humanities Institute, Cowell College, Humanities West, the Marc Sanders Foundation, Villa Albertine, and the Institut français.

    Learn more:

    Blurb: Join us for a nocturnal celebration of art, philosophy, and activism! From solar energy and housing justice to communal music and movement, Night of Ideas – Santa Cruz invites you to explore interactive sessions on democracy, environmental solutions, and housing rights, as well as immersive experiences fostering embodied connection. With a Capoeira opening, sculptural performances, and live piano meditations, come create, move, and reflect on our shared future!

  • Night Of Ideas San Francisco: April 5, 2025. (Un) Common Ground.
    • Panel: Sentient Machines & Cyber-Intimacies: Rethinking Moral Consideration and Human Connection with Jeanne Proust, UC Santa Cruz, and Robert Long, Eleos AI.

    Learn more:

    Blurb: As AI systems grow more advanced, they are not only transforming human intimacy, relationships, and emotional bonds in complex ways; they are also raising ethical questions about their potential sentience and wellbeing. This discussion brings together two critical perspectives: one exploring how we can assess and support AI welfare and moral patienthood, and the other examining the emotional and sexual dimensions of AI companionship. Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on the future of AI, ethics, and the evolving landscape of the human-machine connection.

  • APA Pacific Division Meeting: April 2025 in San Francisco: Chairing two sessions for the Public Philosophy Network (Vice-President since September, 2024)
  • Two seminars for 92NY on aesthetics.
  • Night of Ideas: After producing the Crossing Borders event from scratch last year, I have officially secured a partnership with the Night of Ideas event series for our March 1st, 2024 unprecedented participation, with the Institute of the Arts and Sciences.
  • Unprecedented Tech Ethics Bowl: Using the TEQ Deck (Technology. Ethics. Questions) that was created in collaboration with UCSC’s Baskin School of Engineering, we are launching the first Tech Ethics Bowl in 2024, in the Bay Area, to catalyze much needed conversations about ethics & technology.
  • "Ask a philosopher" booth: Every first Friday of each month, the Center for Public Philosophy holds an “Ask a Philosopher” booth at Abbott Square, one of the most vibrant public plazas in Santa Cruz, right next to our Museum of Art & History.
  • Swissnex asked me to participate in their anniversary event on November 7th, 2023 (video here). With Architect Cathy Simon, and urban designers, we imagine both utopian and dystopian futures, and discuss contrasting present-day societal values with those of a forward-thinking tech city.
  • I was also the lead organizer of our 2024 edition of Outreach Invitational Ethics Bowl, which received the APA/PDC 2022 Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Philosophy Programs.
  • Public Philosophy Network: In September 2023, the PPN organized a 3 day conference at UCSC about New Technologies. The PPN, partnering with the UCSC Center for Public Philosophy, promotes philosophy that engages issues of public concern and works collaboratively with civic and professional communities. The Civic Engagement Program, also participating in the PPN conference, asked for an interview about my experience in Public Philosophy.
  • Center for Public Philosophy presents the TEQ deck: I led 3 workshops on campus in 2023 to discuss ethical issues surrounding new technologies, based on the cards.
  • Ethics Bowl with incarcerated persons participating at San Quentin (2023)


UCSC Center for Public Philosophy - Other events

About "Crossing Borders": Large and small, visible and hidden, borders weave in and out of our lives along varied dimensions. Some we can see, many we cannot. Some we celebrate, others confine us. Some we’re aware of, many remain undiscovered. There are political borders and national borders; psychological, social, scientific, and biological borders. What are borders? Can anything be conceived as involving a border? Come think with us tonight at the new Institute of the Arts and Sciences building, designed for vibrant possibility. Choose among rooms with synchronic presentations and performances, led by poets, philosophers, scientists, and artists. Muse with us, ponder with us, and talk with one another, as together each of us travels across, within, and at the borders calling to us on this particular evening.

ThinkOlio: Interdisciplinary learning with the best professors

ThinkOlio is not about learning a new skill or adding credentials to your resume. It is about getting together with other people and expanding our worldview. It exists as a conduit for fruitful discussions, a dissent from the regurgitation of facts, and an embrace of new perspectives.

CAN YOU PHIL IT?


"CAN YOU PHIL IT" is an interdisciplinary podcast which uses a philosophical lense to explore any topic: death, time, consciousness, desire, sex and gender, the nature of the world and how we can build knowledge about it; moral behavior and the nature of good and evil; the relationship between minds and bodies. For each topic, Jeanne looks back at the history of the various philosophical branches (metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, philosophy of science, social and political philosophy, aesthetics, philosophy of language), and considers positions of thinkers, dead or alive – philosophers, but also sociologists, psychologists, scientists – depending on the theme at hand.

We will reflect upon philosophical issues through discussion, when we’ll have a guest on board, and through text analysis, by critically deciphering philosophical jargon to allow our listeners to grasp intellectual contributions to the greatest, and the most seemingly trivial, questions of humankind.

Host and Content Production: Jeanne Proust
Music and Production: Johnny Nicholson
Visuals: Pedro Gomes

Referenced in Daily Nous.

Center for Public Philosophy

I was the interim director of the UCSC Center for Public Philosophy.

I also volunteered for the Ethics Bowl at UCSC and in San Quentin. Read local news coverage on the San Quentin ethics bowl here.

OlioHouse 2022 Retreat

What is our Purpose on Earth (day)?

How do we try to render our world intelligible, and our lives worth living? Should we? What do we mean, precisely, when we say that something is meaningful?

O+ Festival: “Critical Thinking and Communities”

O+ Festival, Kingston, NY
In Collaboration with the Good Work Institute

“Composing Beauty: Mapplethorpe’s Quest for Perfection”

Co-presented by BAM and Think Olio
Led by Jeanne Proust
In conjunction with Triptych (Eyes of One on Another)

A Night of Philosophy and Ideas

I have been invited five times to participate in the New York City Night of Philosophy. This is an excerpt from my first talk there, “On The Urgent Need For Critical Thinking”