Brian E. Richardson, professor of journalism and mass communications at Washington and Lee University, will give the Harry E. and Mary Jane W. Redenbaugh Term Professorship inaugural lecture on Tuesday, Sept. 24, at 5:30 p.m. in Northen Auditorium, Leyburn Library. The title of his talk is "It Ain't What You Tell 'Em; It's What They Hear: Or, You'd Think I'd Have Learned by Now.” The talk is free and open to the public. “After spending my entire life since the age of 16 as a journalist and then a teacher of journalism, I am still so in awe of both callings that I feel inadequate to pontificate about either. But I am going to anyway,” Richardson said. “Our culture, particularly our political culture, seems to have become convinced that it is more important to teach a lot of people marginally and cheaply than to teach people well,” Richardson continued. “For too many elected officials, good teaching means job training. But the future of our democratic society lies in our continued embrace of the liberal arts. There is no way to help people understand the complexities and interconnections of modern life without it.”