He has the ear of national leaders. His public lectures have drawn packed crowds to open-air stadiums, the Sydney Opera House and St Paul’s Cathedral. His undergraduate course, “Justice”, is one of Harvard’s most popular, drawing many hundreds of students a year. The online version, which is free to watch, has been visited by many millions of viewers including, notably, in China. Over the decades, Sandel has shaped the minds of tens of thousands of young people who have gone on to occupy privileged places in the global elite.