WTW150: Bari Weiss's Renegade Academy Can't Even Set Up a Chessboard

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors — the audio is the record.

0:00:03 Clip: What's so scary about the woke mob, how often you just don't see them coming.

0:00:11 Clip: Anywhere you see diversity, equity, and inclusion, you see Marxism and you see woke principles being pushed.

0:00:19 Clip: Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic hands down. The woke monster is here and it's coming for everything, everything, and everything. Instead of go-go boots, the seductress green M&M will now wear sneakers.

0:00:42 Thomas: And welcome to Where There's Woke, this is episode 150, I'm Thomas, that over there's Lydia, can I get you excited about a 150?, yeah, we're celebrating with some Bari Weiss, how

0:00:47 Lydia: I like that number. It's a good number. Yeah. Oh my gosh, can you believe I can't wait for this episode. So it's been a long time since we've talked about University of Austin. What? What?

0:01:01 Thomas: Are you?, how you doing?, do

0:01:06 Lydia: Steamrolling through that.

0:01:06 Thomas: We do the hellos?, no, you're just trying to get through the, you just hate the hello part, you are just skipping right through, I just think that, yeah, it's true, I think it's fitting, because is she the most successful anti-wokest, like, besides, I guess, the president or whatever, but, like., I don't really count that like I'm

0:01:09 Lydia: I do. Yeah, we have work to do. We have work to do.

0:01:20 Lydia: Yes. Yeah. I was going to save this for during the episode, but can I just show you what is at the University of Austin's library?

0:01:30 Thomas: Already mad whatever it is have wow yeah stupid marble bust or whatever and

0:01:32 Lydia: There you go. There's a marble bust of Bari Weiss's head at the library at University of Austin

0:01:42 Thomas: Can I say she has a large head and forehead and they have I think flattered her a little bit with this this marble bust which uh okay yeah

0:01:49 Lydia: Yeah you know you get some artistic license I guess you know

0:01:53 Thomas: Fair enough I'd probably want the same like

0:01:55 Lydia: Um she is one of the founders of this university we've previously talked about it when we were discussing um how they decided to house their entire school in a building that Harlan Crowe owned because that says you know, independent thought, like Clarence Thomas's little sugar daddy's building. And that's where you're going to put your school. They've since moved. So they have a separate building that they are renting right now. It's not owned by Harlan Crow. I looked into that. That's just a quick little update there. They had a ad come out. They had their first group of students come through, 92. and then they have a new wave of students that have joined this year as well and some people might be like well what's been going on like why are we talking about this now um something I'm gonna save it to the end because there's a lot of updates I'd like to do in the meanwhile but there is something that kind of happened in the news recently that made this sort jump back into my newsfeed. And realized that, honestly, this has been a spectacular fall that we can kind of witness. And I'd like to take us through some of the ways in which this has fallen. They're clutching on and pretending like it's not, but I think really, really is. And

0:03:09 Lydia: So I want us to relish this.

0:03:09 Thomas: Who could have predicted that? No way.

0:03:12 Lydia: Yeah.

0:03:13 Thomas: Impossible.

0:03:14 Lydia: But before we get into all of that, I would like us to watch their most recent ad campaign where they call themselves the Renegade Academy.

0:03:25 Thomas: Those renegades, they only are part of the group that controls the entire fucking world. The Renegade Academy, eh? All my God.

0:03:33 Clip: To know where the next generation of American leaders comes from? This is where

0:03:37 Thomas: This guy's hair.

0:03:37 Clip: It starts. The University of Austin is a school built on

0:03:41 Lydia: Yeah. So very quickly. Yeah, that's the Palantir co-founder John Lonsdale.

0:03:41 Thomas: On that guy's hair oh fuck you dude god

0:03:46 Lydia: Going to be very important for our story today, in many ways.

0:03:48 Thomas: I fully believe that you have a nice full head of hair dude I totally do we're

0:03:53 Clip: One simple idea, attract the most talented students, educate them to think, and let them go out and build America's next 250 years.

0:03:58 Thomas: Doing none of that no

0:03:59 Clip: Because America represents what's best about humanity. A lot is broken in higher education right now. Rigor has been abandoned, meritocracy has been put aside, the Ivy League used to produce the people who built America. Now, they educate people to hate it. A few of us have said, if you're not going to do it there, we're going to go elsewhere. We're going found this renegade academy. UATX doesn't let Washington tell them what to teach, who to hire, what ideas are acceptable, and which ideas are not acceptable. There are three things you won't find anywhere else. Freedom, rigor, and merit. We don't burden a student at age 17 with $300,000 of debt. Tuition at the University of Austin is zero. We

0:04:06 Thomas: Not really fucking losers nor do other schools yeah

0:04:41 Clip: Work as a venture capital firm. We're sourcing the best talent, investing in that talent, elevate the talent, and our success is their success.

0:04:42 Lydia: We'll talk about that. Your

0:04:43 Thomas: Do you own them after

0:04:48 Clip: We charge nothing and in exchange we expect everything. We're not here to validate you, we're here to challenge you. Excellence has no shortcuts. We are not a comfortable summer camp.

0:04:56 Thomas: You're playing chess oh hold on

0:04:58 Clip: We'll push you to hell.

0:04:52 Lydia: Babies yeah

0:04:58 Thomas: No I got I have to see the position hold on let me trying the board all uh let's was just checking taking a look that's

0:05:06 Lydia: The students are interviewed uh 60 minutes and they talk about how they play chess you know that's part of their nightlife so

0:05:11 Thomas: Okay I was just gonna I was just gonna check if it was like a stupid like you know setup board that didn't make it oh wait hold on can

0:05:19 Lydia: Something doesn't make sense and

0:05:22 Thomas: You okay this I'm a stickler but this is something that if you play chess at any any any level you would know that white goes on a1 white's on a one that's where white's you know they're on that side of the board black is on the other and this chess game black is on a 1 which completely ruins the entire thing because the colors are swapped and like the opening like it it you might think it doesn't change anything but it actually does because the queen goes on her color so that means you're like playing an invert I mean you playing as white but then going second essentially and the color you're playing is actually black anyway uh who plays chess would instantly let alone this group of people that's like watching this game of chess um looks like a normal game otherwise for the most part I was going to see if there's anything stupid um it works kind of normal you know I can't really it's it's normal enough but that's really funny because that's an incredibly basic thing that you can't actually do wrong You actually just have to do that because otherwise the games wrong

0:05:33 Lydia: Interesting interesting yeah

0:06:26 Thomas: There you go, neither be something.

