meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Desert Island Discs

Michael Sandel, philosopher

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.413.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Michael Sandel is a political philosopher and professor of government theory at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has also presented the BBC Radio 4 series The Public Philosopher and The Global Philosopher, in which he examines the thinking behind a current controversy. His books have tackled the idea of meritocracy and the moral limits of markets, and he has been described as a “philosopher with the global profile of a rock star.” Michael grew up in Minnesota until the age of 13 when his family relocated to Los Angeles. As a boy he was fascinated by politics and he invited Ronald Reagan, who was then governor of California, to take part in a debate at his school. During his university studies he took an internship at the Houston Chronicle and covered the Watergate scandal, sitting in on the Supreme court deliberations and subsequent impeachment hearings on Capitol Hill. Later, while he was studying as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University he was, as he puts it, “seduced by philosophy”. Justice, the course he devised at Harvard, is one of the most popular in the university’s history – thousands of students apply to attend in person and tens of millions watch his classes online. DISC ONE: Feeling Good by Nina Simone DISC TWO: Only a Pawn in Their Game by Bob Dylan DISC THREE: Battle Hymn of the Republic by Odetta DISC FOUR: Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday DISC FIVE: Alexander Hamilton by Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton DISC SIX: Anthem by Leonard Cohen DISC SEVEN: The Stars Will Sing To You by Kiku Adatto DISC EIGHT: America the Beautiful by Ray Charles BOOK CHOICE: The Collected Dialogues of Plato LUXURY ITEM: Binoculars CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Stars Will Sing To You by Kiku Adatto Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:04.9

Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast.

0:08.8

Every week I ask my guests to choose the 8 tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take

0:13.2

with them if they were cast away to a desert island.

0:16.4

And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.

0:20.9

I hope you enjoy listening.

0:43.9

My cast away this week is the political philosopher Michael Sandel.

0:47.9

His professor of government theory at Harvard University and a self-confessed political

0:52.8

junkie who initially dreamed of being a journalist until while covering the Watergate scandal

0:58.0

as a young reporter, fate intervened and put him on a different course.

1:02.0

He didn't leave politics behind though, far from it.

1:05.6

It has been his life's work to ask questions about what makes a good life and a good society.

1:12.2

His vision of an alternative politics, what he calls civic republicanism, has been credited

1:17.6

with injecting philosophical debate with the adrenaline of the real world.

1:22.2

He's been described as a philosopher with a global profile of a rock star and has taken

1:26.7

his work to venues around the world including St. Paul's Cathedral and Sydney Opera House

1:31.6

and he's grappled with some of the biggest questions of our time, from bioethics to

1:35.6

assisted dying.

1:37.1

His course on justice became one of the most popular in Harvard's history with thousands

1:41.8

of students applying to attend classes in person and tens of millions watching online

1:47.0

worldwide.

1:48.7

And you might have heard him here on Radio 4 in his series The Public Philosopher and

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.