American higher education is under attack. Project 2025 laid out the battle plan pretty clearly: Get rid of the Department of Education, shut off federal funding, take control of the accreditation system, and take down diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. And in the end, change what students are encouraged to study and what professors are allowed to te ... Show More
Jul 28
What if humans went extinct next Friday?
What comes after the human? We’re living through multiple crises — ecological, technological, political. But beneath all of that is something even deeper: a crisis of the self. Who are we, really? How did we come to see ourselves as separate from the world, from each other, from ... Show More
59m 31s
Mar 2025
Trump’s Escalating War With Higher Education
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has put the American university system on notice.It has pressed for changes, opened investigations — and in some cases withheld critical funds.Alan Blinder, who covers education in America, explains how schools are responding to the press ... Show More
27m 50s
Apr 2025
Princeton’s President Responds to Attacks on Higher Education
The Trump administration is targeting higher education. Colleges and universities across the United States are faced with the threat of funding freezes over their handling of free speech, anti-semitism and transgender issues, among other topics, on campus. Princeton University ... Show More
32m 44s
Apr 2025
The University President Willing to Fight Trump
This week, we interviewed two people with leading roles in the rapidly escalating conflict between the Trump administration and American higher education. Today, we speak with the president of Princeton University, Christopher L. Eisgruber, about the institution’s path forward in ... Show More
38m 49s
Apr 2025
The Conservative Activist Pushing Trump to Attack U.S. Colleges
This week, we interviewed two people with leading roles in the rapidly escalating conflict between the Trump administration and American higher education.Today, we speak with Christopher Rufo, who led the conservative critique of, and assault on, critical race theory and diversit ... Show More
43m 49s
Dec 2024
Amy J. Binder and Jeffrey L. Kidder, "The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today" (U Chicago Press, 2022)
The past six years have been marked by a contentious political atmosphere that has touched every arena of public life, including higher education. Though most college campuses are considered ideologically progressive, how can it be that the right has been so successful in mobiliz ... Show More
1h 13m
Oct 2024
What’s It Like To Be A College Voter In A Swing State This Election?
Do you want to know what’s happening on college campuses this election cycle? Then look no further, because JVN went to the heart of the matter in 2024 swing state, Michigan, at the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy. JVN got to talk to returning guest and Gettin ... Show More
57m 46s
Apr 2025
Why Trump’s university crackdown is driving professors off US campuses
With academics leaving the US, funding cuts looming over universities for alleged failures to combat antisemitism, and foreign students facing deportation for pro-Palestinian activism, the Trump administration’s policies are being felt at colleges across the United States. What’s ... Show More
25m 11s