The Benson Center podcast explores topics in Western philosophy, politics, literature, and history with adventurous disregard for academic fashions and intellectual trends. Host Shilo Brooks invites listeners to pull up a chair in an intellectual laboratory where great questions and great books are explored in the spirit of truth-seeking, and conversations are had in a candid style free of scholarly jargon. New episodes in season four air the second Tuesday of each month through Dec. 13, 2022. Season five begins Jan. 10, 2023, with Matthew Burgess taking over as host.

Fall 2022 Release Schedule

• Aug. 9, 2022: A farewell from Shilo Brooks, and a new host!
• Aug. 9, 2022: Taylor Jaworski on the discipline of economic history.
• Sept. 13, 2022: Deirdre McCloskey on how capitalism cultivates virtue.
• Oct. 11, 2022: Alex Priou on Plato’s “Republic” and other writings.
• Nov. 8, 2022: Alan Kahan on the continued relevance of Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America.”
• Dec. 13, 2022: Matthew Burgess on political polarization and free inquiry in higher education.

Visit The Free Mind podcast website to learn more, listen and subscribe.

Off

Off

Off

Off

Off

The national Workshop in Heterodox Moral and Political Philosophy will be held for the first time at the University of Colorado Boulder under the auspices of the Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization this spring. This is the third iteration of the workshop, which was founded and organized by Daniel Jacobson, Director of the Benson Center.  The workshop takes as its purpose to give sympathetic but not uncritical attention to work in progress from younger (primarily not yet tenured) philosophers who work on ideas at odds with the prevailing orthodoxies of the discipline. A group of senior philosophers open to heterodox viewpoints also comments on the papers and serves as mentors.

The invitation-only workshop is the only one of its kind in the country. In addition to providing feedback for works in progress, it also serves to establish a network of open-minded philosophers who support academic freedom and the open exchange of ideas on controversial topics. The workshop endorses no particular ideology, and civil disagreement is expected and encouraged.

Previous workshops have featured papers on such topics as immigration, moral grandstanding, abortion, the nature of conservativism, neo-liberalism, how the notion of epistemic injustice can be applied to conservatives in academia, and other important topics on which professional philosophy imposes pressure to conform to a narrow range of views.

The Workshop in Heterodox Moral and Political Philosophy is made possible by a generous grant from the Snider Foundation. 

Off

Off

Congratulations to former Benson Center Scholar in Residence David Yee, whose article,  was recently published online by Cambridge University Press. The article presents a social history of the Coalición de los Pueblos Mixtecos Oaxaqueños (Coalition of Mixtec Oaxacan Communities, CPMO), a grouping of mutual-aid associations formed by Indigenous migrants in Mexico City during the middle of the twentieth century. Yee (PhD History, Stony Brook University) is an historian of modern Latin America with a focus on urban studies in Mexico. He wrote the article during his ���������� Boulder residency in 2019-20. Yee currently teaches at Metropolitan State University of Denver

Off

Upcoming episodes explore Alexander Hamilton, Friedrich Nietzsche, higher education, modern progressivism and more 

The Benson Center podcast explores topics in Western philosophy, politics, literature, and history with adventurous disregard for academic fashions and intellectual trends. Host Shilo Brooks, Benson Center Associate Faculty Director and Faculty Director of the Engineering Leadership Program in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, invites listeners to pull up a chair in an intellectual laboratory where great questions and great books are explored in the spirit of truth-seeking, and conversations are had in a candid style free of scholarly jargon. New episodes in season 2 air the second Tuesday of each month through May 10, 2022. Visit The Free Mind podcast website to learn more, listen and subscribe.

Premiering Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022: "The Political Thought of Alexander Hamilton"

In this episode, Bradford Wilson and Brooks explore Hamilton’s life and intellectual legacy. They discuss Hamilton’s unusual upbringing, the enduring importance of his political thought, and the fateful contributions he made to the form and structure of the American economy. Wilson is Executive Director of the James Madison Program at Princeton University and fellow at Princeton’s Butler College. He’s also been an Erskine-Canterbury Fellow at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch New Zealand, authored several books, and recently edited a two-volume edition of the Political Writings of Alexander Hamilton with his colleague Carson Holloway. 

Premiering Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022: “The Disciplinary Corporation”

This episode features a lecture by Kevin Williamson, correspondent at National Review and author of several books, including his most recent book, Big White Ghetto. Williamson, who cohosts the Mad Dogs and Englishmen podcast, has worked as a newspaper editor in India and the United States, served as the theater critic for The New Criterion, and taught at The King’s College, New York. The Benson Center was delighted to present Williamson’s investigation into how progressive business elites have created disciplinary corporations. These corporations demand political and ideological conformism to progressive ideals in exchange for employment, education, and access to technology.  

Premiering Tuesday, March 8, 2022: “An Introduction to the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche"

Jeremy Fortier and Brooks explore the thought and writings of 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. They discuss Nietzsche’s popular appeal, his complicated legacy, his criticism of the Western Tradition, his style of writing, and the basic problems his philosophy confronts. Fortier is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the department of Political Science at the City College of New York and author of the 2020 book, The Challenge of Nietzsche, published by the University of Chicago Press. 

Premiering Tuesday, April 12, 2022: “History of the Benson Center”

Robert Pasnau and Brooks discuss the Benson Center's creation and how its mission to foster free inquiry, heterodox ideas and diverse political perspectives has affected life at ���������� Boulder and across the nation. Robert Pasnau directed the Benson Center from 2011 to 2019 and is presently Professor of Distinction in the department of Philosophy.

