The Best Defense Against A.I. is Reading Plato | Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

What’s really driving the humanities crisis in higher education? As enrollment and reading decline, I asked Jennifer Frey, a professor of philosophy, what it was like to run a liberal arts program that was gutted. I wanted to know whether she thinks the age of A.I. could bring back the kind of education she says is fundamental to human formation.

2:08 - Why study the humanities?
5:00 - Why we should be skeptical of the humanities
15:00 - The value of high art
24:07 - Bringing the humanities to University of Tulsa
34:43 - Left-wing critiques of the liberal arts
44:10 - Is conservatism an enemy or friend of the liberal arts?
56:32 - Defense of the humanities in the age A.I.

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Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/opinion/a-defense-of-a-liberal-arts-education-in-the-age-of-ai.html

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