Episodi

  • Emily Rounds: A Primer on Accreditation Reform

    Emily Rounds: A Primer on Accreditation Reform
    Oct 2 2026
    ACTA Senior Research Fellow Kyle Beltramini welcomes back Emily Rounds, Senior Higher Education Policy Advisor at Third Way, to dissect the possibility of massive changes to accreditation. Mr. Beltramini and Ms. Rounds evaluate the proposed regulatory changes brought up during the meeting of the Department of Education’s accreditation committee, NACIQI. They discuss and debate the nuances of key issues like the Trump Administration's attempt to revoke the American Bar Association’s accrediting status, a proposal to allow universities to maintain multiple accreditors, a revamp of transfer credit rules, and more.
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    36 min
  • Douglas Ginsburg: Renewing the Declaration's Promise

    Douglas Ginsburg: Renewing the Declaration's Promise
    Oct 8 2026
    ACTA President Michael Poliakoff welcomes Senior Judge Douglas Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and a member of ACTA’s National Commission on American History and Civic Education. Also a civic educator, Judge Ginsburg recently released a PBS documentary entitled We Hold These Truths: The Global Search for Liberty. The documentary examines how the Declaration of Independence has both inspired worldwide struggles for independence and liberty, and also fueled domestic movements like abolitionism and women’s suffrage. He and Dr. Poliakoff also explore the troubling decline of civic knowledge among college students and how the civics revival movement is successfully restoring the study of U.S. history and government to American universities.
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    48 min
  • Ryan Bangert: The Arc of Religious Liberty in American History

    Ryan Bangert: The Arc of Religious Liberty in American History
    Sep 14 2026
    ACTA President Michael Poliakoff welcomes Ryan Bangert, Senior Vice President at the Alliance Defending Freedom and Visiting Instructor in Law at the University of Austin at Texas. He specializes in the American constitutional tradition of religious liberty. From the emergence of religious beliefs as an inalienable right, to the evolution of our understanding of freedom of religion 250 years into the American experiment, the conversation traces the past, present, and future of religious liberty in the United States.
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    48 min
  • Stephen Trachtenberg: A University President's Guide to Rebuilding the American Story

    Stephen Trachtenberg: A University President's Guide to Rebuilding the American Story
    Aug 31 2026
    ACTA President Michael Poliakoff welcomes Dr. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president emeritus of George Washington University and member of ACTA’s National Commission on American History and Civic Education. A distinguished university leader, Dr. Trachtenberg examines the systemic breakdown of American history education in America. He and Dr. Poliakoff explore the potential for reform, highlighting how university leaders, law associations, and governing boards can reinstate essential history requirements while avoiding the pitfalls of heavy-handed legislative control.
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    47 min
  • H.R. McMaster & John Hillen: Teaching Military History Reveals America’s Complexity and Character

    H.R. McMaster & John Hillen: Teaching Military History Reveals America’s Complexity and Character
    Aug 24 2026
    On this episode of Higher Ed Now Civics Edition, ACTA President Michael Poliakoff moderates a bracing and illuminating conversation with Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and former U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and Executive-in-Residence in Duke’s University’s Political Science Department and Distinguished Lecturing Fellow at the university’s Center for Politics John Hillen on what makes America exceptional in history and among all nations even today and how exposure to all its intricacies will help create the next generation of informed patriots. Both are members of ACTA’s National Commission on American History and Civic Education and contributors to an upcoming volume of essays on what every college student should know about American history. A very special video version of this episode is available on YouTube now!
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    1 ora e 1 min
  • Vincent Phillip Muñoz: Faith and Free Speech

    Vincent Phillip Muñoz: Faith and Free Speech
    Aug 18 2026
    On this episode of Higher Ed Now Civics Edition, ACTA President Michael Poliakoff speaks with Vincent Phillip Muñoz, the Tocqueville Professor of Political Science and Concurrent Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame as well as the Founding Director of Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government. Professor Muñoz is also the author of the 2022 book, Religious Liberty and the American Founding: Natural Rights and the Original Meanings of the First Amendment Religion. The lively conversation covers the conflicts over religion that shook the Founders, separation of church and state, and the perils of student self-censorship in today’s academy. A very special video version of this episode is available on YouTube now!
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    56 min
  • Michael Auslin: The Making of a National Treasure

    Michael Auslin: The Making of a National Treasure
    Aug 3 2026
    On this episode of Higher Ed Now Civics Edition, ACTA President Michael Poliakoff speaks with Michael Auslin, the Payson J. Treat Distinguished Research Fellow in Contemporary Asia at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Professor Auslin is the author of "National Treasure: How the Declaration of Independence Made America", a dual history of the Declaration of Independence. The new book details both the physical artifact’s journey from dark storage rooms to the National Archives’ centerpiece and how Jefferson’s words and the spirit of the document inspired generations of Americans, from abolitionists to anarchists. A very special video version of this episode is available on YouTube now!
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    1 ora e 7 min
  • Aimee Guidera: Higher Education and the Nation's Founding Aspirations

    Aimee Guidera: Higher Education and the Nation's Founding Aspirations
    Jul 20 2026
    In April 2026, Dr. Bryan Paul, Curricular Fellow for ACTA’s College Debates and Discourse Alliance, joined Aimee Guidera, former Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia, to organize and lead a student-driven civil debate at Harvard University. Sponsored by Harvard's Institute of Politics, where Secretary Guidera served as a Spring 2026 Resident Fellow, this Braver College Debate centered on a timely and critical question: "Has the United States lived up to its promises in the Declaration of Independence?" This episode captures Dr. Paul’s conversation with Secretary Guidera immediately following the debate.
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    30 min