0:06:28 Clip: Excellence has no short cuts. We were not a comfortable summer camp, we're pushing the hell out of it. The quality of this education is the best of the best because we have most constraints

0:06:31 Thomas: Shortcuts like playing the board wrong now the Rest of their pitch in my mind is give you oh, yeah No merit like how you play the fucking game of chess with the wrong board wrong this merit is no There's always merit rigor fucking all this stuff, but you can't get the fucking board, right? Except

0:06:51 Clip: Turned off. They know that they are going to be challenged, they know that we don't grade inflate, they understand that the work we are doing will make a difference in how they live their lives. The curriculum of the University of Austin starts from the best of the Western tradition from the Greeks to the American founding to AI and the world in front of us is a world that's technical full of complicated things and they need to be ready for it stem is a huge part of you ATX because in the battle of technical ideas we want the United States of America to win if we don't train our students at a highly technical level our country is gonna lose in a world full of people who have never learned to read a book from start to finish the ability to sit quietly

0:06:57 Thomas: Grading on chess boards like the rules of the game for example okay

0:07:29 Clip: Construct an argument defend your point of view and put it in your own words. That's going to be one of the rarest skills in the job market and they're

0:07:32 Lydia: Kids are the only ones that can

0:07:37 Thomas: This is exactly the worst fucking college republican this is when I say college republican this is the literal form that I think of this exact looking person I don't why is that who

0:07:48 Lydia: That spencer claven that's um andrew claven's son I andrew clavin as in like affiliated with the daily wire um know him if I showed you his picture but but yeah, correct.

0:07:52 Thomas: Is that yeah I don' t okay but anyway he's mean I know he's not in college now right right but he's yeah but he is that though

0:08:03 Clip: Gonna eat everybody else's lunch. You really don't come to a place like UATX unless you're here to do the work, unless you love the great books for themselves, you're excited about seeking old-fashioned things like truth, goodness, and beauty. We have students who have been waking up before 5 a.m. to transport sheet metal for the Boring Company competition right right before their political philosophy class. From the first year, we have students working with top investors in the world, working at the White House, working to build companies of their own. If you take the best students in the country, challenge them instead of copying them, put the institution's own survival on the line, you're gonna get something that the most prestigious colleges in America can't touch. I initially came

0:08:13 Thomas: What god they're all the same fucking person that's

0:08:44 Clip: To UATX to learn to write better. This was a place where you worked on craft.

0:08:44 Thomas: It's a pitch for dumb people oh they found one

0:08:48 Clip: You weren't just gonna get patted on the back. We toured the Boring Company and we see their annual tunneling competition. And we thought wow what an opportunity to actually build something. We assembled our team of five engineers. The UAT excavators were competing at the Boring Company's annual tunneling competition. This afternoon I got to tour Bill Ackman around campus and later this week I'm at South by Southwest presenting my startup Oros Hydration, the smartest water bottle in the world. All this while finals are next Monday. Here at UATX I've interviewed with 60 Minutes, I've sat with the Daily Telegraph, Fox News, in these very you know high intense environments that not a lot of college students would be finding themselves in. All my professors here at

0:08:48 Thomas: Slightly non -white person to wait unless

0:09:27 Clip: UATX really care about me as a person. They actually flew us out to Colorado and we were able to sort of bond together in the treacherous mountains. That trip really meant

0:09:28 Thomas: They are on your side of the culture wars shows someone on a little line not a zip line but like they're climbing on a little like line that they've set up but it's two feet above the ground oh it's almost done all right fine

0:09:49 Clip: A lot to me to prove to myself no we can power through together. I just have a very full life here. We need an institution that trains leaders for tomorrow that understand and believe in the principles of our civilization the founders read philosophy and ran a revolution we think you can do both too

0:09:56 Thomas: What's his name I I don't believe in those coleman hughes let's see what showed for a second oh well I'm gonna go can I go

0:10:11 Lydia: Hughes, he's a visiting professor there. So, you know, yeah, best of the best. As I mentioned, they had their first group of students last 92 kids. By December though, they actually lost a lot of staff and faculty and some not by choice what happened here you know like obviously like we've been skeptical from day one when this was announced um it was coming and stuff but there's a wonderful ProPublica politico but piece that we're going to be leaning on a lot through this conversation today um basically I think that there are probably a lot lot of people who might not have been skeptical enough. This is, this and crazy what we're going to be getting into today. So I'm excited.

0:10:25 Thomas: They couldn't cut it huh oh faculty oh man man what I'm excited for this because like the money behind that god that because like that's a well -done video for what it is like that that pitch would have worked on you know a young me probably yeah probably a lot other of dumb dumb people too uh so yeah I'm exciting well let's take a break hey support the show patreon.com/wherethereswoke uh have a bonus counting there's going to be a bonus on the whole Macklemore thing because that was so much fun gosh what a thing I can't wait to go over is the best of PR was the worst of PR so if you want to hear a bonus on the Mackle more thing go to patreon.com/wherethereswoke and skip the ads and all the good is in just most importantly support the woke support the woke mind virus all right we'll take a break and then I cannot fucking wait for this

