About

What Does It Profit? is an award-winning narrative podcast exploring the social and moral value of economic life. Hosted by applied financial ethicist Dr. Dawn Carpenter, the show takes its name from the timeless scripture passage: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?” That question echoes through every season and every story.

Each season focuses on a central theme shaping modern life and work. Past seasons have explored women entering workplaces long thought closed to them, the impact of artificial intelligence on workers and identity, and the people creating change right where they are in their own communities. Through immersive storytelling and documentary-style reporting, each episode follows individuals whose lives illuminate deeper questions about dignity, contribution, solidarity, and human flourishing.

Blending ethics, economics, culture, and storytelling, What Does It Profit? examines not only how wealth is created, but what our systems, institutions, and workplaces ask of the human soul in return.

Created by Dr. Dawn Carpenter, an award-winning financial ethicist, filmmaker, and former social purpose investment banker, the podcast invites listeners to see the economy not as an abstract machine, but as a deeply human story about meaning, belonging, and the kind of society we choose to build.