Institutional authority means for us that we will not take a position on political or social issues as a university.

Our faculty and our students can. They encourage to do so. But our point of view is that universities are platforms.

They're there to encourage debate not to settle it. I would say we have a commitment to civil discourse.

We want to treat each other with respect. There's a sense that we

want to listen to each other. We want to use arguments. And that is an important part of who we

live together and how we learn together and how we do research together. It's 10 a.m. on Thursday, November 14th, here in Nashville, Tennessee, where I am at Vanderbilt University.

It is 11 a.m. on Thursday, November 14th. In New York City, it is 6 o'clock p.m. in Israel on November 14th,

as Israelis are winding down their day. And I'm pleased to welcome to this

podcast for the first time, Daniel Deermeier, the Chancellor of Vanderbilt University here on your campus

in your home, so to speak. Thanks for joining me. Thanks for having me. It's good to be with you.

Well, welcome to Vanderbilt and looking forward to the conversation.

Okay, great. There's a lot I want to cover. I guess first a little bit about you. And then we'll dive into some of the issues that you and I have been talking about over the years.

The first is, can you just explain to our listeners, to our viewers, how you wound up here. A little bit about your background and then how

Vanderbilt wound up being part of your trajectory. Happy to talk about it. So I was born in Berlin,

city was still divided, moved to Munich, was in Germany until I was 23. I'm a first generation

student. So actually the first of my family to graduate from high school.

And so I got a fellowship from the German government that included a year in the United States.

I went to the University of Southern California, was a graduate student in philosophy, PhD program there.

That wasn't the right thing for me.

Went back to Germany when the wall fell, then got my PhD in the US because I loved

being in the United States, wanted to go back, but basically switched fields. And then my first job

was at Stanford in the business school. I was at Northwestern for many years. And then I was dean of

...