At a time when democracy is in peril, this American Academy of Arts & Sciences event explores discontents that roil our politics and considers the prospects for a new politics of the common good. The event features Michael Sandel speaking about his book, "The Tyranny of Merit," in which he argues that the divide between winners and losers poisons our politics and pulls us apart. Anna Deavere Smith and T. J. Jackson Lears join in the conversation to discuss “Does Meritocracy Destroy the Common Good?”

This event was a Morton L. Mandel Public Lecture and the first virtual Stated Meeting in the history of the Academy.

To read a transcript of this event, go to https://www.amacad.org/news/doesmeri...

00:00 Welcome from President David Oxtoby
05:20 Remarks by Michael Sandel
22:56 Remarks by T.J. Jackson Lears
33:17 Remarks by Anna Deavere Smith
43:20 Conversation