Does a Stanford University initiative reinstating a century-old tradition of American civics learning offer a roadmap for the future of higher education? In this installment, Josiah Ober, a Hoover Institution senior fellow and a Stanford professor taking part in the Stanford Civics Initiative, discusses the path forward in citizenship education with Volker Senior Fellow (adjunct) “Checker” Finn, one of the nation’s preeminent authorities on education policy and innovation.

Recorded January 9, 2025. 

ABOUT THE SERIES

Educators across the land are preparing for Civic Learning Week in mid-March—with the capstone National Forum at the Hoover Institution on March 13—as the nation also gets ready for next year’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In anticipation of both—and recognizing the urgent need to rekindle civic literacy via our schools and colleges—Renewing Civics Education – Preparing for American Citizenship, a five-part podcast series, takes on the challenges of citizenship education: why it matters, what it needs to do differently, what shortcomings it must overcome. The series features distinguished members of Hoover’s Working Group on Good American Citizenship, led by Volker Senior Fellow Chester Finn.

Los Angeles confronts the grim reality of a multi-year effort to clean up and rebuild after its devastating wildfires; Governor Gavin Newsom makes a big disaster-relief ask in Washington; and intrigue abounds in next year’s gubernatorial race. Hoover Institution senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s California on Your Mind web channel, join Hoover senior product manager Jonathan Movroydis to reflect on a smarter approach to fire response and prevention and what the future holds for swift reconstruction and affordable property insurance. They also discuss whether former vice president Kamala Harris is a shoo-in if she runs next year to succeed Newsom, plus the contrast between how red and blue states court industries (Tennessee luring In-N-Out investment and Newsom wanting to double Sacramento’s largesse for California’s struggling film industry).

Recorded on February 26, 2025.

Can colleges and secondary schools teach American civics (i.e., an examination of the republic’s good and bad experiences) without being jingoistic? Peter Berkowitz, the Hoover Institution’s Tad and Dianne Taube senior fellow and teacher of a course in American conservatism that’s part of the Stanford Civics Initiative, contends that  “patriotism” isn’t necessarily indoctrination. Still, reformers need to look beyond college and the late stages of high school. In a wide-ranging discussion with Volker Senior Fellow (adjunct) “Checker” Finn, Berkowitz suggests that the definition of “civics education” be widened to include core learning at the earliest stages of K-12 and a deeper look at how teachers approach their mission.  

Recorded on January 14, 2025.

The following episode was recorded on December 10, 2024.

An adventurous year in California politics and policy ends with a special legislative session to “Trump-proof” the Golden State. Will a pair of would-be reformers – a newly elected mayor of San Francisco and a Los Angeles district attorney, both of whom ran against the status quo, be able to deliver the goods? Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s California on Your Mind web channel, join Hoover senior product manager Jonathan Movroydis to reflect on 2024’s lessons as well as this year’s winners and losers, plus causes for California-based optimism come January 2025.

Do high-school students – including those fortunate to attend America’s most prestigious universities – enter college with a solid understanding of American civics (i.e., the republic’s origin and design) or is it more a case of remedial learning? In this installment of Renewing Civics Education – Preparing for American Citizenship, Paul Peterson, a Hoover Institution senior fellow and Harvard University professor, reflects on his experiences teaching an introductory government course and offers thoughts on education reform – school choice, standardized testing – with Volker Senior Fellow (adjunct) “Checker” Finn, one of the nation’s preeminent authorities on education policy and innovation.

Recorded on January 9, 2025.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Educators across the land are preparing for Civic Learning Week in mid-March—with the capstone National Forum at the Hoover Institution on March 13—as the nation also gets ready for next year’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In anticipation of both—and recognizing the urgent need to rekindle civic literacy via our schools and colleges—Renewing Civics Education – Preparing for American Citizenship, a five-part podcast series, takes on the challenges of citizenship education: why it matters, what it needs to do differently, what shortcomings it must overcome. The series features distinguished members of Hoover’s Working Group on Good American Citizenship, led by Volker Senior Fellow Chester Finn.

