Public Pedagogy as Border-Crossing: How Canadian Fans Learn about Health Care from American TV

This article discusses a research project about the pedagogical function of popular culture for adult audience members. We used the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy to investigate how American cultural texts cross the national border with Canada to inform what is seen as a distinctly Canadian social policy framework. Using Grey’s Anatomy as exemplar, we posed three policy-related questions that are raised in the show: Who is seen as the good or deserving patient? Which health care services are seen as desirable and viable? How is health care delivery structured or organized? In responding to these questions, we attend to how Canadian fans related the show’s representations and messages to their experiences with and understandings of health care, both in Canada and in the United States. After confirming that Grey’s Anatomy does function as a sort of teacher, we organize the remainder of our discussion into three sections focused on lessons: lessons about Canadian health care, lessons about American health care, and lessons about cross-border similarities.