Free The Inquiry is Heterodox Academy’s home for essays, expert commentary, and conversations about open inquiry in the academy.
| Platform |  | Pricing | Only free issues | Publishes | Daily |
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| Issues | 361 | Founded | 4 years ago | Last Issue | 3 days ago |
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freetheinquiry.comLatest Issues
Should We Genetically Modify Human Embryos? A Philosopher and a Biologist Work Through Four Cases
Where would you draw the line on editing human embryos? Joseph Vukov, a philosopher, and Michael Burns, a biologist, have been colleagues at Loyola University Chicago since faculty orientation ten years ago, and they come at this question f...
Calling Your Opponents "Fascists" and "Murderers" Teaches Us That Disagreement is Hate
"The Uprising (L'Émeute)" by Honoré Daumier, 1848 or later. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
It’s no secret that a majority of Americans have lost trust in universities. Survey research from Gallup and Pew points to similar causes, includ...
The Modern University Barely Needs Students Anymore
"Ship on Stormy Seas" by Ivan Aivazovsky, c. 1858. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
Much of the trust crisis that has engulfed higher education stems from the fact that in the minds of a growing number of Americans, universities have been...
Heterodox Research Roundup, September 2026
It’s a new month and a new Research Roundup! Take a breather from the back-to-school chaos to catch up on the latest from the heterodox research frontier.
The (demographic) diversity hypothesis might not be all it’s cracked up to...
Can a Diverse Campus Share One Purpose? Cornell Thinks So.
A Cornell faculty committee has released a report about Cornell and, perhaps, the future of the American university. The committee positions itself at the turning of the tide between two eras. The era ending was one of division and fracture...
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Authors
The writers behind this newsletter.
Free The Inquiry, by Heterodox Academy, is devoted to the defense and advancement of open inquiry in higher education.
a social scientist interested in nonfiction books, higher education, and evolutionary science
Author and editor of Rare Insights, No Sense, and A Little Sunlight.
Erin B. Shaw is a Research Associate at HxA. Her background is in education research and survey methods.
Academic & depolarization enjoyer. Current Postdoctoral fellow at the Segal Center for Academic Pluralism. Previously Harvard GSE/GSAS.
Psychology professor at the University of Toronto studying effort, empathy, and AI. Author of Speak Now Regret Later. The ideas are mine though I sometimes collaborate with the machines I study to help me put them into words.
Michael Regnier is Heterodox Academy's Executive Director. A former charter school founder and K-12 education advocate, he's a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Chicago.
John Tomasi, the President of Heterodox Academy, is a political philosopher who earned his graduate degrees at Oxford University. A long-time professor at Brown, he has also held teaching and research positions at Princeton, Stanford, and Harvard.
Scientist. Researcher. Social Psychologist. Writer. Podcaster. Heterodox. Opinions my own. https://www.dylanselterman.com/
I'm a social scientist
Author of the forthcoming "Moral Courage: The Gutsy Practice for Influencing What You Can't Control - at Work, Home, and Beyond" (spring 2027). Founder & CEO, Moral Courage College. Some label me a workaholic. Truth is, I'm a learnaholic.
Scott F. Parker is the author of Teaching without Teaching, among other books. He is an assistant teaching professor at Montana State University.
Shiri Spitz Siddiqi is a Senior Researcher at Heterodox Academy. She is a social psychologist with expertise on political bias, affective polarization, and moral judgment.
Justin McBrayer is an academic philosopher and the Director of University Partnerships at Heterodox Academy.
Phong P. Truong is a Resource Developer at Heterodox Academy.
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