54. Do we need more time? With Lisa Herzog
Mon Feb 02 2026
Lisa Herzog is Professor of Philosophy at the Center for Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The subject of this conversation is time, not in the abstract but how much of it we have, and what we might choose to do with it. We start by discussing whether people in general are lacking in free time. And then we move on to why it might be important to try to give people more time, not just for their own health and happiness, but also because of the costs to society and democracy of people being too time-poor. At the end, we get onto some specific policy measures that might help.
The conversation is based on a chapter of Lisa's latest book, which you can get here.
Some links to further reading as mentioned in the conversation:
Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life by Theda Skocpol.
Anderson, E. (2025). Local Knowledge in Institutional Epistemology1. Australasian Philosophical Review, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/24740500.2024.2422551
Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.
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Lisa Herzog is Professor of Philosophy at the Center for Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The subject of this conversation is time, not in the abstract but how much of it we have, and what we might choose to do with it. We start by discussing whether people in general are lacking in free time. And then we move on to why it might be important to try to give people more time, not just for their own health and happiness, but also because of the costs to society and democracy of people being too time-poor. At the end, we get onto some specific policy measures that might help. The conversation is based on a chapter of Lisa's latest book, which you can get here. Some links to further reading as mentioned in the conversation: Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life by Theda Skocpol. Anderson, E. (2025). Local Knowledge in Institutional Epistemology1. Australasian Philosophical Review, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/24740500.2024.2422551 Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds. Bluesky: @ethicsuntangled.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideacetl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/idea-ethics-centre/