WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Truman and Claire Like Hillsdale

Episode Date: May 10, 2024

In this final episode at Hillsdale, Truman and Claire went out on the street and asked some Delts, Hutch, Isaac Green and several others what makes Hillsdale so special.

I'm Truman and I'm Claire and we like people we like people so much that for our last episode at least on Hillsdale College campus maybe not beyond we wanted to spread the wealth a little bit in an interview as many people as we could in 22 minutes yeah this episode will be a series of vignettes of random people we met in AJ's or elsewhere just trying to get an idea of why do they love Hillsdale. What makes it special? Any funny stories they have? We really enjoyed recording this one and hope you enjoy listening to it. I have with me, Joey Spolstra. Joey is a member of Delta Delta Delta. He is a chemistry major or biochem? Biochem major, senior graduating soon. Joey, why do you love Hillsdale and or why should other people love it? I think that the root of it, it's just the people.

I'm sure you'll hear that a lot, but like there's something about this place that kind of binds and bonds people more than any other place. I remember the first time I came here, like day, like day one, it was the welcome party. And I met Cole Shanks, who became my best friend. And that night, we like went out on a bunch of like side quests and we just did a bunch of goofy, wacky stuff. that a bunch of the older people at the college like Matthias Rain were like, you should do this with us. And we just went and just did some of the craziest stuff. And it's just like, then we went back to like the dorm.

And that was like our first night in the dorm was just talking to each other until 3 a.m. with everyone. Is there anything you're allowed to share on air? We stole the handchair when that was a thing. Okay. And we put it in Shane Shanks bathroom. Okay. That he shared with the Vinny Hill.

at the time. And that was really funny because they hadn't shown up yet. Yeah. So they came and it was just there. And it was like there's a whole like like, like, it was this whole like quest like thing where it was like we were like trying not to get caught and trying to be like sneaky about it. It was really fun. Joey, thank you for your time.

Of course. Thank you for your interview. I am here with Isaac Green. My favorite boy other than Jacob. entire earth. Previous listeners will know that I talk about him sometimes. He is part of the philosophy and German honoraries, respectively. He is the news editor for the Collegian, but soon to be managing editor of the Collegian.

And he's in the non-MU Alpha music fraternity. And he's a beautiful singer. Isaac, why do you like what you do on campus? Why do you think other people should do it? I think that the Collegian is one of the best ways on campus to get better at writing, to meet awesome people, and to cover really cool stories. So you should write for the Collegian because it gives you the opportunity to do all those things. Speaking another language, also very cool. You can sound really dope doing that.

So definitely join the German program. Philosophy, yeah, we love to think. We like, we like doing that. So if you like to think too, you should also do philosophy. Yeah, you should do that. Isaac, can you say something in German right now? Yeah. You're out of the honor, right?

You biffed it. I biffed it. It's too late. You can't put me on the spot like that. You have a music Instagram account that is very good. What inspired you to do that? You've been doing a lot of stuff with Jack Cody, too. Where'd that come from?

Yeah. So I do have a music page, Isaac Greeners, music and I have been writing and playing music for a long time. I've been playing music since I was like five or six, writing music since I was like 12, 13 or so. And recently decided I want to pursue that as a little bit of a hobby more seriously. And so I've got songs that I want to record and produce and put out on platforms wherever you can find music. And decided that starting Instagram would be a great way to both put music out there, but also motivate myself to actually get to work with all that stuff. And then I live with Jack Cody. He was hands down the best

photographer slash videographer on campus. And so if you live with that guy, if you live with that guy, why would you not make use of those skills? That's true. One of my funniest stories at Hillsdale involves you sort of. Christian Pek-Demitt was signed into your account. And let me explain. for the listeners at home. Isaac doesn't swear because he's a sweet, good boy. I've heard him swear, like, maybe once or twice in our, like, three-year-long friendship. And Christian was signed into his account

and made a comment under him that had, like, I think one or two swear words in it, but it was just something that Isaac would never say. It was about a basketball player, and he just said, weekend, Chuck, and thing menace. And I thought Isaac wrote that, and I screamed. I laughed so hard that I cried.

