What does it mean to pursue truth in a world that would rather keep ideas safe and untested?

In this episode of PeppTalk, Alexa and Coby sit down with Professor Jonathan Koch — professor of English and Great Books at Seaver College — to explore what a genuine liberal arts education looks like: when faith and learning are treated not as separate things to be integrated, but as something that was never meant to be divided in the first place.Professor Koch draws on John Milton's Areopagitica to argue that truth doesn't emerge from debate but is revealed through it. This distinction shapes everything from how he teaches Shakespeare across LA's theater scene to why he advises Pepperdine's Veritas Club, a student-led space where intellectual rigor and Christian faith meet weekly to test the ideas that matter most.

For prospective students wondering whether a liberal arts degree is worth it, Professor Koch has a simple but countercultural answer: your vocation right now is to be a student. Do that well, and the rest will follow.Jonathan Koch is an Assistant Professor of English at Pepperdine University's Seaver College, where he teaches Renaissance poetry, Shakespeare, and Great Books. He received his PhD from Washington University in St. Louis and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech and the Huntington Library. He serves as faculty advisor for Pepperdine's Veritas Club.

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