Are you in college or know someone who is? The Thomistic Institute Study Abroad Program is now accepting

applications for the spring semester of 2025. Live steps from the Coliseum with like-minded students

and explore the ancient and medieval intellectual tradition of Rome at the Dominican Order's Pontifical University of

St. Thomas Aquinas. Don't miss this life-changing opportunity. Limited spots are available.

For more information, go to toomisticinstitute.org slash Rome. That's toomisticinstitute.org

slash Rome.

Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.

Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.

The lectures on this podcast are organized by university

students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world. To learn more and to attend these events,

visit us at to mystic institute.org.

Okay. First, thanks so much for coming. It's very wonderful just having been on this campus

for a few short minutes, that there's a kind of warmth to it and a kind of excitement to it.

So the depth and degree of intellectual engagement or the effort to host a common conversation is estimable.

And it testifies to the possibility of genuine discourse.

I think many people in contemporary America despair of genuine discourse,

and so they consign themselves to a less noble task or a less noble endeavor.

So to try to host a conversation is wonderful.

Even if it comes off suboptimally or less than maximally,

still the effort to host it is noble.

I'm not an especially controversial person, or I don't typically say very controversial things,

and it's in part because I have very few original ideas. I like to say that I'm just a to mystic hack.

...