It was amazing. It was probably the best thing that's ever happened to me, other than Jacob. Yep. Speaking of Isaac Green, not cursing, you're listening to Truman and Clear like people on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.1.7 FM.

All right, I'm talking now to Sandy Viator. Sandy's on the which gun team, action shooting team. I had to read his shirt. He is an RA in Coon. He's a transverse. student. Do you have any funny stories about Hillsdale from your time in the dorms?

Probably my favorite memory from this year was when I was R.A., when I was an R.A. Kuhn this past year and I had all the freshman baseball players and some other great dudes. And we had like a battle with Needfeld one night. So we went into Needfield and threw nacho cheese and like Axe Body Spray and wrestled them and had a great time. And then we went back to Koon and Needfield retaliated with boiled cat food that they came into our norm and threw it everywhere. But we were ready for them. We had turned our couch on the side, pulled the hose inside to spray them. And it was just an all-around great experience.

And just seeing all the dudes come together and have an absolute blast. It's just so much fun. Awesome. All right, Sandy. Thanks for your input. Thank you. This is Truman. I am with Claire, but not Claire Godday, Claire Oldenberg.

I bumped into Claire Hensel when I was talking with Sandy earlier, but she declined to be on the show. Yeah, Sandy can verify. Claire Oldenberg, you are a junior, you are a physics major, you are going to be a writing center tutor, and you live in mock and you're Catholic and you do other things on campus. Why do you love Hillsdale? Any particular physics profs you like? Oh, I've got to give a shout out to my boy, Dr. Trepeppy. He's an alumni, so he gets it. He's pulled some fun pranks.

I heard, like, his baby physics class, the first day of the year, he dressed up like a student and sat in the front row for the first. first 10 minutes and everybody was like well where's Dr. Trepeppy and then this like dude in the front row stood up and started teaching the class um which is pretty funny we've also pulled a few pranks on him um one time he left the the room to go get a book or something and so i was like guys guys guys let's go like leave the classroom we'll hide around the corner um so you know there were only six of us in the class because physics classes so we all left and hit around the corner and when he came back there's nobody in the classroom so then we tried to come back but he like shut and locked the door and turned off the lights. And so he kind of pranked us back and it was pretty fun.

That's good. Any other fun anecdotes or stories about time in Hillsdale, wild and wacky stuff? Any other people, particularly that you'd like to shout out since it's the people. It's the people. I'm going to go ahead and shout out my boy, Caleb Holm. His Twitter account makes my day. I'm a huge fan of his Twitter account. Caleb Holmes's great. I've often said that if I could only follow two Twitter accounts, it would be him and Nick Adams. Yes, big fan of that. I think I think I would agree with you. Caleb Holm. I would follow you, Truman. Your tweets are pretty funny. Thank you. When I do them. Yeah, when you do them. I've been more sporadic. You're more of a quality over a quantity guy. Yes. Yeah. I would follow you and I think I would

follow Elon Musk. Okay. Awesome. All right. I can give your time clear. Yeah, of course, Truman. I'm here with Lizzie Pinola. She is a member of Kai Omega. She is the head of Greek Ivy, the Greek Bible study. She is now running the history honorary for next year, and she has been on campus rec for two years now. So why do you think the stuff that you do on campus is awesome? Why would you advocate that other people should do it? Do you have a favorite? Okay. So I started, so I joined Cairo freshman year, and that's my favorite easily, because well one because that's kind of just like an all-encompassing thing it's like that's where my best friends are that's where i have the most fun like whether it's just like hanging out with different

kios or like kio events um and then yep i've done campus rec for two years i just joined the history honorary and it'll be me and three other people running it next semester so i don't really know what that's going to be like yet but that should be good and then greek iv is very near and dear to my heart and I am in charge of the Caio chapter of Greek Ivy. But there are people from Sigma Chi and ATO and Pai Phi Phi and Kappa. Yeah, I think that's all of us. No DSPs. No DSPs, no delts as of now. Do they hate Jesus? No. Um, that no. We're hoping no. We're hoping to draw them back in again. They were once part of it. Um, but that's also very fun because I like being able to, um, it's fun to be able to, like, we meet every week the leaders of all the different

