Cass Sunstein on Defending Liberalism

The Good Fight

Yascha Mounk

News

4.6 • 907 Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cass R. Sunstein is currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard. His latest book is On Liberalism: In Defense of Freedom. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Cass Sunstein explore critiques from the left and the right, what different strands of liberalism can teach us, and why John Stuart Mill has the answer. We’re delighted to feature this conversation as part of our new series on Liberal Virtues and Values. That liberalism is under threat is now a cliché—yet this has done nothing to stem the global resurgence of illiberalism. Part of the problem is that liberalism is often considered too “thin” to win over the allegiance of citizens, and that liberals are too afraid of speaking in moral terms. Liberalism’s opponents, by contrast, speak to people’s passions and deepest moral sentiments. This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, aims to change that narrative. In podcast conversations and long-form pieces, we’ll feature content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms. Email: [email protected] Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:26.4	and I'm not to say that because I work here. Get started today at banta.com.
0:30.7	I think Hayek and you are right to see careers open to talents as something that should make
0:36.2	our hearts sing because it gives people
0:38.6	in all their diversity an opportunity to do whatever it is that they, you know, would get something
0:46.1	from and it can be, you know, running something that has intellectual or artistic focus or it can be just something people really
0:56.1	like to do. And in illiberal societies, that's not present, or it's present much less,
1:04.6	and both the left wing and the right wing attack on liberalism devalue careers open to talents.
1:12.8	And now the good fight with Yasha Monk.
1:20.8	My guest today is Cass Sunstein.
1:24.0	Cass is the Robert Wormsley University professor at Harvard University. He has
1:29.0	served in a variety of very senior roles in both the Obama and the Biden administrations.
1:36.6	It is one of the most influential legal scholars working today and is the author most recently of a book called On Liberalism
1:47.7	in defense of freedom. So you can see why I wanted to have him on the podcast. In today's
1:55.1	conversation, we start out by trying to understand what liberalism isn't.
2:01.6	I challenge Cass with the left-wing criticism of liberalism, that it is just an excuse for
	...

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