Latest Academicexcellence Podcast Episodes
John Bolton: The Long Decline of Free Expression on Campus
Higher Ed Now - April 01, 2024 14:22 - 27 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsJohn Bolton served as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, and as the 26th United States National Security Advisor from 2018 to 2019 during the Trump Administration. He is the author of The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, as well as Surrender I...
Anika Prather: “Classical Education Helps Everyone Flourish”
Higher Ed Now - March 15, 2024 18:17 - 53 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsDr Anika T. Prather is a nationally-recognized speaker and advocate for the relevancy of classical education for the Black community. She has served as a lecturer at Howard University’s Classics and English departments and, most recently, as a Director of High-Quality Curriculum and Instruction ...
Why Institutional Neutrality Matters
Higher Ed Now - February 28, 2024 17:38 - 1 hour ★★★★ - 14 ratingsTony Banout, Executive Director, and Tom Ginsburg, Faculty Director of the University of Chicago's New Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression join Steve McGuire, ACTA's Paul and Karen Levy Fellow in Campus Freedom, to discuss institutional neutrality -- the idea that universities should not take ...
Glenn Loury: Defending the Cultural Inheritance of the Liberal Arts
Higher Ed Now - February 14, 2024 23:24 - 43 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsACTA's President Michael Poliakoff joins Paul Levy, a member of ACTA's board of directors and the creator of the Levy Forum for Open Discourse at the Palm Beach Synagogue. Together they interview Dr. Glenn Loury, the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences in the Department of Economic...
George Will: Restoring the Value of an Academic Degree
Higher Ed Now - February 02, 2024 17:39 - 29 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsGeorge Will is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and political commentator whose twice-weekly column has appeared in the Washington Post since 1974. His works cover subjects ranging from baseball to statecraft. In this episode, he sits down with ACTA President Michael Poliakoff for a sweeping conv...
Jay Bhattacharya: Free Expression and Unsettled Science
Higher Ed Now - January 25, 2024 15:26 - 1 hour ★★★★ - 14 ratingsJay Bhattacharya is a professor at Stanford University Medical School, a physician, epidemiologist, health economist, and public health policy expert focusing on infectious diseases and vulnerable populations. During the Covid pandemic, Dr. Bhattacharya co-wrote the Great Barrington Declaration,...
Nadine Strossen: Free Speech in a Time of Campus Crisis
Higher Ed Now - January 12, 2024 14:55 - 1 hour ★★★★ - 14 ratingsNadine Strossen is the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita at New York Law School, and served as president of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1991 to 2008. ACTA has long admired her tireless advocacy and devotion to free speech and is proud to have featured her as a keynote ...
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Fight For Our Classrooms
Higher Ed Now - December 14, 2023 20:44 - 28 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsACTA's President Michael Poliakoff interviews Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born, Dutch-American writer, human rights activist and former politician and long-time friend of our organization. She is the author of best-selling books like Infidel (2007) Nomad (2010) and Heretic (2015). Now a Research ...
Scott Walker: A Governor's Perspective on College Spending
Higher Ed Now - November 30, 2023 21:10 - 48 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsIn this episode, former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker speaks with ACTA's President Michael Poliakoff. Governor Walker is now leading Young Americans for Freedom -- an organization committed to ensuring that increasing numbers of young Americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of indiv...
A Higher Ed Reformation: Changing Campus Policy and Culture
Higher Ed Now - September 29, 2023 23:18 - 40 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsIn March 2023, ACTA’s second annual Alumni Summit on Free Expression brought together alumni free speech activists and higher education nonprofit leaders from across the country to share knowledge, experiences, and resources related to campus reform efforts. In partnership with the Alumni Free S...
Free Speech Barriers and Legal Remedies
Higher Ed Now - September 18, 2023 19:06 - 49 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsIn March 2023, ACTA hosted its second Alumni Summit on Free Expression in Washington, DC, in partnership with the Alumni Free Speech Alliance (AFSA). More than 100 individuals from various AFSA member groups and other higher education nonprofit organizations attended to support the growing movem...
Carole Hooven: Cancelled for Scientific Accuracy
Higher Ed Now - September 12, 2023 19:48 - 56 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsACTA's Steven McGuire interviews Carole Hooven, whose book titled T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us, was published in 2021. Hooven is currently an associate at Harvard University and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where sh...
Jonathan Marks: "Liberal Education Corrects Our Narrowness"
Higher Ed Now - September 01, 2023 20:41 - 54 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsJonathan Marks has been an educator for almost a quarter century, and is currently Professor and Chair of Politics and International Relations at Ursinus College. He has published on modern and contemporary political philosophy in journals like the American Political Science Review, the Journal ...
Student Voices: United By Our Differences
Higher Ed Now - August 12, 2023 15:48 - 50 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsHigher Ed Now is pleased to launch a new series of student-driven podcast conversations issuing from the College Debates and Discourse (CD&D) Alliance – a national initiative led by ACTA, Braver Angels, and BridgeUSA. ACTA's program manager for the CD&D Alliance, Sadie Webb, will host the series...
Richard Haass: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens
Higher Ed Now - July 29, 2023 13:30 - 47 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsACTA's president Michael Poliakoff and Higher Ed Now producer Doug Sprei interview Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan think tank and educational institution dedicated to helping people better understand the world and foreign policy ...
Eric Kaufmann: Academic Freedom Under Pressure
Higher Ed Now - July 13, 2023 15:37 - 53 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsACTA's Steve McGuire sits down with Eric Kaufmann, Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of several books, including Whiteshift: Immigration, Populism and the Future of White Majorities; Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth; The Rise and Fall of Anglo...
