I’m in the process of recording the first few episodes of a (limited series) podcast entitled Black Mirror Reflections, which will be released next week. I’ve written a lot about Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror on this blog over the years, I regularly teach a course entitled “Technology and Human Values,” and I incorporate Black Mirror episodes in several of my classes, so I figured it was long past time to record some of the excellent conversations I’ve had with very smart friends and colleagues about it. Each of the podcast episodes will focus on a single Black Mirror episode, and will feature a discussion between an invited guest and myself as we think through the “technology, philosophy, morality, and politics of Black Mirror.”
I will post new BMR podcast episodes on this blog as they are released, you will be able to download them from the BMR site hosted by Transistor, and you should be able to access them through most of the regular podcast aggregators. It may take some time, but my long-term goal is to have conversation dedicated to each of the 22 Black Mirror episodes (including “Bandersnatch”!) before the next season is released.
(Just fyi, no release date has been set for Black Mirror Season 6, and there are a number of IP negotiations that need to be worked out first between Netflix, showrunners Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones, and the production company Banjay Group, which recently purchased Black Mirror‘s original production company, House of Tomorrow. It’s a whole mess. That’s bad news for Black Mirror fans, but good news for the Black Mirror Reflections podcast, because it gives us more time to talk about past episodes before any new ones are released!)
Black Mirror Reflections won’t be covering Black Mirror episodes in the order they were released, and it will include spoilers, so go ahead and get to watching (or re-watching) the series now! Here are the episodes I’ll talk about, and the invited guests I’ll be talking with, in the first five sessions:
- “San Junipero” (Season 3, Episode 4) with special guest Michael Norton, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Arkansas – Little Rock
- “The National Anthem” (Season 1, Episode 1) with special guest Ammon Allred, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Toledo
- “Be Right Back” (Season 2, Episode 1) with special guest Mike Ardoline, Doctoral Candidate in Philosophy, University of Memphis
- “15 Million Merits” (Season 1, Episode 2) with special guest Shannon Mussett, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Utah Valley University
- “Striking Vipers” (Season 5, Episode 1) with special guest Adriel Trott, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Wabash College
I’ll be looking for guests to discuss the remaining episodes with me over the coming weeks, so if you think you’ve got interesting things to say, please email me at [email protected] and let me know which Black Mirror episode you’d like to discuss!
I’m ridiculously excited about this project. Stay tuned for more info!