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Longtime fans of this show will remember the daily cancellation segment, which was unceremoniously disbanded some months ago. We've always intended to bring the segment back as a weekly installment, where once a week we cancel whichever person, place, or thing most richly deserves it, according to me. And it's taken us a few months to launch the new segment because we've been deliberating over what to call it. And finally, after many weeks of heated debate and many sleepless nights and fervent prayers, a moment of inspiration at last came to me. We should call the weekly cancellation the Weekly Cancellation. I proposed this name to my producers. They wept with joy and hailed my genius, which they're contractually obligated to do in response to any of my suggestions as a condition of their employment. But anyway, our inaugural weekly cancellation must go to Arizona State University Now. ASU earns this prestigious honor after announcing that it will be the first major university to offer a degree in being an influencer. As Yahoo. Finance reports, the university has introduced a new Bachelor of Arts in Content Creation through its Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, giving students the opportunity to earn a four year degree focused on becoming professional content creators, digital storytellers, and influencers. Now, there's no word on who will be teaching this course. Perhaps we can expect to see Professor Clavicular Professor Sneako. It's been clear for years that most universities don't have a policy prohibiting the mentally handicapped from getting jobs on the faculty, so Sneako, you know, shouldn't run into any problems. There are also obviously no policies against Muslim Communists. But I repeat myself, and all these mentions of Sneako raise the obvious question, which is who the hell is that? And the answer is that it doesn't matter. Swap in any random influencer with the IQ of Parmesan cheese and and you get the point that this is a very stupid idea. But ASU is not alone. CNN reports that Syracuse University is launching its own interdisciplinary minor designed to prepare students for careers in content creation, digital entrepreneurship, and the broader ecosystem supporting creators and online businesses. But ASU was apparently the first school to offer students the opportunity to major in influencer dumb. Various articles on the subject insist that this new degree path makes sense because half of Gen Z aspires to be influencers. The influencer economy, which is a phrase that I sadly did not make up, is growing rapidly, we're told. The Yahoo Finance report informs us that annual influencer marketing budgets have grown 171% since last year. The average influencer today earns apparently more than $90,000 a year, roughly on par with the average salary of a registered nurse. And as Covid showed us, the average nurse wants to be an influencer too. But you don't need a bachelor's degree to be a nurse. So if any nurse wants to make the career jump to becoming a full time influencer, they'll need to go back to school for a few more years. At least that's how it'll work if ASU has its way. More from the Yahoo Article Quote According to asu, students will learn content strategy, personal branding, audience analytics, multimedia production, podcasting, social media marketing, and videography while building their own online presence. They'll learn how to analyze performance across multiple platforms, test different content strategies, and improve results using audience data. One of the program's most attention grabbing offerings is a course called how to Become an Influencer. Students can also choose classes in podcasting, on camera presence, social media, foundations, photography, videography, editing, vocal delivery, and interpersonal influence. Well, you know, it's very good that they'll be offering classes in podcasting. Take it from me, you know, podcasting is serious business. You can't embark on podcasting podcasting career without years of training and preparation. Now, I've been in this business so long that they didn't have podcasting classes when I started out. I had to learn the old fashioned way, which of course meant that as a fledgling podcaster, according to the customs of the day, I was sent into the wilderness where I wandered for 40 days and 40 nights. Finally, I came to a tall mountain and I ascended it. And at the top I found the great podcasting guru who imparted to me the timeless podcasting wisdom of our forebears. He spoke to me of the ancients, you know, the great podcasters of legend, Joe Rogan, Adam Carolla, Tom Green. And then I was given a hallucinogenic substance and I went on a vision quest and my brain was permanently damaged and I became slightly psychotic, which as you've noticed, is a prerequisite for podcasting. And I did all this and I never even got a degree out of the bargain. So times are certainly changing. Now what does this degree program entail? Will they just be reading books written by podcasters? Now it must involve more than that, especially because most podcasters haven't written a book. In fact, most podcasters have never read a book. And it turns out that there is more than just reading books. There's a hands on element to this program. The curriculum culminates in a capstone project where students are expected to grow a real audience. So instead of simply submitting a paper, students select a platform such as TikTok or YouTube, develop a content strategy, publish original work throughout the semester, and demonstrate measurable audience growth. By graduation, students are expected to have an established platform with five followers and engagement metrics that they can show potential employers or sponsors. Yes, grow a real audience. How quaint. How adorable. Most of the top influencers and podcasters don't have real audiences. If ASU wanted to actually help students pursue a successful modern career in influencing, they teach them how to harness armies of bots, which is how it's actually done now. As one of the few podcasters who's never used bots, I'd actually be interested in getting that information just for educational