About this episode

The episode discusses the Jason Arday scandal and the implications for trust in elite institutions with sociologist Musa al-Garbi.

Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by Musa al-Garbi. They discuss the Jason Arday scandal, academic freedom, DEI, affirmative action, merit, standardized testing, grade inflation and the growing crisis of trust in elite institutions. Musa al-Gharbi is a sociologist in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. His work has appeared in The Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic and The Nation among other publications. He is author of the book, We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite. https://www.chronicle.com/article/jason-arday-and-me https://musaalgharbi.com /https://x.com/Musa_alGharbi Chapters: 02:11 Musa Al-Garbi’s experience with cancellation 12:16 The Jason Arday scandal 16:19 Identity, victimhood and the incentives inside elite professions 23:40 Does DEI actually work? 28:04 Race, education and standardized testing 38:29 Grade inflation and the collapse of academic standards 42:35 The bigger problem at Cambridge 45:11 Nathan Cofnas and the free-speech battle 57:06 Why academic freedom exists 1:04:31 The decline of serious political debate

People in this episode

Hosts: Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman, Periel Aschenbrand

Guest: Musa al-Garbi

Topics covered

• Jason Arday scandal
• academic freedom
• DEI
• affirmative action
• merit
• standardized testing
• grade inflation

Keywords

• Jason Arday
• academic freedom
• DEI
• grade inflation
• standardized testing
• elite institutions
• sociology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stony Brook University, The Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation

Books & works: We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite

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