Ep. 137: Cutting Edge Ethics with Susan Liautaud

Talking Beats with Daniel Lelchuk

"Ethics is everywhere. It's in the arts, it's in entrepreneurship, it's in family, and business. No matter what walk of life, no matter your passion, ethics is the great connector both for individuals and for the larger society."

Ethics expert Susan Liautaud joins the podcast. She has written a book called The Little Book of Big Ethical Questions, in which she poses situations and questions to the reader that we all come into contact with in our daily lives. “Would you apply for a job you know your friend is applying for?” Or “Should voting be mandatory?” Or "what about police using facial recognition technology?" "What would I have done?" "Is there one correct answer?" And ultimately: "How can ethics help us navigate these situations to find the best outcome for ourselves and others?" In a wide ranging conversation that goes in many directions, Susan and Daniel talk broad themes-- ethics and social media, for example-- and also connect ethics, structure, harmony and dissonance to Ukraine, COVID preparedness, the world of music, and more.

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Dr. Susan Liautaud is Founder and Managing Director of Susan Liautaud & Associates Limited (SLAL), a consultancy in ethics matters internationally. She brings broad global experience with ethics and governance to business, non-profit, governmental and academic organizations and leaders. Susan is the Author of The Power of Ethics and of The Little Book of Big Ethical Questions. She also teaches cutting edge ethics courses at Stanford University and was a Visiting Scholar at the Stanford Center of Philanthropy and Civil Society from 2012 to 2015. She also founded a non-profit, independent, cross-sector laboratory and collaborative platform for innovative ethics called The Ethics Incubator. She serves as Chair of Council of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and as Vice Chair of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). Susan has been appointed to the UK Cabinet Office’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACoBA), to the Stanford HAI (Stanford Institute for Human- Centered Artificial Intelligence) and to SAP’s AI Ethics Advisory Panel. She also serves on a number of other boards and advisory boards, including: the French Ambassador’s Foreign Trade Advisory Council in the UK; member of the board of directors of the Pasteur Institute, and the American Hospital of Paris Board of Governors. She formerly served as Chair and member of the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières US Advisory Board, to the Advisory Council to the UK Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation board, and as member of Care International Supervisory Board.

Susan holds a PhD in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science; a Juris Doctor from Columbia University Law School; a M.A. in Chinese Studies from University of London School of Oriental and African Studies; a M.A. and two B.A.s from Stanford University. She speaks fluent French and Spanish, as well as advanced intermediate Chinese and intermediate Italian.