Hello there. This is Mark Bauerline with another conversation. Before we get to it, a word about one of our sponsors. You may have seen a recent article in inside

higher ed.com that began, Wyoming Catholic College has a lot of unusual things about it,

each enough to merit a story in itself. Wyoming Catholic is a conservative Catholic

college that educates students in the great books and Catholic tradition. It also teaches

horsemanship and banned cell phones on campus. I love that.

And it turned down federal funding. President Glenn Arbery describes the mission this way.

This college is engaged in deep ways with the agony of a culture that has lost its spiritual center.

We're adventurous and poetic and deeply Catholic. He likes to cite Dostoevsky in

crime and punishment. Low ceilings are bad for the soul. The ceilings rise at Wyoming

Catholic, which is located in the foothills of the Wind River Mountains, the curriculum centers

in the Western tradition. Its Catholic identity builds upon Thomas Aquinas in the

Magisterium of the Catholic Church

and engaging with God in the wilderness. Find out more at Wyomingcatholic.edu.

Mark Edmondson is with us today. He is Professor of English at University of Virginia.

He's author of among many volumes, Self and Soul, A Defensive Ideals, Why Teach, Why Read, and a new book entitled Song of Ourselves, Walt Whitman and the Fight for Democracy. Welcome, Professor Edmondson.

Thank you. Thanks for having me. Well, my first question, you know, your book, Why Read? Mark, can't we just watch?

I guess we could watch if we have to. I spent some time watching it. Maybe you do too.

Sure, sure.

If you're going to learn how to talk to yourself, if it helps to read people who really know how to use language.

And if you want to learn how to talk to the world, it really helps to read people who really know how to use language.

And if you really want to know the world, those people have known it better than we perhaps can ourselves, our invaluable allies.

So, you know, there are things to be said for watching,

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