Everyday Ethics

There's three sleeps left until Christmas Day. If you're lucky enough, you might get a present or two, have a wonderful feast for dinner, and a safe and secure bed to sleep in that night. Spare a thought for those who don't have those same comforts, the same ability to provide the best Christmas possible for their loved ones. What have you done in the run up to this year's celebrations to help them? Have you made a donation? Have you volunteered to help out with food banks? If yes, is this something you do all year round, or does it only happen at Christmas time? Do we only care at Christmas time, and is our giving partly to assuage our guilt for our own riches? Presenter Audrey Carville in conversation with the CEO of Positive Futures Agnes Lunny, Professor Deirdre Heenan and the commentator Michele Marken.

Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things. The Roman historian Cicero penned these words over 2,000 years ago It remains true - what or who would we be without our memories? They form a fundamental part of who we are. But what happens when they begin to slip- whether through injury, trauma or illness? What does this mean for our individual identities, and what can we do to keep the past a vibrant part of our present lives?

Is religion at the root of the misogyny that women experience in the world today? If gender discrimination is rejected in every other arena, why is it accepted in religion? God is personified as male. His representatives at the highest levels of religion are men. Many denominations and faiths do not allow the full or any ordination of women into the clergy. But is the question more complex than it appears? Misogyny doesn't exist in limbo, it's argued that it's embedded in the beliefs and values systems of many religions. Presenter Audrey Carville in conversation with the Reverend Christina Rees, Professor Lawrence Kirkpatrick and rights advocate and commentator Koulla Yiasouma.

It was described as the wealth of fossil fuels battling with the science. The science that tells us that if we continue to burn oil, gas and coal, we will destroy the planet we call home. When the COP29 conference ended in Baku in Azerbaijan last weekend - a place that oil has been very good to - many reached the conclusion that science lost the battle. At stake was the money needed to help poor countries move to a low carbon economy, adapt their infrastructure to mitigate extreme weather and save their people from harm. Everyone agreed around one trillion dollars a year was needed by 2035 to do this and for the world to keep temperatures within the 1.5 degree limit. A deal was done; the wealthiest countries agreed to give 300 billion. Many described it as a betrayal- Christian Aid said people of the global south came to the talks needing a lifeboat - but all they got was a plank of wood to cling to. For others, they compared spending on saving lives to spending on wars: the developed nations spend 1.7% of global GDP on wars...1.4% on climate protection. In fact, the seven countries who have produced the most greenhouse gas emissions are also the states with the biggest military budgets. What are the ethics of this and are people's lives being sacrificed for profits from weapons and war- both through war itself and the increasing destruction to the planet? Presenter Audrey Carville in conversation with Éamon Ryan, Ireland's minister for the Environment - a member of the Green party- and the EU's lead negotiator at the COP29 talks, Jane Kinninmont,director of policy and impact at the European Leadership Network which focuses on European security and Siobhán Curran, Head of Policy at the charity Trócaire

In the past week, BAFTA said the convicted criminal Huw Edwards will be allowed to keep the seven individual awards that he won in the 40 years he worked for the BBC, fronting some of the biggest news stories during that time.Edwards was given a six month suspended sentence this year after he admitted accessing and making indecent images of children as young as sevenWhile BAFTA have decided that he can keep them, but that from next year they will revoke prizes if a recipient is subsequently jailed for at least three months - suspended or otherwise - or have been proven to have cheated in their work.The narrow question this morning is should BAFTA have applied this rule retrospectively in the face of such a serious conviction for Edwards? Or if he was never viewed as a role model, should the work that he did be separated from the character of the man who did it? When is it legitimate to remove someone's honours?The wider question is whether in today's world, where we have seen distinguished art institutions refuse money from companies with image problems, to social media activists removing a platform from 'unfashionable' speakers, are we witnessing a new secular puritanism?Is this a new and welcome moral clarity or a narrow-minded and self-defeating intolerance of life's ambiguities and those not fully signed up to an approved point of view?Audrey Carville is joined by Professor of Sociology at Queen's University Gladys Ganiel, author and journalist Mihir Bose, and former Presbyterian Moderator the Reverend Norman Hamilton.

This week's resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury has once again cast a spotlight on how the Christian Church as an institution deals with people in its ranks who abuse children in the most horrific of ways. Why is it so difficult for people at the top of religious institutions to instantly know that child abuse is a crime which must be reported to the police? Why are the abusers, rather than the victims, protected? How can the faithful have faith...does the revolution for change have to start at the bottom? Questions not just for the Church: from the BBC to the Post Office to the Metropolitan Police. Is the knee jerk response from institutions at the heart of society self protection? Audrey Carville is joined by theologian Dr Elaine Storkey, Queen's University academic Dr Leon Litvack and political communications consultant, author and former EU diplomat David Harley.

The American people have spoken but what have they said and what will it mean for their country's place in the world and for Europe, the Middle East and the rest of the planet. Are we, in the west, witnessing a new age of sometimes extreme, conservatism where the rich get richer, the poor poorer and the sick and oppressed find few to help them or, could it be that not a lot will change and life, for most, will continue as before? Presenter Claire Graham in conversation with the author, columnist and former Fox News correspondent Cal Thomas, Marion McKeone from the Sunday Business Post and conflict resolution specialist Sara Cook, who's from Indiana but lives in Belfast.