American Campus Podcast

Ready to feel old?References and suggested readings:Austin McCoy. 2026. Living in a D.A.I.S.Y. Age: The Music, Culture, and World De La Soul Made. Simon and Schuster.De La Soul. 1989. Me, Myself, and I. Flo Rida ft. T-Pain. 2009. Low (Apple Bottom Jeans). Hip-Hop Evolution. Netflix.OutKast. 2000. B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad).Keith Jopling. 2026. Body of Work: How the Album Outplayed the Algorithm and Survived Playlist Culture. Repeater.Liz Pelly Mood Machine. 2025. Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist. Atria/One Signal Publishers.Austin McCoy’s websiteText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings:AJA Woods. 2026. The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy: Why the Right Blames the Frankfurt School for the Decline of the West. Verso Books. Paul Hanebrink. 2020. A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism. Belknap.The Frankfurt School Comes to US episode with Jonathan FineMatt Bernstein. May 15, 2026. The Tucker Carlson Problem (with Naomi Klein). A Bit Fruity.Anton Jäger. 2026. Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization without Political Consequences. Verso.Julian Barnes. 2026. Departure(s). Knopf.Follow AJ on Twitter @adubwoods, Bluesky @ajawoods.bsky.socialAnticapitalist Resistance Brighton on Instagram @acrbrightonText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

And why the IRB exempts humanities research.References and suggested readings:Marco Ramos’s faculty pageCommunity Histories Lab Yale University LabLaura Stark. 2012. Behind Closed Doors: IRBs and the Makings of Ethical Research. University of Chicago Press.Annika Norlin. 2025. The Colony (translated by Alice E Olsson). Europa Editions.Courtney E. Thompson and Kylie M. Smith, eds. 2025. Do Less Harm: Ethical Questions for Health Historians. Johns Hopkins University Press. Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

No gatekeeping.References and suggested readings:David M. Perry. 2026. The Public Scholar: A Practical Handbook. Johns Hopkins University Press. Follow David on Bluesky @lollardfish.bsky.social Read David at The Minnesota Star Tribunedavidmperry.comMark Twain. Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court.Center for Mark Twain StudiesText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings:Brent Cebul and Lily Geismer, eds. 2025. Mastery and Drift: Professional-Class Liberals since the 1960s. University of Chicago Press. Brent Cebul. 2026. Illusions of Progress: Business, Poverty, and Liberalism in the American Century. University of Pennsylvania Press.Brent Cebul, Lily Geismer, and Mason B. Williams, eds. 2019. Shaped by The State: Toward a New Political History of the Twentieth Century. University of Chicago Press.Lily Geismer. 2022. Left Behind: The Democrats’ Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality. PublicAffairs.Lily Geismer. 2017. Don’t Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party. Princeton University Press.Dylan Gottlieb. 2026. Yuppies: The Bankers, Lawyers, Joggers, and Gourmands Who Conquered New York. Harvard University Press.Molly Crabapple. 2026. Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. One World.Follow Lily on Twitter and Brent on BlueskyLily and Brent’s new book series, America Unsettled: Political History for What Comes Next at the University of Chicago PressText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Is grade inflation real, who cares, and why?References and suggested readings:Lisa M. Di Bartolomeo and Kevin M. Gannon, eds. 2026. The Campus Crisis Toolkit: Strategies and Solidarity for the Rest of Us. SUNY Press. Joshua R Eyler. 2024. Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do About It. Johns Hopkins University Press.Jane Nam. May 23, 2924. Grade Inflation in College: Trends and Why It Happens. Best Colleges.Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files novel series.Kevin R. McClure. 2025. The Caring University: Reimagining the Higher Education Workplace After the Great Resignation. Johns Hopkins University Press.Catherine J. Denial. 2024. A Pedagogy of Kindness. University of Oklahoma Press.Paulo Freire. 2021. Education for Critical Consciousness: With a New Introduction. Bloomsbury Academic.bell hooks. 1994. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge.thetattooedprof.comBluesky @thetattooedprofText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Explaining the show's new art and how Mick Jagger "failed democracy and impoverished the souls" of students before 1987.References and suggested readings:God and Man at Yale episode with Sam TanenhausWhy white nationalists love Plato episode with Curtis DozierAllan Bloom. The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students.George Lowery. April 16, 2009. A campus takeover that symbolized an era of change. Cornell Chronicle.Lauren Lassabe Shepherd. March 21, 2025. Attack on the Faculties. The Carryall.Michelle Alexander. 2020. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The New Press.Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. 2024. They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. W. W. Norton.Saul Bellow. Ravelstein.Mark Hlavacik. 2025. Willing Warriors: A New History of the Education Culture Wars. University of Chicago Press. Mark Hlavacik. 2016. Assigning Blame: The Rhetoric of Education Reform. Harvard University Press.Mark Hlavacik’s faculty page.Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Find May Day events near you in the resources below:Higher Education Labor United websiteHELU May Day events mapMay Day Strong websiteAnne Balay. 2020. Inside the World of Gay, Trans, and Black Truck Drivers. University of North Carolina Press. Anne Balay. 2016. Steel Closets: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Steelworkers. University of North Carolina Press. AnneBalay.comText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