John Agresto: "The Death of Learning"
Higher Ed Now - June 28, 2023 18:41 - 44 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsACTA’s president Michael Poliakoff interviews John Agresto, author of The Death of Learning, published last year by Encounter Press. Agresto is a graduate of Boston College and holds a PhD in Government from Cornell University. Before becoming President of St. John’s College in 1989, he taught ...
Chuck Davis: Alumni Rising
Higher Ed Now - June 21, 2023 20:16 - 51 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsACTA’s president Michael Poliakoff is joined by Chuck Davis, the newly elected chair and president of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance. Recently he has been serving as board chair and president of the MIT Free Speech Alliance (MFSA), one of AFSA’s member groups. Mr. Davis’s new leadership positio...
Jered Cooper: "A Unique Self-Censorer"
Higher Ed Now - June 13, 2023 15:43 - 43 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsIn this episode, ACTA's Gabrielle Anglin and Steve McGuire interview Jered Cooper, a rising senior at the University of Virginia. Mr. Cooper is majoring in government at UVA and carries a strong passion for understanding the inner workings of politics and public policy. His love for American his...
Discourse and Democracy: Lindsay Hoffman and Timothy Shaffer
Higher Ed Now - May 18, 2023 13:28 - 42 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsHigher Ed Now continues its series of conversations with leading lights in the surging national movement to foster viewpoint diversity and free expression on college campuses. Today’s episode spotlights two leaders at the University of Delaware – a major institutional partner in the college deba...
Diversity Done Wrong: The Unjust Firing of Dr. Tabia Lee
Higher Ed Now - May 08, 2023 02:07 - 57 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsDr. Tabia Lee joins ACTA's Michael Poliakoff and Steve McGuire to unpack her shocking story of being fired from her position as the faculty director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education at De Anza College in California. As Erec Smith (another recent guest on Highe...
Transforming Campus Culture With Civil Discourse
Higher Ed Now - April 27, 2023 17:56 - 1 hour ★★★★ - 14 ratingsIn Fall 2022, at ACTA's ATHENA Roundtable in Washington DC, a remarkable morning panel was hosted by Doug Sprei, Higher Ed Now producer and ACTA's Vice President of Campus Partnerships and Multimedia. The session, titled "How Civil Discourse Can Change Campus Culture," was graced by a cohort of ...
Diversity Done Right
Higher Ed Now - March 26, 2023 16:22 - 1 hour ★★★★ - 14 ratingsIn October 2022, ACTA's ATHENA Roundtable Conference in Washington, DC was highlighted by two panels featuring extraordinary higher education thought leaders. Today we present the first of those panels – headlined as DIVERSITY DONE RIGHT, and hosted by our good friend Jonathan Rauch – Senior Fel...
Jennifer Frey: Fundamental Questions in Liberal Education
Higher Ed Now - March 08, 2023 19:01 - 58 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsSteve McGuire, ACTA’s Paul & Karen Levy Fellow in Campus Freedom, hosts a conversation on modern liberal education with Jennifer Frey, who is set to begin a new appointment as inaugural dean of the honors college at the University of Tulsa in July 2023. Dr. Frey is currently Associate Professo...
Jenna Robinson: Pushing Higher Ed Reform In North Carolina
Higher Ed Now - March 02, 2023 16:44 - 41 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsAcross the nation, states are stepping up to reform higher education—in effect performing their intended role as laboratories of federalism and democratic governance. ACTA is seeing good progress on this front in North Carolina. While no state has achieved perfect academic accountability, academ...
Amna Khalid: "DEI Inc." and the False Framework of Harm
Higher Ed Now - February 06, 2023 17:10 - 47 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsToday's episode features a conversation between ACTA’s Vice President of Policy, Bradley Jackson, and Amna Khalid, Associate Professor in the Department of History at Carleton College in Minnesota. Professor Khalid specializes in modern South Asian history and the history of medicine, and is als...
Matthew Hendricks: Tracking Dollars, Data, and Educational Outcomes
Higher Ed Now - January 30, 2023 13:51 - 31 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsHigher Ed Now welcomes Matthew Hendricks, the founder of Perspective Data Science, a small data consulting firm that specializes in education finance and policy analytics. Professor Hendricks previously served as the Chair of the Department of Economics at The University of Tulsa. For over 12 ye...
Lauren Noble: Strengthening Genuine Intellectual Diversity
Higher Ed Now - January 18, 2023 14:52 - 52 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsIn this episode, Bryan Paul, ACTA’s director of alumni advocacy, hosts a conversation with Lauren Noble, founder and executive director of the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale University. It’s no secret that America's colleges and universities are facing a troubling decline in viewpoint...
Kenny Xu: An Inconvenient Minority
Higher Ed Now - January 03, 2023 16:19 - 41 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsHigher Ed Now kicks off 2023 with a conversation between Steve McGuire, ACTA's Paul & Karen Levy Fellow in Campus Freedom, and KENNY XU, president of the raceblind advocacy group Color Us United, an organization that investigates and takes on corporations whose woke policies are potentially harm...
Edwin Meese: Education for Engaged Citizenship
Higher Ed Now - December 16, 2022 16:12 - 39 minutes ★★★★ - 14 ratingsFormer U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese served on ACTA's Board of Directors for many years. At age 90, he is as insightful and thoughtful as ever. In November 2022, he graciously invited ACTA President Michael Poliakoff and Chief of Staff Armand Alacbay to his Northern Virginia home for a far-r...
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