Where There's Woke
Every single time the right, or even center-left, goes ballistic over a "woke" controversy, the slightest bit of investigation shows the scandal is almost entirely bogus. This is not a new phenomenon; it dates back decades. It's an intentional tool used to protect the powerful and preserve the status quo, while further scapegoating and otherizing those who push for political progress. This podcast digs into not just today's fake scandals, but those of yesterday and yesteryear. The terminology has changed some, but the pattern has not. Listen in as hosts Thomas and Lydia Smith shine a light on the panic, the fragility, the overreaction, and the lying that ignites 'Where There's Woke.'
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WTW47: Jordan Peterson's Research Lives In Canada, You Wouldn't Know It
Part 6 of Junk Science and So Much Grift: The Jordan Peterson Story It's finally here!!! Our coverage of the long-awaited missing study and fraud-adjacent activity committed by Jordan Peterson. Were Brophy and Peterson just making shit up? Or was there a top secret study no one published? Also where did Peterson's research money go? This all sure seems sketchy AF. Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW46: IDK What You Think You're Measuring But It's Not Political Correctness
Part 5 of Junk Science and So Much Grift: The Jordan Peterson Story Just wait until you hear some of these questions in the "PC Battery." They are not measuring anything remotely useful. It's actually hilarious. Lydia and I play a game of making the rubric and grading each other's political correctness points, based on our best attempt to estimate what Brophy would have done. It's nonsense! What are the factors in reality? They aren't what JBP and Brophy think. Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW45: The Brophy Study Is Wrong In Nearly Every Possible Way
Part 4 of Junk Science and So Much Grift: The Jordan Peterson Story This study was so fucking bad that we needed to call an actual expert just to make sure we weren't missing something. Turns out, we WERE missing something. Actually, a lot. But the things we were missing were ways that the study sucks even more than we knew! Dr. Janessa Seymour has the breakdown! Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW44: Junk Science and So Much Grift: The Jordan Peterson Story
Part... 3? It's kinda part 2... but also part 1 in a way... Well however you look at it, this episode begins a series looking at the awful science Jordan Peterson uses to make wild claims about the PC/Woke left. It's so much more terrible than you can imagine, AND, it all comes down to... a non-peer-reviewed Master's Thesis. Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW43: Jordan Peterson, Christine Brophy, and a Master's Thesis All Walk Into a Lauren Southern...
Part 2 of our JBP odyssey Having gotten all of 2 minutes into the JBP Rap Analysis video, we were stopped in our tracks by an absolutely insane set of claims based on some mystery "research" Peterson did in 2016. He claims that Left-Wing Authoritarianism is most highly predicted by 1. being dumb 2. being female 3. having a female disposition?!?! and 4. having taken a single woke course or seminar. That is, prima facie, absolutely not correct. But where on Earth did he get that? We tracked it down. And discovered so much along the way... Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW42: Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, and Tom MacDonald All Walk Into a Grift...
