Shaista Patel, an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC San Diego, and Nisha Nath, the podcast's producer and an activist, dive into the alarming climate of fear and repression in higher education. They discuss recent cases of students imprisoned for their political beliefs and the troubling shift in university ideologies toward the right. The duo highlights the contrast between the resilience of Palestinian scholars and the systemic challenges faced in American academia, urging solidarity amid rising xenophobia and the need for genuine support in educational spaces.