Compact Podcast — "[White] Boy Erased"

Date: December 18, 2025
Hosts: Matthew Schmitz (B), Ashley Frawley (A), Geoff Shullenberger (C)

Episode Overview

This episode of the Compact Podcast dissects three major current topics:

• Donald Trump's move to reschedule cannabis at the federal level
• The political transformation in Chile following a right-wing presidential victory
• A viral essay on the fate of white millennial men under DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policies, particularly in academia

The hosts weave together cultural, political, and personal angles, maintaining their signature blend of irony, critical insight, and narrative energy.

1. Trump, Cannabis, and the Culture War

Timestamps: 00:23–23:11

Context and Policy Move

• Trump’s Executive Order: Trump is reportedly poised to “reschedule” cannabis—a step short of full legalization but a major shift allowing cannabis businesses access to banking and rapid industry expansion.
  • Matthew Schmitz opens wryly:

    "Nothing will make America great again like letting businessmen profit off the mass sale of cannabis..." (00:33)

Ashley Frawley: Rethinking Legalization

• Once a libertarian on drugs, Ashley describes a reversal of her stance after attending an international drug summit.
• She critiques the “mental health in schools will fix drug problems” narrative as unrealistic given the scale of drug economies.
• Legalization's Utopian Flaw: She argues legalizing drugs in a single country creates new hubs for illicit trade, attracting crime unless there’s worldwide coordination—a utopian stretch.
  • Ashley Frawley:

    "Legalization seems to cause way more problems than it solves unless you have a kind of worldwide simultaneous legalization, which strikes me as utopian." (04:54)

• Notes how marijuana's social acceptance can act as a “gateway” to broader drug uptake (“50-year-olds at a wedding shoveling mushrooms into their mouths” (05:47)), though she only offers anecdotal evidence.

Geoff Shullenberger: Political Coalitions and Big Business

• Shullenberger observes that this move signals a shift in Republican coalition politics, aiming at young, male, “podcast bro” demographics (e.g., Joe Rogan fans) who are also into sports gambling and other vices.
• Discusses the transformation of the cannabis trade:
  • Small, often multi-generational illegal farming in places like Mendocino County feared—correctly—a wipeout from industrial “Big Weed” after legalization.
• Potency and Safety:

  "...in the era of legal weed, it does seem that the substance itself has just become much more dangerous than it actually was when it was illegal." (13:06)

• Suggests the best analogy is tobacco: combine heavy regulation, high taxes, and social stigma, rather than outright prohibition or full-throated celebration.

Cultural and Labor Impacts

• Schmitz: Notes blue states like Massachusetts are also leading efforts to restrict public cannabis use, not because they are conservative, but due to early negative experiences and the preferences of upwardly mobile professionals.
  • Matthew Schmitz:

    "Blue states are going to be where you begin to see some of the early pushback against this, even as maybe some red states take a last stand." (15:43)

• Vice and the White Working Class: Schmitz connects the dots:
  • Drug use is a recurring concern among employers of working-class men.
  • The paradox: “close the borders, stop H1Bs ... meanwhile, flood America with drugs”—this only complicates labor markets and increases pressure for immigration, undermining the Trump agenda. (19:35–23:11)
  • Schmitz:

    “There’s no coherence in this kind of policy ... ‘Oh yeah, we're not going to bring in any labor, but we're just going to flood America with drugs.’ Look, it's not going to work.” (21:18)

2. Chile’s Election: Neoliberal Restoration and the Politics of Protest

Timestamps: 23:11–38:14

Political Backdrop

• Jose Antonio Kast is elected—most right-wing leader since Pinochet.
  • Ties to the "Chicago Boys" and the Pinochet dictatorship through family history; embodies Catholic, socially conservative, and hardline neoliberal values.
• Shullenberger outlines Chile’s exceptional, stable, and polite political norms—with scandalous family histories (German heritage, ex-Nazis post-WWII) but a tendency toward moderation.

