The Daily Ant hosts a weekly series, Philosophy Phridays, in which real philosophers share their thoughts at the intersection of ants and philosophy. This is the thirty-third contribution in the series, submitted by Dr. Rivka Weinberg.

In late Spetember, Dr. Rivka Weinberg sat down with The Daily Ant to discuss the point of life, reproductive ethics, and ants! Given that we are posting this on a Monday, you may also call this “Meaning Monday: Video Interview with Rivka Weinberg”. Enjoy!

NOTE: The Daily Ant apologizes to Dr. Weinberg and our readers for the egregious levels of interrupting by our editor-in-chief. He promises to do better in the future!

UPDATE (October 10th): Dr. Weinberg graciously responds to our note, saying “she did at least her fair share of interrupting too and enjoys conversations where the ideas can tumble out all over each other, unimpeded by burdensome standards of politeness.”

Dr. Rivka Weinberg is an associate professor of philosophy at Scripps College. Her work focuses on moral obligation, procreative ethics, and the metaphysics of birth and death. Weinberg’s recent book, The Risk of a Lifetime: How, When, and Why Procreation Might be Permissible, presents intriguing moral challenges to the act of procreation, arguing in favor of expanding our view of procreation beyond welfare risks to include other serious moral risks. Weinberg is currently developing ideas on the pointlessness of life. Make sure to check out her 2015 New York Times opinion piece, “Why  Life is Absurd”, here.