Greek Bible studies and we prep together. And, um, that's super fun because it's a chance to get to know people in other houses for like a good reason, like, and also to realize that like, we have a lot in common, even though we're all like in different sororities or fraternities and stuff. So that's been good for campus morale for sure. That being said, if you could start like a holy war or a crusade against one of the other houses based on what happens in Greek I'd be, which house would it be? Okay, that's an awesome question. I would say that I would make it like kind of a fun Holy War. So like Holy War, you know. The campus record is coming out. Yeah, exactly. I'd say I would start one with ATO, mostly just because I think that Kirsten and Paul and Brantley

are really easy people to make fun up. I like them all. I hope they're listening. And actually, at the end of the day, they're all Catholic, and I am Protestant. So maybe I can make that happen. That would be good. Lizzie, thank you very much for being on this weird little episode of our podcast. The end.

I'm here recording with Aiden Christian. He is a sophomore member of Catholic Society, a member of Theta Epsilon. on as a member of said music fraternity, which I was not given a bid to, he has opinions about other people's opinions of the songs that are played on campus. Aiden, can you tell me more? That's right, Truman. First of all, I'd like to say you have to be musically talented in order to join a music fraternity. But the second thing I'd like to say, Truman, is that, you know, Hillsdale has a very rampant meme culture, right? Everybody thinks of the funniest person on campus, but no one can make me laugh. Well, the real thing about that is, though,

is that all the meme pages, they just share the same memes. You know this. It feels sometimes... Why would I don't know anything about memes? I don't know. I don't know, Truman. I don't know. Okay. What I'm saying, though, is that this semester in particular, there's been a popular meme that's been circulating all in different forms. Okay. A quote, you know, every band plays the same three songs at off-campus gigs. Okay. What they feel to recognize Truman Chos is that it's not the same the three songs. It's entirely the same set list

because it's only one band. One band has played every off-campus gig this year. What band is that? Died of Worms, Trim and Chos. Aren't you in this band? No comment. No comment? Okay.

I have no comment on the meme pages either. What, hypothetically speaking, could this band play more than, you know, expand to a different set list. That is true, hypothetically speaking. However, off-campus gigs ask us to play three to four days in advance to their event, which means that we have zero time to prepare a new set list. So it's easier just if we keep the same party set list.

Sometimes we'll switch off. We have like three or four songs that will change every so often and replace with other ones. put, but for the most part, it's the same set list. So I think what you're saying is that people need to ask bands to play earlier in advance and stop. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. And then stop complaining when they play the same songs because they had time to prepare. Well, here's the other thing about those songs, right?

Everybody complains when we play the three same songs. But what happens if we don't play them? People complain. I think the lesson we can learn here, Truman Chos, is that people just need to put up with it because they're not the ones playing the music. And people complain too much around here? I think people complain too much everywhere, Truman. What's something you're grateful for around Hillsdale College?

Something I'm grateful for? Yeah. Let's stop complaining. I'm grateful for the young fogies. Every time I walk up the hill and I see somebody dressed in like a suit vest and a flat cap, and I see the same guys that I see every day, they're never missing their tie, Truman. I think, wow. They are preserving traditional manhood

They keep me positive And they keep me uplifted And they never fail to make me smile and think Our country is saved I'm grateful for the young fogies I think they're just better than us I think they're better than us too Well

Well all right Aiden thank you so much for your time I'm sure our listeners will appreciate Yes thank you Trulman Speaking of whatever Aidan Christian was just talking about. You're listening to Truman and Clear Lake People on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. So I'm here with Kieran Smith. Kieran is adult.

He works with the theater department in lighting. He's a history major. He does other cool stuff around campus like most people around here. Kieran, everyone's going to say it's the people. I know that the reason Lake Hillsdale is the people. Do you have a reason outside of it's the people, while you like Hillsdale and or can you give me a specific example of people making Hillsdale great? Yeah, I know this is also something people say a lot, but I particularly enjoy some of the professors.

