Programming Note: Darts and Letters is off. We are producing a new season on Cited Podcast, which is called “the Rationality Wars“.

Mini-Series: The Neoliberal Academy

  • Summer Bonus EP: Ivy League elitism versus Black Power (w/ Stefan Bradley)

    Universities and colleges are often caricatured as hotbeds of radicalism. In reality, they’re institutionally conservative and elitist — especially Ivy League schools. What happens when folks push back against that? What happens when Black scholars, activists, and others demand better?
    Listen now
  • Thumbnail for EP23: Back to the Land: Indigenous Schooling in a Colonial State (ft. Kyla LeSage & Leanne Betasamosake Simpson)

    EP23: Back to the Land: Indigenous Schooling in a Colonial State (ft. Kyla LeSage & Leanne Betasamosake Simpson)

    Canada is a colonial and genocidal state, past and present. The horrifying news of the discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School is evidence of that, as is ongoing inaction and state resistance to reconciliation. And the university shares some blame. In this episode, we offer a brief history of residential schools and explore how Indigenous education can offer a way towards healing.
    Listen now
  • Thumbnail for EP22: The Colonial Lens (ft. Uahikea Maile, Max Liboiron, & Pam Palmater)

    EP22: The Colonial Lens (ft. Uahikea Maile, Max Liboiron, & Pam Palmater)

    Scholars want to decolonize everything, and universities say they are doing the hard work of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.  But is anything really being done, or is it all for show? In this episode, we approach these questions through three words that are common inside and outside of academia: decolonize, reconciliation, and colonialism. 
    Listen now
  • Thumbnail for EP21: Letters From Herzl (ft. Rashid Khalidi & Faisal Bhabha)

    EP21: Letters From Herzl (ft. Rashid Khalidi & Faisal Bhabha)

    Gazans live in an open-air prison within an apartheid state. Backed by the United States and USD $3.8b a year in military aid, Israel dominates Palestinians. Recent Israeili airstrikes on Gaza have left over 200 Palestinians and a dozen Irsaelis dead. The moment continues a history that is settler colonial, one-sided, and disproportionate. And yet media and academic censorship has consistently silenced or punished those who speak out in support of Palestinians.
    Listen now

  • EP4.1: Auditing the Auditors

    Our last episode, “the Conquest of Bread,” was about McKinsey and Co. encroaching on higher education. In this bonus episode, we put these developments in a wider context. That context: audit culture. Put simply, it’s governing by numbers.
    Listen now