The Power Line Show, Ep. 143: Heather Mac Donald’s Greatest Hits

This special double-length episode features a wide-ranging conversation with best-selling author and iconoclast Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute, with special focus on her new book, The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture. I hosted Heather this week at  . . . UC Berkeley (!!), and we decided that rather than going with a set-piece speech, I’d interview her about the full range of topics she’s written about.

So we talk about her own intellectual odyssey, the decline of literature in universities, crime and punishment, the drug war, why we’d actually cheer the return of old-fashioned Marxism, as well as the hot button issues of her new book: preferential college admissions and the entire “diversity industrial complex.” We even get to the “T-question” (Trump), where Heather remains skeptical and conflicted.

One thing that comes through immediately is how utterly fearless Heather is.

Our room where the conversation took place was on the warm side, so we had the doors open for some fresh air. This means we get a lot of ambient background noise, including a few buses going by on Gayley Street. And some of the questions at the end are a little faint, but you can hear Heather’s clear answers quite clearly.

For our exit music today, I discovered what I suspect is one-off artist named Michael $cott, a parody of “Michael Scott” of The Office, who has put to music the script to the famous “diversity training” episode of The Office. Hence the opening teaser of this episode.

Special thanks to the several Power Line readers who ventured behind enemy lines to join us for the event. More to come!

You know what to do now: listen here, or download from our hosts at Ricochet. Subscribe to Power Line in iTunes (and leave a 5-star review, please!).

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