In 2025, 45 million Americans owe more than $1.7 trillion in college debt. Ellie Shermer explains: “the story of skyrocketing college debt is not merely one of good intentions gone wrong. In fact, the federal student loan program was never supp...

That degree.References mentioned this episode:Erik Baker. 2025. Make Your Own Job: The Entrepreneurial Work Ethic in Modern America. Harva...

First, a continuation of the Chicago school of economics history (a nice follow up to last week’s episode on Char...

Professors teaching about communism and socialism? Un-American! Here’s some cash to make sure the university is preaching the supreme American virtue: capitalism. If you caught our joint episode with the In Bed with the Right podcas...

Freshman hazing, a time honored tradition of (at least) 1,500 years.References mentioned this episode:Hannah Skoda. 2025. Frying Pans, Limpets, Donk...

From Kant to CRT via Columbia and UC Irvine.References mentioned this episode:The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 3rd edition. W. W. Norton.Miquel de P...

On the eugenics origins of the IQ test and why we're still using it in 2025.References mentioned this episode:Pepper Stetler. 2024.

Sam Tanenhaus joins me for a deep dive into the college career of friend of the pod, William F. Buckley Jr., and his 1951 shot that fired the campus wars: God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom."Reference...

How does a librarian kill someone with a newspaper? This and other academic spycraft in Elyse Graham's Book and Dagger.References mentioned this episode:Elyse Graham. 2024.

Richard T. Greener was the first Black graduate of Harvard College in 1870. Greener went on to be a professor, lawyer, dean of Howard University law school, diplomat, and a celebrated intellectual of the Reconstruction era. Christian K. Anderso...

Check out my interview with Sasha Lilley for Against the Grain podcast. We talk about Resistance from the Right, which you can grab a copy of here. <...

We're headed South with Kate Ballantyne to talk about the Old Left! Plus, Kate's tips for conducting archival research.To join the student activism researchers Google group, send me an email: shephell@iu.edu.Refere...

From the conception of ROTC after the Spanish-American War, colleges and K12 schools have been central to US military recruitment efforts. Scott Harding, Charles Howlett, and Seth Kershner explain the history of school militarism, and how peace...

Is the Title IX process working as intended? Nicole Bedera tells us what's working, what isn't, and what we can do about it.References mentioned this episode:Nicole Bedera. 2024.

On today’s episode, we’re covering the history and purposes of the first American research universities, Indian boarding schools, and Historically Black Colleges, all of which emerged at the same time in US history.References mentioned t...

Within and beyond the academy, Karl Marx remains a specter who assumes quite different shapes from his friends and enemies. According to Andrew Hartman, Marx himself wouldn't recognize many of the various derivatives or criticisms of his work. ...

It was my great pleasure to join friends of the pod, Moira Donegan and Adrian Daub (who you'll remember from our Cancel Culture Panic episode), for a deep dive into the history ...

Believe it or not, an English degree is still worth pursuing in a capitalist economy, even if one is not independently wealthy! Of this we can be hopeful according to a new book called Major Trade-offs by Corey Moss-Pech.Referen...

Jennifer Leigh discusses the academy's struggle to accommodate learners and workers with disabilities, mental health challenges, and neurodivergences--especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. We talk about how US ed-tech companies take advantage...

The college dormitory is an American tradition, though it hasn’t always been necessary for education. Carla Yanni tells us why the dorm has become a feature of campus architecture since the 17th century.References mentioned this episode:...

Matt Seybold takes us back to Knobs University, a fictional HBCU imagined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their 1873 novel, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Drawing parallels from the novel and its HBCU, Matt helps us see ho...

On the medical school building boom of the early 20th century (1890-1940), and what it can tell us about the professionalization of academic medicineMentioned this episode:Katherine L. Carroll. 2022.

Deirdre Clemente on the timeless campus style: casual.Deirdre Clemente. 2014. Dress Casual: How College Students Redefined American Style. University of No...

Tim Lacy lets us in on all things Great Books: champions, curriculums, and controversies.Tim Lacy. 2013. The Dream of a D...

On the APA's collaboration with CIA to develop 'enhanced interrogation techniques' for the U.S. War on Terror. Plus, Eidelson's advice for how we can hold our academic and professional organizations accountable when they violate their stated mi...