Talk Radio Pioneer Thom Hartmann to Receive Honorary Doctorate from Goddard College

Port Townsend, Wash. – Goddard College will grant an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters to award-winning author and internationally recognized progressive radio talk show host Thom Hartmann during its September 22 commencement ceremony, the first for the college’s undergraduate program at Fort Worden, President Barbara Vacarr announced.

“As we celebrate our 150th year, Goddard is especially proud to welcome Thom Hartmann to our Port Townsend, Washington campus as part of the graduation ceremonies for the inaugural class of Goddard’s newest academic endeavor – our undergraduate program on the West Coast,” Vacarr said.

“We are proud to honor Thom for his lifelong commitment to progressive values,” said Vacarr. “Goddard’s progressive pedagogy is an inquiry-based, lifelong learning model, where the act of questioning assumptions and examining the stories that shape us is a vital component of our educational mission. We salute Thom and his pioneering contribution to progressive journalism and exposing the concealed narratives that so are critical to preservation of our democracy.”

“Stories are the way that we transmit who we are and what our culture means, and we know that whoever controls the story controls the culture,” said Hartmann. “I’m especially pleased to receive this honor from Goddard College because Goddard is truly an experimenting college that has spawned some of the most interesting work in progressive education in this country,” said Hartmann.

Examples of some of Goddard’s pioneering educational programs include the Goddard Cambridge Graduate Program for Social Change, the Third World Studies program, the Design-Build architectural program and The Institute for Social Ecology. Goddard’s Adult Degree Program, the first low-residency program for adult learners in the country, was launched in 1963, and is now the basis of the school’s entire academic offering.

“What we’ve seen in the last 30 years since the Reagan revolution is a very concerted media effort to not only control our stories but our larger narrative as a nation,” said Hartmann. “We need to continue to re-capture these narratives and re-understand them historically.”

Hartman is an American radio host, author, former psychotherapist, entrepreneur, and progressive political commentator. His nationally syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, airs in the U.S. and has 2.75 million listeners a week.

Talkers Magazine names Thom Hartmann as the 8th most important talk show host in America, and the #1 most important progressive host, for three consecutive years in their “Heavy Hundred” ranking. He is also an award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of books on political topics and ADHD.

His 2002 article “Talking Back To Talk Radio” became part of the original business plan of Air America Radio and started his Thom Hartmann radio program out of his home in Vermont in March 2003.

“Thom’s work as a journalist, author and community activist is a living example of the very mission of Goddard College and what our students are committed to —advancing cultures of rigorous inquiry, collaboration and lifelong learning, where individuals take imaginative and responsible action in the world,” Vacarr said.

Event Details:
Sunday, September 22
JFK Hall, Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend, Washington
3:30 reception
4:15 ceremony

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About Goddard College
Initially founded in 1863 as the Goddard Seminary in Barre, Vt., Goddard College moved to its current Plainfield campus and was chartered in 1938 by founding President Royce “Tim” Pitkin. In 1963, Goddard became the first U.S. college to offer low-residency adult degree programs. Now offering accredited MA, MFA, BA and BFA degree programs from the main campus in Plainfield, Vermont and sites in Seattle and Port Townsend, Washington, Goddard’s low-residency education model offers the best of on-campus and distance education, with experienced faculty advisors, rigorous on-campus residencies, and the freedom to study from anywhere.

About Thom Hartmann:
The Thom Hartmann Program is live daily from 3-6 PM ET on radio and TV stations from coast to coast, syndicated by Dial-Global to commercial stations, Pacifica to non-profit stations, and Free Speech TV on Dish Network, DirectTV, and cable systems, as well as on American Forces Radio and on XM and Sirius Satellite radio. He is also a four-time Project Censored-award-winning, New York Times best-selling author. His national daily progressive radio talk show is now in its ninth year on the air. More people listen daily to the Thom Hartmann Program than any other progressive talk show in the nation.
www.thomhartmann.com