Episode Details

On this episode of the Microcollege podcast, I spoke with Zena Hitz, one of the great contemporary advocates of the Great Books model of education and of the engaged intellectual life. Zena is a Tutor at St. John’s College and founder and president of the Catherine Project. She is the author of two books, Lost In Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life and A Philosopher Looks At The Religious Life. Starting with an immersion in the life of the mind during a Telluride Association Summer Program (TASP) at St. John's college when she was 17, Zena has made a life of participating in and building communities through reading and conversation. In our conversation, Zena tells the story of how the Catherine Project took share during the COVID lockdowns as people all over the country reached out seeking community, connection, and an a place to examine core questions of life and meaning. Since 2020, the Catherine Project has grown from a handful of people discussing literature over Zoom to over 2000 readers meeting up virtually and in person in dozens of tutorials and discussion groups, with more joining every year. This is a phenomenon that challenges the prevailing narrative that reading and engagement with the classics is dead and I really appreciated Zena's passionate articulation of how this model of education is deeply egalitarian and liberating, as well has sharing much in common with the engagement with manual labor and the natural world as practiced at Deep Springs and here at Thoreau College. Zena's vision of human flourishing characterized by community, conversation, and intellectual riches for all is very inspiring!