What is a PhD?

In this week's Knowledge Drop, I reunite with my superhero teammate and bestie Anthony Michael D'Agostino to talk about what it means to get a PhD in the humanities. A PhD or Doctor of Philosophy is a terminal degree or the highest level of official education one can receive in a given field. Only two percent of Americans have a doctoral degree and it's nearly always a requirement to be a full-time university professor. We talk about the process of getting a Ph.D., the pleasures and challenges of contributing genuinely original knowledge to a field of study, and how the degree has been an integral part in shaping the scholars and teachers we've become. Our hope is to give listeners a picture of the kind of years-long training that professors go through in order to teach generations of college students.