Michael Schur On Ethics And Morality, In Good Times And In Crisis
“The Good Place” creator Michael Schur joins us to talk about morals and being good during a global pandemic.
Guests
Michael Schur, creator of NBC’s “The Good Place,” a comedy about the afterlife and redemption. Co-creator of “Parks and Recreation.” Producer and writer for “The Office.” Author of “How To Be Good,” out in 2021. (@KenTremendous)
T.M. Scanlon, professor emeritus of natural religion, moral philosophy and civil policy at Harvard University. Author of “What We Owe to Each Other.”
From The Reading List
The Washington Post: “Michael Schur knows moral philosophy can be a drag. With ‘The Good Place,’ he made it fun.” — “Several years ago, Michael Schur went to a Starbucks and pondered the human condition. He had purchased a cheap coffee and waited until the barista turned toward him to toss his change into the tip jar, realizing immediately how silly it was that he wanted recognition for such a small act. Stuck in traffic later on, he mulled over his ‘corrupt and bad’ motivations — only to have his thoughts interrupted by another driver pulling into the breakdown lane to speed past everyone else.”
Vulture: “Mike Schur’s Upcoming Book Will (Hopefully) Help You Become a Better Person” — “It’s a hellish and confusing time to be a human, but thankfully The Good Place creator Mike Schur is writing a book filled with tips on how to get through it while being a (hopefully) decent person.”
The Wrap: “Mike Schur Calls Back to ‘Good Place’ Trolley Problem to Explain How Not to Solve a Pandemic” — “Among the many lessons ‘The Good Place’ tried to teach us, along with how to be ‘good’ and what we owe to each other, was how to make a difficult decision when there is really no good choice. The now-ended NBC comedy did this through its ‘The Trolley Problem’ episode, which forced Chidi (William Jackson Harper) to actually live out the ‘trolley problem’ thought experiment that forces you to choose between killing five people or just one person.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org. [Copyright 2020 NPR]
