September 4, 2025 • 14 mins
Dr. Ryan Owens would appear to be a bit of an anamoly in today's higher education landscape. He actually believes in teaching and discussing the foundation of America through the lens of history. He is Director, Florida Institute for Governance and Civics and Professor of Political Science at
Florida State University. This was a great visit,.
Florida State University. This was a great visit,.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
And here we go five past the hour. It is
Thursday on the Morning Show with Preston Scott. Could to
be with you Show five four hundred and thirty six.
But who's counting, right? I mean, no one's counting, okay
other than me. Mosey's over there in Studio one. I
am here in Studio one B, and I cannot wait
to have this discussion. Doctor Ryan Owens is a professor
(00:24):
at Florida State University's director of the Florida Institute of
Governance and Civics, and he is my guest in studio.
How are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey, I'm doing good. Good Thursday to you.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah. I have to start this by asking what prompted
you to reach out and engage with the show. Write
me a note.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I love what you're doing, and I love what I'm doing,
and I want people who love what both of us
are doing to hear about it. So you know, I
am the director of the Institute for Governance and Civics.
We're trying to resurrect an appreciation for liberty on college campuses,
particularly here at FSU. Came down here from Wisconsin about
a year ago to direct this thing and.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Moment just a moment there, please, just a moment to
acknowledge the Green and Gold where you do hold season tickets? Oh?
Oh yeah, yeah, tell me that he's not my new
best friend in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Gold Packers.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Oh yeah, go pack gold pack goal.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Okay, you slip into that real easy, can't you.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Oh my goodness, yeah, I can do it in a minute.
How'd you end up at Florida State University?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
This position opened up and uh, and it was really
appealing to me. I believe pretty strongly in what we're doing.
I don't mean to be hyperbolic, but I do think
that the future of the country is really at issue.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's at risk right now.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
If we have people who don't understand how, you know,
the American government works their rules of citizens, what does
it mean to be a citizen, We're going to have
a heck of a problem on our hands in the future.
We're starting to see that right now. And so for me,
the ability to come down and take this thing over
like just started up from the ground up. We are
literally building this from scratch, and you know, there's a
(02:01):
lot of flexibility there and an opportunity to build a
vision and that and that's what we want to do.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
We're here to help.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
We're here to promote civic literacy, civic awareness, civic thought
wherever we can.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
When you were brought into Florida State, the hiring process
is going on. What were you told about the goals
the purpose of this department?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah, well what I was told basically was, here's the
statutory mission that we have, right, and there's six or
seven bullet points within that statute, and and they're general,
they all kind of point towards the same thing. And
you know, the direction that I had was lean into this,
make your vision fit with what we what we want
(02:42):
to do here, And so I had I don't want
to say cart blanche, that's not right, but I had
a lot of flexibility to kind of bring in my expertise.
My background is in law and politics. I'm an empirical
social scientist, but I also understand that you can run
as many statistical models as possible, but if they're not
answering important normative questions, they're So what we're trying to
do here is just a number of things. I'm building
(03:04):
a Civics degree program at FSU that is part social science,
part civic thought, so that we teach people what it
means to be an American, but then give them the
tools to go out on the job market later to
get good jobs and make an impact in their community.
We created a First Amendment Law Clinic at the College
of Law so that students can learn the importance of
free speech, conscience, liberty, and learn how to defend them.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
What was the reception as you got for first How
long has this process been underway?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
One year? One year as you began.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Obviously we've seen a lot of tumult on college and
university campuses across the country. What kind of reception did
you get at Florida State.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
It's been positive. I've been pleased with the reception that
we've had from leadership, and there are a lot of
people on campus who recognize the value of intellectual diversity
and understand that student success is tied to an understanding
of American civics and an ability to comprehend other people's
(04:07):
viewpoints and have some political tolerance. So you know, it's
not without its obstacles, to be sure, in any organization
is going to be that way. But I am very
very supportive of what we've got going on here and
in the relationship that we have with leadership on campus.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Because generally speaking, broadly speaking, we paint with a big
brush around here. Yeah, yeah, there are always exceptions. Broadly speaking,
diversity means as long as you agree.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, we see that sort of alarmingly in the data,
particularly among the eighteen to twenty four or twenty nine
year olds. We just we one of the things that
we do at the IGC as well as you know,
teaching and the clinic and things like that, is we
do a lot of polling, and we've conducted a handful
of polls so far in our existence, and the data
are somewhat frightening. Among eighteen to twenty four or twenty
(04:55):
nine year olds. There is a real strong creeping intolerance
that exists, such that we're seeing data now where younger
people are saying they're not even willing to date people
who have opposing political views, and in fact, some of
the data show that that sort of younger progressives are
over two times more likely to date an ex felon
than they are to date a conservative.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Right, Just a moment of silence here for decency, thank you.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, And you know, we see some similar data on
the other side of the spectrum.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Two it's not all just the left.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Of course, data are a little bit more troublesome on
that side of the spectrum. So, you know, what are
we going to do in this country in the future.
