# Holiday Message 2025 | The Romance of the University

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/sean-carroll-s-mindscape-science-society-philosophy-culture-arts-and-ideas-444522/holiday-message-2025-the-romance-of-the-university
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/sean-carroll-s-mindscape-science-society-philosophy-culture-arts-and-ideas-444522/holiday-message-2025-the-romance-of-the-university.md
Podcast: [Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas](https://stenobird.com/podcast/sean-carroll-s-mindscape-science-society-philosophy-culture-arts-and-ideas-444522)
Published: 2025-12-22T14:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e.libsyn.com/holiday-message-2025-the-romance-of-the-university
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e/romance20university.mp3?dest-id=5264190
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/sean-carroll-s-mindscape-science-society-philosophy-culture-arts-and-ideas-444522/episodes/holiday-message-2025-the-romance-of-the-university
Duration seconds: 2571

## Resource

Time for the holiday message! Rounding off the year with a brief and casual reflection on some issue that doesn't quite rise to the level of a full solo podcast. And hopefully something uplifting. This year, I offer a short apologia for higher education in the liberal arts and sciences, focusing not on the down-to-earth economic/occupational benefits of a college degree, but on the very real ways in which such an education opens up possibilities for personal growth. I think all of us in academia should be loud and unapologetic about the more romantic, idealistic values of the modern university. Happy holidays all! Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/12/22/holiday-message-2025-the-romance-of-the-university/ S upport Mindscape on Patreon .

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/sean-carroll-s-mindscape-science-society-philosophy-culture-arts-and-ideas-444522/episodes/holiday-message-2025-the-romance-of-the-university/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/sean-carroll-s-mindscape-science-society-philosophy-culture-arts-and-ideas-444522/holiday-message-2025-the-romance-of-the-university.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.