In today's episode, a physician and a former college dean grapple with "grind culture."
You'll hear from Lydia Dugdale, a professor of medicine at Columbia, and James Valentini, a chemistry professor and a former dean of Columbia College. In this conversation, moderated by Seth Freeman, they discuss the difference between meaningful work and meaningless striving, what it looks like to live with the end in mind, and the relationship between career and calling in a world defined by achievement culture.
This forum was held at Columbia in April 2026. Thank you to the student planning team for making this event possible.
Lydia Dugdale
Seth Freeman
All of us are going to die, and yet we live as if we're not going to. If we just took a pause and said, "I am mortal. I will die one day. What do I want to do differently in my life in light of that fact?"
There is dignity and value in every human being because they're human beings regardless of what they accomplish.
What does it mean to be faithful to God's call on your life? One must come to peace with the fact that it leaves the future wide open, but that's okay, because the security is in knowing the One who calls.
Suffering will find you one way or the other. Rather than see it as evil of all evils, taking you away from your mission in life, how will you grow through that? How will it shape you? How will it expand your ability to relate to others, to become more compassionate, to see the world through different eyes?