0:11:05 Lydia: Young Thomas. Yeah. Hmm. Gosh. Alrighty. So since it's been a while since we've talked about this, let me briefly touch on some background. So when I say names and stuff, we're all on the same page, we kind of know what, was promised when this university was first pitched. In 2021, there were a lot of people that high profile intellectuals, if you're being charitable, but really, you know, people that were part of the intellectual dark web, that decided to get together with money from Silicon Valley and you know entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and create a new institution the University of Austin which would be abbreviated UATX now this is like messed up first of all because there's a University of Texas at Austin so it gets conflated honestly a lot even trying to google stuff related to University of Austin I often have to write UATx specifically because Google will just try try and change it to UT Austin for me. Like, no, no. I don't mean a real school. I mean this fake school. But the pitch of this school was super specific. They felt that the academic institutions in America were being captured by ideology, and they wanted to build something from scratch that would be free from censorship and conformity, mainstream conformity. They were really bothered by DEI DEI statements. They were bothered by ways that they felt that they were being discriminated against because of their views. Of that was actually really happening. Spearheaded by Bari Weiss, who was previously with the New York Times. She's one of the founding faces of the project, like big high -level face of the Project. Now she is a bust in the library. But she's still a trustee. She's still involved with the school,

0:13:31 Lydia: Kind of.

0:13:30 Thomas: I'm gonna say she doesn't have time for that

0:13:33 Lydia: She doesn't. She is not really involved.

0:13:33 Thomas: Without it's like moved on to better bigger and better things yeah hmm

0:13:37 Lydia: But, she has not disaffiliated herself from the university. She still affiliated at least on the website, on paper, etc. And, of course, now she is editor-in-chief of CBS News, which includes properties like 60 Minutes. That was after After her outlet, the Free Press, was bought by by the Ellisons, billionaires, you know, that own half of media now in America and potentially going to own more if the Paramount-WB merger is allowed to go through.

0:14:03 Thomas: The billionaire is ever like hey thomas I love what you're doing I'd like to buy it for a bazillion dollars first off the answer is yes I will be like thank you but I willbe like huh I guess I was doing the wrong thing I'll take the money don't get me wrong I would like to have a break and stop working but I will come out after that and be like hey don't listen to anything I ever said because apparently it was worth something to billionaires and that's not good unless it was like one of the like two that's liberal or whatever maybe yeah

0:14:33 Lydia: Mean yeah george soros that would be an example of you actually taking soros money I guess if that was offered oh

0:14:38 Thomas: When that guy dies it's gonna be sad because there's no more potential for first off what is the right gonna do secondly there's no more potential for that big payout yeah soros ghost bucks that he's paying everyone panel

0:14:45 Lydia: Believe in ghosts at that point probably yeah uh Bari Weiss you know is is sort of this the don't know the the anti-woke thought behind all of this. Joe Lonsdale, who we saw in that video, is a big money piece behind this. He is a venture capitalist, the co-founder of Palantir. He's the chairman of the board for University of Austin and the person who we want to make sure that we keep him in our sights throughout this story. He'll show up plenty of times and he's also part of the reason why this popped up in the news more recently. Canelos, we'll talk about him briefly. He was was the founding president, Pano. Yeah, P -A -N -O. He to be affiliated with St. John's College. When And he came over to University of Austin as the president, he was the public face of daily operations in their early years. I Ferguson, the historian, he He made an appearance when we had the Ayaan Hirsi Ali episode. That is her husband. He's another, yeah, didn't I say Neil?

0:15:25 Thomas: Pano oh okay yeah niall ferguson I think he

0:15:52 Lydia: I said Neil. Yeah, Niall Ferguson, you're right. A great guy. He's, he's another founding figure of this college. He is often, you are going to see him like in comments, in, articles, in the media defending this project. He is stuck by its side through all of this. Again, when they were putting together this this idea for this university, this new university, the pitch really was, this is going to be a place where nobody has to worry about being punished for what they think or what they say.

0:15:52 Thomas: Said neil but oh so like all the other places

0:16:25 Lydia: And then keep that sentence in your mind. Keep that sentence your mind because that might not be what's going on.

0:16:28 Thomas: We'll do easy to do I

0:16:32 Lydia: Other just very, very quick things to keep in mind as we go through this. It's so easy to apply to this college. They tout this.

0:16:38 Thomas: Want to do it right now really

0:16:39 Lydia: You really could. Tout this everywhere that basically all they ask is that you send them, they say a test score. So I'm guessing an SAT score, right? You just send in your SAT results and they say that they'll give you an answer sometimes as quickly as five minutes. Like that, that's literally it. That's what they say the application is.

0:16:58 Lydia: It's because they saythat they go based off of merit and what what better measure of merit is there than a single test score?

0:16:57 Thomas: That can't be right right but what oh is it an iq test or something oh

0:17:08 Lydia: No, no. I think it's like the SATs or something like that. They just ask that's from their marketing, from the way that they pitch this. That's really all that they care about is that your test score is good enough and you're in. And it's free, like they said in that advertisement that we just listened to in the pre-show. The reason it's fee is because they have taken donations from billionaires, many of whom are very right-wing um deep pockets harlan crowe has contributed to this he you know was uh the owner of the building that they first used but he also has contributed money to this um they have set it up so students aren't paying tuition but it's because they're using donor money from these billionaires multi

0:17:17 Thomas: That's stupid sure yeah

0:17:50 Lydia: -millionaires

0:17:50 Thomas: I mean it would have to be and you know to be fair that's a lot of universities harvard has a gajillion dollars you know sure

0:17:56 Lydia: Uh are are not offered. There's no housing on campus because they literally just have space in a building that they've rented out. They don't spend money to make it look nice or anything like that. They just all show up to this random building to take classes and leave. So students are on the hook for wherever they're going to live. I think they often will room together, get apartments and things like that, they don't have meal plans or anything like that there's no no like traditional college infrastructure. It is purely tuition. So when they say you can come here for free, it's because tuition is covered, but there's still going to be plenty of living expenses, right, that you're on the hook for yourself.