Part 1! After *Rap Icon* Ben Shapiro made his simultaneous debut and retirement in Tom MacDonald's "Facts" last month, Jordan Peterson realized what the public needed was an incredibly overwrought and bull shitty analysis of these very simple lyrics. Before we get to that, though, we take a look at the characters. Who is Tom MacDonald and how much does he suck? Could he have ever just been a normal musician? We all know Ben Shapiro, but do you know about his claimed musicianship? That's the subject of a BONUS, look for that later. And finally, Jordan Peterson himself. Is he still a clinical psychologist? Is any amount of authoritarian tolerance enough for him to be beautiful? And more! Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW41: Gina Carano Sues Disney
Using Elon Musk's money, Gina Carano (AKA Cara Dune in seasons 1 and 2 of The Mandalorian series) is suing Disney & Lucasfilm over her "firing" in February 2021. We had Matt Cameron, current co-host of Opening Arguments, join to help us break this thing down. How does Carano allege she was harmed, and what exactly are her claims for relief here? Is this suit just a nothingburger or is there actually some meat on this thing? Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW40: The Woke Kindergarten Fallout - School Board Members Gone Wild
It's Part 2 of our research into the Woke Kindergarten controversy! Lydia gives us more detail as to the repercussions of the firestorm that we broke down in Part 1. We visit the scene of the crime, Hayward Unified, and spend some time with their school board and perhaps one of the worst Board Members WTW has covered so far. And - are some entities weaponizing this news to further their own agenda? Goldwater Institute's Academic Transparency Act (PDF) Hayward Unified's Equity & Antiracism Board Policy Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW39: The Woke Kindergarten Is Coming For Your Kids
Lydia breaks down a very recent controversy that had every right wing source losing their absolute minds: a school in the Bay Area paid hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for Woke Kindergarten, and test scores plummeted even further! Or that's at least what they want you to think. We dive into the who, what, where, when, and how of this one and it is a wild ride. California School Dashboard WestEd Black Minds Matter Learning Policy Institute Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW38: Ricky Gervais's Pathetic Anti-Woke "Comedy" Special
Hey all, please enjoy this episode-length preview of our January Bonus! We watched Ricky Gervais's new "comedy" special and didn't laugh once. So we invited the funniest guy ever, Eli Bosnick, to join us on this one and bring back the joy to our lives that Ricky destroyed. If you'd like the full episode, make sure to pledge on patreon.com/wherethereswoke at the 2nd tier or above!
WTW37: A LADY Star Wars Director?!
And several other mini stories! There are always so many little stories we don't get to, so this month we decided to try a roundup of sorts. Lydia put together some of the top anti-woke stories from January to share, and it was lots of fun! If you're enjoying our work, please consider sharing with your friends, leaving a 5-star review, or pledging over on Patreon! Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW36: Fighting Back Against the Campus Outrage Machine
Dr. Isaac Kamola joins us to discuss the work he's done to expose the partisan mechanics that fuel websites like CampusReform and The College Fix. How exactly does this machine operate? Who is behind it all? Why is Christopher Rufo the absolute worst? And, to help professors who experience this targeted harassment, Dr. Kamola founded Faculty First Responders to provide resources and support. Dr. Kamola's book: Free Speech and Koch Money: Manufacturing a Campus Culture War The Study: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/facpub/367/ Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW35: When 'The College Fix' Attacks
A sequel! Dr. Kenneth Mayer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, was publicly blasted by a student - first in an article on The College Fix, and then to millions of viewers tuning into Fox News with Tucker Carlson - because of a paragraph he wrote in the 2019 Spring semester syllabus for a Political Science course. That's right... there was a segment on Fox News about... a syllabus. NAY. A single paragraph in a syllabus. Unbelievable. Later we talk about how, while both Dr. Ponce from WTW34 and Dr. Mayer had tenure; what happens when you don't? We'll hear about Dr. Michael Phillips and his fight after his contract was not renewed with Texas's Collin College. Dr. Mayer's report to the Court for the current Wisconsin redistricting efforts! Be sure to check out SIO episodes 405 and 418 with expert Joe Magestro for more information on what's been happening there. Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW34: When CampusReform Attacks
In 2017, political science professor Dr. Albert Ponce was targeted by right-wing media because of a lecture he gave at Diablo Valley College regarding white supremacy in America. Lydia walks us through what actually happened before, during, and after the motivating incident. The people responsible for this panic were totally cool and not at all white supremacist monsters. You can watch Dr. Ponce's lecture in full here! Be sure to tune in for our next installment of this mini-series. Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!
WTW33: America - Where Even Bread is Racist
It's Bread Week here at WTW! King Arthur Baking Company is in the hot seat with the Right over an accelerator opportunity that is *racist against white people*. We're here to tell you what's really going on here and why we're keeping a close on New Hampshire from here on out. Be sure to check out Project Potluck! They are doing some fantastic work to build a community and resource network in the consumer packaged goods space for people of color. Feel free to email us at lydia@seriouspod.com or thomas@seriouspod.com! Please pretty please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/wherethereswoke!