pedagogy | Forthright Radio

“A new administration must screen out those who regard Government service as the door to power or wealth, those who cannot distinguish between private gains and public trust, and those who believe that old-fashioned honesty with the public’s money is both old and out of fashion.”
John F. Kennedy, 1960

Returning to be our guest again is internationally renowned public intellectual, writer, and cultural and political critic, McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest, & The Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy – Professor Henry Giroux.

He has authored, or co-authored over 65 books, written several hundred scholarly articles, delivered more than 250 public lectures, been a regular contributor to print, television, and radio news media outlets, and is one of the most cited academics working in any area of Humanities research. His books have been translated into many languages.

Henery Giroux is on the editorial and advisory boards of numerous national and international scholarly journals, and he co-edited a series on education and cultural studies with Paulo Freire for a decade. He is on the Board of Directors for Truthout. He is interviewed regularly on a number of different media including Democracy Now! Despite these illustrious credentials, he is never dull in conversation, and he certainly isn’t in this one, which was recorded via Zoom on June 5, 2026.

Liz Helenchild from the 2018 Mendocino Poetry Celebration Photo by Dan Roberts

This edition of Forthright Radio ends with a poem by Mendocino poet and radio colleague, Liz Helenchild‘s, poem: SLICE. Thanks to Dan Roberts for broadcasting it on Rhythm Running River (6-7-26) and for permission to include it. It was recorded at the 2026 Mendocino Poetry Celebration.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

GANGSTER CAPITALISM AND CORRUPTION IN TRUMP’S AMERICA https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/05/29/gangster-capitalism-and-corruption-in-trumps-america/

Never again in the age of historical amnesia https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/2PAID9HDNCTR7EKQXXBR/full?target=10.1080/00131857.2026.2671081

We Must Resist the Collapse of Conscience in the Age of Trump https://truthout.org/articles/we-must-resist-the-collapse-of-conscience-in-the-age-of-trump/

War Becomes Spectacle in Trump’s Horrific Propaganda Promoting War in Iran https://truthout.org/articles/war-becomes-spectacle-in-trumps-horrific-propaganda-promoting-war-in-iran/

The Myth of the Apolitical University: Education, Power and the Lie of Neutrality https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/24/the-myth-of-the-apolitical-university-education-power-and-the-lie-of-neutrality/

War on DEI’s Aim: Normalizing White Nationalism https://flaglerlive.com/dei-war/

Donald Trump’s apocalyptic and profane threats against Iran expose the unhinged language of war https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-apocalyptic-and-profane-threats-against-iran-expose-the-unhinged-language-of-war-279801

Trump’s Crusade: Christian Nationalism and the Making of a Holy War https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/20/trumps-crusade-christian-nationalism-and-the-making-of-a-holy-war/

MAGA Aesthetics and Fascist Power: Spectacles of White Supremacy https://socialistproject.ca/2026/03/maga-aesthetics-and-fascist-power/

He’s Very Unwell” – Marsh Family parody of Chuck Berry’s “Never Can Tell” from Pulp Fiction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2WWjjVlr7M&list=RD2J95CTmZUUM&index=2

Welcome to ‘the Claw’: the White House fighting cage captures Trump era rot https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/12/trump-ufc-fighting-cage

‘We call it the P-word’: Chicago professor suspended after assignment mentions Palestinians https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/05/professor-suspended-assignment-mentions-palestinians

‘We were attacked as bad Jews’: Columbia faculty who supported Gaza protests file claims with Trump’s antisemitism fund https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/03/columbia-jewish-faculty-protests-settlement-fund

Police want to decide which journalists can cover the Delaney Hall protests. That’s not their job https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/03/delaney-hall-new-jersey-protests-police

Trump’s UFC fight at White House combines punches and politics https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-ufc-fight-white-house-combines-punches-politics-2026-06-05/

Judge Orders Restoration of National Park Plaques Removed Under Trump Directive https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/12/judge-national-park-trump-displays

In this interview, we welcome back Henry Giroux, public intellectual, prolific writer, cultural critic, scholar and one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy. He has spent a lifetime asking & analyzing important, hard, even scary questions such as these, which I quote from his essay, Thinking Dangerously: The Role of Higher Education in Authoritarian Times (http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41058-thinking-dangerously-the-role-of-higher-education-in-authoritarian-times):

“What happens to democracy when the president of the United States labels critical media outlets as ‘enemies of the people,’ and disparages the search for truth with the blanket term ‘fake news’? What happens to democracy, when individuals and groups are demonized on the basis of their religion? What happens to a society, when critical thinking becomes an object of contempt? What happens to a social order ruled by an economics of contempt, that blames the poor for their condition, and subjects them to a culture of shaming? What happens to a polity, when it retreats into private silos, and becomes indifferent to the use of language deployed in the service of a panicked rage — language that stokes anger, but ignores issues that matter? What happens to a social order, when it treats millions of undocumented immigrants as disposable, potential terrorists and “criminals”? What happens to a country, when the presiding principles of its society are violence and ignorance?”
We discuss these and other questions, and it may surprise you to learn that Henry Giroux’s analysis, although clear-sighted in the face of the forces of dystopia, leads to an energized, engaged vision of collective agency and action.

Henry Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest. He is the author of more than 65 books, has published more than 400 papers, in addition to hundreds of chapters in the books of others, as well as many essays and articles in such journals as Truthout, Truthdig, and CounterPunch. His works have been translated into numerous languages.
He is particularly interested in what he calls the war on youth, the corporatization of higher education, the politics of neo-liberalism, the assault on civic literacy and the collapse of public memory, public pedagogy, the educative nature of politics, and the rise of various youth movements across the globe.

His latest book is America at War With Itself, published by City Lights Books. His forthcoming book, The Public in Peril: Trump and the Menace of American Authoritarianism, is to be published in 2018 by Routledge.

Learn more at https://www.henryagiroux.com/