H3 - Charlie James honors Charlie Kirk with Hillsdale’s Kyle Murnen, takes calls on online courses, and discusses SC politics.

What this episode covers

Transcript Charlie James: While never a full-time student at Hillsdale College, Charlie Kirk had a lot of strong ties there. In fact, I played for you that clip just a while ago of Dr. Larry Arnn speaking at his memorial service. It was one of those things that Charlie Kirk was able to earn the respect, and ultimately the admiration, of Dr. Larry Arnn and of all the people at Hillsdale College. Joining us right now is Kyle Murnen; he's the Chief Staff Officer at Hillsdale. Kyle, welcome to the program. Hope you're doing well, sir. Kyle Murnen: You have the wrong one, Charlie. Charlie James: Oh! Well, I'm sorry, Brian. I'm going to put you back on hold, we'll get to Kyle. Kyle, welcome. How are you? Kyle Murnen: Hey, thanks for having me, Charlie. I appreciate it. Charlie James: Yes, sir. I guess kind of a somber day at Hillsdale, right? Kyle Murnen: It's very much a somber day. We lost a dear friend a year ago—one of the best people you'll ever meet. Charlie James: Absolutely. And that's what everybody has said. I never had the opportunity to meet Charlie Kirk, but everybody said he was just as genuine as he could possibly be. Can you tell us how important Charlie Kirk was to Hillsdale College? Kyle Murnen: Well, you talk about how genuine he is—I got a glimpse of that. I met him five and a half years ago when I was working developing our online courses for the college. Charlie was very famous at that point, and he became more and more famous over the next five years. And he said, "I love taking your online courses. I want to meet you guys, talk to Dr. Arnn"—they'd already started a bit of a relationship—"and learn more about Hillsdale." He came and visited. I couldn't believe that someone that famous, that busy, was actually logging on and taking our online courses, going through Aristotle's Ethics, reading C.S. Lewis, studying the Federalist Papers. So I found it hard to believe. He shows up, he has a list of questions for faculty members he's been taking courses with, he sent in texts with insights or things he's learned or book recommendations that he'd like to get so he can dive deeper, sent in text messages about the courses he completed. He was that kind of person, so driven to learn, because I think he knew he wanted to gain that deep knowledge and become a teacher for young people. And he just worked tirelessly to build that foundation. It was remarkable to see behind the scenes how he built that character and that base of knowledge. Charlie James: How have you seen the effect that Charlie Kirk had on the other students enrolled at Hillsdale? Kyle Murnen: Well, he was a shining example to them. What he did, how he disciplined his life, the amount of work he put in, his ability to communicate so effectively about the things he loved, and then organize his life in defense and support of those things—and you talk about his love for Jesus Christ, which was always at the center of everything he did, and you learned more about it over the last few years of his life. His commitment to his family, and then his duties to his country. He was very clear about that. He'd show up to college campuses that were hostile, he'd keep his head about him under a lot of very difficult attacks, and he was very great at answering those in a charitable way, and also a very persuasive way. It made him such a remarkable human being. Charlie James: He fought rhetoric with facts, and he won those battles time and time again. And I'll tell you, Kyle, that's why he had to be silenced by the left, right? Kyle Murnen: Well, I think that was one of the really disappointing things—one of the disgusting things after his death—were people trying to say in certain parts of the country that he was propagating hate speech. And so you have thousands of hours of Charlie Kirk talking on college campuses, and people were trying to find evidence of that kind of speech where he would put people down or belittle them, and there was none of it. T ...

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