Educating Humans
Episodes
73 episodes
72: Benjamin Lyda - How and why we teach students to love writing.
Join James as he sits down with Benjamin Lyda from Scriptorium Writing to discuss writing within a classical and liberal arts framework. They discuss both the how and why of teaching writing and argue that writing is not just a technique, but a...
71: Saving Science from Scientism pt. 2 - Wisdom. Poetic Knowledge and Goethe
Join James as he finishes the mini-series discussing why and how we should seek to save science from the self-desctructive clutches of scientism and reconstitute science within wisdom and recover poetic knowledge as an avenue to science. This e...
70: Kenneth Crowther - An Update from St John Henry Newman College
Join James as he sits down with Kenneth Crowther to hear how the first couple months of a student populated Newman College with has gone.
69: Andrew Kern - On How Harmony Guides Education
Join James as he sits down with Andrew Kern, the president of the CiRCE Institute, to discuss the place of harmony within the classroom.
68. Saving Science from Scientism - part 1: 'Does Science need saving?'
Does science need saving from scientism? What is science and what is scientism? How did we find ourselves with the materialist and technocratic vision of science of today? Join James as he discusses these questions in the first of two episodes ...
67. The Power of Reading in a Post-Literate World
Why should we read? In this episode, Difff and James discuss the startling statistics on the decline of reading across the West, as well as the power that developing our reading capacity can hold.
66. Medieval Enchantment, Difff's PhD
Difff explains his PhD, The Paradox of Enchantment: Syncretising Meteorology, Humoralism, and Demonology on the Early Modern English Stage. The discussion covers questions of enchantment and the 'discarded image' of the medieval m...
65. Brian Williams and Peter Crawford on the Poetic Mode
This episode was recorded live at the 2025 Education for Human Flourishing Conference. James was joined by Dr Brian Williams (Templeton Honors College) and Peter Crawford (Institute for Catholic Liberal Education) to discuss poetry and the poet...
64. The Hideous Strength of AI
In this talk from the Education for Human Flourishing Conference in 2025, Difff discusses the ways that artificial intelligence offers a false promise of restoring the logos, which has been systematically eroded and dismissed over the past mill...
63. Sarah Flynn - Educating for Human Flourishing
Difff interviews Sarah Flynn, founder of Logos Australis and The Liberal Arts Project in anticipation of the upcoming National Classical Education Conference: Educating for Human Flourishing.
62. Joseph Pearce - Tolkien, Shakespeare, and the Great Conversation
Joseph Pearce, the critically acclaimed Catholic author and biographer, addressed the community of St John Henry Newman College and the Brisbane Oratory in Formation in May 2025. His topic of 'Shakespeare and Tolkien: Literary Giants and Why th...
61. Dr Simon Kennedy - Against Worldview
Dr Simon Kennedy joins the podcast to discuss his book Against Worldview. Critiquing the 'worldview project' as a governing intention of Christian education, Simon proposes an active growth in wisdom as an alternative to an intell...
60. Schole Explained: Leisure, Worship, and the Right to Disconnect - Leisure, Part 5
In the final episode about Josef Pieper's Leisure the Basis of Culture, we discuss the connection between leisure and worship and why secular holidays don't cut it. We also compare the totally consuming world of work to the one ring to...
59. Schole Explained: When it's Hard to Celebrate - Leisure, Part 4
Josef Pieper connects our ability for festival and celebration with schole and leisure. If in our schools we manage our celebrations and justify them with key learnings and outcomes, and asses their relative success or failure against a checkli...
58. Schole Explained: Acedia is the Leisure Killer - Leisure, Part 3
In Part 3 of the series on Leisure the Basis of Culture, the discussion is all about acedia and restlessness as the opposite to leisure.
57. Schole Explained: Hard Work is Good? - Leisure, Part 2
Our series explaining schole continues with part two on Leisure: The Basis of Culture. In this episode focusing on Chapter Two, we question how hard work and effort have come to be seen as the litmus test of successful educati...
56. Schole Explained: Two Ways of Knowing - Leisure, Part 1
Schole is an alien concept for those new to classical education. In the first episode in our mini-series on the book Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper we discuss what it means to contemplate, and the difference bet...
55. The Role of Beauty in Education
In this episode James reads a paper that he prepared recently for a classical education symposium. The paper focuses on the role of beauty in education.
54. Dr Scott Crider - Rhetoric
James interviews Dr Scott Crider, Professor of English at the University of Dallas where he has taught for thirty years. His book, The Office of Assertion: An Art of Rhetoric for Academic Essay, is one of James' favourite...
53. Why History?
In another short FAQ episode, Difff and James discuss why history is such an important and central focus of Classical Education.
52. Dr Hugh Chilton - Scots X
In this interview, Difff speaks to Dr Hugh Chilton from The Scots College, Sydney. They discuss ways that Scots is rediscovering elements of classical and liberal arts education through reclaiming the reality of teachers as scholars and academi...
51. Why The Great Books?
For the first episode of 2025, Difff and James ask why schools should read the 'Great Books'. What even are the great books, and what makes them so great? Schools have to read something (though that's perhaps not universally ...
50. Andrew Kern - The 4 Essentials of a Classical Education
For our fiftieth episode, and the last for 2024, we interview Andrew Kern, president of the CIRCE Institute. Answering the question of what are the essential components for a classical education, Andrew discusses the four pillars of coherence, ...
49. What is Classical Education in Under 15 minutes
Attempting the impossible, Difff answers the question 'What is classical education?' in less than fifteen minutes. This episode aims to be a brief, succinct snapshot, so if you're worried there is a lack of nuance and depth, may I recommend to ...
48. Teaching at a Classical School
What is it like to teach in a classical school? As teachers, we are by default telling our students that what we're teaching is worth loving. We're also telling them that learning itself is worth doing. Teachers, therefore, should love learning...