purposes. I'm not sure how one contacts the bot farms and works out an arrangement with them. Is there an email address I should contact? No one's ever explained that to me. I don't know. I am aware that there's nothing new about universities offering frivolous degrees. I mean, you can go to major college campuses across the country right now. You can get degrees in like puppetry or pop culture or scuba diving or auctioneering or baking or costume design or bagpiping. You can get even more useless and fake degrees like women's studies or psychology. But a degree in becoming an influencer is still notable, I think, for a couple of reasons. Right now, a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy can order the abortion pill online. And sometimes she does this before anyone has the chance to tell her she isn't alone. Before anyone has a chance to offer help. Before anyone has the chance to show her hope. Well, that's why the work of preborn is so important. At Preborn Network clinics, mothers are welcomed with compassion, practical support, and a free ultrasound. When a mother sees her baby and hears that tiny heartbeat for the first time, fear often gives way to hope. More than 80% of abortion vulnerable women choose life after seeing their baby on an ultrasound at a Preborn Network clinic. One moment, one ultrasound, one life changed forever. And often a mother is introduced to the hope of Jesus Christ as well. This is our opportunity to stand for those who cannot speak for themselves to just $28 provides one life saving ultrasound. $140 helps rescue five babies. If you're a business owner, would you consider making a larger tax deductible gift? A donation of $1,000 $2,000 $10,000 $15,000 can sponsor an ultrasound machine for a clinic helping save countless lives. For years to come, please don't wait. Dial £250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250 baby. Or give securely at preborn.comwalsh that's preborn.comwalsh Every gift is tax deductible. Now, first of all, this is the clearest evidence you could ask for if you somehow needed more evidence that the university system is a giant scam. Out of state tuition at ASU runs up to $40,000 a year. Now, if I were offering a $40,000 a year course in podcasting, I would be shut down by the FBI and arrested as a scam artist, and rightfully so. And yet my course in podcasting, while no doubt worthless, would still be more credible and more worthwhile than whatever classes ASU might offer on the subject. Because I at least have a successful podcast. I mean, I don't know who's going to teach the class at Arizona State, but I can be fairly certain that it's not going to be someone who's actually done the thing at a high level. And this, of course, is a much larger problem in academia that many people have remarked on over the years, related to subjects that are far more important than podcasting. As the saying goes, those who can do, those who can't, teach. Somebody might add that those who can't do or teach podcast, but that would be a really hurtful thing to say, and also obviously true. Asu, in any case, isn't worried about providing a useful education and being an influencer or a podcaster, if there could even be such a thing as a useful education in that topic, which there most certainly cannot. The university system to include. ASU is obviously a business, so they're as worried about the effectiveness of your education as Apple is concerned about the longevity of your iPhone. The incentives actually run the other way. Apple wants you to buy a new phone every few years, so they don't want the phone to last for a decade. And the university system wants you to come back for more education. You know, if you couldn't get the job you wanted with just that bachelor's degree, come back from a master's, come back for a doctorate, maybe come back for a second bachelor's or a third, which is exactly what millions of people do. And that's why 50% of all federal student loan debt is held by graduate students. The university system wants you to keep crawling back on hands and knees for an education that is worth less and less with each passing year. It is just a matter of statistical reality. Now to say that College degrees have never cost more or been worth less. Tuition rates have gone up on average by 100% over the past couple of decades. Meanwhile, record numbers of young college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. 35% of college graduates of all age groups are working jobs that don't require any bachelor's degree. And for recent college graduates, that number is closer to half. Now, you might hope that fortunes will change for those recent college grads, but according to one prominent study, 73% of college grads who start out underemployed will remain underemployed a decade after graduating. And those numbers are also trending in the wrong direction. Now, could any other business get away with selling a product that has plummeted in effectiveness while skyrocketing in price at the exact same time? Well, you might argue that certain businesses have gotten away with exactly that. Such as basically all businesses. And you'd probably be right. But none of those businesses, aside from maybe gambling sites, are making their money by plunging 18 year olds into a lifetime of six figure debt. I mean, this is a Bernie Madoff level scam being run by almost every university in the country to the tune of trillions of dollars. So it's actually a Bernie Madoff level scan times about a million, give or take. Now, some will say that a college education isn't just about getting a job. It's also something that has value for its own sake. Right? But you know, that excuse doesn't work because the education itself, when judged just as an education and not as a career strategy, is still garbage. A recent survey found that a large preponderance of college students failed to answer basic questions about US history and civics, such as identifying the length of terms for U.S. senators naming the father of the U.S. constitution, explaining what the 13th Amendment accomplished. A larger preponderance probably can't tell you what the word preponderance means. I mean, college students