0:18:37 Lydia: University of Austin, is a nonprofit institution, which means that all of their finances are publicly available. Available. File IRS Form 990s as they are supposed to do. And so everything's on ProPublica if people want to poke around and look and see what's going on there. So let's do a little walk through and fiscal year by fiscal year and see how things are looking. 2022, the fiscal year 2022, they had a reported revenue of 11 point, like just shy of $11.4 million and expenses of roughly $2.2 million. They had no students at this time. It was just, you know, fundraising and planning this operation, understandable. You're not going to launch a university and have students immediately. I get that. Year 2023, the revenue jumped up again from that original like $11.4 million to now $28 million. Expenses also rose from $2 .2 million to, now we're talking about $7.1 million, still zero students. Fisical year 2024, still 0 students. And their revenue again climbed to 36 million dollars and expenses of shy of 18 million dollars. Now fiscal year 2025 that's the first year that they actually had students enrolled. Again that's that 92 students I've talked about. The revenue was just shy 57 million and expenses were 26.8 million dollars it's uh thereabouts now if you add all that up they basically were able to raise about 132 million dollars in the span of four years and they spent about 54 million dollars of it before they taught like class um oh

0:20:17 Thomas: But I'm sure they like built you know buildings and like

0:20:21 Lydia: Yeah uh -huh

0:20:22 Thomas: They have like a gym and a you know an arena for their football team so

0:20:26 Lydia: They're zero other things that they they offer besides classes, truly. Well, I will say they as of the ad thing, they said that they took all the students to Colorado to do zip lining and like a bonding experience.

0:20:30 Thomas: Where did that money go oh that's 10 million yeah that's where that okay where's the other 40 or whatever the heck you said hmm

0:20:46 Lydia: Yeah. I mean, there's a lot. So then they've converted like net assets, $69.5 million is what they reported in their 990. if like you just look at the math value here per student, they spent per student in a year was about $291 ,000 per student. It's pretty freaking good. Like I think a lot of public, you K through 12 would be pretty pleased with being able to spend $299 ,000. Per student per year.

0:21:13 Lydia: Don't you think? Don't you think that's pretty good?

0:21:13 Thomas: I have no fucking idea I don't what that's a lot of money isn't it

0:21:19 Lydia: That's what I'm saying. It is a lot of money. Like, I think at K through twelve would be like, if they had that as their budget, it they'd be like oh nice like we actually

0:21:26 Thomas: No they'd be like dear fucking god what's happening we're spending too much money there's no chance that we should spend this much

0:21:32 Lydia: The like the schools the teachers would be happy

0:21:34 Thomas: They would still be like this should go somewhere else oh man

0:21:35 Lydia: Something's gone seriously wrong you added too many zeros to this check yeah uh enrollment's actually up so the fall semester has officially started now they are reporting 206 students so uh keep that in mind in a couple months into the fall semester there is a mega donor who often contributes to all of trump's causes his name is jeff yas great name unfortunately I can't say yas queen to him because he sucks um gave university of austin 100 million dollars and And with that donation, that's when they announced their to make tuition permanently free. So initially they had said, you know, get in while it's hot. Tuition's free right now. But there wasn't necessarily a promise to continue that element of their model.

0:21:51 Thomas: All right yeah man literally just put that in the market and then you'll have that forever really

0:22:31 Lydia: Yeah. But we're talking about a university, that'S not a sustainable model. Um know if you're well well it is but they still have to charge their students tuition I'm not in the you know in the weeds and harvard's budget and stuff but I think there's probably a reason why they have to do it

0:22:36 Thomas: The harvard endowment like just invests right and just has gajillions of dollars sure yeah that's true yeah well but I could be wrong I think more than 200 people go to harvard so

0:22:53 Lydia: Yeah I think that's fair all

0:22:55 Thomas: I'm pretty sure if you've if you're taking in 200 students a year I think you could probably afford to not have them pay tuition okay

0:22:57 Lydia: But money still runs out right like like is a model that they are creating that But their is they are going to change these students' lives so dramatically and so effectively that they're going to turn around and fund the other students that are going to come through here as well. But these aren't students that necessarily, I mean, they could become this. They're not like billionaires. They might become one, I guess.

0:23:28 Thomas: I thought they're the next movers and shakers I saw the ad there

0:23:31 Lydia: But I don't know if there's going to be a student that comes around and says, here's a multi -million dollar gift from me to you University of Austin for the next group of kids so they as of right now anyway the way that this funding model will work is that they have to rely on a very small group of wealthy wealthy people and they're like individual patrons with their their individual biases and expectations, potentially, right?

0:23:57 Thomas: They have to rely on the people who have benefited from the status quo who want the project of keeping the status quo that's what you know it's interesting there's I you're probably right that there's not going to to be a lot of, like, even if, one even of these assholes was successful, like the people who are going to give money to this kind of thing are usually the people who have inherited a billion dollars and are like trying to keep it, you know?

0:24:19 Lydia: Exactly. And around the same time that they received this huge donation from Jeff Yoss, a non -Yoss queen, exactly, exactly—you get it— Minuts aired a piece about University of Austin.

0:24:27 Thomas: Yas, queen. Like Jeff Noss. Yeah. That one that she was talking about how she was on it. Or is that even a different? Yeah.

0:24:42 Lydia: That's the one.

0:24:43 Thomas: I was like, oh, cool. Bragging about like, yeah, where else would you get to be on all these right wing things that want to tell the story of a right wing dumb fucking thing yeah canellos

0:24:51 Lydia: So, -huh. All So we're going to play this. This is 60 MinUTES speaking with the the president at the Time, Pono Pano Canelas.

