The Secret Lessons of ‘Mad Men’

Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. You’re reading Dispatch Culture, our weekend newsletter featuring essays about American culture, staff recommendations, book reviews, and more. Happy Saturday! Mad Men has been in the zeitgeist lately, with the New York Times listing it as the third-greatest TV show of the 21st century. (Some of us at The Dispatch think it should’ve come first, but whatever.) In today’s American Artifacts, American Enterprise Institute research fellow Christian Gonzalez reflects on the show and why it has a lot to teach us about morality—even if the characters aren’t necessarily what we’d call “moral.” Valerie is Ideas Editor at The Dispatch, based in New York City. Prior to joining the company in 2025, she worked at The New York Times and NewsGuard Technologies, and she is currently a Novak Fellow through The Fund for American Studies. When Valerie isn’t commissioning and editing the next big essay for The Dispatch, she is probably people-watching in a funky cafe or scheming up her next oddly-themed party. Christian Alejandro Gonzalez is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He holds a PhD in political theory from Georgetown University. Alex Demas is an editor at The Dispatch and is based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the company in 2023, he worked in England as a financial journalist and earned his MA in Political Economy at King's College London. When not heroically combating misinformation online, Alex can be found mixing cocktails, watching his beloved soccer team Aston Villa lose a match, or attempting to pet stray cats. Newsletter selected Click sign up to start receiving your newsletters. More Dispatch Culture Newsletter selected Click sign up to start receiving your newsletters.