and college graduates now possess a level of ignorance that should be unacceptable for third graders, much less grown adults who've been informal schooling for a decade and a half. The average four year education in America, when you factor in living expenses on top of tuition, now costs just north of $160,000 in total. So if the value of an education is going to primarily be the education itself, if the idea is general enlightenment and knowledge, it cannot cost the equivalent of three years of the average American's salary without even factoring in interest on the loan. That is far too high a premium to put on education for its own sake, especially when the education is so shoddy. And even more especially when every book ever written and all of the accumulated knowledge of mankind is available to anyone who wants it anytime. But the most important point here isn't that the university system is a godforsaken scam. That does need to be said. But if you followed my work for a while, you know that I've already said that many times over for good reason. In terms of villains in the Matt Walsh show universe, colleges rank just below like trans activists and Christopher Nolan. So that ground is well trodden. We've been over it. The most important point for our purposes today is that college degree or not, being an influencer is not a profession that anybody should actively pursue. So the fact that half of Gen Z aspires to be influencers is perhaps the most deeply depressing fact about a generation that is constantly providing us with new reasons to be deeply depressed. And I realize that some will see this as ironic, considering the source. I might be accused of being an influencer myself. Now, I believe I'm innocent of that charge. If we arrive at a day when influencers are being hunted down, arrested, put on trial, executed, and I'm not saying I want that to happen, I'm also not saying that I don't want that to happen, then I'm confident that my innocence will be easily established in a court of law. I can be exonerated simply based on the fact that I have a well established, long running disdain for selfies, which are the number one tool of the influencer trade. I've never even taken a selfie in my entire life, not once. Aside from pictures, I snap with the fish that I catch, but that doesn't count as a selfie. At worst they're like selfies in name but not in spirit. And aside from that, I'm much too cynical and ill tempered to be an influencer. Influencers as a species are bubbly, enthusiastic, excitable, retarded. And I am none of those things, or most, only one of them. So I don't fit the psychological profile and I should be acquitted on all charges, I think. But whether you indict me as an influencer or not, the point remains. This is not a career path. Now, there's nothing wrong with wanting to have influence, but influence should be a byproduct of excellence. It should be the sort of gravitational pull that naturally comes from doing something substantial and doing it well. And the irony is that people who pursue influence for its own sake will never actually have very much Influence at all. I mean, that's the dirty little secret. That's not really a secret about influencers. They have no influence, or at least they have very little influence. I mean, for the most part, their influence is an illusion. They're able to sell that illusion to sponsors and advertisers for profit. But it's like a bubble. And in a weird way, the influencer bubble is so thin and so imaginary that it feels paradoxically indestructible. Because how can a bubble pop when it doesn't exist to begin with? And none of this bothers the influencers, because, as it turns out, influencers don't actually desire influence. What they desire is attention. Now, in our culture, we conflate influence with attention, which is an understandable mistake. After all, in order to influence someone, you first need to get their attention. It stands to reason that a person who gets a lot of attention must wield a lot of influence. But the attention attracted by influencers is of such a fractured and fleeting variety that there is but scant influence attached to it. You know, an influencer might get the public's attention for a million cumulative hours in a given month or year or whatever, but that chunk of time is divided into tiny pieces among millions of people. Each person only engages with them for a few seconds at a time. So the influencer is just one meaningless piece of content in an endless stream of content. That's how you end up with influencers who have millions of followers. Content that's been viewed hundreds of millions of times and are virtually unknown. There are plenty of influencers with objectively large platforms who could walk through any Walmart in America for hours and never be stopped by a single fan or recognized by anyone. Millions of followers, yet still essentially anonymous, should really tell you something. And this, then, is the worst thing about influencers. It's not that the job, if you can call it a job, is shallow and narcissistic though it is. It's that it's fake. It's an illusion. Now, there are people who make their living producing content on the Internet, and also through that content, have an influence. But they have influence because the content they make actually has value. They're good at doing something. They have real skill. Their influence is a byproduct of that skill. So if you want to go create something and distribute it through the Internet in some form, go ahead. I'd certainly be the last person to try to dissuade you from doing that. But if all you want is attention for its own sake, if all you seek is the shallow, virtually non existent influence of an influencer, then you're better off doing anything else. And the last thing you should be doing is spending 40 grand a year on a degree in the subject. That degree will be fake, just as most degrees are fake, just as the university system is fake. So on second thought, if you insist on getting any college degree, maybe it might as well be an influencer degree. It's going to be worthless either way. And that, more than anything, is why Arizona State University is today canceled.