This is Part I of a conversation with Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer, Eléana Sanchez, and Jonathan Hauser. Listen to Part I here.References and suggested readings:Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer. 2025. By the Power Vested in Me: How Experts Shape Same-Sex Marriage Debates. Columbia University Press.Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer's websiteEléana Sanchez's website, HAL (open science platform in France), and BlueskyJonathan Hauser's websiteJon is watching Koh-LantaEléana is watching Rooster and listening to La dernière Marwan Mohammed. 2026. C'était pas gagné !: De l'échec scolaire au CNRS, histoire d'une remontada. Seuil.Michael is playing Cities: Skylines and Cities: Skylines IIR. F. Kuang. 2023. Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution. Harper Voyager.Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

This is Part I of a conversation with Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer, Eléana Sanchez, and Jonathan Hauser. Stay tuned for Part II next.References and suggested readings:Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer. 2025. By the Power Vested in Me: How Experts Shape Same-Sex Marriage Debates. Columbia University Press.Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer's websiteEléana Sanchez's website, HAL (open science platform in France), and BlueskyJonathan Hauser's websiteText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

I know, I know, it’s Frankenstein’s monster…Thanks to Tara McMullin for inviting me to talk about 21st century higher education on the What Works podcast.Follow along with What Works!Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

On YAF, the male loneliness epidemic, evangelicals v. trad Caths, and much more.References and suggested readings:Pentagon's Protestant-only Good Friday service fuels bias concerns. MSN.George Saunders. 2018. Lincoln in the Bardo. Random House.Mark A. Noll. 2022. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. William B. Eerdmans.Karen Swallow Prior. 2023.  The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis. Brazos. Daniel Ruggles’s websiteUpon the Gears SubstackMario Savio’s Bodies Upon the Gears speech, UC Berkeley 1964Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Colleges really come out on top in the education-industrial complex.References and suggested readings:Alexandre Frenette. 2026. Blame the Intern: On (Not) Breaking Into the Creative Economy. Princeton University Press. Alexandre Frenette’s faculty pageJohn Wynn. 2025. The Set Up. Belt Publishing.Nina Bandelj. 2026. Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting. Princeton University Press.Alexandre Frenette on LinkedIn Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Create your own college ranking list! The parameters are totally up to you. Email Lauren at [email protected]. JBF will pick the winner of MANY FREE BOOKS!References and suggested readings:JonathanBeecherField.net Scott Romine. 2024. The Zombie Memes of Dixie. University of Georgia Press.Ruth Wilson Gilmore. 2007. Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California. University of California Press.Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll, eds. 2019. Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy. West Virginia University Press.Jonathan Beecher Field. September 20, 2019. Got Shakespeare? Boston Review. Phyllis Schlafly. October 3, 2007. Advice To College Students: Don’t Major In English. Eagle Forum.Nicole Hemmer. 2018. Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics. University of Pennsylvania Press.Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

