About this episode

Tyler Austin Harper discusses his disillusionment with higher education and critiques of its practices.

America’s colleges have spent years at the center of the culture wars. But some of the sharpest critics of higher education are people who once believed deeply in its mission — and changed their minds after seeing it from the inside. Host Megan McArdle is joined by Tyler Austin Harper, staff writer at The Atlantic and former professor at Bates College. He breaks down how academia reshaped his views on affirmative action and diversity, and why he came to see some efforts at inclusion as a form of tokenism. They get into race and class, ideological conformity, the decline of tenure, the treatment of adjunct faculty and the gap between universities’ social justice rhetoric and their economic incentives. Subscribe to The Washington Post here .

People in this episode

Host: Megan McArdle

Guest: Tyler Austin Harper

Topics covered

• higher education
• culture wars
• affirmative action
• diversity
• tokenism
• race and class
• ideological conformity

Keywords

• higher education
• affirmative action
• diversity
• tokenism
• adjunct faculty
• social justice
• tenure

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Atlantic, Bates College, The Washington Post

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