Learn How Pepperdine is Cultivating Academic Freedom in Latest PeppTalk Episode

Listen to a new episode of PeppTalk—Pepperdine's podcast dedicated to sparking conversations of personal and global significance, featuring world-renowned professors, faculty, and students from across the University.

Episode 11: "Can Belief in God Strengthen Academic Freedom?" - In this episode of PeppTalk, hosts Alexa Borstad and Coby Dolloff are joined by professor Jennifer Smith to discuss how Pepperdine University is cultivating academic freedom within a distinctly faith-based environment. 

Listeners will get an inside look into the 2025 Academic Freedom Colloquium: Faith and the Academy and the University’s signature Dialogue Dinner series—two initiatives at the heart of Pepperdine’s commitment to open, courageous dialogue. From topics like race, gender, and identity to enduring questions of truth and tradition, this episode explores how Pepperdine is leading a national conversation that merges conviction and curiosity. With help from Smith, hosts Borstad and Dolloff consider what it looks like to pursue truth boldly while remaining rooted in Christian faith. 

Through candid discussion, seminar-style engagement, and Christ-centered hospitality, Pepperdine is building a culture where academic freedom isn’t unmoored from conviction—it’s tethered to it. This episode challenges common assumptions about intellectual freedom and shows how faith-based universities might actually be among its fiercest defenders.

Want more on faith and academic freedom? Read Pepperdine president Jim Gash’s recent feature op-ed in U.S. News & World Report.