The International Olympic Committee’s decision to sex test professional athletes, and what that means for college sports. References and suggested readings:Johanna Mellis faculty profileEnd of Sport podcast Feminist Sport LabJohanna Mellis in The Guardian and Los Angeles TimesRachel Reid. 2024. Game Changers. Carina Press. (Heated Rivalry book series)Pride and Prejudice 1995 BBC adaptationInstagram @JoJoMellis Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings:Scott M. Gelber. 2024. From Compensation to Accommodation: The History of Learning Disabilities in American Higher Education. History of Education Quarterly.Scott M. Gelber. 2020. Grading the College: A History of Evaluating Teaching and Learning. Johns Hopkins University Press.Scott M. Gelber. 2015. Courtrooms and Classrooms: A Legal History of American College Access, 1860-1960. Johns Hopkins University Press.Scott M. Gelber. 2011. The University and the People: Envisioning American Higher Education in an Era of Populist Protest. University of Wisconsin Press.Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

It only flows one way.References and suggested readings:Dwaipayan Banerjee. 2026. Computing in the Age of Decolonization: India’s Lost Technological Revolution. Princeton University Press. Dwai Banerjee’s faculty page@dwai_banerjee on X, @dwaibanerjee on Instagram Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings:Danielle Casarez Lemi. 2026. Doing Identity Labor: How Mixed-Race Politicians Disrupt Descriptive Representation. Oxford University Press.Nadia E. Brown and Danielle Casarez Lemi. 2021. Sister Style: The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Political Elites. Oxford University Press.Kelly Clancy’s Epilogue EditingMaria Ressa. 2023. How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future. Harper Perennial.Real Housewives on Bravo90 Day Fiance on TLC GoDanielle Casarez Lemi’s website, LinkedIn, and consulting Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings:John P. Jackson, Jr. 2005. Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case Against Brown V. Board of Education. New York University Press. John P. Jackson, Jr. 2001. Social Scientists for Social Justice: Making the Case Against Segregation. New York University Press.John P. Jackson, Jr. books on bookshop.orgJohn P. Jackson, Jr. websiteText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings:Mark S. Ferrara. 2015. Palace of Ashes: China and the Decline of American Higher Education. Johns Hopkins University Press. Tessa Hulls. 2025. Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Novel. Picador. Olga Tokarczuk. 2025. House of Day, House of Night. Riverhead Books. Daniel Biebuyck. 2021. The Mwindo Epic from the Banyanga. The University of California Press. Mark Ferrara’s faculty pageText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Plus! Voltaire, antisemitism, the West as a concept, and the Great Replacement theoryReferences and suggested readings:Curtis Dozier. 2026. The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate. Yale University Press. Dozier’s website, Pharos: Doing Justice to the ClassicsDan-el Padilla Peralta. 2025. Classicism and Other Phobias. Princeton University Press.Jack Jenkins. 2021.American Prophets: The Religious Roots of Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the Country. HarperCollins.The X Files, HuluCurtis Dozier on BlueSky: @curtisdozier.bsky.socialPharos on FacebookText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

"Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Western Culture's got to go!"References and suggested readings:John K. Wilson. February 19, 2026. Jesse Jackson and the Myth of the Stanford Chant. Inside Higher Ed.John K. Wilson. 1995. The Myth of Political Correctness: The Conservative Attack on Higher Education. Duke University Press.Brian Soucek. 2026. The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education. University of Chicago Press.John Tomasi and Bernard Schweizer, eds. 2026. Viewpoint Diversity: What It Is, Why We Need It, and How to Get It. Heresy Press.John K. Wilson’s columns in Inside Higher EdJohn K. Wilson on TwitterImage credit: “Jesse Jackson and students protest Western Culture program on Palm Drive, photograph, 1987,” Stanford Stories From the Archives, Stanford University Libraries online exhibit.Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings:Joshua Tait. January 12, 2026. “Stitching Banners to an Exiled King”: Triumph, Radical Traditionalism, and the Temptation of Despair. To Live is to Maneuver.Daniel J. Flynn. 2025. The Man Who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer. Encounter Books.Tait’s To Live is To Maneuver newsletterThe Associated Press. May 17, 2024. Conservative activist’s son sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison for ‘relentless’ attack on Capitol. POLITICO. Darrin M. McMahon. 2002. Enemies of the Enlightenment: The French Counter-Enlightenment and the Making of Modernity. Oxford University Press.Midge Decter. 2001. An Old Wife’s Tale: My Seven Decades in Love and War. William Morrow.Isaac Asimov. 1991. Foundation. Spectra.Arkady Martine. 2020. A Memory Called Empire. Tor Books.Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Imperialism! Protestantism! Liberal Pragmatism!References and suggested readings:Betty S. Anderson. 2011. The American University of Beirut: Arab Nationalism and Liberal Education. University of Texas Press.Betty Anderson’s faculty pageText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings: Alan Blinder. February 16, 2026. Epstein’s Ties With Academics Show the Seedy Side of College Fund-Raising. New York Times.William Callison and Quinn Slobodian. January 12, 2021. Coronapolitics from the Reichstag to the Capitol. Boston Review.Melinda Cooper. February 14, 226. Epstein Family Values. Equator.Luke Darby. August 19, 2019. Private jets, parties and eugenics: Jeffrey Epstein's bizarre world of scientists. The Guardian.Moira Donegan and Adrian Daub. February 10, 2026. “Episode 121–Moira's in the Epstein Files.” In Bed with the Right podcast.Charlie Eaton. 2022. Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Troubling Rise of Financiers in Us Higher Education. University of Chicago Press.Francois Furstenberg. February 19, 2026. The Misuses of the University. Public Books.Virginia Heffernan. February 13, 2026. The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science. The Nerve.Brian Herman. February 20, 2026. Individual donors provide only a small slice of university research funding – but Jeffrey Epstein’s ties with academics show why screening matters. The Conversation.Andy Hines, ed. 2025. University Keywords. Johns Hopkins University Press.Christopher Marquis. February 20, 2026. Why are so many academics in the Epstein files? It’s not just about money. The Guardian.Fred Turner. 2008. From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. University of Chicago Press.Ramon Antonio Vargas. February 3, 2026. Newly released files shed new light on Chomsky and Epstein relationship. The Guardian.Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Sort of.References and suggested readings:Julie J. Park. 2026. Race, Class, and Affirmative Action: College Admissions in a New Era. Harvard Education Press. Class Action website: joinclassaction.eduIngrid A. Nelson. 2024. Yet Another Costume Party Debacle: Why Racial Ignorance Persists on Elite College Campuses. University of Chicago Press.Belle Burden. 2026. Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage. The Dial Press.Julie J. Park’s website, faculty page, LinkedIn College Admissions Futures Co-LaborativeText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

A homegrown science.References and suggested readings:Mark A. Torres. 2025. Long Island and the Legacy of Eugenics: Station of Intolerance. The History Press. Rebecca Brenner Graham. 2025. Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins's Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany. Citadel.Mark Torres’s website marktorresauthor.comFollow Mark on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook @MarkTorresAuthor1Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings:Hope Pisoni. February 18, 2026. Campus Conservatives See Resurgence in the Aftermath of Charlie Kirk. Uncloseted Media. Hope Pisoni. January 30, 2026. Campus conservatism rebounds in the wake of Charlie Kirk, targeting LGBTQIA+ communities. Gay Times. Strphany Matat. October 28, 2025. DeSantis warns schools, partners with Turning Point USA to create more Florida chapters. Tallahassee Democrat.Jaden Edison. December 8, 2025. Texas launches plan to open Turning Point USA chapters in every high school. Texas Tribune. Robby Korth, Graycen Wheeler, Lionel Ramos, OPMX. September 23, 2025. State superintendent calls for Turning Point USA chapter at every high school in Oklahoma. KGOU.org.Uncloseted MediaHope Pisoni’s SubstackTorrey Peters. 2021. Detransition, Baby. One World.Nakatani Nio. 2017. Bloom Into You. Seven Seas.Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings:Julie L. Reed. 2026. Land, Language, and Women: A Cherokee and American Educational History. University of North Carolina Press. Jennifer Raff. 2023. Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas. Twelve.Lisa Wingate. 2025. Shelterwood. Ballantine Books.Daniel H. Wilson. 2025. Hole in the Sky. Doubleday.Daniel Wilson. 2012. Robopocalypse. Vintage.Julie Reed’s faculty pageFollow Julie Reed on Bluesky and Threads: @jreedmo Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings:Linda M. Perkins. 2024. To Advance the Race: Black Women's Higher Education from the Antebellum Era to the 1960s. University of Illinois Press. Crystal R. Sanders. 2024. A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners, Segregation Scholarships, and the Debt Owed to Public HBCUs. University of North Carolina Press. Marybeth Gasman and Levon T. Esters. 2024. HBCU: The Power of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Johns Hopkins University Press.Noliwe Rooks. 2024. A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune. Penguin Random House.Linda Perkins’ faculty pageText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

