TED Talks Daily
How ethics can help you make better decisions | Michael Schur (re-release)
04 Aug 2025
What would Immanuel Kant say about a fender bender? In a surprisingly funny trip through the teachings of some of history's great philosophers, TV writer and producer Michael Schur (from hit shows like "The Office" and "The Good Place") talks through how to confront life's moral dilemmas -- and shows how understanding ethical theories can help you make better, kinder decisions.This episode originally aired on July 7, 2022.For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Full Episode
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. What would the German philosopher Immanuel Kant say about a fender bender? In this Archive Talk, TV writer and producer Michael Schur from hit shows like The Office and The Good Place.
takes us on a surprisingly funny trip through the teachings of some of history's great philosophers. He walks us through how to confront life's moral dilemmas and shows how understanding ethical theories, both old and new, can help you make better, kinder decisions.
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I have been a television comedy writer for almost 25 years. I have written sketches and animated shows and sitcoms, but for the last decade, my real passion has been the study of ethics. It's a classic cautionary tale, right? You move to Hollywood, you get seduced by the bright lights and the fast cars, and before you know it, you're reading 18th-century German philosophy.
I've always been an intense rule follower. When I was in kindergarten, our teacher would tell everyone to line up, and I would immediately line up, and then I would look at all the other kids who were still goofing off, and I would think, what are they doing? Did they not hear her? She said to line up.
I rinsed my mouth with mouthwash for at least 30 seconds every night because on the label, it says, use for 30 seconds. I know, I'm irritated by me too. But the real reason that I became interested in ethics is because in 2005, I royally and epically screwed something up. So, 2005, my wife JJ, driving along in slow-moving traffic, bumps into the guy in front of her.
The police officer looks everything over, doesn't see any damage, they exchange numbers and they go on their way. A couple of days later, we get a notice that the guy wants $836 because, according to him, the entire fender needs to be replaced. This is happening during Hurricane Katrina. JJ and I had just been to New Orleans on a trip.
We had really fallen in love with this beautiful city, which was now literally underwater. I was very riled up. This was hitting me really hard. So I went and I looked at the guy's car, and if I got very close and I strained my eyes, I could just barely see this little line on the crease. It looked like the mark you make with a pencil on the wall when you're trying to hang a picture.
And I told the guy, essentially, that he shouldn't care about this. I told him that things like this were why car insurance rates in LA were so expensive. I told him that cars get little dings and dents all the time, and he was stupid to care about that. I told him that there were more important things in life than this, like Hurricane Katrina. And then I made him an offer.
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