About Dr. Thompson
I’ve spent my career in one business: helping people learn complex things faster.
I started in marketing operations building training systems and discovering trends through social listening. Then I went back to school — and spent over a decade in higher education mastering the science of how adults actually learn and build institutions. Now I’m bringing both together with scholarly research.
I am a historian of American political development, conflict, and identity. My expertise bridges military history, political theory, and Christian theology. My career has been defined by the ability to translate complex truths across the different cultural languages of American life — in environments where audiences rarely speak to one another.
Howard University — Ph.D., United States History
At this premier HBCU, I mastered the historical and cultural rigor required to understand the deep, often painful, complexities of the American identity.
Norwich University — M.A., Military History
At the nation’s oldest private military college, I gained the realist lens necessary to analyze conflict and understand strategic trade-offs.
Oral Roberts University — B.A., Government
At this flagship charismatic institution, I learned how different American communities ground their understanding of governance in diverse moral and theological frameworks.
I have taught at Howard University, American University, NYU, and Georgetown — challenging students to think historically and act prudently in a world defined by power and confusion.
I started Outside the Academy and its podcast because our public debates have become detached from reality. I write and speak to unpack and recover the context and memory required to respond to events today.
Why Subscribe?
Outside the Academy is built around three levels of engagement — designed for wherever you are in your own intellectual journey.
Membership Tiers
Free
Receive three weekly briefs in your inbox:
• Monday Memo: Reflections on philosophy, character, and first principles.
• World War Wednesdays: A serialized re-examination of the hidden history of the World Wars from 1914–1945.
• Friday Flashpoint: A review of the week’s global events grounded in a realist perspective.
Supporting Subscriber— $8/Month or $50/Year
Listen to full uncut episodes of the Podcast plus:
• The Deep Cuts: Full access to long-form essays and historical deep dives.
• The Syllabus: My curated reading lists and self-study plans designed to build your historical literacy.
• The Community: Access to the subscriber only chat with the ability to comment on posts.
Patron — $250/Year
The highest level of commitment to this work:
• You'll be welcomed by name on the podcast as a founding patron of this project.
• The Lecture Hall: Exclusive access to long-form video sessions on history and statecraft — the complex material that requires more than a newsletter and deserves more than a headline.
• The Patron's Dispatch: Each month I send you my current reading list with a brief personal note on what I'm thinking about, what's informing my work, and what I'd put in your hands if you were in my seminar.
• Exclusive ability to start chat threads and initiate discussions within this community.
If you agree that democracy requires good historians, honest reflections on our past, and our best ideas should not be captive to the ivory tower, then I hope you will support my project as a subscriber.
Tech Support What is Substack?
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Why can’t I access every article or podcast?
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