Inside Stanford's Secret Tech Elite (And the Freshman Who Exposed It)

Inside Stanford's Secret Tech Elite (And the Freshman Who Exposed It)

From StrictlyVC Download by Connie Loizos & Alex Gove

May 19, 2026 · 28 min

About this episode

Theo Baker discusses his experiences as a student journalist at Stanford and the secrets of the tech elite.

In this episode, we talk with Theo Baker, a soon-to-be Stanford graduate and author of How to Rule the World, about what he found when he traded his coding ambitions for student journalism. Within his first semester, Theo broke the story that led to Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s resignation, a months-long investigation into manipulated research images that put him in the crosshairs of one of the world’s largest law firms. But that was just the beginning. Baker walks us through what he calls the “Stanford inside Stanford”: a parallel world of yacht parties, slush funds, secret seminars, and VC scouts hunting for teenage talent as soon as freshmen hit campus. We also get into the secret class literally called “How to Rule the World,” why he thinks the same system that built Silicon Valley is also what corrupts it, and what the SBF saga and the overnight pivot to AI looked like from the inside. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Hosts: Connie Loizos, Alex Gove

Guest: Theo Baker

Topics covered

  • Stanford University
  • student journalism
  • tech elite
  • investigation
  • Silicon Valley
  • yacht parties
  • VC scouts

Keywords

  • Stanford
  • Theo Baker
  • Marc Tessier-Lavigne
  • student journalism
  • Silicon Valley
  • tech elite
  • investigation
  • How to Rule the World

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stanford, Silicon Valley

Books & works: How to Rule the World

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