Sitcoms: A Defense with Shal Marriott

Can a half-hour of sitcom reruns make you a better liberal? Shal Marriott thinks so — and in this episode of the Liberalism.org Show, host Aaron Ross Powell talks with Marriott, a PhD student in political science at McGill University, about her article "Sitcoms: A Defense." They discuss how popular television can cultivate liberal habits of character beyond mere tolerance, why appreciating pluralism requires something closer to delight than grudging acceptance, what Adam Smith and Judith Shklar have in common with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and whether the low stakes of fictional worlds offer a space to practice the discernment that liberalism demands.Further Reading

• "Sitcoms: A Defense" — Shal Marriott, Liberalism.org

• Liberalism as a Way of Life — Alexandre Lefebvre, Princeton University Press

• Ordinary Vices — Judith Shklar, Harvard University Press

More from Liberalism.org

• "Mini Tacos, Murder, and the Problem of Getting Exactly What We Want" — Sarah Skwire

• "What Early Liberals Knew, We'll Remember" — Jason Kuznicki