TRH Audio Edition: Human Educators & A.I. #1

With: Cassandra Nelson & Dixie Dillon Lane

TRH Audio Edition is back with a new host and a new format for our 2025-26 Series: “What is the role of human educators in the age of artificial intelligence?”

Our new host is Susan Swanke. She is the Manager of Academic Programs for the Lumen Center in Madison, WI. Learn more about her here.

In our new format, we are pairing two TRH essayists for each episode, anticipating a 3-person dynamic will enhance the depth and breadth of the conversations, which are still focused on the essays contributed to the series.

In this conversation, Susan talks to Cassandra Nelson (“Confident of Welcome”) and Dixie Dillon Lane (“The Teacher Isn’t a Person:” What Higher Ed Can Learn From Homeschooling about AI”).

An illustration of Giambattista Suardi’s Geometric Pen, a machine invented in the 18th century to draw complex geometric curves, or “roulette geometry,” by combining different rotary motions by a system of gears (Credit: Pablo Garcia).

Cassandra Nelson is an Affiliate Fellow in Literature at the Lumen Center, an Associate Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, and the author of A Theology of Fiction. A collection of her essays on teaching and faith, Who’s Afraid of the Still, Small Voice?, is forthcoming from One Subject Press.

Dixie Dillon Lane is an American historian and an associate editor of Hearth & Field. Her book, Skipping School: A History of American Homeschooling and How It Went Mainstream, will be released by Eerdmans in 2026. She writes regularly on education, family, and history at her Substack, The Hollow.

Tell us about your reactions or suggestions for TRH Audio Edition, either by commenting on this post or emailing trh@cscmovement.org.

The Raised Hand is a project of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers and serves its mission to catalyze and empower thoughtful Christian presence and practice at colleges and universities around the world, in service of the common good. To learn more visit cscmovement.org.