A recent edition of the “MTSU On the Record” radio program explores whether Americans still think deeply about ideas.

Dr. Carlin Romano

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Dr. Carlin Romano, professor of philosophy and humanities at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa., aired in early November on WMOT-FM (89.5 and www.wmot.org ). You can listen to their conversation here.

Romano will be the guest speaker for MTSU’s inaugural Fall Philosophy Lyceum at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, in Room 164 of the College of Education Building.

The event is free and open to the public.

His book “America the Philosophical” received front-page treatment in The New York Times Book Review on June 28, 2012. In the book, he makes the provocative assertion that Americans are the most philosophical people in the history of the human race, furthered by Romano’s expanded definition of the word “philosopher.”

“I even go into some fairly rarefied territory: people that most would not accept as philosophers,” said Romano. “I call them casual philosophers — Bill Moyers, for instance, the broadcaster, and probably the most controversial example in my book, Hugh Hefner of Playboy.

“That, a lot of people have thought, is quite a stretch. But I do that because Hefner actually published lots and lots of articles in favor of civil rights concepts, liberationist concepts and so on.”

Romano joined the Ursinus faculty in 2010 following 25 years as literary critic at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he also served at various times as book editor, cultural reporter, general assignment city staffer and correspondent based in St. Petersburg, Russia.

He remains critic-at-large for The Chronicle of Higher Education, the international academic newspaper based in Washington, D.C.

To listen to previous “MTSU On the Record” programs, go to the “Audio Clips” archives here and here.

For more information about “MTSU On the Record,” contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.