How colleges collect our data.References and suggested readings:Andrew Guthrie Ferguson. 2026. Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance. New York University Press. Andrew Guthrie Ferguson and Jonathan Yusef Newton. 2020. The Law of Law School: The Essential Guide for First-Year Law Students. New York University Press.Andrew Guthrie Ferguson. 2019. The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement. New York University Press.John Warner and Matt Seybold. February 3, 2026. The Technology That's Taking Your Freedom. Academic Freedom On the Line.Brian Hochman. 2022. The Listeners: A History of Wiretapping in the United States. Harvard University Press.Andrew Guthrie Ferguson’s faculty page, LinkedIn, and BlueskyText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

One of our favorite culture warriors, Dr. Cheney. References and suggested readings:Mark Hlavacik. 2025. Willing Warriors: A New History of the Education Culture Wars. University of Chicago Press. Mark Hlavacik. 2016. Assigning Blame: The Rhetoric of Education Reform. Harvard University Press.Emma Whitford. January 7, 2026. Plato Censored as Texas A&M Carries Out Course Review. Inside Higher Ed.Texas A&M, Under New Curriculum Limits, Warns Professor Not to Teach Plato. New York Times.Lynne V. Cheney. October 20, 1994. The End of History. The Wall Street Journal. Lynne V. Cheney. January 24, 1995. Kill My Old Agency, Please.Andrew Hartman. 2019. A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars, second edition. University of Chicago Press.Lynne Cheney, Pat Buchanan, Eric Foner, and Michael Kinsely. March 20, 1995. Crossfire, Part I and Part IIMark Hlavacik’s faculty pageText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings:Bryan Alexander. 2023. Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Climate Crisis. Johns Hopkins University Press. Drew Miller. March 14, 2021. "No, Dolphins Did Not Reappear in Venice Canals: The Effects of COVID-19 on the Environment." University of Minnesota LawSci.Luke Kemp. 2025. Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse. Knopf.Future Trends ForumBryan’s Substackbryanalexander.org Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Hi, listeners! A little bonus content for you. This is audio from a recent talk I gave with the brilliant Nayanika Ghosh. You'll also hear friend of the pod, Andy Hines, who moderated our conversation at the Aydelotte Foundation at Swarthmore College. You can read more about the event here. You can also follow along with the Aydelotte podcast, Podalot here.Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Register for “Degrees, Debt, and the University: Andy Hines, Chris Newfield, Eleni Schirmer and Jason Wozniak in conversation,” Adeylotte Foundation, Swarthmore CollegeReferences and suggested readings:Brian Soucek. 2026. The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education. University of Chicago Press. Kalven Committee: Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action, November 11, 1967. University of Chicago.Lauren Lassabe Shepherd. March 19, 2025. Whose Side Are College Administrators On? HNN.Hollis Robbins. December 23, 2025. The Noxiousness of Civic-Discourse Platforms. The Chronicle of Higher Education.Steven G Poskanzer. 2025. The University's Voice: Principled Silence and Purposeful Speech. Johns Hopkins University Press. Joan Wallach Scott. 2019. Academic Freedom as an Ethical Practice. Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom.                   Check out AAUP resources on academic freedomEmily Bronte. Wuthering Heights.David Szalay. Flesh. Scribner.Brian Soucek’s faculty page, LinkedIn, and BlueskyText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

On the learning styles mythRegister for “Degrees, Debt, and the University: Andy Hines, Chris Newfield, Eleni Schirmer and Jason Wozniak in conversation,” Adeylotte Foundation, Swarthmore CollegeReferences and suggested readings:Thomas Fallace. 2025. You Are Not a Kinesthetic Learner: The Troubled History of the Learning Style Idea. University of Chicago Press. Thomas D. Fallace. 2018. In the Shadow of Authoritarianism: American Education in the Twentieth Century. Teachers College Press.Thomas D. Fallace. 2015. Race and the Origins of Progressive Education, 1880-1929. Teachers College Press.Thomas D. Fallace. 2010. Dewey & the Dilemma of Race: An Intellectual History, 1895-1922. Teachers College Press.Thomas Fallace. 2023. Racism of Maria Montessori. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 55(5), 619–631.Phyllis Povell. 2009. Montessori Comes to America: The Leadership of Maria Montessori and Nancy McCormick Rambusch. University Press of America.Maria Montessori. Pedagogical Anthropology, translated from the Italian by Frederic Taber Cooper. Lector House.Adam Laats. 2024. Mr. Lancaster's System: The Failed Reform That Created America's Public Schools. Johns Hopkins University Press.Thomas Fallace’s faculty pageText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