If we're only dating, marrying, procreating with people who believe
like we do, then we're raising kids who only believe
what we do. Pretty soon the polarization that we see,
I mean, is going to be one heck of a problem.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Back with doctor Ryan Owen's professor Florida State University, we're
talking about the Institute of Governance and Civics. How does
how does this play out day to day on campus?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It's a lot of work. Yeah, Yeah, it's a lot
of work.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
But we're doing the Lord's work, as they say, right,
So what we're doing a handful of things. We are
helping to hire faculty and work with existing departments to
place faculty in those units. We are working to create
a degree program that I'm really really excited about. I
think it's going to do some wonderful things. We bring
in speakers and we put on programs regularly. We've got
(06:32):
some fantastic speakers coming up and be happy to talk
about them here in a bit.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
But we're doing all of that.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
We do a lot of polling, data analysis, working with students.
We've got book clubs for undergraduate students. We're really firing
on multiple cellulars.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
So does a student sign up for specific courses? Do
they take coursework and then affiliate with the institute? How
does that work?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, so the way the program, the degree program will work.
We are in the process right now of getting that
up and running and seeking the approvals from the State
University System, the Florida bog and others, so that should
be ready to rock and roll in fall of twenty
twenty six. So students will come and they just they
can commit to this as a major, just like they
would any other major on campus. We're also working to
(07:16):
get some certificate programs and things like that. So once
students get on campus, we will advertise this program to them.
We'll advertise this to them as they're applying, so that
people know what we're doing, what we're up to. Parents
will feel comfortable, you know, sending their kids to come
work with us. We also have you know, the book
clubs and things like that, so students will see advertisements
(07:36):
for what we're doing, they can join us. They can
see the flyer, come to our website, which is IGC
dot FSU dot edu. They can learn more about us
that way. We're on socials a lot, so there's a
lot of information that they can obtain, and we're reaching
out to them for all of these matters.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Are you teaching courses specifically yourself?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, I've got a couple of courses. My background is
in law and politics. I was a practicing lawyer for
a couple of years and realized that that wasn't what
I wanted to do, so I teach classes on the
United States Supreme Court. I do a class every year
on the Supreme Court's current term, which is really cool.
Students love it. It's a hands on course. We take
six or seven cases currently before the US Supreme Court.
(08:16):
We read the briefs, we listen to oral arguments. The
very last class of the semester, we go to the
Florida Supreme Court. We do mock oral arguments in there.
It's a great class. Students learn what it means to
argue both sides of the positions, and they get some
writing skills, they get some oral presentation skills.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
It's a fun course.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
What's the process look like time wise for you in
this evolution. I mean, in our last segment, we'll spend
some time on the speakers that are coming in and
some things that people might want to gravitate to learn
more about, but talk us through the logistics of what
you're doing.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, well, my vision, if we just want to back
this up, I mean, my vision for this thing is
for us to be the nation's premier policy institute in
creating the next generation of effective citizens and responsible leaders.
And the way that we do this structurally is we
focus on four pillars of liberty. We're focused on constitutional liberty,
economic liberty, conscience liberty, and educational liberty.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So I talked about that degree program.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Students come in, they'll take a course set of courses,
and then they can concentrate in one of these four areas.
We've got four branch heads who are They report to
me and they are pursuing those goals in each of
those four pillars of liberty. The speakers that we bring
in they fit within that. So our goal is that
within five years or so, we want the First Amendment
(09:32):
Law Clinic to have some cases at the Supreme Court.
We want to have a number of students in the
program and lots of speakers, and finally, we want to
become the nation's data hub for all things civic awareness
and civic related.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Twenty two past the hour. We're going to stay as
long as you can here doctor Ryan Owens, and this
will likely be the first to many visits over the
coming years. He is Professor FSU, Director of the Florida
Institute of Governance and Civics. You talked about the four
pillars in the previous segment. I want to talk about conscience.