0:24:59 Clip: Might be are you going to be too dependent to donors we've seen on other campuses what happens when the donor class gets dissatisfied do you worry about that if donors are ever pushing us in a way that is not aligned with with our mission and that somebody's going to call us out on it and the backers aren't solely from the right a liberal legal scholar Nadine Strossen was president of the ACLU for nearly 20 years she is now a uatx advisor the most important topics of public policy debate are not being candidly and frankly discussed on campus including abortion

0:25:20 Thomas: In the 1800s yeah and it's not they're not all from the right they're also from people on the right who says might have maybe used to be on the left that's fucking nothing asshole

0:25:40 Lydia: That think Title IX have gone too far. All

0:25:41 Clip: Immigration police practices anything to do with race and gender provided it comes with no serious harm strassen argues all speech should be allowed you think censorship leads to worse outcomes than allowing even the most objectively hateful speech my concern is to try to eliminate the underlying discriminatory attitudes you don't do that by punishing expression you do that through education through more speech not less Free

0:25:52 Thomas: -uh good times oh

0:26:15 Lydia: Yeah, yeah. Um, now I want to, to shift gears a little bit. We've seen, oh

0:26:22 Thomas: I was assuming you had a deep dive on why she was actually like super far right I guess not

0:26:27 Lydia: Well, we've talked about her her before we talked about her when we did um when we did the michael powell piece on the you know these feminist legal scholars agree that title nine has gone too far and nadine strawson is part of that yeah yeah these are honestly they're all the heterodox academy people right they are all um left has gone to far anti-cancel culture etc etc and they don't realize who they've gotten into bed with I don't think sometimes. This is what has happened inside this building as part of all of this. This April 2nd, 2025, chairman of the board, Joe Lonsdale, you know the palantir co -founder that we heard from

0:26:29 Thomas: We did oh right yeah oh what do you know oh what do you the same fucking two people yeah um the mr definitely I have a full head of hair okay I'd

0:27:10 Lydia: The -huh called all faculty and staff into a closed door meeting according

0:27:16 Thomas: Be like guys give it to me straight can you tell that I'm bald

0:27:20 Lydia: To um from politico a let me mention very quickly actually that the piece in politico is well done and it's from somebody who honestly honestly is kind of like similar in thinking as to a lot of these people this this guy yeah his name is um mandery and he often is like no I'm against cancel culture I think like the idea of university austin's a good one but but here's but here'S like this is what's actually happened here and so you know he exposed a lot OF this stuff and so I commend him for that but you know if you're going to read the piece just know that's sort of his background too he's not not necessarily like a completely unbiased person.

0:27:46 Thomas: Okay so he's an idiot all right yeah that probably could be even worse if it was written by someone who wasn't like that we've

0:28:03 Lydia: According to his reporting, based on accounts from multiple people who were in the room, but have who asked, who have requested to remain anonymous, and you'll see why, Joe Lonsdale apparently told everybody at the university that they needed to subscribe to what he called the four principles. These four principles, you had to swear like your allegiance to him, basically. Anti-communism, anti-socialism, opposition to identity politics and anti-islamism not of the founding faculty members michael lind actually quit on the spot he like asked a couple of follow-up questions and based off of um responses he just basically dropped his keys and walked out the door um later emailed trying I guess his resignation and saying exactly what was happening saying that it was quote a libertarian political test excluding anyone to the left of anne rand oh my god of anne ran yeah

0:28:59 Thomas: Yeah I've to the left of an rind yeah why

0:29:06 Lydia: Yeah, Anne Rind. Supposedly, Niall Ferguson had talked him into staying. He kind of like went after him and, you know, tried to convince him to stay and was successful. That was this atmosphere. And again, Politico reported on this with unnamed sources of people who were in the room because they were worried about retribution. Joe Lonsdale said that he would stay on the board for 50 years to make sure that no communist took over uatx uh yeah um lind had asked one of the probing follow-up questions he had asked during that conversation was can you define what you mean by communist and socialist and lonsdale had said that it would include anybody who quote didn't believe in private property and anyone who quote hated the rich um that's a little nuts so he quit walked out he was convinced to stay that Ferguson emphasized UATX is a real institution not a plaything of donors and regents okay okay

0:29:37 Thomas: Would okay wait when did he

0:30:08 Lydia: We'll see that after Lind had quit and was you know back in his room and stuff Niall Fergusson came and talked to him and part of him trying to convince Michael Lind to stay was he was saying no no no University of Boston. It's a real institution. Don't worry, don't worry. Things just kind of escalated from there.

0:30:08 Thomas: Say that what

0:30:32 Lydia: President, who we've heard from, was actually moved out of the presidency just before that all -hands meeting in April. It was January 2025. He was moved out out of the presidency he was ended in some other sort of position doing nothing really and then ended up resigning from the university entirely on October 1st 2025 Jacob Howland was pushed out he was the provost he was pushed out after the university's constitution that they created they amended it and did that in May 2025 specifically because they wanted to make it easier to remove him uh that's why they amended the constitution they had a a of like a man what are they called like when you have like the little centers on campus right we have different things of you know they tend to be like the conservative think tank classics centers no no yeah it's like um oh gosh I can't think of an example but it'slike you know the witherspoon institute within princeton you know and like like different little things like that

0:31:20 Thomas: The clubs oh oh actually like buildings or uh yeah like something someone funded usually like the chair of whatever and that yeah sure

0:31:35 Lydia: So they have one that they created even though they have no demonstrative you success in anything yet um the mill institute they named it for john stewart mill who is the philosopher most associated with free expression and the head of that institute was fired two days after she reposted an article on LinkedIn that was mildly pro-diversity. Had a total of 19 reactions on it, but somebody at University of Boston saw it and let her go. Now, they'll push back on the characterization of that, and they'll say, you know, she's a remote employee, funding ran out, etc., etc., and has been very clear um that that's not what happened uh have other folks that ended up resigning in you know the late spring may 2025 larry summers before the epstein mess actually resigned in july um that he was quote not comfortable with the course that uatx has set and you're getting that from an epstein files person like uh he's comfortable with a lot so he's not comfortable that's incredible. Nadine Strassen, who we heard in that clip, has also left. Jonathan Haight left. Jonathan Rauch left. By the end of the 2025 summer, just a third of the staff had left, and nearly half of their original 32, you know, founding supporters were gone.

0:33:00 Lydia: Right.