And authoritarian attacks on all of the above.Request a future episode topic hereWe're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything hereReferences and suggested readings:Ayala Panievsky. 2026. The New Censorship: How the War on the Media is Taking Us Down. Footnote Press. Laura Gerbes. 2025. Listeners Like Who? Exclusion and Resistance in the Public Radio Industry. Princeton University Press.Kate Wright, Martin Scott, and Mel Bunce. 2024. Capturing News, Capturing Democracy: Trump and the Voice of America. Oxford University Press.Lea Ypi. 2022. Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History. W. W. Norton.Lea Ypi. 2025. Indignity: A Life Reimagined. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.@panievsky on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedInText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Request a future episode topic hereWe're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything hereReferences and suggested readings:Martin J. Murray. 2025. Insurgent Politics in the Lone Star State: Remembering the Antiwar Movement in Austin, Texas, 1967-1973. University of North Texas Press.Beverly Gage. 2023. G-man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century. Penguin.Gregg L. Michel. 2024. Spying on Students: The FBI, Red Squads, and Student Activists in the 1960s South. LSU Press.Edward H. Miller. 2016. Nut Country: Right-Wing Dallas and the Birth of the Southern Strategy. University of Chicago Press.Doug Rossinow. 1999. The Politics of Authenticity: Liberalism, Christianity, and the New Left in America. Columbia University Press.Kellie Carter Jackson. 2024. We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance. Seal Press.Kellie Carter Jackson. 2020. Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence. University of Pennsylvania Press.Katherine Verdery. 2018. My Life as a Spy: Investigations in a Secret Police File. Duke University Press.Timothy Garton Ash. 19998. The File: A Personal History. Vintage.Alice Embree. 2021. Voice Lessons. Briscoe Center for American History UT-Austin.Email Martin Murray: [email protected] Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

On all our favorite topics: imperialism, homosociality, liberalism, hazing! Make a request for future episodes hereWe're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything hereReferences and suggested readings:John F. Morris. 2025. Students to Soldiers: Secret Military Education at Elite Schools, 1815–1945. University of Virginia Press.Max Egremont. 2012. Forgotten Land: Journeys Among the Ghosts of East Prussia. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Follow John Morris on Instagram @jfm_exclusive Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

On the academy’s decline since 2011.References and suggested readings:Bryan Alexander. 2026. Peak Higher Ed: How to Survive the Looming Academic Crisis. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2023. Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Climate Crisis. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2022. Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education. Johns Hopkins University Press. Tressie McMillan Cottom. 2017. Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy. The New Press.Randi Weingarten. May 6, 2025. Stop Trying to Make Everyone Go to College. New York Times.Luke Kemp. 2025. Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse. Knopf.Sarah McLaughlin. 2025. Authoritarians in the Academy: How the Internationalization of Higher Education and Borderless Censorship Threaten Free Speech. Johns Hopkins University Press.Future Trends Forum. Bryan’s Substack.Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Make a request for future episodes hereWe're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything hereCheers!Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Make a request for future episodes hereWe're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything hereReferences and suggested readings:Laura K. Field. 2025. Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right. Princeton University Press. Publius Decius Mus (Michael Anton). September 5, 2016. “The Flight 93 Election.” Claremont Review of Books.Sam Tanenhaus. 2025. Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America. Penguin Random House.Tanenhaus’s God and Man at Yale episode on American Campus PodcastLaura Field’s websiteFollow Laura on Bluesky @lkatfeldLK Field Notes SubstackText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

1920s style!Make a request for future episodes hereWe're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything hereReferences and suggested readings:Hunter M. Hampton. 2025. The Gridiron Gospel: Faith and College Football in Twentieth-Century America. University of Illinois Press. John Eisenberg. 2017. Ten-Gallon War: The NFL's Cowboys, the AFL's Texans, and the Feud for Dallas's Pro Football Future. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. huntermhampton.com Instagram @hunter_m_hamptonText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