A new survey released by the Hoover Institution – part of Hoover’s Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations – offers a window into a handful of challenges facing the world’s fifth-largest economy and emerging world power. Sumit Ganguly, the inaugural director of the Huntington Program, joins Hoover research fellow Dinsha Mistree in a wide-ranging conservation about India including the timing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s White House visit (can he avoid a tariff war?), an Indian foreign policy that’s long on partnerships but short on alliances, India’s role in a growing AI industry, plus what the future holds for the world’s-largest population whose demographics are changing as well as its tastes in work, leisure, and family planning. 

The Hoover Institution is launching a new limited podcast series featuring experts grappling with how to reinvigorate civics education across America.

Renewing Civics Education: Preparing for American Citizenship is a five-part podcast series that will feature a range of experts on aspects of civics, such as civics instruction, the role of the media in fostering an understanding of civics, and how civics programs in higher education can resist any forms of indoctrination.

The series premieres on Tuesday, February 11, with an episode featuring Distinguished Visiting Fellow Bill Whalen interviewing Senior Fellow Chester E. (Checker) Finn Jr., a national renowned scholar on education policy who leads Hoover’s Working Group on Good American Citizenship. Whalen and Finn will discuss the efforts by Finn and his working group colleagues to reinvigorate civics education across the K–12 and college landscapes.

Subsequent episodes will be hosted by Finn and released weekly in the lead-up to Civic Learning Week, which begins March 10 and culminates at the Hoover Institution on March 13, when the Center on Revitalizing American Institutions will cohost a one-day conference on civics education.

The episodes, which will run as part of the Matters of Policy & Politics podcast, are developed in response to the urgent need to rekindle civics literacy via our schools and colleges. This five-part series takes on the challenges of citizenship education: why it matters, what it needs to do differently, and what shortcomings it must overcome.

Programming will include the following:

The programming will also draw on the Good American Citizenship Working Group’s existing projects, which assess the state of civics instruction across US schools and how it has evolved over time.

Episodes will be available on YouTube and many other podcast distributors.

For coverage opportunities, contact Jeffrey Marschner, 202-760-3187, [email protected].

Los Angeles’s devastating wildfires have prompted a series of troubling questions, ranging from the city and county’s reported lack of preparedness and apparently outdated water infrastructure to the crisis-management skills of state and local leaders. And are those same leaders capable of rebuilding both swiftly and in a commonsense manner, as opposed to years of regulatory gridlock?

Hoover senior fellow Lee Ohanian and distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen, both contributors to Hoover’s California on Your Mind web channel, join Hoover senior product manager Jonathan Movroydis to reflect on lessons learned from the wildfires, the impact on various political fortunes, plus can a Los Angeles already under pressure to present a more idealized version of itself in advance of the 2028 Summer Olympics – i.e., fewer homeless encampments, flowing traffic – remind the world that California is still capable of accomplishing great engineering tasks (unlike, say, the state’s failed experiment with high-speed rail)?

Recorded on January 30, 2025.

And so the great American election crisis that was destined to be, didn’t happen – the end-result stirring relatively little in the way of legal challenges or disruption of the constitutional process, with the public feeling better about the democratic process (or so the post-election polls suggest). 

In this, the last of four installments on election integrity in the 2024 campaign cycle, Ben Ginsberg, the Hoover Institution’s Volker Distinguished Visiting Fellow and a preeminent authority on election law, joins Hoover distinguished policy fellow Bill Whalen to discuss whether America’s crazy quilt of election systems and safeguards was formidable or merely fortunate in 2024, what laws a Republican Congress might pursue (voter ID?), plus future Hoover endeavors to help craft better ways of holding elections in America.

Recorded on December 11th, 2024. 

Among the surprise results in this year’s American election: a victorious Donald Trump improving his numbers among Latino voters to a level not seen in 20 years and George W. Bush’s re-election (the only other time this century that the Republican choice won the popular vote). 

Recorded on November 20, 2024.