Philosophy is often condemned for being divorced from reality – but that’s hardly an accusation that could be levelled at Ethics Bites – which tackles some of our most contentious moral issues.

Here are some big questions in morality: what’s wrong with killing? How do humans differ morally from animals, are values relative? And here are some narrower, more tightly focused ones: should we be permitted to sell our kidneys? Should athletes be allowed to alter their bodies with genetics?

From the general, to the specific, from art to business and sport, from sex, to babies and the family, to death, Ethics Bites is a fascinating and absorbing series of interviews, covering an impressively broad range of topics. These include climate change and future generations, animal rights, euthanasia, corporate responsibility, perversion, plagiarism, in-vitro fertilization and art, pornography, censorship and free speech.

Many eminent academics have participated in this fourteen-part series – such as a star trio of American-based professors, Michael Sandel, Thomas Scanlon and Peter Singer. The interviews are introduced by David Edmonds, while Open University philosopher and best-selling author, Nigel Warburton, puts the questions, rooting every subject in everyday dilemmas about how we should live.

Ethics Bites is a podcast, with new episodes released on a weekly basis. You listen to, or download, them here on Open2. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the podcast and automatically get each one as it's released.