0:33:01 Thomas: Nuts is this just one asshole mismanaging it so badly well

0:33:06 Lydia: Think it's a culture. I a big part part of it but I don't think he's the only one I I think there's um some elements here that we'll talk about to kind of understand a little bit more but it's fracturing within like the anti-woke crowd right like it's we're seeing the the distinctions between like the hard right wing you know like true conservatives like or the more heterodox you know like the left has gone too far people right we're seeing that fracturing within something that should have united them which is anti-woke um

0:33:40 Thomas: Yeah but that I mean I think that's the problem when you unite against a thing that you can't even fucking define that's pretty hard when we're both like I'm against the imaginary monsters in my closet and then we start a university that's like no imaginary monsters in closets and then it's like well I'm I'm afraid of like a like a devil with devil horns and you're you're like no it's not it's not that yeah exactly wait yeah I'm just hold on I've just recreated my monsters University yeah it's like then you're not like no I'm afraid of well everything because Lydia I'm afraid of the girl from session or you know clown clown yeah there you go and I'm like there's clowns are fine I'd say I don't you know it's Like we're gonna argue about the thing we've United on a dumb thing that's not real so it's like inevitably gonna splinter especially when it's like a lot of this bullshit is people cynically taking on these views that they don't even really believe because it's convenient to them but it is weird that it like there's I think there are enough true believers like at least believe kind of as that um know super lefty woman said just that

0:34:02 Lydia: Mine's mike wazowski from monster thing clowns clowns yeah yeah nadine strawson

0:34:50 Thomas: Yeah that practically bernie sanders aoc clone said you know like just somebody thinks like that's happening or you know like the the free speech true believers probably or there's a few of them you know but like the moneyed interests are mainly just doing it because it obviously benefits them I don't know how much they actually believe this

0:35:09 Lydia: The populace basically Pinker was actually one of the early supporters, a founding member, and he actually quit a long time ago. He quit within a week of the launch of the university. And when piece Pro came out, he had a lot of things to say. So I'm going to read what he said now that this piece has come out. I'm gonna read what He said back then too. So I resigned from the Board of Advisors of the University of Austin, UATX, not to be confused with UT Austin. Thank you, Stephen. Within weeks of their inaugural announcement, because they, quote, had no coherent vision of what higher education in the 21st century ought to be. Instead, they created Unwoke U, led by a faculty of the canceled. Also, science was an afterthought and they were so knee jerk anti-woke that they were unprepared for the genuine issues that led to woke overreach like sexual harassment. Four years later, my worst fears came true. Exposé and Politico, they wanted a university without cancel culture, then dissenters were ousted. I'm, know, that's great that he said that now, but I'm not going to give him a ton of credit because this is what he said when he left, going back to November 15th, 2021. By mutual and amicable agreement, I'm stepping off the board of advisors of U of Austin, UATX, wishing them well. I'm concentrating on Rationality, the book, and Think with Pinker, the BBC radio and podcast series, and won't be speaking on this further.

0:36:28 Thomas: Like I'm raking it in with my dumb fucking same book I write every single time so I don't really need this in my life yeah

0:36:32 Lydia: Mm-huh. Heather Hying left really early too. She basically said that she like Stephen said there. I'm talking like with first names with Stephen Pinker. Just that science was not well at all. Actually let me um I'm going to show you because yeah I know uh the approach that University of Austin was doing with science and why, like, you Hying, like even had a problem them with this um they're sometimes anti -science and some of their views but they had this class it's called intellectual foundations of science too that the author of this piece in politico was able to review um class it ranged topics from the language of god a scientist presents evidence for belief to um slides from one of the lectures about ensoulment when the soul enters the human body I was their science class right

0:36:44 Thomas: Steve I'm surprised they would even try science why Why would they try that? Oh, wow.

0:37:37 Lydia: Right and science in quotes

0:37:39 Thomas: Science brought to you by the people who can't get the chessboard the right fucking way around.

0:37:44 Lydia: And I'm sorry but like you're trying to say that the donors are not going to have any influence over what you're teaching but I feel like this is evidence that somebody had influence overwhat is being taught when you have people with science backgrounds you know you at at least had Heather Hying, but nobody at University of Austin leaned on anybody with any science background at all to develop what that curriculum would look like. This is the curriculum that they went forward with, which is crazy. This ensoulment idea, like the debate of ensoulament, and this is part of your science class at this school. Didn't even get into this. They're also not accredited. So that's the other piece. They are a candidate for For accreditation?

0:38:26 Thomas: Still not?

0:38:26 Lydia: Yeah, still not. I think by 2028, which is when the first group of students are expected to graduate, that is when they are hoping to get an affirmative decision on the accreditation. We'll see.

0:38:42 Thomas: Okay. Well, by that time, there'll be like two students and they'll be like, nah, nevermind. It's not worth it.

0:38:45 Lydia: I know um we've talked about sort of this this purge of staff primarily but also faculty like they lost their lead fundraiser I mentioned the provost changed out the president changed out all of this turnover this tumultuous turnover um not to mention all the people who left that were like founding members when they realized oh the science class is going to teach about about insolvent. I don't buy it, you know, kind of thing. Steven Pinker, Heather Hying. There's also this element of the story that the Politico piece that a lot of people haven't been talking about as much. This is not about a faculty member that was disagreeing with, you know, the chairman potentially and, you Know, not wanting to affirmatively say that they're anti -communist or something like that. This is about a student. So on the very first day of of classes last year, UATX removed a freshman from campus over comments that he had allegedly made then expelled him. They like drove him out of the state of Texas, I guess, from administrators when the student was expelled was that he had quote been transported to his home out of state and barred from further access to the university um

0:40:01 Thomas: Guess if it's a kid, they have to get him. That makes sense. Like they're

0:40:05 Lydia: Guess I mean but

0:40:05 Thomas: Expelling him and he can't be there anymore.

0:40:07 Lydia: If he's over 18 I don't know why like why you'd be responsible for that but um allegations were basically that this student had made a couple of statements that, you know, like a Title IX officer would have a problem with, right? The first one was that he implied that the girls at the school carried themselves, quote, physically in a way that invited sexual assault.

