The Freshman Who Took Down Stanford's President And Its Perfect Image - EP 72 Theo Baker

About this episode

Theo Baker discusses his experience as a freshman journalist who exposed inconsistencies in scientific research linked to Stanford's president, leading to his resignation.

As a freshman, Theo Baker signed up to write for The Stanford Daily on a lark. He thought it might be a fun way to spend some time when he wasn’t busy studying and coding. But then, he turned out to be quite good at reporting and tips started coming his way. One of these tips included information suggesting that there were inconsistencies and perhaps massive errors in past scientific papers tied to Stanford’s then-president Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Despite warnings to stay away from the story, Baker pursued it and produced a string of pieces that did, in fact, show a long history of shoddy research publications linked to Tessier-Lavigne. The mighty Stanford president, who had been a towering force in the scientific community, resigned by the end of Baker’s freshman year. Baker has now written a book about his experience and joined the podcast to discuss it. How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University is three things: a rollicking account of Baker’s takedown of Tessier-Lavigne, an indictment of the start-up-obsessed culture Stanford has fostered, and something of a memoir, describing what it’s like to endure one of the more unusual freshman years any student…

People in this episode

Host: Ashlee Vance

Guest: Theo Baker

Topics covered

• journalism
• higher education
• scientific integrity
• Stanford University
• student activism
• venture capitalism

Keywords

• Theo Baker
• Stanford
• Marc Tessier-Lavigne
• journalism
• scientific research
• student activism
• venture capital

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Stanford Daily, Stanford University

Books & works: How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University

More episodes of Core Memory

• The Space Race Is So Back — EP 76 Ashlee Vance And Kylie Robison · June 10, 2026 · 1h 23m
• Redwood Materials Has Built A Recyling Empire · June 9, 2026 · 1h 8m
• Can You Reverse Decades of Drinking Damage? Perhaps. - EP 75 Jacob Kimmel Is Back · June 2, 2026 · 2h 0m
• The Startup Trying to Save Us From AI Bioweapons- EP 74 Hannu Rajaniemi · May 27, 2026 · 1h 48m
• Schmidt Out of Luck — EP 73 Ashlee Vance And Kylie Robison · May 22, 2026 · 55 min
• Meta's AI Chief On AI Beef, New Models And Life With Zuck - EP 71 Alex Wang · May 13, 2026 · 1h 23m