Karol Markowicz Show: The Beat of Wokeness and Institutional Capture with Aaron Sibarium

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Karol Markowicz Show: The Beat of Wokeness and Institutional Capture with Aaron Sabarium
Release Date: March 19, 2025

---

Introduction

In this episode of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, hosted by Premiere Networks, Clay and Buck delve into the intricate dynamics of wokeness and institutional capture within contemporary society. They feature Aaron Sabarium, a staff writer at the Washington Free Beacon, who brings his firsthand experiences and investigative insights into these pressing issues.

---

Guest Introduction: Aaron Sabarium

[11:59]
Carol Markowitz introduces Aaron Sabarium, highlighting his role at the Washington Free Beacon and setting the stage for an in-depth discussion on his reporting beats.

---

Journey into Journalism

[13:03] - [15:31]
Aaron shares his path to journalism, starting from writing opinion pieces in high school to his tenure at Yale University’s school newspaper. He recounts his early foray into editorial roles and his transition from editor to reporter at the Washington Free Beacon. Aaron emphasizes that his success stems from hard work, timely topics, and a bit of luck rather than innate talent.

Aaron Sabarium ([14:28]): "I don't need to be particularly gifted at reporting, but a combination of connections and curiosity about hot topics just turned into a relatively successful center-right reporter."

---

Focus on Wokeness and Institutional Capture

[15:31] - [20:19]
The conversation shifts to Aaron’s primary beats: wokeness and institutional capture, particularly within higher education. He discusses significant stories, including:

• Claudine Gay’s Plagiarism Cases: Aaron exposed multiple instances of plagiarism involving the former Harvard President, leading to her resignation.

• Racial Rationing of COVID-19 Drugs at UCLA Medical School: Aaron uncovered how UCLA implemented a system of racial preferences in distributing COVID-19 medications, violating California and federal laws. This investigative piece garnered significant attention, including coverage by major media personalities like Tucker Carlson, resulting in policy cancellations in Utah and Minnesota.

Aaron Sabarium ([16:42]): "Within two hours of Googling, I found two more brazen examples of race-based policies justifying insane triage systems."

---

Impact of Campus Culture on Journalism and Personal Beliefs

[20:19] - [23:02]
Aaron reflects on his college years at Yale, describing how campus controversies over cultural appropriation and political correctness pushed him towards a center-right perspective. He explains how these experiences shaped his reporting focus and philosophical beliefs, distancing him from becoming a committed partisan Republican.

Aaron Sabarium ([20:49]): "I can't be a committed member of the Republican Party. There are plenty of things they do that I think are crazy and stupid."

---

Discussion on Current Campus Policies and Free Speech

[27:54] - [35:32]
Aaron and Carol engage in a robust debate over the treatment of Jewish students and the broader implications of campus policies aimed at protecting minority groups. Aaron expresses concern over the potential overreach of such protections, emphasizing the importance of due process and the dangers of creating a culture of fear and snitching.

Aaron Sabarium ([31:28]): "I really strongly reject the notion that people are made unsafe by deeply offensive speech."

He warns against hasty deportation measures without procedural fairness, advocating instead for targeted law enforcement to address genuine threats.

Aaron Sabarium ([35:02]): "Deporting all the foreign kids at Columbia who protested or broke the rules will not materially make most the average Jew on the streets of New York safer."

Aaron underscores the need for a balanced approach that protects individuals without stifling free speech or creating unjust precedents.

---

Personal Reflections and Advice

[35:32] - [38:18]
Aaron shares personal insights, offering advice to his younger self and listeners:

1. On Social Skills: Encourage early dating experiences to build social confidence before college.

2. On Academic Pressure: Advocate for a balanced approach to academics, highlighting that in journalism, grades are less critical than practical skills and writing prowess.

Aaron Sabarium ([36:17]): "Your transcript shouldn't be the defining factor in your career, especially in journalism."

He emphasizes the importance of intellectual pursuits and continuous learning, recommending allocating time for reading amidst busy schedules.

Aaron Sabarium ([38:18]): "Build in space to your schedule to read. It makes your life more meaningful."

---

Closing Thoughts

Aaron concludes by reflecting on the necessity of carving out intellectual space and maintaining meaningful engagements beyond digital distractions. The conversation wraps up with Aaron expressing gratitude for the engaging discussion and encouraging listeners to explore his work at the Washington Free Beacon.

---

Notable Quotes

• Aaron Sabarium ([16:42]): "Within two hours of Googling, I found two more brazen examples of race-based policies justifying insane triage systems."

• Aaron Sabarium ([20:49]): "I can't be a committed member of the Republican Party. There are plenty of things they do that I think are crazy and stupid."