0:40:29 Thomas: Wait, that should just be the par for the course of this isn't that one of the classes of this university is she had it coming the class I'm barely joking why would they object that's what they think okay this was just like this was a good thing he said and then after that

0:40:38 Lydia: Then secondly was, I know, I know, there's more. But the second comment, the second comment was that he suggested to a specific female student that she carried herself in a way that was going to invite sexual assault. Had also made some statements in a discord, like introductions chat before the school year had started. One of of those things was quote if I catch any of you guys in my stuff I'll kill you apparently that's a quote from the movie stripes um know that and then he also expressed reservations about hormone treatment when they were talking about transgender issues said he couldn't wait yeah quote to play devil's advocate for legalizing pedophilia yeah um all of these these statements, the administration said that the student's conduct had been evaluated to be a credible threat and that he ended up being expelled as a result.

0:41:19 Thomas: They care about that okay that that though so they have some standards somehow yeah

0:41:43 Lydia: Then they had an external panel, an adjudicative panel that reviewed how this process went. Because again, like this is a school, they don't receive federal funding. So they aren't required to comply with Title IX. They can create whatever situation they want. It's like Hillsdale College, right? They can create whatever they want to ensure safety of students on campus.

0:42:07 Lydia: It does not have to comply with Title 9 or anything related to, yep, yep.

0:42:09 Thomas: They're not getting federal dollars so yeah you don't have to yeah

0:42:12 Lydia: Yep. Not even to mention, like, that's also been further gutted literally this week by the Department of Education, which is great. Right. So instead, University of Austin had developed what they referred to as their constitution that would help guide issues like this. But when that panel looked looked at What happened with this student, they found that the process that the administration carried out actually violated the constitution for the school that they had put together to handle things like this, so they called it, quote, shambolic. The lawyer for University of Austin said that the university's approach was building the plane while we're flying it you know that kind of attitude and the panel said there needs to be a rehearing for this student because what was done you know you still might come to the same conclusion but the process that was followed was not the process that you outlined in the constitution so that was inappropriate appropriate. Instead, University of Austin, instead of conducting a rehearing for the student in line with their constitution, they were like, let's just change the constitution. Not even, even worse. They basically were like wait let's look at this constitution. Wouldn't you know it, it's is illegal under Texas law so we have to throw the thing out their entire constitution that they developed in an attempt to provide you know information material processes policies for student conduct and expectations and also like for faculty too you know they had to outline a lot of stuff within that constitution basically saying this is like going to be our guiding document and there was such like and and excitement over it. Ferguson was like the architect of this document itself. And so University of Austin, yeah, they just instead of continuing to follow the Constitution, they're like, oh, no, actually, this is illegal. And we can't do this at all. Way that this process was handled with this particular student, a lot of the students actually feel like that this student was unfairly expelled. Students who say that he actually didn't say what he's been accused of saying. Certain

0:44:13 Lydia: Things were misunderstandings.

0:44:14 Thomas: I mean you do need to uh due process on that for him to at least make his case yeah

0:44:19 Lydia: A current student said that, quote, I've never felt my speech was so chilled as it was in the classroom at UATX. So I think there's like just weird stuff going on there. I don't know. Yeah, who knows? But a lot of people have actually like like went on the record to support this student in the politico piece itself saying like I think a lot this was a misunderstanding and this student shouldn't have been expelled um the student themselves spoke with politico spoke with the author of this politico peace and insisting like you know that that's not what happened that's not what I meant this is what I said you know like that quote was from this movie and like Like, you know, there's a lot of conversation about that. So it really was like the that this whole process was handled, I think, I think effectively did chill at least the perception of some speech for students potentially, you Know, like, oh, okay, this is how it's going to be handled. And I think that it's wrong here. And also when a panel an adjudicative panel says this was handled wrong and the university decides instead of rehearing it they're just going to throw out the whole thing and do whatever they want okay so what are my protections now you know yeah

0:44:28 Thomas: I don't yeah okay how do you decide where to draw the line when you're a dumb free speech university that can't

0:45:38 Lydia: Yeah

0:45:38 Thomas: Draw lines too like how do even do that

0:45:41 Lydia: Um I think what we can learn from all of these pieces is that the people at the top of this are a mess. And I have one last piece for us to demonstrate how freaking messy Joe Lonsdale is, in particular, freaking Joe Lonsvale. So would you believe that this this is why this story has come up for me recently, recently because there is a man named John Robison, who to Texas because Governor Rick Perry, former Governor Rick Perry at the time, had invited him to move to Texas. And man, yeah,

0:45:58 Thomas: Fucking joe lonsdale yes is just a thing that happens I don't yeah

0:46:29 Lydia: Well, when you have a lot of money, yeah. This guy supposedly has a lot lot of money. And he pitched Joe Lonsdale on, hey, I can get us 1,800 acres along the Colorado River for a new campus, new University of Austin campus. This is before they've had a graduating class. They're not accredited. The only way that their model is working is because they're getting donations from a few wealthy donors. And now you're getting pitched, yeah, exactly, on expansion.

0:46:54 Thomas: We need to expand these 200 students are getting unruly and they each need their own separate like farm well

0:47:06 Lydia: Yeah. And Robison basically said, I have some connections in Zurich that are going to help with the financing. They're worth $140 to $250 million. We've got a lot of money lined up here. What do you say? And Lonsdale was like, I'm in, and personally wired this guy a million dollars. Now, a million dollars, it's not the University of Austin money. I want to be clear on that. This This was Lonsdale's like personal money, but it was in service of what he thought was to expand the University of Austin brand. This, again, is the chairman of the board and the things that he's doing are trying to further this university that he is leading in a lot of ways. Now, Robson has a different background because he actually has just been convicted for number of fraud allegations. He pitched a fake elector scheme directly to Donald Trump back in November 2020. He has connections to all of

0:48:11 Thomas: Then that shouldn't be a problem I'm sure he's pardoned or out or whatever by now yeah

0:48:16 Lydia: These really insane, ridiculous things and kind of dark people. And he ended up this summer being convicted of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering. We don't have sentencing yet. He had filed, this guy had filed a post-conviction motion for acquittal or a new trial. And he filed it a day late. So we're waiting for the judge to make a decision on that. I think you're a day later. You're a dollar short. You know, you're done.

