If you have taken a handful of humanities classes, it is likely you have run into the name Dr. Brené Brown. There is a good reason for this.

Dr. Brené Brown is a researcher and professor at the University of Houston, as well as, a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She has spent the last couple of decades studying emotion specifically vulnerability, courage, empathy, and shame. Her resume is impressive as it includes a handful of books, hosting two podcasts, TED talks, a HBO Max Series, a Netflix special, and that is just the start.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time enthralled by questions that the adults around me did not know how to answer. My google searches looked a lot like “what is the meaning of life”, “how do you be a good person”, and “why do I feel what I feel.” It was through watching TED talks that I was first introduced to adults who took these questions seriously. Here is where I stumbled upon Dr. Brown with her TED talk, which is one of the most viewed TED talks, “The power of vulnerability.” (If one hasn’t seen said TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability?language=en). This TED talk is a starting place if you are curious about Dr. Brené Brown’s honesty, humor, and grounded theory research approach to the study of human connection. Personally, watching this opened a door for me and I have been walking through it ever since.

Since watching this TED talk, I have delved into the world of learning outside the classroom. I have made a commitment to grow my knowledge on my own terms and seek out resources, like those created by Dr. Brené Brown, that allows the general public to stay up to date on emerging research in various fields. More days than not, I feel like I gain more from this daily practice of podcasts, shows, books, and videos than I do in my lectures. We are taught from a young age that learning takes place in the context of a classroom and on the terms of teachers, administration, and policy-makers but this is a narrow approach when there is an endless amount we could potentially learn from. We should all strive to encourage the cultivation of knowledge in ourselves and others but this begins by taking it into our own hands and working to make access to learning attainable to the masses.

It is no secret that the world of academia is not particularly accessible to the general public. Dr. Brené Brown and others are working to change this narrative. I think this is the future of academia. We are no longer contented with the elitism or the rigid approach that the education system has fed us. Sure, there is a place for the traditional classroom still but the popularization of online lecture series, TikToks that explain advanced topics in one minute, and podcasts hosted by professors are clear indicators that we are moving beyond the model that has been the norm. So seek out topics you are curious about and if you find that no content about your particular interest exists, I urge you to please create it yourself.