• Aaron Sabarium ([31:28]): "I really strongly reject the notion that people are made unsafe by deeply offensive speech."

• Aaron Sabarium ([36:17]): "Your transcript shouldn't be the defining factor in your career, especially in journalism."

• Aaron Sabarium ([38:18]): "Build in space to your schedule to read. It makes your life more meaningful."

---

Conclusion

This episode offers a deep dive into the challenges and implications of wokeness and institutional capture, especially within academic institutions. Through Aaron Sabarium’s experiences and insights, listeners gain a nuanced understanding of the balance between protecting minority groups and preserving free speech. The discussion also highlights the personal and professional struggles journalists face in politically charged environments.

---

Note: This summary excludes advertising segments, intros, outros, and non-content sections as per the instructions.

Transcript

[Oracle Representative]

AI is rewriting the business playbook with productivity boosts and faster decision making coming to every industry. If you're not thinking about AI, you can bet your competition is.

[Amica Insurance Representative]

This is not where you want to.

[Oracle Representative]

Drop the ball, but AI requires a.

[Carol Markowitz]

Lot of compute power, and with most.

[Oracle Representative]

Cloud platforms, the cost for your AI workloads can spiral. That is, unless you're running on oci.

[Carol Markowitz]

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure this was the cloud.

[Oracle Representative]

Built for AI, a blazing, fast, enterprise grade platform for your infrastructure, database, apps.

[Amica Insurance Representative]

And all your AI workloads. OCI costs 50% less than other major.

[Oracle Representative]

Hyperscalers for compute, 70% less for storage, and 80% less for networking.

[Carol Markowitz]

Thousands of businesses have already scored with.

[Oracle Representative]

Oci, including Vodafone, Thomson Reuters, and Suno AI.

[Carol Markowitz]

Now the ball's in your court.

[Amica Insurance Representative]

Right now, Oracle can cut your current cloud bill in half if you move to OCI. Minimum financial commitment and other terms apply. Offer ends March 31st. See if your company qualifies for this special [e-mail] strategic. That's oracle.com strategic for some of us.

[Carol Markowitz]

Personal finances aren't just personal. They include a lot more people than ourselves. Loved ones, neighbors, the communities we call home, and the causes we hold in our hearts. At Thrivent, we help plan your financial picture with the bigger picture in mind. Because even though our business is helping guide your finances, our ambition is to make it mean so much more. Thrivent where money means more Connect with [e-mail] Every day, our world gets a little more connected, but a little further apart. But then there are moments that remind us to be more human. Thank you for calling Amica Insurance.

[Amica Insurance Representative]

Hey, I was just in an accident.

[Carol Markowitz]

Don't worry, we'll get you taken care of. At Ameca, we understand that looking out for each other isn't new or groundbreaking.

[Oracle Representative]

It's human.

[Carol Markowitz]

Amica Empathy is our best policy.

[Amica Insurance Representative]

You ever get the feeling the city walls closing in the concrete jungle suffocating your soul? You crave wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe chase some elk, fish a private stream. Well, listen up. There's a whole world out there. And finding your own piece of it just got easier. Head over to land.com. they've got ranches, forests, mountains, you name it. Search by acreage, location, the kind of hunting or fishing you dream. Land.com. it's where the adventure begins.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families. With Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly. Set up chores, automate allowance and keep an eye on what your kids are spending with real time notifications. Kids learn to earn, save and spend wisely and parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money. With guardrails in place, try Greenlight Risk free [e-mail] iheart hi and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz show on iHeartradio. In today's mailbag, I got a familiar note. Hi Carol. Your episode from a few months ago about the teenage daughter who has friends but doesn't know how to make plans with them stuck in my mind. My daughter was always very social and had a lot of friends. She graduated college in May and lives in a new city and I'm noticing that she doesn't have the kind of social life she had before. She's not dating anyone and while she has a few friends, most weekends she does not go out. I'm not sure what to suggest to her. What do you think? I'd always read about young people being homebodies now, but it had not happened in our family before. Well, this is a question I've gotten again and again. I think it's the most common question I've gotten on the show. Real life life is getting harder and harder to come by, especially for young people. But because these questions are anonymous, I can't ask follow ups like how did she choose this city, what's her job, what are her interests, and that kind of thing. So I'll try to speak more generally about this. It's the phones. We all know it. I've talked about it and I've written about it. But we can't even say it's social media anymore. We're all just watching TV basically all the time. If we were actually watching our actual televisions for eight hours a day, eight plus hours a day, we'd know it's a giant problem. But because we watch it in one or three or five minute clips, it seems fine. Look again, I admit that I am just as addicted as anyone to my phone. I'm not giving this advice from my high perch over here, but I'm so aware of it and I try every single day to change it. I've given some of my tips on here before. Don't use your apps when you're on vacation. For me, it's X that really I spend most of my time on that site so I don't use it when I'm on vacation. I remove it from my phone altogether. Read a book before bed instead of just scrolling for hours. Leave the phone in your bag when you're out with friends or with your kids. I would also say really minimize how much your kids are using their phones when they're interacting with others. I get it. Kids are just as susceptible as the rest of us to screen time, but when they're out with their friends, they should not be staring at their phones. And I don't do any of this perfectly, but I think recognizing the problem is really the first step. If you are the person who wrote this in to me, you have to tell your daughter to start with trying to change her phone habits. It's entirely too easy to lose yourself in hours and hours of scrolling. And from there you can suggest that she make the first move with new friends, invite them to dinner or an activity, but it has to start with living life outside her apartment. The main thing is to stress to your child that the way her life is right now is easily the way her life could stay. It's very hard to change things. Would she be happy with that? Or is she imagining that she will make friends at some point along the way? Because if it's that second one, encourage her to get started right now. It's so much harder to make friends as she gets older. And I know right now it seems to her like she's in a tough spot, tougher than it's ever been for her before that time after college when everyone seems to be going their own way. But really it only gets harder from there. Soon people will pair off, get married, have children and really settle into their ways. It's actually a moment right now where all the post college kids are still scrambling around for how their lives are going to go. She can lean into it and find her people best right now, but it will require putting down the phone and leaving the house. Thanks for listening. Coming up, my interview with Aaron Sebarium. But first, after more than a year of war, terror and pain in Israel, the need for security essentials and support for first responders is still critical. Even in times of ceasefire. Israel must be prepared for the next attack, wherever it may come from, as Israel is surrounded by enemies on all sides. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has supported and will continue to support the people of Israel with life saving security essentials. Your gift today will help save lives by providing bomb shelters, armored security vehicles and ambulances, firefighting equipment, flak jackets and bulletproof vests, and so much more. Your generous donation today will help ensure that people of Israel are safe and secure in the days to come. Give a gift to bless Israel and her people by visiting supportifcj.org that's one word supportifcj.org or call 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888-488-IFCj 888-488-4325.

[Carol Markowitz]

It's tax season, and by now I know we're all a bit tired of numbers. But here's an important one you need to hear $16.5 billion. That's how much money in refunds the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year. Here's another 20%. That's the overall increase in identity theft related to tax fraud in 2024 alone. But it's not all grim news. Here's a good 100 million. That's how many data points Lifelock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, LifeLock's US based restoration specialists will fix it, backed by another good number, the million dollar protection plan. In fact, restoration is guaranteed or your money back. Don't face identity theft and financial losses alone. There's strength in numbers with Lifelock Identity theft protection for tax season and beyond. Join now and save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code iheart or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off. Terms apply when you're in HR, it can feel like nothing is easy. From payroll to pto, from onboarding to benefits, and everything in between, it's a constant juggle of tasks, systems and spreadsheets. But your HR software? That's the easy part. Meet Bamboohr. Trusted by over 34,000 companies, it handles all your HR tasks, payroll, benefits and time tracking so your team and your company can grow as fast as well. Bamboo and BambooHR software is actually easy to use. One simple system that pulls all your people data together in one place so you can ditch scattered systems and wasted hours on tasks that should only take minutes. Because when HR is easier, you can focus on what matters most your people. HR is hard. Bamboo HR is easy. Ready to simplify all your HR tasks for a limited time? Get a $100 Visa gift card when you complete a free [e-mail] gift card. Again, that's bamboohr.com giftcard terms and conditions apply at Ameca Insurance. We know it's more than just a car. It's the two door coupe that was there for your first DR.

[Amica Insurance Representative]

The hatchback.

[Carol Markowitz]

That took you cross country and back, and the minivan that tackles the weekly carpool for the cars you couldn't live without trust. Ameca Auto insurance Ameca Empathy is our best policy.

[Amica Insurance Representative]

You ever get the feeling the city walls closing in the concrete jungle suffocating your soul? You crave wide open spaces, the chance to connect with N. Maybe chase some elk, fish a private stream. Well, listen up. There's a whole world out there and finding your own piece of it just got easier. Head over to land.com they've got ranches, forest, mountains, you name it. Search by acreage, location, the kind of hunting or fishing you dream of. Land.com it's where the adventure begins.

[Carol Markowitz]

When it comes to playtime. Never let your squad down. Unlock elite gaming [e-mail] Push your gameplay beat beyond performance with 13th gen Intel Core processors. Upgrade to smooth high quality streaming with Intel WI FI6E and maximize gain performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search and head to.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Lenovo.Com welcome back to the Carol Markowitz show on iHeartRadio. My guest today is Aaron Sabarium. Aaron is a staff writer at the Washington Free Beacon. Hi Aaron, so nice to have you on.

[Oracle Representative]

Thank you for having me, Carol.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Aaron, I think of you as super young, am I right?

[Oracle Representative]

I'm 29 and when I hit 29 I felt the crushing weight of being just one year away from 30 suddenly hit me. So I don't feel as young as I used to, but I suppose objectively still relatively young.

[Aaron Sabarium]

I started reading you several years ago now, so you were in your early or mid-20s. So I guess my take is pretty correct. And I gotta tell you, the 30s were a phenomenal decade. I highly recommend going into it without any fears.

[Oracle Representative]

Good to know.

[Aaron Sabarium]

So how did you get into this world? How did you become a writer?

[Oracle Representative]

Sure. So I wrote opinion pieces for my high school newspaper and enjoyed stirring the pot a little bit. Even as a high schooler I liked it so much that I decided to do the same thing when I got to Yale University. I joined the school newspaper as an opinion columnist and then served as the opinion editor of a school paper for a year. And by the end of college I basically decided, yeah, I like writing. I like writing for a public audience. That's what I want to do in some capacity. Graduated, went to a small now defunct magazine called the American Interest as an editor. To the extent I did writing there, it was mostly about kind of the what were then very alcarant debates about liberalism and post liberalism, things that I think are still in the ether but have lost some of their novelty. This was all kind of debates that had been stirred up on the right by Trump's 2016 election. And now the shock of that has worn off and the debate is in a bit of a different place. But that's kind of what I was interested in. And then, yeah, in 2020, I heard the Free Beacon was hiring and decided it's probably time for a change. I'll try this. And went over as an editor. But within a few months me and my boss decided I'd be more of an asset as a reporter. So I, having never done any reporting before, tried doing reporting and I mean, I wouldn't actually say I'm particularly gifted at it, but no, I don't need to be.

[Aaron Sabarium]

As a natural reporter, I'm surprised that that was your first reporting job.

[Oracle Representative]

No. Yeah, I don't think I'm actually like, I don't think I have any kind of special talent.

[Aaron Sabarium]

You're like, I'm not actually good at.

[Oracle Representative]

This, but I worked hard and I guess I had sort of just a lucky kind of combination of connections and early hits and curiosity about topics that were very hot. And so it kind of just turned into kind of by chance. I just ended up becoming, I mean, relatively successful, I guess as a center right reporter.

[Aaron Sabarium]

What do you consider your beat wokeness.

[Oracle Representative]

And institutional capture very broadly? I mean, I wouldn't say that that's the only thing I've ever done reporting on, but that's what most of it ultimately comes down to. I've done a lot on universities and higher education, but I've also done things on medicine and law. My interests are definitely broader than just higher ed, but probably the most famous slash impactful stories I've done have ultimately had something to do with education.

[Aaron Sabarium]

What's been your biggest story so far.

[Oracle Representative]

Or among the biggest in terms of raw impact? I guess Claudine Gay exposing a lot of cases of plagiarism and former Harvard President Claudine Gay's work because that was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back and led to her resignation from Harvard. So I guess I probably have to say that one, you know, in terms of stories I'm actually most maybe proud of because they required the most work and were most interesting. I don't know. I did1on UCLA Medical School appears to have implemented a kind of COVID unofficial system of racial preferences in violation of.

[Aaron Sabarium]

That was a really good one.

[Oracle Representative]

Yeah. California and federal law. That I think was pretty important. I did some stuff. This, this might be the one that I actually think is objectively the most important. I Did some stuff on the, the racial rationing of COVID drugs, if you recall. And actually, I think you might have been the one who got me on this beat because you had, I think it was you. Carol tweeted something about New York.

[Aaron Sabarium]

That's right.

[Oracle Representative]

This race based policy for allocating monoclonal antibodies in late 2021. And I remember I saw that tweet and thought, huh, I wonder if other states are doing it. And just in like two hours of Googling was able to find two other, I think, even more brazen examples. And then I read the fine print, was like, oh, they're citing the Food and Drug Administration Emergency Use Authorization Guidance to justify this completely insane triage system. Okay. And basically just wrote that up. And then, you know, within like two weeks, Tucker Carlson had talked about it on his then Fox show and the programs had been canceled in Utah and Minnesota. Those were states that were doing this. So that I think was pretty impactful to just show that like we actually could get to the point where life saving medical care was being rationed based on race.

[Aaron Sabarium]

But so what's interesting about that is I think that that shows what a natural reporter you are. Because I heard that story and I was like, wow, New York is crazy. And that's, you know, that's where I left it. You were like, wait, is this happening elsewhere? Like, how do I get to the bottom of this? I'm not a reporter. I've never been a reporter. So I could see the difference in our approach to it. Like, to me it was a. I tweeted it and I was done. And you went much deeper. I, you know, I'm just saying maybe you are a natural reporter and you just don't know it. So was there ever a plan B? Was there ever, like, if you don't become a writer, you're going to be a.

[Oracle Representative]

I don't know. I mean, I thought that being like working at a think tank or doing some kind of policy work could be interesting, you know, which, which would still involve writing, but in a bit of a different context. You know, I think there was a period where I thought, oh, like, I like philosophy, I like going to school, I could be an academic. But then the problem is that at the time I was actually an undergraduate at Yale, that those were the years when Yale was kind of rocked by what you might call a kind of embryonic version of what happened in 2020. Right? There was this rather silly scandal over cultural appropriation and Halloween costumes that somehow spiraled into months of protest and recriminations and mobbings and name changes and all sorts of other things that really prefigured what I think the country saw following George Floyd in 2020. It happened at Yale kind of first in 2015. Being on campus during that time and being maybe a kind of semi public figure on campus because I was the head of the opinion page at the Yale Daily News, so I was fielding all the op EDS related to this controversy. I am writing some of my own stuff. I experience certainly pushed me somewhat to the right. I come into college a pretty moderate Democrat. It's like, holy crap, these people are insane. And they're gonna rule us in five years. I don't like that to 15 years.

[Aaron Sabarium]

You're right.

[Oracle Representative]

These are the next stalkers of the EPA and the Justice Department. Holy crap. And you know, but also, you know, these are the. This is the future of academia. These are the people who are going to be making hiring decisions. And these are the sorts of people, students I would have to teach and potentially the sorts of colleagues I would have to deal with if I wanted to just write about abstract problems in metaphysics or moral philosophy.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Right.

[Oracle Representative]

I was like, you know, forget it like that. If I could just write my stuff in peace and have fun philosophy debates with students every day, that'd be great. But if I actually were to have. Try to have fun philosophy debates with students, I'd get canceled for a politically incorrect thought experiment within two weeks. So that's right. I can't do that. Right.

[Aaron Sabarium]

My teenage daughter likes to quote this comedian who had a joke like, oh, you're getting a philosophy degree? Is that to go work at the new philosophy factory that opened in town? But you had a vision for how it would go maybe outside the philosophy factory, but still, it's interesting that you saw that coming and then you ended up being somebody that writes about it. And, you know, I think about those early days that the before times of when the insanity was really just on campuses, and we didn't think it was going to jump off campus, but then it did. And I think that that's a tough spot that we ended up in. Would you like, if you had to do it over again, would you send your kids to Yale? Would you go to Yale again? Was it.

[Oracle Representative]

Yeah, I mean, a good experience anyway? No, I would definitely go to Yale again because it helped shape me into who I am. And the, the being kind of constantly embattled for four years was, I think, ultimately a good experience.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Even though you started as a moderate Democrat, you feel like you were Embattled for four years. Like, that's. That's tough.

[Oracle Representative]

Yeah.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Imagine being a conservative from the start, you know.

[Oracle Representative]

Yeah. And I honestly still. I don't really like labels. I don't. I mean, functionally on the center right, and that's fine. So if people call me a conservative, that's fine. But I don't really have strong views on some people who become kind of partisans of these debates about what the true essence of conservatism is because they feel very invested in being a conservative. I don't really feel that way. I tend to look at things more on a case by case basis and just say I have certain commitments and principles that as a contingent sociological matter, put me on the center right in 2025.

[Aaron Sabarium]

But that could change.

[Oracle Representative]

But yes, that could easily change. Right. I think if, you know, I could easily have been like a Bill Clint Democrat.

[Aaron Sabarium]

But that's just interesting. I do feel kind of committed to my conservative. You're right. But I don't feel committed to the Republican Party, for example. I feel committed to my conservative principles. And I realize that that could be anything that can move me anywhere in the future.

[Oracle Representative]

I mean, I think I have certain philosophical commitments that probably are more traditionally conservative. I probably have others that are more traditionally liberal or just would better be characterized as some kind of other tradition that's totally orthogonal to liberal versus conservative. But I would definitely say ditto on not being a committed member of the Republican Party. There's plenty of things they do that I think are crazy and stupid. So I'm not someone who's gonna make it my professional job to defend everything that the Republican party or its current standard bearer does.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Yeah. Absolute. We're going to take a quick break and be right back on the Carol Markowitz Show.

[Carol Markowitz]

When you're in hr, it can feel like nothing is easy. From payroll to pto, from onboarding to benefits and everything in between, it's a constant juggle of tasks, systems and spreadsheets. But your HR software, that's the easy part. Meet BambooHR. Trusted by over 34,000 companies, it handles all your HR tasks, payroll, benefits, and time tracking so your team and your company can grow as fast as. Well, Bamboo and bamboohr software is actually easy to use. One simple system that pulls all your people data together in one place so you can ditch scattered systems and wasted hours on tasks that should only take minutes. Because when HR is easier, you can focus on what matters most. Your people. HR is hard. Bamboo HR is easy. Ready to simplify all your HR tasks for a limited time. Get a 100 Visa gift card when you complete a free demo at bamboohr.com gift card again, that's bamboohr.com giftcard terms and conditions apply at Ameca Insurance we know it's more than just a car. It's the two door coupe that was there for your first drive, the hatchback that took you cross country and back, and the minivan that tackles the weekly carpool for the cars you couldn't live without. Trust Ameca Auto Insurance Ameca Empathy is our best policy.

[Amica Insurance Representative]

You ever get the feeling the city walls closing in the concrete jungle suffocating your soul? You crave wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe chase some elk, fish a private stream? Well, listen up. There's a whole world out there and finding your own piece of it just got easier. Head over to land.com they've got ranches, forest, mountains, you name it. Search by acreage, location, the kind of hunting or fishing you dream of. Land.com it's where the adventure begins.

[Carol Markowitz]

When it comes to playtime. Never let your squad down. Unlock elite gaming [e-mail] Push your gameplay beyond performance with 13th gen Intel Core processors. Upgrade to smooth, high quality streaming with Intel WI FI6E and maximize gain performance with enhanced overclocking. Win the tech search and head to lenovo.com lenovo Lenovo Trust isn't just earned, it's demanded. Whether you're a startup founder navigating your first audit or a seasoned security professional scaling your GRC program, proving your commitment to security has never been more critical or more complex. That's where Vanta comes in. Businesses use Vanta to establish trust by automating compliance needs. Over 35 frameworks like SOC2 and ISO 27001 centralize security workflows, complete questionnaires up to five times faster, and proactively manage vendor risk. Vanta can help you start or scale your security program by connecting you with auditors and experts to conduct your audit and set up your security program quickly. Plus, with automation and AI throughout the platform, Vanta gives you time back so you can focus on building your company. Join over 9,000 global companies like Atlassian, Quora and Factory who use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. For a limited time, our audience gets $1,000 off [e-mail] special. That's V-A N T A.com special for $1,000 off.

[Aaron Sabarium]

What do you worry about?

[Oracle Representative]

Well, you ask about. You're asking me about my politics and I just said I'm not a committed Republican. One of the reasons I'm not maybe a committed partisan Republican is that I think there is the potential for the current crackdown on campuses in the name of protecting Jewish students to really backfire and end up just kind of reinforcing the worst parts of the civil rights apparatus that helped lead to campus censorship and DEI in the first place. So I part ways with some of my conservative friends and colleagues in that I obviously think that the, you know, pro Hamas kids are crazy and most of what's happened at Columbia is disgraceful. And I'm all for cutting the federal funding of a lot of these institutions that just repeatedly show that they were unwilling to maintain order on campus. But the more important thing is that they've just completely strayed from the purposes of right, for which they were given tax exempt status in the first place. Right. And clearly no longer respect academic freedom or, or anti discrimination law or any number of other important values, intellectual diversity, et cetera. And that to me is the main reason why they can't be trusted to reform themselves and some kind of external government intervention is necessary. So, you know, I'm kind of supportive of the broader adversarial posture that the Republican Party has taken towards the universities. But what I'm supportive of is A, that they've justified that posture almost, not entirely, but almost exclusively in terms of protecting Jewish students. And B, I'm not supportive of this idea that Jewish students are at imminent risk of physical harm and say, therefore, therefore students who organize the encampment should not merely be expelled, but actually have their green card revoked without due process and deported. You know, I think I'm sort of, I don't know, maybe there is a case for doing it, but, but I, but I'm, I'm a bit concerned that it's being done in a very haphazard way, that, that, that could set some bad precedents. And moreover. Right. I don't love this phenomenon of, say, Jewish students creating lists of people or Jewish activist groups creating lists of activists who they would like to be deported. I just think that is, that is creating a kind of cult, a snitch like culture that is not good for free speech, whatever the merits, you know, in a particular case. And moreover, I don't think it's ultimately good for Jewish students themselves to live in this state of constant fear and to see themselves as obligated to, you know, kind of go to war with WOKE activists who they don't like over the Israeli Palestinian conflict. I just Think that's fundamentally not why you go to college.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Sure.

[Oracle Representative]

You know, to be an activist. And I really strongly reject the notion that people are made unsafe by deeply offensive speech.

[Aaron Sabarium]

So it's interesting because I, I disagree with you on a few things there, but I like that you have, you know, a perspective of this, even though you're like, you know, pretty deeply into covering them. And not in a positive light, obviously, but, like, I think that there are boundaries of free speech that these activists are way overstepping.

[Oracle Representative]

Oh, I agree with that, to be clear.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Well, and there is violence. Violence against Jews in New York is. New York is number one for violence against Jews. Brooklyn specifically is top of the list. But, you know, I almost feel like the thing here is that these leftist activists have made us play by these ridiculous rules, and now they're being caught up in their own rules. And I kind of want to see where it goes. I. I don't have a lot of sympathy for them. Also, just one more thing about the green cards is when you're here on a green card, you have to live up to certain rules of the green card. And they, as far as I understand, they're literally saying, you did. You. You spurred violence. For example, it wasn't just about your speech. It was you. You did not allow Jewish kids to go to class. You did not allow them to go to the library. You had just altercations on campus that went beyond speech. And they're saying that that violates the rules of the green card. But again, I get what you're saying. I don't think that Jews should live in a perpetual, fearful state. Of course, it's. It's a lot harder for them to have to live in that state when they're incapable of protecting themselves. They don't have Second Amendment rights in New York City, largely, and the school won't do anything to step in and help them.

[Carol Markowitz]

Sure.

[Oracle Representative]

I mean, I should clarify. It may well turn out that this guy did violate the terms of his green card, and in that case, sure, he should be deported. My concern is that I don't know if it's. This is being done in a procedurally valid way. I also will freely admit that I don't know the law on this very well. This is just based on things I've read. And then the other thing I would say, though, is like, yeah, so I agree there's a distinction between speech and violence. And he should obviously have been expelled for taking over Hamilton Hall. Like, all of that is totally. That's not free speech. You know, my other concern about how they're going about it is you want to be careful not to make martyrs out of people when you don't have to.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Your backlash point is a very good one.

[Oracle Representative]

And I worry that this particular guy might not be the best target for various reasons. You know, I would also say too, that although there obviously is violent hate crime against Jews in New York City, that's not coming mainly from Columbia students. That's coming from, in many cases, just kind of deranged psychopaths that the city's sort of jailbreak liberalist regime has allowed to run free. Really. I mean, there's an easy solution there, which is just if you have lots of criminal convictions and prior arrests, you just shouldn't be allowed on.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Keep them in jail. That's a good idea.

[Oracle Representative]

Like, honestly, if you.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Seems like a really good idea, that one.

[Oracle Representative]

Deporting all the foreign kids at Columbia who protested or broke the rules will not materially make most the average Jew on the streets of New York safer. What would make them safer is if you just put a lot more cops out there and said, yeah, if you're a crazy psychopath, you don't get to walk around on the street enforcing the rules.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Overall, I think would be a step in the right direction.

[Oracle Representative]

Yeah.

[Aaron Sabarium]

What advice would you give your 16 year old self?

[Oracle Representative]

Two pieces of advice. One would be, I was like a really awkward kid in high school who frankly didn't even have very much interest in dating. As a high schooler, I probably go back in time and say, you know, just like go on a few dates to just like get the hang of it because it's. College is not a good time to, for that to be your first experience dating, nor for that matter really is after college. It's better if you have a little experience with this in high school. So that's probably what I would say.

[Aaron Sabarium]

My third grader is on his like sixth girlfriend, so, well, he's, he's getting started early.

[Oracle Representative]

That's, that's, that's good to hear. And then I think the other piece of advice is I was always a really serious student who wanted to get straight A's and worried about every little, you know, any point off of an assignment. No, no, you know, nothing less than 100%. That's an okay attitude to have in high school if you're trying to get into a good college. I would say once you get to college.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Relax a little.

[Oracle Representative]

Yeah, that attitude is important to maintain if you think you might want a job that requires you to get into a really good law school or get really good grades, it's frankly not very important to maintain if you're going to go into the field that I ended up going into. It doesn't mean it doesn't help. Like I think if you take classes seriously and learn, you know, you will.

[Aaron Sabarium]

But nobody's ever asked us for our transcript. Right.

[Oracle Representative]

You'll be in a better place if you were a somewhat serious student. But if you like take tough classes that are curved in STEM and you get like a C or a B, I mean, no one in journalism will care about that. And if you take, you know, even if you kind of goof off in one semester and you don't do as well on your papers and like, like, yeah, it's just not going to matter as long as you have good clippings and show that you're a decent writer who can work relatively hard and you know, to be honest. Right. You don't need to be a serious philosopher to be a journalist. Like.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Right.

[Oracle Representative]

I mean it can, it can maybe help indirect, but it's not, it's really not a requirement of the job. So I would turn out there are.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Very few requirements of this job.

[Oracle Representative]

Yes, yes, yes. And so I would probably tell my 16 to maybe 22 year old self, you know, just, you don't need to, you don't need to be as hung up about gpa. It's really not going to matter for you in the long.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Probably true for a lot of kids. Well, I've loved this conversation. This has been really interesting. End us here with your best tip for my listeners on how they can improve their lives.

[Oracle Representative]

I mean, I kind of hesitate to offer any advice on this because I'm like a single 29 year old guy. I don't really know.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Time to get married. Let's go, Aaron.

[Oracle Representative]

All right. Well, yeah, I don't know if I have any great advice. I guess I would say build in space to your schedule to read. I think it can be very easy to let the demands of work and the day to day overtake you and then you get home and you just want to veg in front of the tv. I mean, I do this, but it's important that you kind of force yourself to carve out space to read and have some kind of, I think quasi kind of intellectual pursuit. Or at least I have found that I feel like my life is more meaningful and better when I do that, even though it's hard and I've been trying to do it more regularly reading.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Is a popular one. You you might be surprised, but it is a popular answer to that question. Thank you so much for coming on, Aaron. He is Aaron Saberium. Check him out at Washington Free Beacon. Thanks again.

[Oracle Representative]

Thank you.

[Aaron Sabarium]

Thanks so much for joining us on the Carol Markowitz Show. Subscribe wherever you get your piece. Podcasts.

[Carol Markowitz]

It'S tax season, and by now I know we're all a bit tired of numbers, but here's an important one you need to hear. $16.5 billion. That's how much money in refunds the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year. Here's another 20%. That's the overall increase in identity theft related to tax fraud in 2024 alone. But it's not all grim news. Here's a good number. 100 million. That's how many data points Lifelock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, LifeLock's US based restoration specialists will fix it, backed by another good number, the Million Dollar Protection Plan. In fact, restoration is guaranteed or your money back. Don't face identity theft and financial losses alone. There's strength in numbers with Lifelock Identity theft protection for tax season and beyond. Join now and save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code iheart or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off. Terms apply. Stop hitting snooze on new tech. Upgrade the whole [e-mail] Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon powered by Intel Core Ultra processors so you can work, create and boost productivity all on one device. Win the tech search for business PCs at lenovo.com lenovo Lenovo.

[Amica Insurance Representative]

You ever get the feeling the city walls closing in the concrete jungle suffocating your soul? You crave wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe chase some elk, fish a private stream. Well, listen up. There's a whole world out there, and finding your own piece of it just got easier. Head over to land.com they've got ranches, forest, mountains, you name it. Search by acreage, location, the kind of hunting or fishing you dream of. Land.com it's where the adventure begins.

[Carol Markowitz]

For some of us, personal finances aren't just personal. They include a lot more people than ourselves, loved ones, neighbors, the communities we call home, and the causes we hold in our hearts. At Thrivent, we help plan your financial picture with the bigger picture in mind. Because even though our business is helping guide your finances, our ambition is to make it mean so much more. Thrivent where money means more.

[Amica Insurance Representative]

Connect with [e-mail] so you want to start a business? You might think you need a team of people and fancy tech skills, but listen to me when I say you don't. You just need GoDaddy arrow. I'm Walton Goggins, an actor, and I like the sound of starting my own business. Walton Goggins goggle glasses. But I couldn't do this my own. GoDaddy Arrow uses AI to create everything you need to grow a business. It'll make you a unique logo, it'll create a custom website, it'll write social posts for you, and even set you up with a social media calendar. How cool is that? Well, listen to this. For a limited time, you can get Arrow all access for just a dollar a week for 12 weeks. We're talking all the AI power of GoDaddy Aero. Plus a domain E commerce store, payments, professional email, a unified inbox. All for less money than I spend on deep tanning lotion while sunbathing off the Amalfi coast. You know what? That sounds like a plan. Get [e-mail] terms. Apparently.