Identity/Crisis

E270 - What Do We Owe the Stranger? — with Seyla Benhabib

Published: March 24, 2026

Duration: 45:01

What happens when liberal democracies stop seeing dignity as a universal right and begin treating it as something reserved for insiders?

On this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer sits down with political philosopher Seyla Benhabib to explore the moral, political, and philosophical stakes of migration, borders, and belonging in America today. Against the backdrop of rising cruelty toward immigrants, asylum seekers, and other vulnerable people, they examine what happens when states retreat from their highest ideals and redraw the boundaries of who counts. Together, they discuss the fragility of human rights, the difference between borders and...