Episode 61: Hildegard College: Restoring Polymathy and Redemptive Entrepreneurship
Description Christopher Perrin welcomes Dr. Matthew J. Smith, founder of Hildegard College, to discuss why he left a tenure-track literature career to build a deliberately small, relationship-centered “micro college” in Southern...
Episode 29: Cultivating Classical Christian Education in a Cross-Cultural Setting
In this episode of The Rafiki Foundation Podcast, Karen Elliott sits down with Shakiyla Solomon, Kelly Fore, and Erica Robertson to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities of cultivating faculty for classical Christian education...
Episode 40: Motherhood, Vocation, and the Life of the Mind
In this episode of the ClassicalU Podcast, Jesse Hake speaks with Jessica Hooten-Wilson about her forthcoming book on Christian women whose lives and work have often been neglected because they are “too...
Episode 28: Teaching Truth in a Digital Age: Why Parents Need Classical Education
In this episode, Karen Elliott interviews Dr. Robert Littlejohn about his co-authored book Wisdom and Eloquence for Parents and explores why classical Christian education remains a proven model in an age of rapid...
Episode 60: A Living Tradition: Classical Education Without Nostalgia
Description Christopher Perrin welcomes Dr. John Mark Reynolds for a extensive conversation about the renewal of classical education—and why the term classical often confuses more than it clarifies. Reynolds shares how...
Episode 59: American Education: What It Was and Can Be Again
Description Recorded at the 2026 Great Hearts National Symposium on February 25, 2026, this edited episode features Christopher Perrin’s keynote speech exploring the history, meaning, and renewal of classical education,...
Episode 39: AI and the Loss of Human Formation with Dr. Brian Williams and Jake Tawney
In this episode of the ClassicalU Podcast, Jesse Hake—joined by guests Dr. Brian Williams and Jake Tawney—explores the pressing question of AI and human formation in the classroom. Framed by the classical vision...
Episode 27: More Than a Mission Trip: Discovering Classical Christian Education at Rafiki
In this episode, Karen Elliott interviews Veritas Scholars Academy teacher Corey Piper as he shares his experience leading students on a mission trip to the Rafiki Village in Kenya. Through classroom...
Episode 58: The Divided Soul and the Prodigal Pattern: Duty, Desire, and the Way Home
Description Christopher Perrin welcomes author and speaker Heidi White to discuss her book The Divided Soul and the inner conflict so many people experience between duty and desire. Along the way,...
Episode 38: Be Still and Know: Reclaiming Attention, Time, and Wonder in Christian Education
In this episode of the ClassicalU Podcast, Jesse Hake speaks with Dr. Patrick R. Manning about his book Be Still and Know: Contemplative Practice for Christian Schools and Educators. Drawing from...
Episode 57: Remembering Well: Restoring History Through Sympathy, Story, and Place
Description Andrew Zwerneman, writer and narrator for HISTORY250® and co-founder and president of Cana Academy, joins Christopher Perrin to argue that America’s cultural crisis is, at root, a crisis of memory—and that...
Episode 26: Classical Christian Education: Going Global with Eric Cook and Dr. David Diener
In this episode, Karen Elliott interviews Eric Cook and Dr. David Diener. Together they explore the remarkable global growth of classical Christian education and the mission of the Society for Classical Learning to strengthen...
Episode 24: Favorite Reads of 2025
Description In this special year-end episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda share their five favorite reads of 2025. Moving from plays and poetry to...
Episode 56: A Nice Definition of Classical Education: The Language, Metaphors, and Meaning Behind “Classical”
Description Christopher Perrin explores why “classical education” is both widely used and widely misunderstood—and why the language we choose matters. He surveys common assumptions people attach to the word classical (Greek...
Episode 23: What We Learned About Love
Description In this penultimate episode of Hot Takes on the Classics’ season on love, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh step back to reflect on what a sustained engagement with classic...
Episode 37: Education as Soul Craft: Three Leaders in Conversation as Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican Classical Teachers
In this episode of the ClassicalU Podcast, host Jesse Hake—joined by Scholé Academy Director Dr.Joylynn Blake—welcomes the leaders of Scholé Academy’s three Houses of Study: Monika Minehart, Fr. Nathan Dickinson, and Presb. Maria...
