Victor Davis Hanson on Honor, Tradition, and Optimism
The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour
Hillsdale College
4.8 • 649 Ratings
🗓️ 1 August 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Guests: Victor Davis Hanson & Oren Cass
First, we hear excerpts from Victor Davis Hanson’s address on the subject of living an honorable and virtuous life, given at Hillsdale College's 2025 commencement ceremonies. Hanson is the Wayne and Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. And host Scot Bertram talks with Oren Cass, chief economist at American Compass, about the reappraisal of free market ideas on the American right and the new American Compass essay collection The New Conservatives: Restoring America's Commitment to Family, Community, and Industry.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country. |
| 0:25.1 | Changing that psychology, recognizing that actually good jobs that pay high wages, that's an output of the economy. |
| 0:32.1 | That's one of the things we need our markets to do can be very powerful in helping us think about, okay, therefore, what kinds of |
| 0:39.3 | policies do we need if we want our markets to do that? This is your host, Scott Bertram. Welcome |
| 0:45.5 | to the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. That was |
| 0:52.5 | Orrin Cass, chief economist at American Compass, an editor of |
| 0:56.9 | the recent book, The New Conservatives, Restoring America's Commitment to Family, Community, |
| 1:03.0 | and Industry. We'll go in depth with Orne about that book later on in today's program. First, |
| 1:09.5 | we will hear excerpts from Victor Davis-Hansons commencement |
| 1:12.6 | address at Hillsdale College in March of 2025. Victor Davis-Hansett is Wayne and Marsha Busky |
| 1:19.2 | distinguished fellow in history at Hillsdale College, also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, |
| 1:24.9 | author of a number of books, most recently The End of Everything and the Dying Citizen. |
| 1:31.0 | Victor Davis-Hanson gave the commencement address at the 173rd commencement ceremonies at Hillsdale, May 11, 2025. |
| 1:39.1 | It's titled Honor, Tradition, and Optimism. |
| 1:42.3 | You can find the full commencement address at Hillsdale College's |
| 1:46.4 | YouTube channel. Dr. Hanson begins by noting Hillsdale's principled stand and its independence |
| 1:52.8 | from federal influence. Hillsdale declination of government money does not hinge on the particular |
| 1:59.1 | administration in power, Republican or Democrat. |
| 2:03.6 | Instead, its creed is that the federal government should not dictate to private, autonomous |
| 2:09.6 | colleges that do not seek its federal subsidies. And then again, when the Department of Education |
| 2:16.6 | seeks to restore civic and classical education, |
| 2:20.3 | it is also looking to Hillsdale. |
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