Death in a Shallow Pond, with David Edmonds

You're walking past a shallow pond and a child is drowning. No one else is around. Of course you wade in, even if it ruins your expensive shoes.

Now consider this: children are dying today from causes you could help prevent, for less than the price of those shoes. So why does the second case feel so different from the first?

In 1972 the philosopher Peter Singer asked exactly that, and the question has unsettled moral philosophy ever since.

Hamza King sits down with David Edmonds to discuss his latest book. David is a Distinguished Research Fellow and the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, and author of Death in a Shallow Pond: A Philosopher, a Drowning Child, and Strangers in Need (2025).

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