Educating Humans

In this episode, James sits down with Fr Stephen David, principal of St John of Kronstadt, to discuss how the school has grown and the wisdom he has learnt since our last episode with him in 2023. More information of the upcoming conference can be found here: https://www.stjohnacademy.qld.edu.au/orthodox-education-conference-2026  Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman...

Join James in this episode as he sits down to discuss the Australian Curriculum with Kevin Donnelley. We discuss what is is, what is meant by a knowledge rich curriculum, where it falls short, and what can be done to improve the education of young Australians everywhere. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new independent classical school in South Brisban...

Join James as he sits down with Prof. Simon Haines, founding CEO of the Ramsay Centre, to discuss a great books education, its history and importance. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new independent classical school in South Brisbane. Music: 'Inspiring Dreams' by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Join James as he sits down with Benjamin Lyda from Scriptorium Writing to discuss writing within a classical and liberal arts framework. They discuss both the how and why of teaching writing and argue that writing is not just a technique, but an art that humanises the writer. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new independent classical school in South Br...

Join James as he finishes the mini-series discussing why and how we should seek to save science from the self-desctructive clutches of scientism and reconstitute science within wisdom and recover poetic knowledge as an avenue to science. This episode draws from many key thinkers including Pope John Paul II and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry...

Join James as he sits down with Kenneth Crowther to hear how the first couple months of a student populated Newman College with has gone. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new independent classical school in South Brisbane. Music: 'Inspiring Dreams' by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Join James as he sits down with Andrew Kern, the president of the CiRCE Institute, to discuss the place of harmony within the classroom. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new independent classical school in South Brisbane. Music: 'Inspiring Dreams' by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Does science need saving from scientism? What is science and what is scientism? How did we find ourselves with the materialist and technocratic vision of science of today? Join James as he discusses these questions in the first of two episodes on saving science from scientism Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new independent classical school in South Br...

Why should we read? In this episode, Difff and James discuss the startling statistics on the decline of reading across the West, as well as the power that developing our reading capacity can hold. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new independent classical school in South Brisbane. Music: 'Inspiring Dreams' by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud...

Difff explains his PhD,  The Paradox of Enchantment: Syncretising Meteorology, Humoralism, and Demonology on the Early Modern English Stage. The discussion covers questions of enchantment and the 'discarded image' of the medieval mind, Shakespeare, astrology in King Lear , the role of enchantment in education, the importance of continuing to pursue learning into adulthood, and much more....

This episode was recorded live at the 2025 Education for Human Flourishing Conference. James was joined by Dr Brian Williams (Templeton Honors College) and Peter Crawford (Institute for Catholic Liberal Education) to discuss poetry and the poetic mode. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new independent classical school in South Brisbane. Music: 'Ins...

In this talk from the Education for Human Flourishing Conference in 2025, Difff discusses the ways that artificial intelligence offers a false promise of restoring the logos, which has been systematically eroded and dismissed over the past millennium. Drawing on history, philosophy, and literature, including C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , Difff sugges...

Difff interviews Sarah Flynn, founder of Logos Australis and The Liberal Arts Project in anticipation of the upcoming National Classical Education Conference: Educating for Human Flourishing. Get your tickets to the conference here. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new independent classical school in South Brisbane. Music: 'Inspiring Dreams'...

Joseph Pearce, the critically acclaimed Catholic author and biographer, addressed the community of St John Henry Newman College and the Brisbane Oratory in Formation in May 2025. His topic of 'Shakespeare and Tolkien: Literary Giants and Why the Great Books Matter' spoke to the centrality of the great works of literature in a classical education in the Liberal Arts. You can find out more...

Dr Simon Kennedy joins the podcast to discuss his book  Against Worldview . Critiquing the 'worldview project' as a governing intention of Christian education, Simon proposes an active growth in wisdom as an alternative to an intellectual formation of 'getting the right answers'.  This podcast discusses virtue ethics, church history, sectarian differences in approaching educati...

In the final episode about Josef Pieper's Leisure the Basis of Culture , we discuss the connection between leisure and worship and why secular holidays don't cut it. We also compare the totally consuming world of work to the one ring to rule them all. Please support St John Henry Newman College by donating at www.newmancollege.qld.edu.au Please consider becoming a founding donor for St J...

Josef Pieper connects our ability for festival and celebration with schole and leisure. If in our schools we manage our celebrations and justify them with key learnings and outcomes, and asses their relative success or failure against a checklist, it's likely our celebrations have become subsumed into the life of work.  Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman Colleg...

In Part 3 of the series on  Leisure the Basis of Culture,  the discussion is all about acedia and restlessness as the opposite to leisure. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new independent classical school in South Brisbane. Music: 'Inspiring Dreams' by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

Our series explaining schole continues with part two on Leisure: The Basis of Culture . In this episode focusing on Chapter Two, we question how hard work and effort have come to be seen as the litmus test of successful education, and whether this vision misses out any essential elements that humanise education. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new ind...

Schole is an alien concept for those new to classical education. In the first episode in our mini-series on the book Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper we discuss what it means to contemplate, and the difference between two ways of knowing that were described in the Middle Ages as ratio and intellectus. Pieper's Leisure is one of the foundational books for classical liberal arts ed...

In this episode James reads a paper that he prepared recently for a classical education symposium. The paper focuses on the role of beauty in education. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new independent classical school in South Brisbane. Music: 'Inspiring Dreams' by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

James interviews Dr Scott Crider, Professor of English at the University of Dallas where he has taught for thirty years. His book,  The Office of Assertion : An Art of Rhetoric for Academic Essay , is one of James' favourites for teaching academic writing. James and Scott discuss the value of rhetoric, how to teach writing, the power of language, and the way that poetry communicates truth.  P...

In another short FAQ episode, Difff and James discuss why history is such an important and central focus of Classical Education. Please consider becoming a founding donor for St John Henry Newman College , a new independent classical school in South Brisbane. Music: 'Inspiring Dreams' by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

In this interview, Difff speaks to Dr Hugh Chilton from The Scots College, Sydney. They discuss ways that Scots is rediscovering elements of classical and liberal arts education through reclaiming the reality of teachers as scholars and academics and the positive impact that can have on a school. Hugh then explains the Scots X program that he leads at the college and how it incorporates elements o...

For the first episode of 2025, Difff and James ask why schools should read the 'Great Books'. What even  are  the great books, and what makes them so great? Schools have to read something (though that's perhaps not universally acknowledged), so what metrics should be used to determine what kinds of books should be read.  And isn't it true that what we call the 'Great Books...