When every headline feels like bad news, dystopian fiction can offer catharsis, a warning, or a little of both. Host Aaron Ross Powell welcomes back Sarah Skwire, Senior Program Officer at Liberty Fund and a Liberalism.org Fellow, to talk about what the genre has to say about the current political moment. They discuss why resistance stories like The Hunger Games feel so different from the totalizing world of 1984, what fueled the 2010s boom in young adult dystopias, and why novels that trace a society’s gradual slide from freedom into tyranny may teach the most about how political change actually happens.
Further Reading
The Enemy of My Enemy Is a Really Big Dragon — Sarah Skwire, Liberalism.org
Ella Minnow Pea — Mark Dunn, Dzanc Books
The Mandibles: A Family, 2029–2047 — Lionel Shriver, Harper
More from Liberalism.org
Bite by Bite: The Value of Virtue Signaling — Sarah Skwire
Mini Tacos, Murder, and the Problem of Getting Exactly What We Want — Sarah Skwire
Guest Profiles
Sarah Skwire researches and writes on the intersection of literature, liberty, and economics.
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