These are not ultimately institutions we go to to get an education.

They're, first of all, credentialing institutions and their networking institutions.

That's why people go to Harvard.

Welcome to the unspeakable podcast.

I'm your host, Megan Dom. My guest is a regular to this podcast.

Writer William Derezzowitz comes on pretty much annually. He's a fan favorite and a favorite of mine.

The first time he was on was back in 2020, and he talked about his book, The Death of the Artist, which was a deeply reported look at how artists

survive, or more often do not survive in this economy. He has since come on to talk about

things like whether art has become boring, whether solitude has become obsolete, and any

number of other questions that might fall into the proverbial man-shaking fist at clouds category

if he weren't also so curious and deeply caring about the future of intellectual life.

Bill is probably best known for his 2014 book, Excellent Sheep, the Miseducation of the American

Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. A 10th Anniversary Edition was just published, and given the way people are talking way to a meaningful life. A 10th anniversary edition was just published,

and given the way people are talking about higher education and university culture these days,

the book is more relevant than ever. In this conversation, we talk about all of that.

We also talk about the concept of the pointy kid, whether there should be affirmative action for men,

whether it's better to work at Denny's than to go to college, at least for a while,

and whether non-parents have any standing to talk about any of this stuff in the first place.

As always, if you're a paying subscriber, you will hear the whole thing.

If you are not yet a paying subscriber,

I'm going to cut you off in the middle, so you might as well pony up now at megandom.com.

Enjoy the episode. Bill, welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for having me back. It's just like time number four now, I think.

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