Premiering Tuesday, May 10, 2022: “Allan Bloom and Higher Education”

Paul Ulrich and Brooks explore Allan Bloom’s 1987 book, The Closing of the American Mind. They discuss Bloom’s view of American higher education, the souls of American students, and the effects of popular music on the formation of the American mind. Ulrich is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Intellectual Foundations Program at Carthage College. Ulrich also developed the Western Heritage course at Carthage, and was director of the college’s honors program for many years. 

Season 3 of The Free Mind podcast premieres June 1, 2022 and will feature Daniel Mahoney on cancel culture, Alexander Duff on Martin Heidegger, and Deirdre McCloskey on capitalism and virtue.

Subscribe to The Free Mind podcast.

Off

The Free Mind, a new podcast from the Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization, premieres Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. 

The podcast explores topics in Western philosophy, politics, literature, and history with adventurous disregard for academic fashions and intellectual trends.

Host Shilo Brooks, Benson Center associate faculty director and faculty director of the Engineering Leadership Program in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, invites listeners to pull up a chair in an intellectual laboratory where great questions and great books are explored in the spirit of truth-seeking, and conversations are had in a candid style free of scholarly jargon. 

New episodes in Season 1 will air on the second Tuesday of each month, from Sept. 14 through Dec.14, 2021.

Visit The Free Mind podcast website to learn more, listen and subscribe.

Upcoming Episodes

Premieres Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021

Shilo Brooks, Benson Center Associate Faculty Director

"Introduction to the Free Mind Podcast"

In this brief opening segment, Shilo Brooks welcomes listeners to engage with professors and public intellectuals in a venue where good faith is granted at the door, and the clear and reasonable expression of ideas is valued more highly than adherence to any ideology or school of thought.

Airs Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021

Wayne Ambler, "The Enduring Importance of Rome"

Season One of The Free Mind podcast launches with a conversation between Shilo Brooks and Wayne Ambler, associate professor emeritus at ���������� Boulder and former dean and director of the Rome Program at the University of Dallas’ Rome Campus. Ambler explores the city’s historical development, its influence on Western Liberalism and the American Founding, the lessons it can teach today’s students, and its place in the broader history of political philosophy.

"Rome represents a reservoir of case studies, like no other place that I can think of. In its long history, it gives us all sorts of political and social problems that we can study. Social and political problems experienced by a sophisticated society on the grand scale."

Premieres Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021

Glenn Loury, "Unspeakable Truths about Racial Inequality in America"

Glenn Loury, the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of Economics at Brown University, is not only an acclaimed economic theorist, he’s also among the leading critics writing on racial inequality in America from a heterodox point of view.

"I know that for the sake of the dignity and self-respect of my people and for the future of my country, we American intellectuals of all colors must never lose sight of what a moral way of life consists in. And yet we are in danger of doing precisely that, I fear."

Premieres Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021

Lucas Morel, "The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass"

Lucas Morel is the John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics and head of the Politics Department at Washington and Lee University. In this episode Morel discusses Frederick Douglass: the political lessons of his autobiographies; his thoughts on freedom, religion, and the Constitution; and how his reflections on slavery and race enrich contemporary civil rights discussions.

"Douglass was asked one time, if you were president of the United States, what would you be known for? And after Douglass stopped laughing, he said equality under the law, equality under the law, that he was just rock solid on that." 

Airs Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021

Patty Limerick, "The Legacy of Conquest and the History of the American West"

History professor Patty Limerick is founding director of the ���������� Boulder Center of the American West, and author of The Legacy of Conquest. We explore her challenge to, and affection for, the myth of the West, the continuing relevance of applied history, and the role humor should play in public and academic discourse.

“We so have to remember about the people of the past is that they live on the edge of a future that they cannot see, which we will see because time has rolled on, and they did not have that privilege.”

Premieres Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021

Jeff Black, "The Great Books and Liberal Education" 

Jeff Black is a professor at St. John’s College, a unique great books college with campuses in Annapolis, Maryland and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Black explores what the so-called “great books” are, how reading them can provide a liberal education, and why they’re more relevant than ever in today’s political and cultural landscape.

"I think if the book is truly great, what you find is that it has two qualities, and I call those qualities intensity and extent or comprehensiveness."

Premieres Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021

Joshua Katz, "Cancel Culture and its Discontents"

Joshua Katz is Costen Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Classics at Princeton. Katz’s uncontroversial intellectual pursuits and his warm and fair-minded demeanor make the story of his attempted "cancellation" at Princeton all the more surprising. Katz reflects on his experience and discusses potential threats to the truth-seeking mission of higher education.

"Outside marginal though very important exceptions, such as child pornography and incitement to violence, free speech is a bedrock principle. It is an American principle, not a partisan matter. And if we cannot agree even on this, then we truly are lost as a nation."

Premieres Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021

Colleen Sheehan, "Jane Austen's Emma"

The final episode of Season One features Colleen Sheehan, professor of political science and director of graduate studies at Arizona State University’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. Sheehan discusses what makes Jane Austen’s characters so enduring, the lessons Austen teaches about love in her novel Emma, and what readers can learn from Austen’s complex use of language and penetrating psychological insights into human nature.

"I think with Austen, it's the combination of just how incredibly brilliant and insightful and witty and provocative she is....She never lectures us, but she shows us how we could become better people and how that might lead us down a path to a happier life." 

Off