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Higher Ed Now is a production of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. It is a podcast concerning issues and policy in America's higher education system.
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Do you ever feel like reality is shifting beneath your feet? Veteran journalist Ray Suarez spent forty years covering elections, civil wars, and pandemics that shaped the way we live. He’s seen entire countries flipped upside down and right side up… and now he’s here to bring a sensible voice to our endless doom-scrolling. Each week, Ray hosts conversations with journalists, leaders and policy experts that explore how people from New Hampshire to New Guinea are navigating our rapidly changin ...
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A new interview series from the American Iranian Council, a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to improving relations between the US and Iran. This interview series covers all topics related to Iran, its culture and its people.
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Anne Applebaum on Autocracy in America, and What’s at Stake in November
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Anne Applebaum argues that autocracy is spreading to democratic states, and the reason why is that illiberalism is good international business. She warns the seeds of autocracy have already been sown in the United States, so how can we protect ourselves during another contentious presidential election season? Ray Suarez sits down with Anne Applebau…
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In August, Ukrainian troops swept into Russia's Kursk region, and seized over 500 square miles of Russian territory. It’s the first time that Russia has been invaded since World War II. In Moscow, President Putin has relied on aid from China, Iran, and North Korea, but some analysts believe that his most consequential support may come from a second…
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If it's ‘America First’, Who is American Enough?
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Immigrants to America have always faced resistance, and have always—over time—assimilated and become vital parts of America. But in a political era of “America First'', what does it mean to be an immigrant in the 21st century? And who decides who is “American” enough? Ray Suarez has criss-crossed the country to speak to new Americans from all corne…
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Core Texts and Enduring Questions for Today’s Students
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ACTA’s Academic Affairs Fellow Veronica Bryant is joined by two distinguished educators and advocates for core texts in liberal education: Dr. Charlotte Thomas, Executive Director of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, or ACTC, and Dr. José María Torralba, board member of ACTC. Dr. Thomas is a Professor of Philosophy at Mercer University, w…
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In May, Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, presented a sprawling “road map” for regulating artificial intelligence. But tech experts have called the plan “pathetic”, and many critics believe Washington is out of touch. And California’s legislature will soon vote on a plan that would put guardrails on the biggest AI players. This week, we're air…
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Earlier this century, reports indicated a little alcohol might even improve health. Moderation was the watchword. Those reports have been overtaken by a new generation of research which indicates the healthy amount of alcohol is no alcohol. But alcoholic beverages are deeply embedded in the brain. So if it’s so bad for us, why can’t we quit drinkin…
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Confessions of a Black Conservative: Glenn Loury
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Those who listen to "The Glenn Show" will know that Professor Glenn Loury has published an extraordinary autobiography. Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative breathes the spirit of candor, intellectual openness, and personal humility that has characterized his life and work. Professor Loury is a Paulson Fellow at the Manhattan Instit…
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For the most part, the world has gone back to normal. We’re getting on planes… going to concerts… but many Americans haven’t changed their pandemic drinking habits. And this increased consumption trend is especially high for older Americans. In 2020, alcohol accounted for more than 11,000 deaths among those 65 and up – that’s an 18 percent increase…
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Stuart Stevens: The Lincoln Project is Taunting Trump… And So is Kamala Harris
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President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on July 21, and in the few weeks since, Vice President Kamala Harris has garnered enough delegates to become the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. Biden had trailed Trump in virtually every poll, but Harris has rallied the hopes of her party, as her momentum continues to upen…
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How Cocaine Blew Through the Island of Peace
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Ecuadorian journalist Jorge Imbaquingo says that his country used to be, “an island of peace.” But now it’s caught in the middle of Latin America’s bloodiest drug war. In our last episode, we heard about Ecuador’s historic vote to stop oil extraction in the Amazon. Today, we’ll hear about why its President, Daniel Noboa, nixed those plans to fund h…
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Jonathan Turley: We Must Live Up to the Promise of Free Speech
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Renowned legal scholar, professor, columnist, and commentator Jonathan Turley joins ACTA's Dr. Steven McGuire on Higher Ed Now to discuss why free speech has always been America’s most revolutionary and indispensable right; how academia spawned the latest, and perhaps most dangerous, campaign against free speech; and why an enriching college experi…
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Last August, Ecuador passed a historic referendum that was more than a decade in the making. Oil accounts for roughly a third of the country’s exports, but Ecuadorians voted to stop extraction at a major production site deep in the Amazon. Since the vote, Ecuador’s “Keep It in the Ground” movement has hit some speed bumps. In collaboration with our…
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Ray Suarez sits down with Dr. Timothy Naftali, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s SIPA, to examine Biden’s foreign policy legacy… and how country's around the world are preparing for a new US President in 2025. Guest: Dr. Timothy Naftali, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s SIPA Host: Ray Suarez If you appreciate this epi…
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A few weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the US Congress, and he showed no signal that his government is open to a ceasefire with Hamas. President Biden had hoped to broker an Israeli-Hamas peace deal before leaving office, but an attack from Hezbollah in the Golan Heights—and Israel's military response—could dash any…
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Donald Trump’s anti-establishment message has galvanized tech leaders across the US, including in former Democratic Party stronghold, Silicon Valley. In the second half of our election special, we’ll hear from This American Life’s Zoe Chace about what happened when Michigan Republicans took his advice and actually tried to buck the system. Then, WI…
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Biden is Out, Harris is In: How DNC Donors Reset the Race
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Since Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris raised hundreds of millions in small dollar donations. Harris has received endorsements from virtually every major Democratic Party leader, and her path to nomination – and command of the dnc campaign war chest – appears inevitable. But was it the big money DNC donors who really …
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The surprising success of Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Olympics gave Vladimir Putin the political capital to invade Crimea, and it was all built on an elaborate state-sponsored doping program. Russia received little more than a slap on the wrist by the International Olympic Committee, so President Putin was emboldened to attack Ukraine in 202…
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The Olympics are Back, But Does Anyone Care?
