The Christopher Perrin Show

Description  In this episode of The Christopher Perrin Show , Christopher Perrin welcomes Keith McCurdy and Davies Owens for a conversation about Raising Sturdy Kids , Keith’s new book on forming strong families and capable children. McCurdy argues that children today are not naturally sturdier than previous generations, but are often more fragile—marked by rising anxiety, depression, diagnoses, m...

Description  Christopher Perrin welcomes Dr. Matthew J. Smith , founder of Hildegard College , to discuss why he left a tenure-track literature career to build a deliberately small, relationship-centered “micro college” in Southern California. Smith describes modern higher education as expensive, bureaucratically bloated, and often unable to offer a unified vision of learning—especially when gener...

Description  Christopher Perrin welcomes Dr. John Mark Reynolds for a extensive conversation about the renewal of classical education—and why the term classical often confuses more than it clarifies. Reynolds shares how family life, great teachers, and deep reading (especially C. S. Lewis and Plato) shaped his intellectual and spiritual journey, eventually drawing him into the classical Christian...

Description  Recorded at the 2026 Great Hearts National Symposium on February 25, 2026, this edited episode features Christopher Perrin’s keynote speech exploring the history, meaning, and renewal of classical education, asking a foundational question: what exactly are we trying to recover? Drawing from sources as diverse as Augustine, Herodotus, Tocqueville, and C.S. Lewis, he traces the transmis...

Description Christopher Perrin welcomes author and speaker Heidi White to discuss her book The Divided Soul and the inner conflict so many people experience between duty and desire. Along the way, Perrin draws on his own work, The Good Teacher , to frame how educators can unite discipline and delight as they form students’ loves. White traces her path from homeschooling into classical education, t...

Description Andrew Zwerneman, writer and narrator for HISTORY250® and co-founder and president of Cana Academy , joins Christopher Perrin to argue that America’s cultural crisis is, at root, a crisis of memory—and that renewing history education is a work of restoration. Zwerneman traces the teachers, places, and lived experiences that formed him as a historian, then explains why the “liberal disc...

Description Christopher Perrin explores why “classical education” is both widely used and widely misunderstood—and why the language we choose matters. He surveys common assumptions people attach to the word classical (Greek and Roman history, Great Books, elitism, Eurocentrism) and explains why the modern renewal is, for better or worse, “stuck” with the adjective. Perrin argues that we cannot spe...

Description David Diener, Assistant Professor of Education at Hillsdale College and president of The Alcuin Fellowship , joins Christopher Perrin to reflect on how a philosopher’s training can become a vocational doorway into the renewal of classical education. Drawing from years in K–12 school leadership and now higher education, Diener describes why classical schools often foster unusually rich...

Description Father Nathan Carr, Headmaster of The Academy and often dubbed “the Jack Sparrow of classical education,” joins Christopher Perrin to recount his unexpected path into classical Christian school leadership—and the hard-won lessons of building a flourishing school culture over two decades. Their conversation draws on James K. A. Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom to argue that “liturgies” (in...

In this reflective episode, Christopher Perrin interviewed Andrew Kern, his long-time colleague and friend, President and CEO of The CiRCE Institute , in a wide-ranging conversation about the philosophy and practice of teaching. They delve into the meaning of truth—what it is, how it’s often misunderstood, and why it remains central to classical Christian education. Drawing from ancient sources an...

In this memorable episode of The Christopher Perrin Show , Christopher welcomes Dr. Grant Horner and Karen Moore—two veteran classical educators and authors—for a spirited conversation about the power of language, memory, and the poetic imagination in Christian classical education. Together, they explore how reading, writing, and reciting great texts form not only the intellect but the soul, train...

In this special episode of The Christopher Perrin Show , Christopher welcomes Dr. Angel Parham, professor of sociology at the University of Virginia and co-author of The Black Intellectual Tradition . Together, they explore the often-overlooked legacy of classical learning in the Black intellectual tradition , tracing its vital contributions from figures like Anna Julia Cooper and Frederick Dougla...

In this episode, Dr. Perrin gives a foretaste from his forthcoming book with Carrie Eben, The Good Teacher , as he advocates for singing as a powerful and now neglected pedagogical tool. Drawing from traditional sources like Plato and Augustine, Scripture, and personal anecdotes, he explores how music—especially in the form of singing and chanting—can shape the soul, foster joy, and make learning...

In this episode, Dr. Christopher Perrin draws upon his forthcoming book with Carrie Eben, The Good Teacher and invites listeners to reconsider the meaning of virtue . It once stood at the heart of education but now often eludes clear definitions. Considering personal experience and the broader tradition of liberal education, Perrin explores how the modern educational landscape has drifted from its...

In this episode, Dr. Christopher Perrin explores the often-neglected role of beauty in classical education, emphasizing the importance of engaging all five senses in the learning experience. He challenges the text-centered focus of modern education and invites educators to rethink school environments, advocating for spaces that reflect truth, goodness, and beauty. Through thought experiments and p...

In this episode, Dr. Christopher Perrin explores the tension between rigor and rest in classical education, drawing on Aristotle’s concept of virtue as a balance between extremes. He examines how rigor is often emphasized as a corrective to declining academic standards but warns against its overuse, which can lead to a rigid and joyless educational experience. Discussion includes monastic traditio...

Great teaching isn’t about mastering techniques—it’s about embodying principles. In this episode, Dr. Christopher Perrin explores how classical education prioritizes the formation of virtue in both teachers and students through time-tested pedagogical wisdom and Christian tradition. Using the analogy of carpentry, he explains how principles provide the foundation for effective teaching, allowing e...

In this episode, Christopher Perrin explores the profound theme of the hero's arduous journey home—as depicted in Homer's The Odyssey . He discusses how Odysseus's return to Ithaca not only signifies a physical homecoming but also a reclaiming of identity and status. Consider in this epic tale the timeless human longing for home and the trials faced along the way.

In this episode, Dr. Perrin who teaches the Odyssey to a college class every year, traces the life and quest of Odysseus noting the ways in which his life turns and twists much like our own, and the way his yearning and the story itself anticipate a kind of fulfillment in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

In this episode, Dr. Perrin notes the ways we have forgotten the meaning of words that related to education and revives the meaning of about 20 key words we need to know in order to better understand what education really is.

In this episode, Dr. Perrin describes the way that Christian classical education must offer hospitality to students seeking an intellectual home and healing to the sickness of their souls. While this is not the whole of a robust classical education , it is integral and vital part. (Also with connections to Augustine: Rejoicing in the Truth by Jeffrey Lehman.)

In this episode, Dr. Perrin discusses the difficulty and the importance of keeping with classical learning throughout the entirety of a student's education, and of finding times to be wisdom-seeking Mary in a society that expects everyone to be always-busy Martha.

In this episode Dr. Perrin considers this traditional maxim. Can authors and their books become meaningful teachers and even life-long friends? What is the link between an author and authority? Do we still need living teachers if we have really good books?

In this episode, Dr. Perrin traces that part of the Christian tradition of education that regarded education as a preparation not only for one's earthly life but ultimately for the next, heavenly life. Can such a heavenly focus be of real, earthly merit? The tradition says yes.  

 In this episode, Dr. Perrin describes the pedagogical maximum of Repetitio Mater Memoriae, noting that repetition can be a delightful activity of seeking and experiencing the same good thing again and again until it is permanently possessed.