On Being with Krista Tippett

Nancy Cantor is a social psychologist and the chancellor of Rutgers University–Newark, one of the most diverse institutions in the U.S. She is widely recognized for helping forge a new understanding of the role of universities in society that re-emphasizes their public mission. Christopher Howard is the first African-American president of Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia, an historically white all male school in the South. He is one of the youngest college presidents in the U.S., a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Academy, and a former Rhodes Scholar. This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Nancy Cantor and Christopher Howard — Beyond the Ivory Tower.” Find more at onbeing.org.

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When we talk about the relationship between colleges and the world, we tend to focus on economics. But what is the place of institutions of higher education in the communities they inhabit? How can and should they nurture students as citizens and leaders for the emerging 21st century world? Two visionary college presidents of two very different institutions take up these questions with Krista at the American Council on Education’s 97th Annual Meeting.

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More than 30 objects on the moon are named after the Jesuits who mapped it. A Jesuit was one of the founders of modern astrophysics. And four Jesuits in history, including Ignatius of Loyola, have had asteroids named after them – Brother Guy Consolmagno and Father George Coyne being the two living men with this distinction. In a conversation filled with friendship and laughter, and in honor of the visit of Pope Francis to the U.S., we experience the spacious way they think about science, the universe, and the love of God.

Brother Guy Consolmagno is director of the Vatican Observatory, appointed in this post in September, 2015 by Pope Francis. Previously he was curator of meteorites. His books include “Brother Astronomer: Adventures of a Vatican Scientist” and “Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?: and Other Questions from the Astronomers’ In-box at the Vatican Observatory.” Father George Coyne is the former director of the Vatican Observatory. His books include “Wayfarers in the Cosmos: The Human Quest for Meaning.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Guy Consolmagno and George Coyne — Asteroids, Stars, and the Love of God.” Find more at onbeing.org.

The High Holy Days create an annual ritual of repentance, both individual and collective. Louis Newman, who has explored repentance as an ethicist and a person in recovery, opens this up as a refreshing practice for every life, even beyond the lifetime of those to whom we would make amends.

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Louis Newman is an Associate Dean of Carleton College and John M. and Elizabeth W. Musser Professor of Religious Studies. He is the author of several books on Jewish ethics and theology, including “Repentance: The Meaning and Practice of Teshuvah.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Louis Newman — The Refreshing Practice of Repentance.” Find more at onbeing.org.

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“I grew up a witness,” Mike Rose writes, “to the intelligence of the waitress in motion, the reflective welder, the strategy of the guy on the assembly line. This then is something I know: the thought it takes to do physical work.” In all our debates about standardized testing and the information economy, the value of learning to work and the future of liberal arts education, we may risk too narrow a view of the way the physical, the human, and the intellectual blend in all kinds of learning and in all work that matters. Mike Rose’s expansive wisdom could enlarge our civic imagination on big subjects at the heart of who we are — schooling, social class, and the deepest meaning of vocation.

Mike Rose is a research professor in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. He’s the author of several books, including “The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker,” “Why School?: Reclaiming Education for All of Us,” and more recently “Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Mike Rose — The Intelligence in All Kinds of Work, and the Human Core of All Education That Matters.” Find more at onbeing.org.

Chinese-American philosopher and civil rights legend Grace Lee Boggs turned 100 this summer. She has been at the heart and soul of a largely hidden story inside Detroit’s evolution from economic collapse to rebirth. We traveled in 2011 to meet her and her community of joyful, passionate people reimagining work, food, and the very meaning of humanity. They have lessons for us all.

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Grace Lee Boggs was a philosopher and a civil rights leader and a founder of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center. She authored the book “Living for Change: An Autobiography.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Grace Lee Boggs — A Century in the World.” Find more at onbeing.org.

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