How do you create a pillar around something that is
so intrinsically personal.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, it's a great question.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
People have to understand this is intimately attached to liberty.
If you don't have the freedom to worship as you
see fit, I mean that is one of the most,
if not the most fundamental right that you have as
a human being, is the right to worship and the
right to your thoughts and expression. And so what we
want to do is under make sure that students understand
(10:35):
that this does come to political tolerance and intolerance. It
comes to just a general awareness of what those around
you are doing. If you respect the individual, you have
to respect the individual's right to worship. As he or
she sees fit. And so with the First Amendment Law Clinic,
the courses that we're requiring on the First Amendment, this
is going to teach students what the law is today
on the First Amendment. But more importantly, it's going to
(10:58):
teach them the why, not just the what, but the why.
Why do we value this stuff?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Right?
Speaker 3 (11:02):
And so this comes back to some very very foundational
principles about your relationship in the state of nature. If
you will, right, without any government, what would exist, Well,
your relationship with God would still exist, and so no
government can come in and.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Intrude on that.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
So I think teaching students the what about the doctrine
why it exists? Those two things together are very very useful.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Does it become somewhat remedial then some? In fact, if
you look at all of these four pillars, there has
to be a degree of remedial education infused in all
of them because so much of this is lacking, even
in Florida in our public education system K twelve.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah, there's definitely some of that, There's no doubt about it.
But I think you know, repetition is the best form of.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Learning, absolutely, So we want to hit people over.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
The head theoretically with this stuff, So remind them constantly
why we're doing this?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Why?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Why? Why? Why? Why?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
So Yeah, there is a bit of a remediality to it,
but I think that Repid is going to be important.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Students will see it, they'll hear it, they'll understand it.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
One of the things that your organization is doing is
bringing speakers in. The purpose of those speakers is to
simply expose the student body that wants to come and
listen the public at large. Who are you targeting.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yeah, lots of people, really really happy what we had
last year. This year coming up, we've got some fantastic people.
So on September seventeenth, we've got Rich Lowry, who's the
editor in chief of National Review.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
He's going to come in.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
He's going to talk about the Constitution and the meaning
of America. October one, we've got somebody coming in to
talk about Thomas Jefferson and the university and what he
believed the proper role of the university was. You know,
some may agree, some may disagree with that, but that's fine.
That's kind of the point. Right October third, we're going
to do a fantastic Supreme Court preview of the upcoming
(12:49):
cases at the US Supreme Court.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
That'll be at the law School.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
We've got an event on October twenty fourth about the
Founders and religion and what the Founders thought about religion,
how they exercised it, things of that nature. November fourth,
we've got a guy, Daniel di Martino's coming in to
talk about how socialism destroyed Venezuela. Somebody from Venezuela talking about,
you know, this increased rule of government in the economy.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
No way, socialism's bad.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, no, many people are saying, come on, many people
are saying. November tenth, we're going to celebrate the Marine's birthday,
so that'll be interesting. And November eighteenth, we've got Glenn Lowry,
the economist, coming up to talk about the case for
Black American patriotism. So, as far as I'm concerned, the
sun is rising on Florida State University, it truly is.
(13:35):
We've got some fantastic people coming in and I know
I went through a lot of speakers there and dates.
Listeners can go to our website FSU dot IGC dot
FSU dot edu to learn more about those dates, how
to register the times. But you know, we are doing
a lot of stuff. We're proud of what we're doing.
We're proud to be part of FSU. And I can't
tell you how excited I am to just write this ship.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
I asked about the targeting is this Are these speaking
events strictly for students and faculty members, those on campus
that want to listen and participate, or is it open
to the community who can come?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Well, I'll pull out my Wisconsin packer accent. Oh no,
oh no, it's for everybody. Uh, open you serve and pop? Yeah,
we got some soda.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
We're gonna let it's open to the public.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
It's open. I do have listeners in Wisconsin.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
You should know. God bless them. Yeah, God bless them. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
So it'll be open to the community. Okay, And these
are all free events, right. We do not charge for
our events because, dog on it. We believe in liberty
so much that we're willing to pay the cost.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
There's goople are exposed to it.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Well done, sir, well done.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
All right.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
This is a starting point for us to get to
know each other a little bit. And Uh, any polling,
you do anything you want to push out, you'll you'll
have a place here anytime you want it.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Well, love it, appreciate it. Thank you so much,
And here we go five past the hour. It is
Thursday on the Morning Show with Preston Scott. Could to
be with you Show five four hundred and thirty six.
