Episodes

  • Max Schanzenbach: An Insider’s Guide to Divestment

    Max Schanzenbach: An Insider’s Guide to Divestment
    Jun 30 2026
    ACTA’s chief of staff and SVP, Armand Alacbay, interviews Max Schanzenbach, the Seigle Family Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law. Professor Schanzenbach’s work focuses on the intersection between economy and law, and he recently coauthored multiple papers on university divestment policies. In this conversation, he explains the crucial nuances that most discussions about universities divesting from Israel fail to consider.
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    37 mins
  • Mark T. Mitchell: How Patrick Henry College Sets the National Standard

    Mark T. Mitchell: How Patrick Henry College Sets the National Standard
    Jun 22 2026
    ACTA’s Academic Affairs Fellow Veronica Bryant is joined by Dr. Mark T. Mitchell, Dean of Academic Affairs at Patrick Henry College as well as the author of numerous books on political theory. A small Christian school in Virginia, Patrick Henry College is one of only eight colleges in the country to receive an A+ from ACTA’s What Will They Learn?© Project for its rigorous and high-quality core curriculum. Dr. Mitchell walks Veronica through the extraordinary structure of the classical liberal arts education offered at Patrick Henry College.
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    52 mins
  • David Rohrbacher: Inside New College’s Curriculum Turnaround

    David Rohrbacher: Inside New College’s Curriculum Turnaround
    May 12 2026
    ACTA’s Veronica Bryant welcomes David Rohrbacher, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs and Professor of Classics at the New College of Florida. NCF made headlines after they skyrocketed from an “F” grade to a “B+” rating in ACTA’s What Will They Learn? Project (WWTL), becoming this year's "most improved school." WWTL assigns letter grades based on the rigor of the core curriculum at over 1,100 American colleges and universities. This improvement was thanks to a total overhaul of their general education program in 2024. Professor Rohrbacher discusses how that change came about and the innovative academic reforms that engage NCF students in substantive, serious coursework.
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    37 mins
  • Lucas Morel: Frederick Douglass's Evolving View of Abraham Lincoln

    Lucas Morel: Frederick Douglass's Evolving View of Abraham Lincoln
    Apr 23 2026
    On this episode of Higher Ed Now, ACTA’s Michael Poliakoff hosts Washington & Lee University’s John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics, Lucas Morel. Professor Morel currently serves on the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission and ACTA’s National Commission on American History and Civic Education. He has also co-edited the book "Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln,” a groundbreaking new volume on how abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s view of Abraham Lincoln evolved as America navigated its way through the Civil War and, eventually, to the Emancipation Proclamation. A very special video version of this episode is available on YouTube now!
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    50 mins
  • Glenn Corn: A Former CIA Agent’s Case for Language Learning

    Glenn Corn: A Former CIA Agent’s Case for Language Learning
    Apr 10 2026
    ACTA’s Academic Affairs Fellow Veronica Bryant welcomes Glenn Corn, who spent 35 years working in the national security and international affairs community. Mr. Corn served as CIA chief of station for four different Eurasian and Middle Eastern countries. He now teaches graduate-level courses in International Affairs and Security Studies at the Institute of World Politics. In addition to his teaching work, Mr. Corn provides strategic advising and consulting, acts as a visiting fellow at George Mason University's law school's National Security Institute, and serves as an expert contributor to the Cipher Brief. Mr. Corn compellingly argues that language learning is essential, both for an intelligence career and for national security.
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    30 mins
  • Wagner, Colonialism, and K-Pop: How Language Learning Connects Us to Culture and History

    Wagner, Colonialism, and K-Pop: How Language Learning Connects Us to Culture and History
    Mar 3 2026
    ACTA’s Academic Affairs Fellow Veronica Bryant is joined by Doctor Marie Kawthar Daouda, lecturer in French at the University of Oxford’s Oriel College. Their conversation ranges from language’s role in shaping national and cultural identity, to how language learning changes one’s thinking and worldview, to the explosion in popularity of Korean in defiance of the sagging enrollment faced by other foreign language programs. Dr. Daouda was born and raised in Morocco and moved to France alone at 17 where she studied French, English, and Classics at Lycée Henri-IV and La Sorbonne. Her research focuses on the artistic representations of good and evil in periods of political and religious crisis. She is the author of Not Your Victim: How our Obsession with Race Entraps and Divides Us, where she argues against a simplistic worldview where all the evil in the world is downstream of racism and colonialism, in favor of a more nuanced and historically-literate understanding of how the past informs the present. Dr. Daouda is also a regular contributor to The Critic and The Daily Telegraph.
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    48 mins
  • David Eubanks: How Is Accreditation Broken (And How Can We Fix It?)

    David Eubanks: How Is Accreditation Broken (And How Can We Fix It?)
    Nov 13 2025
    ACTA’s Kyle Beltramini welcomes David Eubanks, assistant vice president of the Office of Institutional Assessment and Research at Furman University. Professor Eubanks is an expert on the philosophy and practice of leadership in higher education, particularly learning outcomes assessments, strategic planning, and institutional effectiveness. His work emphasizes using data-driven processes to inform decision-making. He recently completed a term on the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI). Professor Eubanks and Mr. Beltramini discuss accreditation’s essential role in assuring academic quality, how the system has degraded over time, and how it can be effectively reformed.
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    45 mins
  • Thad Westbrook: Leading Higher Education Reform at the University of South Carolina

    Thad Westbrook: Leading Higher Education Reform at the University of South Carolina
    Oct 9 2025
    ACTA’s Nick Down interviews Thad Westbrook, chairman of the University of South Carolina’s (USC) Board of Trustees. Mr. Westbrook earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from USC and his J.D. from the USC School of Law. A member of the USC Board since 2010, he spearheaded the creation of USC’s Center for American Civic Leadership and Public Discourse and has helped lead the movement to break up the higher education accreditation monopoly.
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    46 mins