Inside Stanford’s quest to build the next ruling class

Student journalist Theo Baker made a name for himself in 2023 when, at the age of 18, his reporting at Stanford led to the resignation of the university’s then-president Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Yes, Baker got the president of his university fired… as a freshman. Now, Baker is out with his debut book, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University, which pulls back the curtain on a secretive, hyper-privileged echelon of students who are aggressively courted by Silicon Valley venture capitalists from the moment they arrive on campus. In the age of the AI gold rush, the next generation of entrepreneurs has become the most coveted asset of all. This week, Baker joins us to break down what he calls the “Stanford Inside Stanford” that is mining the next generation of tech billionaires. He talks about the lingo that separates the “builders” from the “wantapreneurs”, the scrappy, underdog spirit that Silicon Valley has largely abandoned in favor of corporatized hackathons, and why he thinks the next Elizabeth Holmes or Sam Bankman-Fried is being minted at Silicon Valley’s most prestigious university right now. Theo's book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/760317/how-to-rule-the-world-by-theo-baker/] Support this podcast from The San Francisco Standard by becoming a subscriber: ⁠https://sfstandard.com/subscriber