The Great Books Are for Everyone

Welcome back to The Honest Broker interview series —also available on our YouTube channel. You can also find it on Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms.

Today, I’m pleased to share my conversation with Zena Hitz.

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Zena Hitz is a tutor at St. John’s College, a Great Books school. She is also the founder of the Catherine Project, a free program allowing participants from around to world to participate in reading groups of the great books. She is also the author of the wonderful book Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life.

Zena sat down with me while visiting Austin to discuss the joys of the intellectual life, the state of the modern university, and how she is bringing humanities education to thousand of people through the Catherine Project.

Below are highlights from our conversation. For the entire dialogue, check out the video at the top of the page.

A CONVERSATION WITH ZENA HITZ

JARED: Zena Hitz, thank you for joining me.

ZENA: Thanks so much, Jared. It’s great to be here.

JARED: I wanted to talk to you because I was first exposed to your work through Lost in Thought, and then after I read Lost in Thought, I found out about the Catherine Project, and I’ve now participated in one Catherine Project group.

ZENA: Very good, very good.

JARED: You started this thing, the Catherine Project. Could you start by telling us what it is, and also how you got started?