Who’s Winning the War on Higher Education?

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News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Conservatives have decried higher education as a center of liberal indoctrination for decades, and under the second Trump administration, colleges and universities are watching their federal funding be withheld or frozen, their presidents step down, and professors lose their jobs. What can be done to wrest back academic freedom and independence from a vindictive administration? Guest: Sarah Brown, senior editor of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Over the last few days, a lot of ink has been spilled about the legacy of Charlie Kirk.
0:11.9	Some have called him a free speech activist, a champion of debate. But over on Fox News, before we even
0:19.5	knew that Charlie Kirk had died,
0:22.1	he was being lionized for what I'd guess will be his most enduring contribution.
0:27.8	Charlie is the best of America.
0:31.9	This is Fox and Friends host Charlie Hurt.
0:34.6	He went live as soon as he heard what had happened.
0:37.3	Right now, I am praying for Charlie and his beautiful family, and I'm praying for a country,
0:43.0	too. Within minutes, he was talking about how telling it was that Charlie Kirk had been shot
0:48.9	on a college campus. I think a lot of it has also to do with the idea that there was so much, especially on college campuses, that you're not allowed to talk about.
1:01.0	And that there is so much indoctrination on college campuses today.
1:07.0	And Charlie Kirk recognized that. He recognized it very early.
1:17.0	Charlie Kirk dropped out of college himself. College indoctrination was a favorite topic of his.
1:24.1	And once Kirk's alleged shooter got caught, some even found ways to blame higher education itself.
1:29.5	Right-wing commentator Dinesh D'Souza tweeted that the shooter was every conservative parents' worst nightmare. Then he speculated the shooter had been radicalized by a sly scheming
1:35.3	leftist professor. Arizona Republican Kerry Lake begged parents not to send their kids to college,
1:42.4	lest they become shooters too.
1:46.6	There's a problem with this analysis.
1:55.5	I would say that, you know, we don't have any evidence of the suspect in this case being radicalized by any college professor.
1:59.7	That's Sarah Brown from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
2:02.9	Like, we have no evidence at that at this point
2:04.5	where the authorities are still trying to figure out a motive.
	...

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