MP3 Download | 1:29:48

The Equipped for Life Podcast is back! After a long hiatus due to the production of Equipped for Life Academy, we’ve begun recording new episodes. We also have some old episodes in the archives we’ll be publishing as well. We loved this episode as our first episode back though.

After introducing Rebecca Carlson and welcoming her to be a second co-host on the podcast, Josh and Emily discuss their common backgrounds in music and musical theater, and how that affects our dialogue.

This leads to a listener mail question on how Emily is able to come across as spontaneous as she does even when saying memorized responses.

This leads to a FASCINATING discussion on, in the situation that we’re talking to a pro-choice person, whether it’s inherently deceptive to add fake thinking pauses, among other things, that actors commonly do when performing.

ERI Blog: The Best Way to Expose Logical Fallacies: Don’t Call Them by Name

ERI Instagram: If Glinda and Elphaba were pro-life advocates

ERI Podcast Clip: Can a musical background improve your dialogues?

Dallas Morning News: Choosing Thomas — Inside a family’s decision to let their son live, if only for a brief time

The Place We Find Ourselves Podcast

Equal Rights Institute Website

Equipped for Life Academy

Equipped for Life Course

Sidewalk Counseling Masterclass

The post Genuine or Performed? Acting Skills in Honest Dialogue appeared first on Equal Rights Institute Blog - Clear Pro-Life Thinking.

Download Audio MP3 | 00:43:20

Rachel Crawford interviews Jacob Nels from ERI’s Sidewalk Counseling Masterclass. Topics include: – Should sidewalk counselors talk about adoption with abortion-minded women? – How to accurately keep track of lives saved vs. “hopefuls”; – How there are no silver bullets or “perfect words” that work for everybody.

Subscribe to the Equipped for Life Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Subscribe to ERI’s other podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The post Why Sidewalk Counselors Should Not Recommend Adoption appeared first on Equal Rights Institute Blog - Clear Pro-Life Thinking.

Download Audio MP3 | 01:41:34

Josh, Tim, and Rachel sit down to discuss the James Franco/Liz Harman video about abortion that was mocked mercilessly by pro-life organizations and advocates recently. We agree with a few conservative philosophers who believe that while Harman’s pro-choice argument is wrong, it’s not as stupid as it sounds. We believe Harman did a bad job explaining her argument in the video. So in this episode, we work hard to understand Harman’s actual views and respond to them instead of strawmanning them.

This is certainly the most philosophical podcast episode we’ve recorded to date. If you’re not interested in getting deep into the weeds with us on Harman’s argument, we’d still like to encourage you to listen to the first and last sections of this episode, where we discuss the problems with the pro-life movement’s general response to this video. Those sections are 00:00 to 21:15, and 1:20:50 to the end.

If you haven’t watched the video of James Franco’s interview with Liz Harman, please watch it before you listen to this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5SQnQjryzI&feature=youtu.be

Here is Harman’s definition of the Actual Future Principle: “An early fetus that will become a person has some moral status. An early fetus that will die while it is still an early fetus has no moral status.”

Here are the five intuitions that Harman agrees with and believes that her Actual Future Principle helps to explain:

1. That some early fetuses are the appropriate objects of caring attitudes;
2. That some early fetuses are the kinds of things we are prohibited from harming;
3. That it is understandable to be upset be an early miscarriage;
4. That the position of a woman genuinely unsure whether she will abort her pregnancy is unique;
5. That it is reasonable to regret an abortion when one does not regret the choice to abort.

Related Resources:

• Professor Liz Harman: Creation Ethics: The Moral Status of Early Fetuses and the Ethics of Abortion document: http://www.princeton.edu/~eharman/creationethics.pdf
• This is her paper on abortion that better explains her argument. Consider reading the paper before listening to our discussion of the paper and then follow along with us while listening to our discussion!
• Matt Anderson for The Federalist – Why That Princeton Prof’s Argument For Early Abortion Isn’t Entirely Stupid: https://thefederalist.com/2017/08/14/princeton-profs-argument-early-abortion-isnt-entirely-stupid/
• Sherif Girgis for Public Discourse – In Defense of Elizabeth Harman – Taking Pro-Choice Philosophers Seriously: https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2017/08/19891/
• This is another conservative paper that was helpful to us in prep. If nothing else, read the section toward the beginning on how fairly Harman treated him when helping to grade his paper against premarital sex. It says a LOT about her character.
• Don Marquis – Why Abortion is Immoral:
• http://faculty.polytechnic.org/gfeldmeth/45.marquis.pdf
• Jon Ronson – So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed:
• https://www.amazon.com/So-Youve-Been-Publicly-Shamed/dp/B00SNM7KD2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504622920&sr=1-1&keywords=so+you%27ve+been+publicly+shamed

Subscribe to the Equipped for Life Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Subscribe to ERI’s other podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The post That James Franco Video appeared first on Equal Rights Institute Blog - Clear Pro-Life Thinking.

Download Audio MP3 | 00:29:43

Josh interviews Sara Littlefield from Abortion Pill Reversal about the research they’ve done on saving babies whose mom has taken the first RU-486 pill and then changed her mind, as well as the resources they offer these women.

Josh also asks Sara to respond to the arguments that pro-choice groups have made about APR’s work.

Related Resources:

• Abortion Pill Reversal Hotline #: (877) 558-0333
• Abortion Pill Reversal website: https://abortionpillreversal.com
• Request printable APR brochures by emailing apreversal@gmail.com.

Subscribe to the Equipped for Life Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Subscribe to ERI’s other podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The post Abortion Pill Reversal appeared first on Equal Rights Institute Blog - Clear Pro-Life Thinking.