Civics, books, history, and Hillsdale voices.
The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour is a polished weekly bridge between Hillsdale College and public affairs. Scott Bertram guides interviews on law, education, media, history, literature, science, faith, and constitutional argument with a steady institutional cadence.
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The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour is a polished weekly program that carries Hillsdale College’s classroom, lecture stage, and public-affairs network into a radio interview format. Scott Bertram anchors the show with direct questions and a formal cadence. Episodes usually begin with a central interview, then move into additional campus segments, lecture excerpts, faculty conversations, or announcements about Hillsdale courses and events. The result feels ordered and deliberate. Recent episodes show the program’s range: religious liberty with Kelly Shackelford, citizenship and K-12 education with Kathleen O’Toole, Chicago journalism with John Cass, new media with Mary Catherine Hamm, democracy and wealth with John O. McGinnis, and Cold War history with John Bachman. The show is comfortable with argument. It treats law, faith, education, journalism, history, and politics as connected parts of public life rather than isolated news categories. Its conversations often turn on constitutional claims, civic responsibility, institutional trust, and the cultural consequences of political choices. The tone is earnest, sometimes grave, and rarely ironic. It gives guests room to build a case. That can mean a careful explanation of school-choice litigation, a reporter’s account of sexual trauma and failed policing, or a historical case for why Grenada mattered to Reagan’s foreign policy. The program also keeps one foot on campus. Faculty segments on Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, the discovery of fire, James Clerk Maxwell, artificial intelligence, student journalism, and classical education give the hour a liberal-arts texture. Promotional moments appear naturally, especially around Hillsdale’s online courses, Freedom Library, films, and podcast network. For some listeners, that institutional confidence is the point. For others, it will mark the show’s clear institutional home. The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour suits people who want public thought presented through interviews, books, lectures, and classroom-style explanation rather than rapid-fire punditry. It is steady, structured, and unapologetically shaped by Hillsdale’s civic and educational mission.
Made for: For listeners drawn to public affairs, constitutional argument, religious liberty, education, journalism, history, and the liberal arts. It suits people who prefer measured interviews and classroom-style explanation over quick reactions.
What sets it apart: The show blends a college radio hour, public lecture circuit, faculty seminar, and book interview in one format. Its defining feature is Hillsdale’s institutional lens: public issues are repeatedly tied back to citizenship, education, faith, history, and constitutional order.
The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour is a one-hour, weekly radio show/podcast advancing the efforts of Hillsdale College in radiating its knowledge and teaching to the world outside of campus. Listeners will hear the arguments and debates that make up the liberal arts education and will experience the learning and teaching that happens on campus. Hosted by Scot Bertram.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It connects civic arguments, classroom practice, literature, history, and science through clear interviews that ask guests to show their reasoning.
Scott Bertram runs The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour as a sequence of focused interviews, moving between public affairs and lessons drawn from Hillsdale College's classrooms.
Emily Dickinson follows religious-liberty litigation; Scott Bertram expects your curiosity to change lanes quickly.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A trauma account, a campus update, and a lecture clip give the hour its shape.
Radio Free Hillsdale Hour gives Anna Giratelli the clearest spotlight, and her book Under Assault is handled with unusual directness as a crime reporter's account of sexual trauma and what follows.
Religious liberty, school choice, and a late turn to Emily Dickinson.
The hour spends most of its time on religious liberty with Kelly Shackelford, and it does so in a concrete, grounded way. It stays with religious freedom, a federal tax credit scholarship program, and Carson versus Macon, while Scott Bertram keeps the conversation moving.
A tidy two-part hour on classroom citizenship and the discovery of fire.
The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour moves in a clear two-part shape, first with Dr. Kathleen O'Toole on the idea that citizenship starts in the classroom.
A focused discussion with John O. McGinnis ties wealth, democracy, and AI to the rest of the hour's campus lineup.
The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour opens with John O. McGinnis, a law professor at Northwestern University and a widely cited scholar of democracy and constitutional law, discussing his new book, Why Democracy Needs the Rich.
A Grenada-centered argument about American confidence, communist strain, and the Cold War's changing direction.
John Bachman treats Grenada as a Cold War hinge point, arguing that the conflict restored American power, revealed stress between Cuba and the Soviet Union, and helped point toward the Soviet Union's eventual collapse.
A broad civic hour links learning loss, presidential memory, and the public role of institutions.
The episode frames its Education focus around Dr. Kathleen O'Toole's case that classical charter schools can help answer COVID learning losses, giving the opening a civic and policy angle.
An Israel-focused hour anchored in security arguments and a broader conversation.
Victoria Coates argues that Israel's success matters to the United States, and Scott Bertram keeps the discussion anchored in security and American interest.
Strategic briefings from Asia’s pressure points.
Foreign policy under pressure, explained clearly.
Antiwar geopolitics with institutional memory.
Max Primorak discusses the origins and purpose of U.S.
This episode of The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour features three segments.
The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour features three segments: an interview with Dr.
Scott Bertram interviews Anna Giratelli, Homeland Security reporter at The Washington Examiner and author of Under Assault: A Crime Reporter's True Story of Overcoming Sexual Trauma and Exposing Injustice.
Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of First Liberty Institute, argues that religious liberty is the "first freedom" because it protects conscience, speech, and property before any other right.
Kathleen O'Toole says students are already citizens and will become voting citizens, so Hillsdale's K-12 approach starts with the Constitution, the history of the American regime, and habits of disagreement.
Scott Bertram interviews legendary Chicago journalist John Cass about his career in Chicago media and the lessons Chicago offers for the rest of the country.
Mary Katharine Ham discusses the evolving media landscape and her career in journalism, podcasting, and writing.
Scott Bertram interviews Mollie Hemingway about the upcoming midterm elections and her book on Justice Alito.
McGinnis says rich Americans matter because they are "not monolithic" and can counter an ideologically homogeneous clerisy.
Reagan saw Grenada as a way to restore American confidence after Vietnam and to free Americans on the island.
An interview with R.J.
Dr.
Max Primorak discusses the origins and current issues of U.S.