0:48:42 Thomas: They'll they'll probably still consider it but is this the guy who wired the money or received the received the money okay but

0:48:47 Lydia: Received the money. Yeah. And so that's kind of why this is like popped up in the news is that we're we're waiting for sentencing for this guy. But Joe Lonsdale, it's

0:48:55 Thomas: It was not his his fraud and wire fraud while that wasn't related to this wire or oh it is okay well

0:49:01 Lydia: No, it is. It is. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. He just, he didn't have any of those, like, financing connections. He, like I said, he was laundering the money and stuff. He was running, like several schemes at once. And the DOJ, you know, pursued him for all of those things. But I want to necessarily, like dive into that case specifically. I just think it's worth noting that we have someone who is supposed to be the leader of this university, the chairman of the university saying that traditional institutions lost their judgment and then he personally like fell for a scam basically like an elderly scam even though he's not old wired a million dollars to a man saying I get us eighteen hundred acres on the river yeah based on financing connections that didn't exist he's He's a freaking liar. And all the turmoil of your staff are leaving. You're having turnover. You replaced your president.

0:49:40 Thomas: I know a prince in what what is it man why am I missing yeah he's like I need a win I need to be able to announce a massive yeah we'll

0:50:04 Lydia: You're not accredited yet. And you been able to prove that this model could work. Just with

0:50:10 Thomas: Have so much land we won't need accreditation yeah

0:50:13 Lydia: How much scrutiny they think that traditional institutions deserve, I think his judgment needs a lot more scrutiny. Um that was foolish that was really really foolish and it's just uh kind of like the cherry on top of these foolish foolish things that he's done um part of this you know involvement with the university so um as I said they have more students than they had last year they have 206 students I think it's easy when you're like hey tuition is free um a lot of these students are Texas residents anyway, so they probably don't even need to get an apartment. They might just be commuting from home. It's in Austin, like great city. That's great. No tuition and the application's easy and it doesn't cost any money to apply. You know, why wouldn't you, I guess?

0:50:54 Thomas: Austin is great yeah

0:51:02 Lydia: Now, they're not able to expand, I guess, because of this Robison guy, you know, being a a liar and going to be sentenced for fraud and money laundering. They did announce last week, or I guess just almost two weeks ago, that they're going to be launching a law school set to open in 2028. And it's going to be in partnership with the Federalist Society.

0:51:01 Thomas: Uh now that will that will probably be um more successful than this because like the supreme court has changed the law to just be anti-woke dumb shit so they'll be like hey this is great we know how to teach this what

0:51:40 Lydia: So they also do not plan on seeking accreditation from the American Bar Association. So I don't really know what that's going going to look like because now you're going to have a bunch of students, potentially if this happens, who are going to go to get their law degree that won't mean anything when they go to apply for jobs.

0:51:55 Thomas: I feel like it it just means something I think they just have to do it a slightly different way I can't remember there's something with

0:52:01 Lydia: Yeah, I think we had talked about the accreditation in Florida where like you just end up, you know, creating a new group.

0:52:07 Thomas: A bar I think the bar specifically I think you can still get credit but it's not the same I don't know there's something weird about that but maybe just the state bar no no

0:52:19 Lydia: I don't think so. I don't know. I don't know

0:52:21 Thomas: Well anyway I feel like that could be a successful venture because the right has owned the fucking law they took it over so we'll

0:52:27 Lydia: I mean, all of those students would be able to if they get their law degrees America America First Legal, I'm sure, would take them. Alliance Defending Freedom.

0:52:29 Thomas: See yeah go straight into the supreme court all

0:52:34 Lydia: You know, it's going to be all of the conservative legal advocacy efforts and stuff. Like, they will have a home there very easily. But for an institution that touts, you know, viewpoint diversity and they're not, you now, right-wing machine or whatever, they're drifting further and further and further into this conservative hellscape. And they're pretending like they're not. So, anyway.

0:53:00 Thomas: Right well that's fun do you think it's um like is it gonna close or it's I mean it has so much money like how how bad do you think it is here what's the overall state of like what did they start with what'd they lose I

0:53:13 Lydia: You know, they're not losing a lot because they just got, you know, they did. But like in terms of the money, they are fine. And like they that have been coming on to teach, right? So like Spencer Clavin is still there. I mentioned Coleman Hughes as a visiting professor. Quote unquote like real people, I guess, to teach their like quote-unquote science class so I don't really know I I guess the questions the big questions are how is it going to turn out for accreditation for their undergraduate program and do they do if they don't get accredited do they go the Peterson Academy route I mean they're they're like a tiny step above what Jordan Peterson's doing

0:53:17 Thomas: Thought thought they lost a bunch of faculty and yeah

0:53:55 Lydia: With his school

0:53:56 Thomas: But but peterson is a grift this is more like they have the money part already you know what I mean so it's like they're not trying to pump money out of people they are trying to like to the extent that there's people who believe it they are trying to prove that there are things I think accreditation actually matters to them quite a bit but I could be wrong well it's great to see you

0:54:01 Lydia: That's true yeah yeah I'm not sure um but yeah I think they'll go until the the well is dry potentially um but barry weiss I can't believe that she hasn't withdrawn her name

0:54:18 Thomas: Love to see it who's been fired have they not is the leader guy is a bad hair guy still in charge

0:54:25 Lydia: He yeah he's still the chairman of the board he's till there yeah he is the one calling the shots who's gonna get rid of him barry wise is too busy I don't know yeah yep

0:54:27 Thomas: My god wow okay wow well that love it for them good good luck you idiots playing chess the wrong way I'm sure everything else you do will be just as good as that well thanks for the breakdown really appreciate it uh I wish that you know that's perfect for them I'm sure that the people who play chess with the board the wrong way I'm not sure they'll do everything else just as well as that