The Hillsdale College Podcast Network amassed more than 3 million downloads in 2025, about 500,000 more than in 2024, according to a press release from the college.
The college created the network in 2023 to provide a centralized location for all of the college’s audio content, according to Scot Bertram, director of the network and host of “Radio Free Hillsdale Hour” and the “Hillsdale K-12 Classical Education Podcast.”
“Hopefully it makes it easier for people who hear one show to then go deeper and to experience and listen to other shows that we’re producing,” Bertram said.
According to Bertram, the network currently hosts 10 shows, with “Hillsdale Dialogues” attracting the most views on a consistent basis, while specific episodes on the “The Larry Arnn Show” garner the most views individually.
Across the network, around 25-30 people are involved in planning, producing, and executing the various shows, including people from the K-12 office, online courses team, and video production crew, Bertram said.
“It’s moments like that where it’s nice to know that we are actually reaching people. People are actually listening to this,” said Lilly Duncan, communications manager for the Hillsdale K-12 education office.
Bertram and Shadrach Strehle, the network’s manager not only serve as quality control, ensuring all of the network’s 10 shows enjoy smooth uploading and a pleasant listening experience across various platforms, but also seek to provide a cohesive, consistent message across the shows, Bertram said.
“Scot and Shad deserve a lot of credit for the work they’ve done in building the podcast network,” Executive Director of Online Learning Jeremiah Regan said. “They’re a joy to work with. I’m really proud of them and glad I get to participate.”
Regan, who teams up with Executive Director of Brand Management Juan Dávalos to host “The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast,” said he had never hosted a podcast before but enjoys it immensely.
Although everyone puts in effort to make the online course videos beautiful, Regan said he understood the importance of having audio-only versions as well.
“Many people commute much farther to work than I do, or they go on trips, and they like something educational to listen to that will develop their minds and improve their hearts, and the podcast allows them to do that,” Regan said. “I would much rather someone listen instead of watch than not learn at all.”
Similarly, Strehle said that among Hillsdale’s many teaching methods, podcasts provide a uniquely personal medium.
“If you’re watching a video, you have it up in front of you, and it’s got your whole attention,” Strehle said. “But there’s something even more powerful about something being with you when you drive to work or do the laundry or wash the dishes or run errands.”
According to Duncan, the “Hillsdale K-12 Classical Education Podcast,” which she helps coordinate, is targeted toward anyone interested in classical education, from teachers honing their craft to a parent looking at a school and wondering what classical education is meant to be.
“We want the podcast to be a place where they can come in and search and look for answers that they’re trying to find,” Duncan said.
Duncan said she had little exposure to classical education growing up. Shortly after graduating college, however, she was struck by the difference she saw between herself — who had been raised in a Christian home and taught to believe in objective truth and similar values — and many of her peers.
“That summer, there was a lot of stuff going on, and I was just thinking, ‘What’s the difference between me and my friends who are out protesting? We’re all looking for justice.’ I think their actions came from a very good place. But they didn’t know how to have that conversation,” Duncan said.
While studying to get her master’s in politics at Hillsdale College, Duncan said she learned about classical education and realized she wasn’t the only person who recognized this discrepancy.
After earning her master’s degree in 2022, Duncan said she realized she wanted to get involved in classical education because no matter what happened politically, there would always be a need for educated, grounded, and virtuous people.
Duncan said she and others involved with the show hope to figure out how to organize the podcast — which just posted its 378th episode — in such a way that people can easily find the content most relevant to their interests.
“Because there’s such a variety of episodes, we’re trying to figure out what we can do to make it clear that, for example, if you’re a Latin teacher and you’re new to classical education, here’s 10 episodes that you should probably listen to or things like that,” Duncan said.
Podcast listeners can look forward to a new Hillsdale media app launching in the fall 2026, which will serve as a home for all the learning the college makes available to the world, including but not limited to, podcasts, according to Regan.
“The app will make it even easier for people to listen to the podcast and then flip to the video, or vice versa, so the work that the podcast team has done will bear even more fruit in the near future, and we’re excited to be part of it,” Regan said.
