Universities and the Future of Civilization: In Conversation with Iain McGilchrist

What does it mean to find our way home? In this conversation with composer and classicist Eugenia Manolidou, President Stephen Blackwood asks how the living inheritance of ancient Greece – through language, music, poetry, and the pursuit of freedom – can reconnect us with sources of self-understanding, helping us to recover a sense of where we come from and what we are here for. Beginning with Homer, their discussion examines the enduring principles and intellectual postures that have characterized the spirit of Hellenism for millennia. Beyond the language of the ancients, Eugenia raises music as an ontological reality, suggesting that melody and rhythm pervade the whole of existence. In considering what music and Greek thought have in common, she gestures toward a mutual intuition first pointed out by Pythagoras: beneath the seeming disorder of things, there exists intelligible harmony, ratio, and proportion. To live well, with this in mind, is to become attuned to that very order. To learn more or become part of our community, please visit www.ralston.ac Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey

To mark the opening of applications for Ralston College's 2027–28 MA in the Humanities, President Stephen Blackwood and Provost David Butterfield sat down on Samos to discuss the theme of the coming academic year: the Self. Their conversation considers why self-knowledge has remained a perennial human concern, and how questions of character, desire, consciousness, and the soul shape our understanding of how we ought to live. They also reflect on what distinguishes Ralston's MA: its ambitious scope across disciplines and centuries, its movement between Greece and Savannah, and its commitment to pursuing fundamental questions through great works, close study, and serious conversation. Applications are now open. Full and partial scholarships available. Priority deadline: December 18th, 2026. Apply now at: https://www.ralston.ac/humanities-ma

Generously sponsored by the Ben Delo Foundation. The final lecture of Ralston College's symposium, AI and the Battle for the Soul, asks a question that turns from the future of artificial intelligence to something far older and more enduring: What does freedom require? Weaving together neuroscience, philosophy, physics, and literature, Dr Iain McGilchrist examines free will, consciousness, and the forms of attention that compose our engagement with the world. Over several decades at the intersection of philosophy and neuroscience, Dr McGilchrist's contributions have transformed contemporary discussions of consciousness, attention, and meaning. At a moment so often dominated by mechanical explanations and computational models, he emphasizes the indispensable role of openness, receptivity, and participation in understanding, arguing that reality exceeds reductionist accounts. If you would like to support us in this work, please visit ralston.ac/donate. Authors and Works Mentioned in this Episode: Henry Stapp

Generously sponsored by the Ben Delo Foundation. Ralston College welcomed Iain McGilchrist and Stephen Wolfram in May of 2026 for a public conversation during our symposium, AI and the Battle for the Soul. Beginning with the promises and implications of this technology, the discussion opens onto a deeper inquiry concerning consciousness, computation, purpose, and the irreducible constitution of reality itself. Setting out from seemingly distant philosophical commitments, these thinkers demonstrate an uncommon willingness to follow first principles wherever they lead. After decades in physics, computer science, and the study of complex systems, Wolfram shares his vision through the lens of computation, looking for the simple rules underlying complexity in the natural world. Drawing upon decades studying philosophy, literature, and neuropsychiatry, McGilchrist makes the case that reality exceeds computation, suggesting that consciousness is grounded in embodiment, receptivity, and participation. The two thinkers do not remain at the level of disagreement, but examine one another's fundamental assumptions with a rare seriousness and intellectual charity.

Generously sponsored by the Ben Delo Foundation. In this second lecture from our recent symposium, AI and the Battle for the Soul, theologian and iconographer Jonathan Pageau asks: Who, or what, does AI serve? By drawing on mythology, scripture, symbolism, and poetry, he argues that the questions raised by AI directly concern human purpose and meaning. Through the stories of Prometheus, the Holy Grail, Moloch, and the Tower of Babel, Pageau unpacks the deepest questions raised by AI, calling on us to recognize what technology reveals about ourselves and the civilization we are building.