Second Home x Berggruen Institute: Michael Sandel & Elif Shafak

How has the divide between winners and losers poisoned our politics and driven us apart? What can we do about it?

Watch rock-star philosopher Michael Sandel and award-winning novelist Elif Shafak in an exclusive online conversation around the themes raised in Sandel’s new book The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?

Essential viewing for anyone who has been wondering:

• How can we emerge from this pandemic as a fairer and more inclusive society?
• How have our politics become so polarized?
• Can we restore social solidarity?
• Do we need to rethink our attitudes toward success?

This event is part of a new series presented by Second Home and Berggruen Institute – public events that bring together the most inspiring and celebrated figures of our time to exchange and discuss groundbreaking cultural, social and political ideas.

Michael Sandel: Optimism for a World After COVID-19
Michael Sandel's hope that coming out of the COVID-19 crisis we will be able to build a politics that better aligns the value of people's contribution to the rewards that they reap.

Elif Shafak: A Flawed Understanding of History
There was an assumption that thanks to the linear movement of history those countries that were lagging behind would catch up with the rest of the world. Elif Shafak shares why that was problematic.

Michael Sandel: The Tyranny of Merit
Michael Sandel addresses the dark side of the market-driven meritocratic hubris that accompanied mainstream politics over the last four decades.

Elif Shafak: Sharing the Stories of Those Who Have Been Silenced
Every nation-state has its own version of history. But Elif Shafak points out that what sets democracies apart is that in a democracy, regardless of the top-down narrative, you can walk into a bookstore and find the stories of those who have been silenced.

Michael Sandel: The Great Loss of Public Space
The loss of public spaces has been one of the great costs of inequality. To mend our fractured societies we must now go beyond equality of opportunity to creating the lived experience of a genuinely shared democratic way of life.

Elif Shafak: Why We Need StoriesNovelist Elif Shafak says that storytelling is what helps us to understand and empathize with those who think differently from us.