Episode 25: The Good Teacher: Cultivating Wisdom, Wonder, and Virtue
In this thoughtful and contemplative conversation, Karen Elliott interviews Dr. Christopher Perrin and Carrie Eben. Together they reflect on what makes a teacher truly “good” within the classical Christian...
Episode 55: From Fragmentation to Fellowship: The Intellectual Renewal Behind Classical Education
Description David Diener, Assistant Professor of Education at Hillsdale College and president of The Alcuin Fellowship, joins Christopher Perrin to reflect on how a philosopher’s training can become a vocational doorway into...
Episode 36: Seeing with the Quadrivium: How Medieval Stories Reflect a Living Cosmos
In this episode of the ClassicalU Podcast, Jesse Hake speaks with Dr. Shannon Valenzuela about her new course releasing this spring on medieval literature and the harmonics of story....
Episode 22: Waiting on God – Simone Weil: An Incandescent Life
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh close their season on love by turning to Simone Weil’s Waiting for God. Through a wide-ranging...
Episode 24: Logic, Language, and Love: The Mission of John and Gwen Cicone
In this inspiring episode, John and Gwen Cicone share how classical Christian education is flourishing at the Rafiki Village in Moshi, Tanzania—right in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. From...
Episode 21: Revelations of Divine Love: St. Julian’s Mystical Sight
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich, the first known book written in English by...
Episode 54: The Festive School: Prayer, Feasts, and the Recovery of Wonder
Description Father Nathan Carr, Headmaster of The Academy and often dubbed “the Jack Sparrow of classical education,” joins Christopher Perrin to recount his unexpected path into classical Christian school leadership—and the...
Episode 20: The Temple: The Architecture of the Soul — George Herbert
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Tim McIntosh and Emily Maeda explore The Temple by George Herbert, one of the most profound devotional poetry collections in the English...
Episode 19: The Art and Music of Love: Theresa, Dido, and Shepherds
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore how Western art and music have depicted the many faces of love—from divine ecstasy...
Episode 18: A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections – Jonathan Edwards: Testing of Our Loves
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh take a deep dive into Jonathan Edwards’s A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, one of the most...
Episode 35: Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, and the Cosmic Story of Christmas: A Conversation with Addison Hodges Hart
In this Christmas-season episode, Jesse Hake speaks with author, retired parish priest, and former university chaplain Addison Hodges Hart about Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, and the meaning of the...
Episode 17: The Confessions of St. Augustine: The Journey of Transformed Love
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh explore one of the most influential works in Western thought—St. Augustine’s Confessions. Through Augustine’s prayerful reflections,...
Episode 23: From Mexico to Malawi: Leading the Teacher’s College at the Rafiki Village
In this episode, Karen Elliott speaks with Anna Liebing, head of school and principal of the teacher’s college at the Rafiki Village in Mzuzu, Malawi. Anna shares how classical...
Episode 16: The Gospel of St. John – Cosmic Love
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh turn to the fourth and final love in C.S. Lewis’s taxonomy—agape, or divine charity—through the...
Episode 15: Anna Karenina: The Marriage Plot
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh close out their episodes on Eros with Leo Tolstoy’s monumental novel Anna Karenina. They explore how Tolstoy intertwines...
Episode 14: The Making of a Great Marriage: Pride and Prejudice
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh unpack Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, exploring how this beloved novel redefines what makes a good...
Episode 34: Teaching in Reality: D. C. Schindler on Classical Education and Metaphysics
In this episode of the ClassicalU Podcast, philosopher D. C. Schindler joins Jesse Hake for a conversation on the metaphysical and theological foundations of classical education. Interview questions address epistemology,...
Episode 13: Romeo and Juliet: The Wisdom of Young Love
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh revisit Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, asking what makes this story so enduring and how it reshapes...
Episode 22: Beyond the Concert: Global Worship Through Music
Dr. Brady McNeil shares the story of taking the Wheaton Symphonic Band on its first international tour—to Kenya and Tanzania with the Rafiki Foundation. This episode explores the power...
Episode 12: The Divine Comedy: Disordered Eros
Description In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh dive into Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, one of the most ambitious works in world literature....
