The PeppTalk Podcast

Truth Has Nothing to Fear ft. Jonathan Koch

What does it mean to pursue truth in a world that would rather keep ideas safe and untested? In this episode of PeppTalk, Alexa and Coby sit down with Professor Jonathan Koch — professor of English and Great Books at Seaver College — to explore what a genuine liberal arts education looks like: when faith and learning are treated not as separate things to be integrated, but as something that was never meant to be divided in the first place.Professor Koch draws on John Milton's Areopagitica to argue that truth doesn't emerge from debate but is revealed through it. This distinction shapes everything from how he teaches Shakespeare across LA's theater scene to why he advises Pepperdine's Veritas Club, a student-led space where intellectual rigor and Christian faith meet weekly to test the ideas that matter most. For prospective students wondering whether a liberal arts degree is worth it, Professor Koch has a simple but countercultural answer: your vocation right now is to be a student. Do that well, and the rest will follow.Jonathan Koch is an Assistant Professor of English at Pepperdine University's Seaver College, where he teaches Renaissance poetry, Shakespeare, and Great Books. He received his PhD from Washington University in St. Louis and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech and the Huntington Library. He serves as faculty advisor for Pepperdine's Veritas Club. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pepperdineuniversity.substack.com [https://pepperdineuniversity.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Lab and the Great Books

What does studying both science and great books teach a person, and what kind of life does that integration prepare one for? In this episode of PeppTalk, hosts Alexa and Coby sit down with Vera Syers, a graduating senior of Pepperdine's Seaver College Class of 2026, in her final week as a Pepperdine student. The conversation is a graduation-week reflection on what four years in the lab and at the great books table have taught Vera, and what she carries into her life post-grad. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pepperdineuniversity.substack.com [https://pepperdineuniversity.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Christian University and the Academic Establishment

In this episode of PeppTalk, Coby Dolloff [https://substack.com/profile/130533022-coby-dolloff] sits down with Professor Ron Highfield — theologian, author, and 37-year member of the Pepperdine faculty — to explore the ideas behind his new book, The Christian University and the Academic Establishment.Professor Highfield has spent decades thinking carefully about what it means to educate students as Christians — forming them to think about God, their vocations,their relationships, and the world through a distinctly Christian lens. In this conversation, he unpacks why the word "Christian" has to mean something concrete, how universities like Harvard and Yale drifted from their founding missions, and what it will take for places like Pepperdine to hold the line.You'll hear about the surprising history of higher education in America, the very real pressures — legal, financial, and cultural — that Christian universities face today, and why Ron believes finding faculty who are both academically excellent and deeply Christian is one of the hardest and most important challenges of our time.Ron Highfield is Professor of Religion at Pepperdine University's Seaver College, where he has taught theology and Christian thought for 37 years. His new book, The Christian University and the Academic Establishment [https://www.amazon.com/Christian-University-Academic-Establishment/dp/19581397], is available now. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pepperdineuniversity.substack.com [https://pepperdineuniversity.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Why the Great Books? ft. Jeremy Wayne Tate & Jessica Hooten Wilson

Why do people still read thousand-year-old books — and why does it matter more now than ever? In this episode of PeppTalk, host Coby Dolloff sits down with two of the foremost experts on the Great Books tradition to explore what these timeless texts have to teach us about how to live, how to think, and who we are. Jeremy Wayne Tate, founder and CEO of the Classic Learning Test, and Jessica Hooten Wilson, Pepperdine's Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books, have each devoted their careers to the same conviction: that the books which have endured for centuries have endured for a reason. Together, they reflect on the great works that shaped their own lives and careers — and make the case for why every generation needs to wrestle with them anew. In this conversation, you'll hear how reading Homer, Dante, and Dostoevsky, can form character in ways no algorithm or career training program can replicate, why the classics speak across cultures and centuries to the deepest questions of human experience, and what it looks like to build an education — and a life — around the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty. Whether you've never cracked open a Great Book or you’re a scholar of classics, this episode is an invitation to discover the invitation to the Great Conversation — and why accepting the invitation just might change your life. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pepperdineuniversity.substack.com [https://pepperdineuniversity.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

How to Make the Most of Lent with the Help of Dante

What does a 750-year-old poem have to say about practicing Lent today? In this episode of PeppTalk, hosts Coby and Alexa sit down with Professor Paul Contino—Pepperdine's Distinguished Professor of Great Books—to explore how Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy illuminates the Lenten season with clarity and depth. Professor Contino brings Dante's vision to life, tracing the poem's timeless themes of repentance, humility, and spiritual renewal. He shows how the medieval poet's journey down into the underworld, up Mount Purgatory, and into the communal beatitude of Heaven can help guide our own journey through life. He also shares insights from Pepperdine Alumni Affairs' "Great Books Club: Dante Discussions," which he currently leads, reflecting on why The Divine Comedy continues to spark meaningful conversation among students and alumni generations after they first encounter it. In this conversation, you'll hear why Lent may be the perfect season to pick up Dante, how great literature deepens our understanding of suffering and hope, and what one of Christianity's most celebrated works can teach us about the pilgrim's path — wherever we find ourselves on it. Whether you're encountering The Divine Comedy for the first time or returning to it with fresh eyes, this episode is an invitation to journey through Lent in the company of Dante Alighieri, one of history's greatest spiritual guides. Paul Contino Paul J. Contino is Distinguished Professor of Great Books at Pepperdine University. He received his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Notre Dame, after which he taught for twelve years at Christ College, the Honors College of Valparaiso University. Since joining Pepperdine in 2002, he has twice received the Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence. He and his wife, Professor Mary Mullins, have co-edited the journal Christianity and Literature. He co-edited Bakhtin and Religion: A Feeling for Faith (Northwestern University Press, 2001). His more recent book, Dostoevsky’s Incarnational Realism (Cascade, 2021), was a finalist for both the Lilly Network and CCL book awards, and has been translated into Russian. His essay on “Theological Approaches to Teaching Dante” appears in the MLA Approaches to Teaching the Divine Comedy. He has also published essays on Zhuangzi, Jane Austen, and a number of contemporary Catholic writers. Most recently, he contributed to the Hallow App's 2026 Lent Pray40 Challenge [https://try.hallow.com/brothers-karamazov-book-fyodor-dostoevsky], consulting with their team on a guided reflection on Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. Sign up for “Great Books Club: Dante Discussion with Paul Contino” [https://events.pepperdine.edu/event/Great-Books-Alumni-Book-Club/overview] Watch Great Books Club: The Divine Comedy — Inferno, Part I on PeppLearn [https://www.pepperdine.edu/alumni/pepplearn/search/?series=great-books-series] Watch Great Books Club: The Divine Comedy — Inferno Part II, Purgatorio, Part I on PeppLearn [https://www.pepperdine.edu/alumni/pepplearn/search/?series=great-books-series] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pepperdineuniversity.substack.com [https://pepperdineuniversity.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]