High school organizers have much to teach us about young peoples' political priorities.Make a request for future episodes here!We're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything here!References and suggested readings:Aaron G. Fountain Jr. 2025. High School Students Unite! Teen Activism, Education Reform, and FBI Surveillance in Postwar America. University of North Carolina Press. Heather Ann Thompson. 2017. Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy. Vintage.Elizabeth Hinton. 2022. America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s. Liveright.R. F. Kuang. 2023. Yellowface: A Novel. William Morrow.Deborah Taffa. 2024. Whiskey Tender: A Memoir. Harper Perennial.Follow Aaron Fountain on Bluesky, Instagram, and his websiteText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

ft. John Dewey.Make a request for future episodes here!We're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything here!References and suggested readings:Andrew Feffer. 2019. Bad Faith: Teachers, Liberalism, and the Origins of McCarthyism. Fordham University Press. Daniel Immerwahr. 2018. How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Édouard Louis. 2024. Monique s'évade. Seuil.Édouard Louis. 2023. Who Killed My Father? Translated by Lorin Stein. New Directions. Andrew Feffer on academia.eduCheck out upcoming AAUP eventsHigher Education Labor United (HELU) Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Remember your old school yearbook photos? Where are they now?Make a request for future episodes here!We're prepping for a future mailbag episode, ask us anything here!References and suggested readings:Kate Eichhorn. 2025. School Yearbook: The Untold Story of a Cringey Tradition and Its Digital Afterlife. University of Chicago Press. Michael A. Messner. 2025. The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903-2024. Rutgers University Press. Kate Eichhorn’s faculty pageText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

Trad wives make great teachers.Make a request for future episodes here!We're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything here!References and suggested readings:Catherine Tebaldi. 2025. Alt-Education: Gender, Knowledge and Far-right Metapolitics. Routledge. Janet MacIntosh. 2024. Kill Talk: Language and Military Necropolitics. Oxford University Press.Chelsea Ebin. 2024. Radical Mind: The Origins of Right-Wing Catholic and Protestant Coalition Building. University Press of Kansas.Carl Neville. 2020. Eminent Domain. Repeater.Alexandra Kollontai. 2011. Red Love. Createspace Independent Publishing.Follow Cat Tebaldi on Bluesky @cat-tebaldi Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

On (corporate) foundation investments in knowledge production.Make a request for future episodes here!We're prepping for an upcoming mailbag episode, ask us anything here!References and suggested readings:Emily Hauptmann. 2022. Foundations and American Political Science: The Transformation of a Discipline, 1945-1970. University Press of Kansas. ACP episode on eugenics and the origins of statisticsACP episodes on funding and knowledge production: the academic-military-industrial complex and Gunnar Myrdal’s American DilemmaTimothy V. Kaufman-Osborn. 2023. The Autocratic Academy: Reenvisioning Rule Within America's Universities. Duke University Press.Samantha Rose Hill, ed. 2024. What Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt. Liveright.Emily Hauptmann’s faculty page and ResearchGate pageText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

The straight college strikes back!References and suggested readings:Richard S. Price. October 6, 2025. The straight college strikes back: 1990s backlash against inclusive campuses. Politics, Groups, and Identities.Megan Brenan. May 29, 2025. “Record Party Divide 10 Years After Same-Sex Marriage Ruling.” Gallup.David A. Reichard. 2024. Here Are My People: LGBT College Student Organizing in California. University of Georgia Press.Lawrence Glickman. May 21, 2020. “How White Backlash Controls American Progress.” The Atlantic.Hannah Kaner’s Fallen Gods Trilogy: Faithbreaker (2025); Sunbringer (2024); Godkiller (2023)Ellen Schrecker. 2025. The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s. University of Chicago Press.adventuresincensorship.com Text the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.

References and suggested readings:Alison Bashford. 2025. Decoding the Hand: A History of Science, Medicine, and Magic. University of Chicago Press. Naomi Oreskes. 2003. Plate Tectonics: An Insider's History Of The Modern Theory Of The Earth. CRC Books.Alison Bashford faculty pageText the show here!Support the showBrowse the American Campus bookshelfGet in touch! Email Lauren at [email protected]. You can also anonymously request an episode or give feedback on the show.