In our first episode, I talk with professors Melani McAlister and Matt Brim about the perceived liberal bias of university campuses and the faculty who teach there. The debate over liberal bias at America’s most prominent universities almost always seems to focus on the political views or party affiliations of college professors, who many argue are statistically more progressive or left-leaning than the average American. This debate has also been shaped by negative public perception of university students that attend elite research universities. Since the 1960s, when significant numbers of university students joined the Civil Rights, anti-war, and feminist movements, some segments of the American public began to view this group as spoiled, elitist, "woke," indoctrinated by their professors’ political views, or simply out of touch.

In my conversation with Melani and Matt, however, we stress the importance of understanding college students as intelligent, strong-minded, independent adults who are totally capable of encountering many different political viewpoints and deciding for themselves what they believe about the world. We also encourage our listeners to take account of the millions of students who study at community and technical colleges, where adult learners sit alongside traditional college-age youth. This often overlooked but massive population of degree seekers represents a huge diversity of political values, life experiences, and career choices that go far beyond the model of the big state school or Ivy League university. Finally, we invite all of you into our classrooms, by sharing stories of how we lead passionate political debate among our students that trains them not to spout left or right-wing ideologies but to develop their own original sense of political judgement so they can take on a complicated world with confidence, open-mindedness, and courage.