015. The Meritocracy -- William Deresiewicz

This week's episode is the first of several episodes about how colleges and universities have abandoned their core mission - the collaborative search for truth - in favor of, well, something else. My guest for this episode is William Deresiewicz, author of Excellent Sheep, The Death of the Artist, and the landmark essay ""Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League." Bill and I discuss the meritocracy and the damage it is doing to our students, our colleges, and our political institutions. We also discuss the way that the meritocratic language around "diversity" obscures the actual problems and solutions for social and political justice in higher education.

Next week's episode is about anarchism and Christmas. I highly recommend that you read "An Anarchist Guide to Christmas" by Ruth Kinna, covering the similarities between Kropotkin and Santa Claus, in advance of my conversation with Ruth about Santa and anarchism.

As always, you can find me at https://www.everydayanarchism.com/