13 episodes
I Hate the Ivy League Pushkin
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- Society & Culture
From Malcolm Gladwell’s hit podcast Revisionist History comes a compendium about one of his greatest obsessions: education.
Malcolm Gladwell has long relished the opportunity to skewer the upper echelons of higher education, from the institution of U.S. News & World Report’s Best College rankings to the LSATs to the luxe Bowdoin College cafeteria. I Hate the Ivy League: Riffs and Rants on Elite Education, upends the traditional thinking around how education should work and tries to get to the bottom of why we often reward the wrong people. The higher education system follows a hierarchy that was created to primarily benefit top-tier, elite, well-off students, but Gladwell wants to find out how we can do a better job at educating the middle and make education more affordable, fair, and open to all.
Why is Gladwell so obsessed with American education? The foreword and afterword of I Hate the Ivy League explains, framing this carefully curated selection of Revisionist History episodes. If you’ve never listened to Revisionist History, this collection is a thoughtful introduction to the long-running podcast, and if you’re already a fan, it allows for careful re-examination of the important issues at hand: how do we really determine what matters most when it comes to educating our children?
Please note: This collection includes content that has been released in the podcast series.
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Opening Credits
From Malcolm Gladwell’s hit podcast Revisionist History comes a compendium about one of his greatest obsessions: education. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: https://apple.co/409b0NL
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. -
Foreword
From Malcolm Gladwell’s hit podcast Revisionist History comes a compendium about one of his greatest obsessions: education. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: https://apple.co/409b0NL
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. -
Chapter 1: Carlos Doesn’t Remember
Of the tens of thousands of talented, low-income students who graduate from high school every year in the United States, most never make it to universities appropriate to their gifts. America leaves an enormous amount of talent on the table every year. “Carlos Doesn’t Remember” explains why. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: https://apple.co/409b0NL
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Chapter 2: Food Fight
Bowdoin College and Vassar College are two elite private schools that compete for the same students. But one of those schools is trying hard to address the problem of rich and poor in American society—and paying a high price. The other is making that problem worse—and reaping rewards as a result.
“Food Fight” focuses on a seemingly unlikely target: how the food each school serves in its cafeteria can improve or distort the educational system. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: https://apple.co/409b0NL -
Chapter 3: My Little Hundred Million
In the early ’90s, Hank Rowan gave $100 million to a university in New Jersey, an act of extraordinary generosity that helped launch the greatest explosion in educational philanthropy since the days of Andrew Carnegie and the Rockefellers. But Rowan gave his money to Glassboro State University, a tiny, almost bankrupt school in South Jersey, while almost all of the philanthropists who followed his lead made their donations to elite schools such as Harvard and Yale. Why did no one follow Rowan’s example?
“My Little Hundred Million” looks at the hidden ideologies behind giving and how a strange set of ideas has hijacked educational philanthropy. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: https://apple.co/409b0NL -
Chapter 4: Miss Buchanan’s Period of Adjustment
A landmark Supreme Court case. A civil rights revolution. Why has everyone forgotten what happened next?
Brown v. Board of Education might be the most well-known Supreme Court decision, a major victory in the fight for civil rights. But in Topeka, the city where the case began, the ruling has left a bittersweet legacy. In this chapter we hear from the Browns, the family behind the story. Subscribe to Pushkin+ to hear the full audiobook: https://apple.co/409b0NL