- 05 | Unsteady State | Politics for the future and the past

When your political system runs to a three-year electoral cycle, it's hard to avoid the kind of short-term thinking that aims to please today's voters, while paying little more than lip service to future generations. And while this has long been a concern for liberal democracies, today it's an existential issue, as the decisions we make now about climate change will affect the lives of citizens over decades and even centuries from now. Indigenous philosophies have long recognised the importance of government that honours its obligations to future - and even past - generations. But what does this look like in practice? and what ethical issues come into play when Western philosophy treats Indigenous knowledge traditions as a resource to be 'mined'?

This episode is fifth in a five-part series.

Guest: Krushil Watene, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland, Aoteraroa New Zealand

Producer: David Rutledge

Pursuing Climate Justice: Practice-Centred Theory, Indigenous Communities, and Engaged Philosophical Inquiry by Krushil Watene in Brooke A. Ackerly et al (eds): The Oxford Handbook of Grounded and Engaged Normative Theory (Oxford Academic 2026)

Episode 1 | Unsteady State | Politics and the good life - The Philosopher's Zone, October 4 2026

Episode 2 | Unsteady State | Who owns Antarctica? - The Philosopher's Zone, October 11 2026

Episode 3 | Unsteady State | What the Right gets wrong about Nietzsche - The Philosopher's Zone, October 18 2026

Episode 4 | Unsteady State | Confucianism and crisis - The Philosopher's Zone, October 25 2026