The Grift of Meritocracy: All About Grifting (Inside and Outside of the Academy)

Our society is dominated by grifters. Cheats, cons, frauds: people who don’t really believe what they tell you. They’re just what they need to do to get ahead or to sell you something. Isn’t that that really what capitalism is about? The grift! We’re new here on the network, so we’re introducing Darts and Letters with some highlights of our past episodes. Each week over the summer has a different Darts theme! It’s day two of our “politics of education” themed week, and today we’re bringing back a favourite episode of ours about a pillar of our society: grifters. Wanna hear an interview with an academic paper writer-for-hire? Ever wondered just what the “professional managerial class” is? This is the show for you. And don’t forget: we’ll have new episodes coming out on the New Books Network starting on September 18th! (We promise you it’s legit.) ——————-FURTHER READING AND LISTENING—————— Abebe, Nitsuh. “Why Are We Suddenly Surrounded by Grift?” The New York Times Magazine. Dec. 4, 2018. Dante, Ed. “The Shadow Scholar.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Nov. 12, 2010. Gold, Lyta. “Presenting the 2020 ‘Griftie Awards’.” Current Affairs. Dec. 31, 2020. Liu, Catherine. Virtue Hoarders. University of Minnesota Press, 2021. Mishan, Logaya. “The Distinctly American Ethos of the Grifter.” The New York Times Style Magazine. Sept. 12, 2019. —————————-SUPPORT THE SHOW—————————- You can support the show for free by following or subscribing on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or whichever app you use. This is the best way to help us out and it costs nothing so we’d really appreciate you clicking that button. If you want to do a little more we would love if you chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patrons get content early, and occasionally there’s bonus material on there too. —————————-CONTACT US————————- To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly. ———-CREDITS———- Darts and Letters’ lead producer is Jay Cockburn, and our chase producer is Marc Apollonio. With research and support from David Moscrop. Our theme song was created by Mike Barber, and our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices