The New Yorker Radio Hour
Episode: "A Conservative Professor on How to Fix Campus Culture"
Host: David Remnick
Guest: Robert P. George, Princeton Professor and Author
Air Date: October 3, 2025

Brief Overview

This episode delves into campus culture, free speech, political divisions, and the “age of feeling” with Robert P. George—a conservative legal scholar at Princeton University and author of Seeking Truth and Speaking Law and Morality in Our Cultural Moment. The conversation explores challenges faced by conservative voices on campuses, critiques of DEI initiatives, the Trump administration’s interventions in academia, and how society can reclaim civil debate and civic friendship in an era marked by ideological rifts.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The State of Conservative Academia

Timestamps: 01:06–05:02

• Shift Since the 1980s:
  George recalls arriving at Princeton in 1985 as “the only out of the closet conservative” but now counts about 20–25 conservative faculty members.

  “People tend to reproduce themselves. People tend to favor people that are very much like themselves.”
  — Robert P. George (04:18)

• Humanities vs. Other Departments:
  The liberal dominance is pronounced in humanities, a result of historical trends from the 1960s and self-replication in academic hiring.

2. Self-Censorship on Campus

Timestamps: 05:02–06:46

• Pervasive Fear:
  Polls show students and even tenured faculty self-censor, not due to professors but fear of peer backlash and lasting social media consequences.

  “They fear disapprobation from their fellow students, especially on social media... called names such as racist, or bigot, or hater, or whatever, and that the Internet is forever.”
  — Robert P. George (06:06)

3. Addressing Ideological Imbalance and Reform

Timestamps: 06:46–08:47

• Affirmative Action for Conservatives?
  George opposes overt quotas for conservatives, attributing the lack of diversity more to subconscious (not overt) discrimination in hiring.

  “The main thrust of the problem is not open, outright conscious discrimination... the main thrust of the problem is subconscious discrimination.”
  — Robert P. George (07:28)

• Valuing Intellectual Challenge:
  George and left-leaning colleagues like Cornel West and Peter Singer encourage their students to learn from those with opposing views.

4. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Programs

Timestamps: 08:47–11:38

• Critique of Preferential Admissions:
  George argues against using race or ethnicity over merit but acknowledges that lifting discriminatory quotas benefited diversity.

  “If it's a matter of not evaluating people on the merits... then that's what's bad about that.”
  — Robert P. George (09:25)

• Admissions Evolution:
  Increased diversity came from merit-based admissions after the end of Jewish and Catholic quotas, not through race-based preferences.

5. The “Age of Feeling” and Its Consequences

Timestamps: 15:36–26:48

• Transition from Reason to Feeling:
  George paints modernity as the “age of feelings” where subjective experience supplants reason, causing societal friction and polarization.

  “No, the touchstone of truth... is feeling, is emotion. It's how I feel or how something makes me feel.”
  — Robert P. George (24:46)

• Subjective Truth and Conflict:
  The “my truth/your truth” mentality escalates to dogmatism and authoritarianism because disagreement becomes personal and immune to reason.

  “If you have your truth and I have my truth and those truths conflict, we are at war.”
  — Robert P. George (25:20)

• Cancel Culture and Free Speech:
  The rise of cancel culture is attributed to this emphasis on personal truth; suppression is enabled when feelings override reasoned debate.

6. Understanding Trump’s Appeal among Evangelicals and Blue-Collar Communities

Timestamps: 16:57–18:42

• Personal Story:
  George shares family anecdotes from his upbringing in Appalachian West Virginia, highlighting the cultural shift toward Trumpism.

  “He fights. He fights for people like us. I mean, I say to my colleagues here, I'm not a Trump guy, but it was you guys who gave us Donald Trump.”
  — Robert P. George (18:14)

7. The Problem of Condescension and Mutual Misunderstanding

Timestamps: 18:42–21:39

• Elite Condescension:
  George contends that cultural elites caricature rural and conservative Americans, creating resentment and cultural backlash.

  “We govern by right. And, you know, when courts do things like hand down Roe versus Wade, well, that's just your betters actually deciding what the policy of the country would be because we can't trust this to the democratic process because it has people like you then making the decisions.”
  — Robert P. George (19:42)

• Mutual Caricature:
  Both sides misunderstand each other, but George claims elites distort the other more than vice versa.

8. The Path Forward: Civic Friendship and Civil Discourse

Timestamps: 21:39–22:58

• Humility and Civic Friendship:
  George calls for grace, intellectual humility, and a revival of reasoned debate as antidotes to polarization.

  “If we would only recognize that... I think we'd give each other a little grace. Realize that you’re in the same boat I'm in. You're a fallible person, just like I'm a fallible person.”
  — Robert P. George (22:18)

• Working with Cornel West:
  He advocates for visible collaborations (like his cross-ideological courses) to model civic friendship.

9. Cultural Decadence Across Ideological Lines

Timestamps: 23:13–24:22

• Decadence on Left and Right:
  George agrees with Ross Douthat that American society is decadent—not just on the left but also among secular right-wingers.

  “There is a kind of anti-religious, anti-Christian, hardcore secularist right that completely affirms the decadence that a lot of conservatives only see on the left. Well, you got it on the right too.”
  — Robert P. George (24:12)

10. Free Speech and Consistency

Timestamps: 26:48–27:54

• Free Speech Isn't Partisan:
  George warns against hypocrisy—conservatives must defend free speech consistently, not only when it suits their side.

  “There is no exception [to the First Amendment for hate speech]... Are we going to be hypocrites and now say... we're going to shut down that speech? Come on.”
  — Robert P. George (27:38)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Academic Bias:

  “The real problem is right now, a lot of professors... could pass a lie detector test when asked, are you being fair?... Because it's so hard really for us human beings to say, you know what, I disagree with this. And I really think what he's advocating here is really outrageous. But look... this guy's pushing the intellectual boundaries here and he's really benefiting his students.”
  — Robert P. George (07:28)

• On Self-Censorship:

  “I can give you actual cases where I know it happens and where liberal colleagues... say it happened. They observed it. It's not the main thrust of the problem. The main thrust... is subconscious discrimination.”
  — Robert P. George (07:19)

• On Cancel Culture:

  “If I have my truth, then it's immune from challenge, right?... But if your truth is in conflict with my truth... then I've got to make sure you don't have free speech.”
  — Robert P. George (25:40)

• On Future Solutions:

  “Let’s sit down, let’s exchange reasons. May not come to agreement, but let’s exchange our reasons, our evidence, our argument.”
  — Robert P. George (22:52)

Segment Timestamps

• Introduction & Setup: 01:06–03:15
• Conservative Faculty at Princeton: 03:15–04:06
• Origins of Academic Culture: 04:06–05:02
• Student & Faculty Self-Censorship: 05:02–06:46
• Improving Campus Discourse: 06:46–07:57
• DEI and Diversity Debates: 08:47–11:38
• Break/Return: 11:38–15:36
• Age of Feeling and Subjective Truth: 15:36–26:48
• Paths Toward Civil Discourse: 21:39–22:58
• On Decadence: 23:13–24:22
• Free Speech Principles: 26:48–27:54
• Conclusion: 27:54–28:06

Concluding Tone

The conversation is thoughtful, frank, and often personal. George strikes a note of intellectual humility and warns against partisanship in defending core values like free speech, while encouraging broader empathy and debate across divides.