The Cycle of Protest and Discontent

• The zenith of Chile’s “model” was reached under post-dictatorship center-left governments, marked by economic growth still rooted in Pinochet-era reforms.
• Large-scale unrest in 2019:
  • Protesters demand a constitutional rewrite, reject private pensions and voucher-based education, forces of neoliberal discontent.
• Yet, the country returns to electing a right-wing president advocating the very policies just protested—a curious reversal.
  • Shullenberger:

    “You really have the whole cycle completing itself with this bizarre sort of reaffirmation of the very thing that was originally rejected.” (30:48)

Lessons for Progressives

• Schmitz notes that the left’s hopes and international financial support did not translate into actual constitutional change—voters retain the final word.
  • Schmitz:

    “Chile is one place where the kind of…progressive dream went to die.” (34:14)

• Ashley Frawley reflects on the limits of moralizing about capitalism:

  "People don't revolt because they have a moral problem with capitalism…any kind of government's going to get a whipping if you can't make people's lives materially better." (37:44)

3. "[White] Boy Erased": The Lost Generation of White Millennial Men

Timestamps: 38:14–53:00

Jacob Savage’s Viral Essay

• Savage's piece tracks declining prospects for white millennial men, especially in academia, under DEI and shrinking job markets.
• The essay has sparked wide debate, including recognition from government officials.

Personal Reflections

Geoff Shullenberger

• Reveals firsthand resonance as a white, millennial academic, comparing his father’s boomer-generation tenured trajectory to his own “second-best” contingent track.
• Notes that efforts to diversity faculties often meant nonwhite candidates got the rare prestigious jobs, while lower-prestige positions went to less sought-after demographics.
  • Shullenberger:

    "There was a kind of... imperative to diversify to recruit more diverse faculty. But... diverse faculty... were actually in a much better position to get a more prestigious job." (45:45)

Ashley Frawley

• As a woman, offers a mirrored experience: thought she’d never get an academic post, but landed multiple jobs—leading to soul-searching about perceived versus real merit.
• Expresses shock at the assumption among white men that career stability was ever guaranteed and notes the perverse “Hunger Games” effect of shrinking opportunity:

  “We shouldn’t be fighting over the crumbs that fall from the rich man’s table… what a loss, what a waste. I wish it was the beginning of a bigger conversation about where the heck we're going, because what a waste. It's sad.” (50:17)

• Observes that the real scandal is the waste of talent and human creativity, not just the loss of opportunity for any one demographic.

Academic and Institutional Critique

• Schmitz lauds Savage’s essay for inviting introspective, good-faith debate across the ideological spectrum—something legacy outlets could not easily publish, given their direct involvement in the trends analyzed.
  • Schmitz:

    “He is speaking to that world, basically to liberal America. And he's asking it... how do you guys feel about this? Is this what you wanted?” (53:10)

• Stresses the irreplaceability of established institutions and the need for both confrontation and persuasion to effect change—Compact itself serving as a necessary upstart venue for debate.

Notable Quotes

• On Cannabis and Policy Contradictions:

  "There’s no coherence in this kind of policy that’s emerging of, oh yeah, we're not going to bring in any labor, but we're just going to flood America with drugs." (Schmitz, 21:18)

• On Chile and Political Cycles:

  “You really have the whole cycle completing itself with this bizarre sort of reaffirmation of the very thing that was originally rejected.” (Shullenberger, 30:48)

• On the Waste of Talent in Academia:

  "The scandal is deeper than a lost generation of millennial men. It's a scandal of wasted talent, of humanity, just generally. And this is going to come back to haunt us..." (Frawley, 50:17)

Memorable Moments & Tone

• The hosts oscillate between biting sarcasm (Schmitz’s Trump riff), personal candor (Shullenberger’s and Frawley’s academic confessions), and large-scale sociological reflection.
• The episode is notable for its generational cross-talk on merit, anxiety, and the politics of recognition.
• A recurring theme: the gap between rhetoric (be it from left or right, libertarian or progressive) and messy empirical/sociological realities.

Key Segment Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | |-----------------------------------------------------|------------| | Trump & Cannabis Rescheduling | 00:23–23:11| | Chile's Rightward Turn & Its Context | 23:11–38:14| | "[White] Boy Erased": Millennial Men & DEI | 38:14–53:00|

Takeaway

This Compact Podcast episode offers a brisk, layered, and sometimes uncomfortable tour of the cultural and political contradictions animating the current moment. The conversation moves adroitly from Trump’s embrace of the “party of vice,” to the persistent ideological whiplash in Chile, to personal reckonings with the hollowing out of academia. Throughout, the hosts challenge assumptions on all sides while urging a broader, more humane perspective on what is being lost—and what might yet be worth fighting for.