I feel like Hillsdale's size, which has a lot of problems. Everybody knows you, everybody knows your business is a problem. But the size also made you good to notice some of your professors really well. and I think I've been able to make some really great relationships because of that that have been very beneficial for me. So I think that would honestly be one of the top reasons I like Hillsdale as well. Okay. Any specific professors you want to shout out? Yes, Dr. Moyer in the history department. He's awesome. His classes are amazing.

He's a really interesting guy. Great, you know, background. He worked in finance, and then he worked in Special Operations Command, and then he was in the Trump White House. So he's kind of been all around and just has a lot of really great stories about his time. And any other funny anecdotes about Hillsdale

or about people being cool? I think I really enjoy the kind of dichotomy where you have people who study really hard and are very intelligent. But once Friday rolls around, they're ready to get as silly as possible. I have a lot of really great memories

in my time here. Just after finishing, like, a really great memories of my time here. really hard paper, final, or, you know, some test on Friday afternoon, like once five o'clock rolls around, I go to Fraddican and we're hanging out, and it's just like the most goofy stuff imaginable. Okay. All right. Well, Karen, thank you so much for your time. Of course. Thank you. Appreciate it. I'm speaking with Dr. Eric Cusherson of the Classics Department. He was a graduate of Hillsdale College in a year in the past that I don't remember at the moment. It was 2002. too. Okay. He's also the head of the

Collegiate Scholars Program, of which I am proud to have been a member during my time here. Dr. Hutchinson or Hutch, as some call you. Why do you like Hillsdale and why should other people like it? Any particular example? Not necessarily the best one, but just something that

comes to mind. Well, no, what... I don't know if this is the best example, but a couple years ago, I had this cheap Bick pen. I think it was a big... You know, the clear ones, though, you can see where you can see the ink in it.

And I never had gotten one down, I think, all the way to like the bitter end, because those things will last forever. It's like, I don't know if you know the Seinfeld episode where Kramer is trying to drive the car as far past the E slash where the tank is empty, right? And go farther than anyone has ever gone past the E before. So this was kind of what I wanted to do with this pen. And then it disappeared from one of my classes one day. and I did not know what happened to the pen.

And I came in, I think it was on the last day of class, and the students had set up like a funeral for the pen and made like a little grave marker or something on, like a part of an index card and had wrapped the pen in black ribbon and had, you know, set up this whole thing. It was really funny. But it was one of those, I don't know,

for me that's a sort of quintessentially nerdy in the, best way Hillsdale thing to do is to take this and make this sort of elaborate funeral for the pen. So that was a favorite thing that has happened in the not too distant past. Okay. Has Hillsdale or perhaps have you changed since your time as a student into becoming a professor? I think we both have. Yeah, I think, I mean, I certainly have. As an institution, you know, there are things that have changed the student bodies bigger. We've got. nicer buildings and newer buildings. But one thing I think has stayed consistent is that the college attracts a lot of really great, really interesting people, both as students and as

faculty. That was true when I was a student. It's true on the faculty side of my colleagues now. It was true of the student body when I was an undergrad. graduate, and it's true of the student body now, that has been consistent over, wherever the students are coming from, whatever state, whatever region of the country, whatever part of the world they're coming from, it has been, I would say the case that there have been great people here the entire time. Great and interesting people who are very much worth getting to know. So I think that has been a consistent thing over time.

Great and interesting people that are worth getting to know. I don't know about you, Claire, but I think that Dr. Eric Hutchinson just summed up the entire point of our show. I most certainly think that he did. And if he doesn't already, he should listen to all of our past episodes. It sounds like he would like them. Thank you all so much for listening, those of you who did. You, the fans, are what make this possible.

we couldn't do anything without you. And if you want to continue to make it possible later in the future, every now and then, DM us. Yeah, DM us. I wouldn't complain. Truman and Claire like alumni. Truman and Claire like D.C. Mr. Chos goes to Washington with Claire.

Claire's also there. Thank you so much. Seriously, everyone who's listened, this has been such a great opportunity. getting to talk to our friends, new friends. Yeah, we've loved every second of it. Yep, this has been one of the highlights of my Hillsdale career. In short, I'm Truman. And I'm Claire.

And we still like people. Bye. For now.