Kling earns Philosophy in Media Fellowship

Jennifer Kling has been selected as a 2024 Media Fellow for the Marc Sanders Foundation Philosophy in Media Fellowship, Podcasting track.

This nationally competitive Fellowship brings academic philosophers together from around the country and pairs them with experts in public media production, so that philosophers can learn how to write, speak to, and produce for the general public in major media market spaces.

“I’m interested in learning how to do public philosophy, particularly podcasting, because I think that we need as much scholarly nuance as we can get, and we need it to be freely available to encourage engagement with it,” Kling said. “Philosophy alone can’t save the world; but ideas must come from somewhere in order to be taken up by activists who might be able to save (parts of) the world, and philosophy has a lot to offer in the way of good ideas.”

Kling plans to develop and launch a podcast that focuses on political violence, particularly on the topics that often get left out of high-level public discussions of war, peace and everything in between. She intends to create a philosophical field guide to issues as diverse, and connected, as the international refugee regime, area bombing as it relates to collective responsibility, climate refugees that are actually war refugees, pacifist hacker humanitarian intervention, the environmental impacts of the business of war, post-war material and social construction in the context of ongoing racism, nonviolentism as feminist revolutionary strategy and more.

“Of course, getting ideas out there does not guarantee uptake, but it is a necessary first step,” she said. “I would like to help with that step, and the Philosophy in Media Fellowship will help me do so. I’m incredibly grateful to the Marc Sanders Foundation for the opportunity to work with experts to learn how to bring my academic training to bear on the development of a podcast that will (hopefully) serve as a philosophical field guide to political violence, particularly the topics that often get left out of high-level public discussions of war, peace, and everything in between. Be on the lookout for episodes starting in 2025!”