But who's counting, right? I mean, no one's counting, okay
other than me. Mosey's over there in Studio one. I
am here in Studio one B, and I cannot wait
to have this discussion. Doctor Ryan Owens is a professor
(00:24):
at Florida State University's director of the Florida Institute of
Governance and Civics, and he is my guest in studio.
How are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey, I'm doing good. Good Thursday to you.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Yeah. I have to start this by asking what prompted
you to reach out and engage with the show. Write
me a note.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I love what you're doing, and I love what I'm doing,
and I want people who love what both of us
are doing to hear about it. So you know, I
am the director of the Institute for Governance and Civics.
We're trying to resurrect an appreciation for liberty on college campuses,
particularly here at FSU. Came down here from Wisconsin about
a year ago to direct this thing and.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Moment just a moment there, please, just a moment to
acknowledge the Green and Gold where you do hold season tickets? Oh?
Oh yeah, yeah, tell me that he's not my new
best friend in the world.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Gold Packers.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Oh yeah, go pack gold pack goal.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Okay, you slip into that real easy, can't you.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Oh my goodness, yeah, I can do it in a minute.
How'd you end up at Florida State University?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
This position opened up and uh, and it was really
appealing to me. I believe pretty strongly in what we're doing.
I don't mean to be hyperbolic, but I do think
that the future of the country is really at issue.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's at risk right now.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
If we have people who don't understand how, you know,
the American government works their rules of citizens, what does
it mean to be a citizen, We're going to have
a heck of a problem on our hands in the future.
We're starting to see that right now. And so for me,
the ability to come down and take this thing over
like just started up from the ground up. We are
literally building this from scratch, and you know, there's a
(02:01):
lot of flexibility there and an opportunity to build a
vision and that and that's what we want to do.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
We're here to help.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
We're here to promote civic literacy, civic awareness, civic thought
wherever we can.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
When you were brought into Florida State, the hiring process
is going on. What were you told about the goals
the purpose of this department?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah, well what I was told basically was, here's the
statutory mission that we have, right, and there's six or
seven bullet points within that statute, and and they're general,
they all kind of point towards the same thing. And
you know, the direction that I had was lean into this,
make your vision fit with what we what we want
(02:42):
to do here, And so I had I don't want
to say cart blanche, that's not right, but I had
a lot of flexibility to kind of bring in my expertise.
My background is in law and politics. I'm an empirical
social scientist, but I also understand that you can run
as many statistical models as possible, but if they're not
answering important normative questions, they're So what we're trying to
do here is just a number of things. I'm building
(03:04):
a Civics degree program at FSU that is part social science,
part civic thought, so that we teach people what it
means to be an American, but then give them the
tools to go out on the job market later to
get good jobs and make an impact in their community.
We created a First Amendment Law Clinic at the College
of Law so that students can learn the importance of
free speech, conscience, liberty, and learn how to defend them.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
What was the reception as you got for first How
long has this process been underway?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
One year? One year as you began.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Obviously we've seen a lot of tumult on college and
university campuses across the country. What kind of reception did
you get at Florida State.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
It's been positive. I've been pleased with the reception that
we've had from leadership, and there are a lot of
people on campus who recognize the value of intellectual diversity
and understand that student success is tied to an understanding
of American civics and an ability to comprehend other people's
(04:07):
viewpoints and have some political tolerance. So you know, it's
not without its obstacles, to be sure, in any organization
is going to be that way. But I am very
very supportive of what we've got going on here and
in the relationship that we have with leadership on campus.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Because generally speaking, broadly speaking, we paint with a big
brush around here. Yeah, yeah, there are always exceptions. Broadly speaking,
diversity means as long as you agree.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, we see that sort of alarmingly in the data,
particularly among the eighteen to twenty four or twenty nine
year olds. We just we one of the things that
we do at the IGC as well as you know,
teaching and the clinic and things like that, is we
do a lot of polling, and we've conducted a handful
of polls so far in our existence, and the data
are somewhat frightening. Among eighteen to twenty four or twenty
(04:55):
nine year olds. There is a real strong creeping intolerance
that exists, such that we're seeing data now where younger
people are saying they're not even willing to date people
who have opposing political views, and in fact, some of
the data show that that sort of younger progressives are
over two times more likely to date an ex felon
than they are to date a conservative.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Right, Just a moment of silence here for decency, thank you.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, And you know, we see some similar data on
the other side of the spectrum.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Two it's not all just the left.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Of course, data are a little bit more troublesome on
that side of the spectrum. So, you know, what are
we going to do in this country in the future.
