Is it unethical to use stem cell technology to create unlimited eggs and sperm? Should brain implants be used for depression? These and other thorny bioethical dilemmas are the subject of the podcast playing god?, produced by the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.The podcast series is the brainchild of institute Director Jeffrey Kahn and Anna Mastroianni, research professor in bioethics and law at the Berman Institute, who serve as executive producers.

How do these bioethics topics lend themselves to podcasting?

We started by choosing some key themes that come up in our field and medical experts and bioethicists who could speak to those. But importantly, we also tried to find real people who could anchor each episode, sharing personal stories that everyone can connect to.

As academics, we sometimes forget that these topics are inherently compelling. Most of the time we are speaking to peers — focused on the grants, the peer-reviewed journals — while there’s this big world out there of people who are genuinely interested in this stuff.

I always think of how my wife, at dinner parties, would turn to me and say, “Why don’t you tell them about the penis transplant?” I was part of the group at Hopkins that consulted on the bioethics of the world’s first penis transplant. And I just think of these things as my work, it’s commonplace, but she saw the conversation value.

Have you been surprised by any of the listeners you’ve reached?

We’ve heard from professors who are including it in their classrooms, people who agree and disagree. Bioethics prompts dialogue and deep thinking about complex issues.

I was recently introduced to a group called the Einstein Fellows — K-12 educators in STEM with fellowships in federal government agencies. I asked a favor: Could they help us think about educational uses for this podcast? They’ve been very enthusiastic, and it’s turned into a robust partnership. They’ve found that kids are absolutely into this stuff. So we’re looking into how to use the podcast in classrooms and developing course materials to go along with that.

What can you tell us about season 2?

For season 2, we’re bringing production in- house through the Dracopoulos-Bloomberg Bioethics iDeas Lab and have a new host, former WYPR producer Aaron Henkin.

One of the upcoming episodes deals with long-duration space travel for humans — like astronauts going from the Moon to Mars — which raises a lot of interesting bioethical questions, it turns out. Other planned episodes deal with intentional infection studies, controversies with gene therapy for eliminating deafness, the use of genetically modified mice to stop lyme disease infections and the end of using chimpanzees in medical research.