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It's been a wild few weeks in US news... but remember the Olympics? After COVID-19 threw a curveball in Tokyo, the Olympic Games are back. Since the Olympics as we know them started in 1896, they have only been canceled for drastic events like World Wars and a pandemic. The 2020 Tokyo games were postponed a year due to lockdown restrictions, and gl…
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The Groundwork of Campus Civil Discourse: Mark Dalhouse and Ari Miller:
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ACTA’s College Debates and Discourse (CD&D) Alliance has launched more than 300 Braver Angels debates and workshops, engaging 11,000 students at colleges and universities across the nation. CD&D employs a highly collaborative approach that engages students and faculty to lead civil debates on controversial topics. In this episode of Higher Ed Now, …
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A gunman just tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump weeks after he was convicted of election interference… Joe Biden’s campaign is in freefall… and all along voters have resented a choice between two troubled candidates. Americans — from the largest urban centers to the smallest rural towns — are deeply pessimistic about the state of t…
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Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear Doomsday Scenario
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For generations, a nuclear war has been assumed to be so horrible that no one has used these weapons since 1945. But what have we done in the last 80 years to pull ourselves back from the edge of nuclear destruction? In her new book “Nuclear War: A Scenario”, pulitzer-prize finalist Annie Jacobsen explores a ticking-clock scenario. Based on dozens …
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un just signed a mutual defense deal that feels a lot more like 1964 than 2024. In part two of our series, John Delury, associate professor of Chinese studies at Yonsei University, explains why Putin is taking his relationship with Kim to the next level, and whether the UN Security C…
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William B. Allen: Montesquieu, Madison, and the Mission of a Liberal Arts Education
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ACTA's president, Michael B. Poliakoff, and vice president of policy, Bradley Jackson, engage scholar, author and Professor Emeritus of Michigan State University, William B. Allen in candid conversation about his lifelong love of books and learning, the Founders, the philosophical thought leaders whose seminal works cut a path for the emergence of …
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Putin Meets Kim pt. 1: A Handshake Worth A Thousand Guns?
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On June 18th, Russian President Vladimir Putin made an unprecedented trip to Pyongyang. It was the first time he’d set foot inside North Korea in nearly 25 years and marks a new low point in his war against Ukraine. This week, we’re running a two-part series about the recent courtship between President Putin and North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. In…
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On June 9th, Europe's European Union members voted for their next parliament. The election tends to be a practical and mostly predictable affair, where parties across the continent build centrist coalitions, but major victories for the far-right in countries like France, Germany, and Italy are shaking things up. In 2023, journalist Julia Ebner join…
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Abraham Leno on the Congolese Leading the Way to Economic Security
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The recent spate of violence in Sub-Saharan Africa is centuries in the making, and finding solutions isn’t easy. And when we talk about lifting the world out of poverty, Africa is at the center of any meaningful discussion. Abraham Leno, Executive Director of the Eastern Congo Initiative, has worked on the African continent for decades, and he join…
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The Democratic Republic of Congo sits just south of the so-called “coup belt” in Africa – an area stretching across the entire continent, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. With more than half a dozen attempts in the region since 2021, social scientists are beginning to call the coups a “contagion”. As Congo faces the challenges of post-coloni…
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Jeffrey Rosen: The Classics' Critical Role in Education
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ACTA President Michael Poliakoff interviews Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center and professor of law at George Washington University Law School. In this vibrant conversation, they explore Dr. Rosen’s new book, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined Am…
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