The news is out! HOW TO RULE THE WORLD will be published by Penguin Press on 5/19—about 3 weeks before my graduation. From slush funds to yacht parties to fraud, the book captures Silicon Valley’s training ground as never seen before. Meet the kids learning to rule the world.

“Admired and envied, lionized and attacked, Dr. Baltimore spent most of his life in the scientific limelight, a towering figure of modern biology.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/s...

Hard to think of a Stanford figure considered more beloved… Andrew Luck “learned there were no shortcuts in turning around a program that was 1-11 when he committed and 11-2 when he left.” Now he has to do it again. www.nytimes.com/athletic/654...

The Stanford Daily and @thefireorg.bsky.social have filed a lawsuit alleging the Trump administration's actions have unconstitutionally chilled free speech. www.thefire.org/research-lea...

The Trump administration opened four investigations into George Mason University, targeting its president over diversity programs. The faculty senate put out a statement in his defense, reaffirming, "Diversity is our strength." Now the DOJ is investigating them, too.

Stanford has joined an amicus brief in support of Harvard, emphasizing the importance of university research.

Essential and utterly damning reporting from Anna Yang in The Stanford Daily today. "A student reported her rapist to the University. Two years later, the perpetrator was suspended." This case is harrowing and the process at Stanford remains incredibly broken. stanforddaily.com/2025/05/20/s...

Everyone is Cheating Their Way Through College. This article is 1000% accurate to my experience of Stanford. Since Gen Z is already the least media literate generation by several metrics, I do think the fear of reduced critical thinking is quite real. nymag.com/intelligence...

The Internet, far from the utopian ideal technologists envisioned, is really, truly the ultimate cesspool. Yay humanity! Example 80000000: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/n...

Stanford is a notable holdout from this statement condemning Trump’s “political interference” and “overreach.” The letter was signed by the presidents of more than 185 universities, including peers like Princeton, Yale, MIT, UPenn, etc. www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-c...

In the rush to publish, something may have been overlooked...

Trump—in exploiting his power to force opponents to bend to his will or be effectively barred from practicing law in federal court—claims the firms “have affirmed their strong commitment to ending the Weaponization of the Justice System and the Legal Profession.”

More top law firms, including #1 Kirkland Ellis ($7.2bn in revenue last year) and #2 Latham Watkins ($5.6bn in revenue), have caved to Trump demands. Trump has now extracted nearly $1bn from law firms, blackmailing some for effectively no reason apart from the fact that he can.

On his first day as NIH Director, Stanford prof Jay Bhattacharya oversees an immense bloodletting. This comes as last month alone the NIH canceled 700+ grants, began eliminating thousands of staff, scrapped its scientific integrity policy, etc. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Reich, a veteran of the sport, became the first NFL head coach since 1970 to be fired in *two* back-to-back seasons—first from the Colts in 2022, and then from the Panthers in 2023 after a 1-10 start to the season.

Stanford has hired Andrew Luck’s former coach, Frank Reich, as interim head football coach in the wake of Troy Taylor’s firing. With the team already underwater (3-9 the last two years), and several players entering the draft portal this week, Reich’s year may not be fun.

Post-WWII, the US public-private-university partnership has been one of our great strengths. Now it's under threat. "Research has found that every $1 invested in r&d returns about $5 in economic gains, a figure that likely understates the true return." www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/b...

Stanford’s head football coach was found to have engaged in “inappropriate, discriminatory” ways in TWO separate investigations into his “hostile and aggressive behavior.” He remains on the job. www.espn.com/college-foot...

So I was on a flight into DCA tonight when we had to abruptly abort our landing because, the captain said, another smaller, slower craft had been routed directly in our path. Flight logs show we were just 200 feet above the ground.

Earlier today the LA Times had AI-generated counterpoints to a column from @gustavoarellano.bsky.social. His piece argued that Anaheim, the city he grew up in, should not forget its KKK past. The AI "well, actually"-ed the KKK. It has since been taken off the piece. www.latimes.com/california/s...

Notable: Stanford follows MIT in adopting a hiring freeze for nonfaculty employees, further emphasizing the uncertainty major universities are facing at the moment.

Under Muir, Stanford won dozens of national championships...BUT he also oversaw - a disastrous attempt to cut 11 sports - the Varsity Blues scandal (he was implicated but denies participation) - failure on NIL - AND catastrophe with Stanford cut out of conference realignment

Larry Diamond is arguably the world’s foremost expert on democracy and one of the most well-respected members of the Stanford faculty. Larry is not prone to hysterics; here he brings a sober (and damning) analysis of the state of American democracy. www.persuasion.community/p/the-crisis...

In 2023, I wrote an @nytimes.com essay about how journals, institutions, scientists, and journalists have been slow to confront research integrity. With everything now, I want to reshare it. Honest investigation can’t fall by the wayside even as bad-faith actors attack. It has to be the opposite.

In an editorial this week, Science editor-in-chief @holdenthorp.bsky.social urges transparency in the face of increasing outside pressure. “As difficult and scary as it is to talk to tough reporters and critics, the alternative can be far worse,” writes Thorp. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A sober and much-needed piece from Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus. Science is in for a real reckoning and those who have been working tirelessly to improve, correct, and defend the integrity of this field—people like Adam and Ivan—understand the risks best. www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Susie Wiles taking Jon Batiste’s seat on the Kennedy Center board is so funny to me. He has seven Grammy’s she has hair full of secrets allá Gretchen Weiners — it’s a perfect swap!

With all the talk about slashing NIH indirects, I’m surprised more people aren’t discussing the last time this was huge scandal—when *Democrat* John Dingell went on a campaign in the ’90s to blast Stanford for exorbitant spending on the government’s dime. 1/3

With all the talk about slashing NIH indirects, I’m surprised more people aren’t discussing the last time this was huge scandal—when *Democrat* John Dingell went on a campaign in the ’90s to blast Stanford for exorbitant spending on the government’s dime. 1/3

What a lede: “On Fri. morning, staffers at a half dozen US-funded medical facilities in Sudan who care for severely malnourished children had a choice to make: Defy President Trump’s order to immediately stop their operations or let up to 100 babies and toddlers die. They chose the children.”

Charles Piller in @nytopinion.nytimes.com reveals "a malaise within the field" of Alzheimer's research. His book "Doctored," to be published 2/4, details "a litany of ostensible fraud and other misconduct by world-famous researchers and obscure scientists alike." www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/o...

So excited for @tracyjan.bsky.social, one of the most exceptional editors I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. She is fearless, careful, and endlessly kind. Tracy volunteered to help guide my investigations into Stanford’s president for The Stanford Daily and I was so much better off for it.

News - JAY BHATTACHARYA is now the presumptive favorite to lead the NIH, per three people familiar. Bhattacharya, who coauthored Great Barrington Declaration, met with RFK Jr this week and impressed him with ideas for nearly $50B agency. Trump still hasn’t signed off + nothing final until then.

Stanford’s Faculty Senate has voted 21-13 to uphold a 2020 censure of Scott Atlas, the influential Trump adviser and COVID firebrand known for telling people to “rise up” against public health measures. A subcommittee had argued Atlas was not afforded due process. news.stanford.edu/stories/2024...

Tidbit: Jay Bhattacharya, likely the next NIH director, organized a conference at Stanford this year described by LAT and others as a platform for COVID misinformation purveyors. He asked the president of Stanford, Jon Levin, to speak. Here’s what Levin told me:

I’ve migrated here from the other place… Follow for: - Tech journalism - Science (and especially scientific misconduct) journalism - Silicon Valley and Stanford insights