If we're only dating, marrying, procreating with people who believe
like we do, then we're raising kids who only believe
what we do. Pretty soon the polarization that we see,
I mean, is going to be one heck of a problem.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Back with doctor Ryan Owen's professor Florida State University, we're
talking about the Institute of Governance and Civics. How does
how does this play out day to day on campus?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It's a lot of work. Yeah, Yeah, it's a lot
of work.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
But we're doing the Lord's work, as they say, right,
So what we're doing a handful of things. We are
helping to hire faculty and work with existing departments to
place faculty in those units. We are working to create
a degree program that I'm really really excited about. I
think it's going to do some wonderful things. We bring
in speakers and we put on programs regularly. We've got
(06:32):
some fantastic speakers coming up and be happy to talk
about them here in a bit.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
But we're doing all of that.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
We do a lot of polling, data analysis, working with students.
We've got book clubs for undergraduate students. We're really firing
on multiple cellulars.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
So does a student sign up for specific courses? Do
they take coursework and then affiliate with the institute? How
does that work?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, so the way the program, the degree program will work.
We are in the process right now of getting that
up and running and seeking the approvals from the State
University System, the Florida bog and others, so that should
be ready to rock and roll in fall of twenty
twenty six. So students will come and they just they
can commit to this as a major, just like they
would any other major on campus. We're also working to
(07:16):
get some certificate programs and things like that. So once
students get on campus, we will advertise this program to them.
We'll advertise this to them as they're applying, so that
people know what we're doing, what we're up to. Parents
will feel comfortable, you know, sending their kids to come
work with us. We also have you know, the book
clubs and things like that, so students will see advertisements
(07:36):
for what we're doing, they can join us. They can
see the flyer, come to our website, which is IGC
dot FSU dot edu. They can learn more about us
that way. We're on socials a lot, so there's a
lot of information that they can obtain, and we're reaching
out to them for all of these matters.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Are you teaching courses specifically yourself?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, I've got a couple of courses. My background is
in law and politics. I was a practicing lawyer for
a couple of years and realized that that wasn't what
I wanted to do, so I teach classes on the
United States Supreme Court. I do a class every year
on the Supreme Court's current term, which is really cool.
Students love it. It's a hands on course. We take
six or seven cases currently before the US Supreme Court.
(08:16):
We read the briefs, we listen to oral arguments. The
very last class of the semester, we go to the
Florida Supreme Court. We do mock oral arguments in there.
It's a great class. Students learn what it means to
argue both sides of the positions, and they get some
writing skills, they get some oral presentation skills.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
It's a fun course.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
What's the process look like time wise for you in
this evolution. I mean, in our last segment, we'll spend
some time on the speakers that are coming in and
some things that people might want to gravitate to learn
more about, but talk us through the logistics of what
you're doing.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, well, my vision, if we just want to back
this up, I mean, my vision for this thing is
for us to be the nation's premier policy institute in
creating the next generation of effective citizens and responsible leaders.
And the way that we do this structurally is we
focus on four pillars of liberty. We're focused on constitutional liberty,
economic liberty, conscience liberty, and educational liberty.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So I talked about that degree program.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Students come in, they'll take a course set of courses,
and then they can concentrate in one of these four areas.
We've got four branch heads who are They report to
me and they are pursuing those goals in each of
those four pillars of liberty. The speakers that we bring
in they fit within that. So our goal is that
within five years or so, we want the First Amendment
(09:32):
Law Clinic to have some cases at the Supreme Court.
We want to have a number of students in the
program and lots of speakers, and finally, we want to
become the nation's data hub for all things civic awareness
and civic related.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Twenty two past the hour. We're going to stay as
long as you can here doctor Ryan Owens, and this
will likely be the first to many visits over the
coming years. He is Professor FSU, Director of the Florida
Institute of Governance and Civics. You talked about the four
pillars in the previous segment. I want to talk about conscience.
How do you create a pillar around something that is
so intrinsically personal.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, it's a great question.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
People have to understand this is intimately attached to liberty.
If you don't have the freedom to worship as you
see fit, I mean that is one of the most,
if not the most fundamental right that you have as
a human being, is the right to worship and the
right to your thoughts and expression. And so what we
want to do is under make sure that students understand
(10:35):
that this does come to political tolerance and intolerance. It
comes to just a general awareness of what those around
you are doing. If you respect the individual, you have
to respect the individual's right to worship. As he or
she sees fit. And so with the First Amendment Law Clinic,
the courses that we're requiring on the First Amendment, this
is going to teach students what the law is today
on the First Amendment. But more importantly, it's going to
(10:58):
teach them the why, not just the what, but the why.
Why do we value this stuff?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Right?
Speaker 3 (11:02):
And so this comes back to some very very foundational
principles about your relationship in the state of nature. If
you will, right, without any government, what would exist, Well,
your relationship with God would still exist, and so no
government can come in and.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Intrude on that.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
So I think teaching students the what about the doctrine
why it exists? Those two things together are very very useful.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Does it become somewhat remedial then some? In fact, if
you look at all of these four pillars, there has
to be a degree of remedial education infused in all
of them because so much of this is lacking, even
in Florida in our public education system K twelve.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah, there's definitely some of that, There's no doubt about it.
But I think you know, repetition is the best form of.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Learning, absolutely, So we want to hit people over.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
The head theoretically with this stuff, So remind them constantly
why we're doing this?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Why?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Why? Why? Why? Why?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
So Yeah, there is a bit of a remediality to it,
but I think that Repid is going to be important.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Students will see it, they'll hear it, they'll understand it.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
One of the things that your organization is doing is
bringing speakers in. The purpose of those speakers is to
simply expose the student body that wants to come and
listen the public at large. Who are you targeting.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yeah, lots of people, really really happy what we had
last year. This year coming up, we've got some fantastic people.
So on September seventeenth, we've got Rich Lowry, who's the
editor in chief of National Review.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
He's going to come in.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
He's going to talk about the Constitution and the meaning
of America. October one, we've got somebody coming in to
talk about Thomas Jefferson and the university and what he
believed the proper role of the university was. You know,
some may agree, some may disagree with that, but that's fine.
That's kind of the point. Right October third, we're going
to do a fantastic Supreme Court preview of the upcoming
(12:49):
cases at the US Supreme Court.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
That'll be at the law School.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
We've got an event on October twenty fourth about the
Founders and religion and what the Founders thought about religion,
how they exercised it, things of that nature. November fourth,
we've got a guy, Daniel di Martino's coming in to
talk about how socialism destroyed Venezuela. Somebody from Venezuela talking about,
you know, this increased rule of government in the economy.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
No way, socialism's bad.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, no, many people are saying, come on, many people
are saying. November tenth, we're going to celebrate the Marine's birthday,
so that'll be interesting. And November eighteenth, we've got Glenn Lowry,
the economist, coming up to talk about the case for
Black American patriotism. So, as far as I'm concerned, the
sun is rising on Florida State University, it truly is.
(13:35):
We've got some fantastic people coming in and I know
I went through a lot of speakers there and dates.
Listeners can go to our website FSU dot IGC dot
FSU dot edu to learn more about those dates, how
to register the times. But you know, we are doing
a lot of stuff. We're proud of what we're doing.
We're proud to be part of FSU. And I can't
tell you how excited I am to just write this ship.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
I asked about the targeting is this Are these speaking
events strictly for students and faculty members, those on campus
that want to listen and participate, or is it open
to the community who can come?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Well, I'll pull out my Wisconsin packer accent. Oh no,
oh no, it's for everybody. Uh, open you serve and pop? Yeah,
we got some soda.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
We're gonna let it's open to the public.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
It's open. I do have listeners in Wisconsin.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
You should know. God bless them. Yeah, God bless them. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
So it'll be open to the community. Okay, And these
are all free events, right. We do not charge for
our events because, dog on it. We believe in liberty
so much that we're willing to pay the cost.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
There's goople are exposed to it.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Well done, sir, well done.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
All right.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
This is a starting point for us to get to
know each other a little bit. And Uh, any polling,
you do anything you want to push out, you'll you'll
have a place here anytime you want it.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Well, love it, appreciate it. Thank you so much,
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