Summary5 min read

Podcast Summary: The Matt Walsh Show

Episode: I Am Uncancelling the Daily Cancellation
Date: August 7, 2026
Host: PlainTech

Episode Overview

In this episode, Matt Walsh reintroduces his signature segment—now rebranded as the "Weekly Cancellation." The primary target of this first installment is Arizona State University (ASU), which recently announced a new Bachelor's degree in Content Creation aimed at aspiring influencers. Matt takes this opportunity to deliver a blistering critique of modern higher education, the influencer economy, and the very notion of “influencer” as a career.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Return of the Cancellation Segment (00:00–02:00)

Matt opens by humorously detailing the “agonizing decision-making process” behind rebranding his regular critique segment from “Daily” to “Weekly Cancellation.”
Quote:

“I proposed this name to my producers. They wept with joy and hailed my genius, which they're contractually obligated to do in response to any of my suggestions as a condition of their employment.”
— Matt Walsh (01:20)

2. ASU’s Influencer Degree Targets (02:00–07:00)

ASU is launching a Bachelor of Arts in Content Creation, focusing on training for influencers.
Curriculum includes personal branding, podcasting, social media marketing, and even a class called "How to Become an Influencer."
Matt lampoons the prospect of “Professor Clavicular” and “Professor Sneako,” mocking the qualification standards.
Skepticism about the caliber of instructors, joking that universities seem unconcerned about hiring individuals who are, in his words, “mentally handicapped.”
Quote:

"Swap in any random influencer with the IQ of Parmesan cheese and you get the point—this is a very stupid idea."
— Matt Walsh (03:30)

3. Influencer Economy & Gen Z Aspirations (07:00–10:00)

Reports that half of Gen Z aspire to be influencers, per cited articles.
Cites statistics claiming influencer marketing budgets are soaring, with average influencers purportedly making over $90,000/year.
Uses examples of other universities (Syracuse) launching similar programs, critiquing the trend as part of a broader “inflation of fake degrees.”
Satirically describes his own “training” in podcasting as a “vision quest” on a mountaintop, highlighting the absurdity of formal influencer education.
Quote:

“Take it from me, you know, podcasting is serious business. You can't embark on podcasting career without years of training and preparation.”
— Matt Walsh (08:24) (tongue firmly in cheek)

4. The Practicality and Legitimacy of the Degree (10:00–13:00)

Details the hands-on project at the heart of the degree—building a real online presence and growing a measurable audience.
Matt satirizes the idea, suggesting that modern influencer success actually depends on “harnessing armies of bots.”
Mocks the capstone project—students aiming for five followers and engagement metrics by graduation.
Expresses interest in learning about bot farms “purely for educational purposes.”

5. Broader Critique of U.S. Higher Education (13:00–20:00)

Places ASU’s move in the context of other frivolous and “useless” degrees, and asserts that a degree in influencing is “notable for a couple of reasons.”
Sharply criticizes the entire university system as a “giant scam,” with out-of-state tuition at ASU reaching $40,000 a year.
Compares the university business model to that of Apple—designed to keep customers/students returning for more (education/phones).
Quotes employment statistics to argue that college degrees, in general, are more expensive and less valuable than ever before.
Quote:

“A Bernie Madoff level scam being run by almost every university in the country to the tune of trillions of dollars.”
— Matt Walsh (18:03)

6. The Problem with “Influencer” as a Career (20:00–25:00)

Distinguishes between seeking genuine influence (a byproduct of excellence) and seeking influence for its own sake, which he sees as empty.
Argues that the vast majority of influencers are chasing attention, not meaningful influence.
Explains the fleeting, fractured nature of attention online: millions of followers does not translate into real recognition or impact.
Quote:

“That’s the dirty little secret. That’s not really a secret about influencers. They have no influence, or at least they have very little influence. … Their influence is an illusion.”
— Matt Walsh (22:35)
Mocks the phenomenon of “influencers who have millions of followers” but could “walk through any Walmart in America for hours and never be recognized.”
Critiques the conflation of influence and attention, emphasizing that attention is not the same thing as actual impact.

7. The Value (or Lack Thereof) of “Influencer” Degrees (25:00–End)

Advises against pursuing degrees in influencing or spending any significant money on such programs.
Suggests the university system is selling an “illusion,” and a degree in influencing is as worthless as any other fake degree.
Quote:

“That degree will be fake, just as most degrees are fake, just as the university system is fake.”
— Matt Walsh (26:15)
Concludes with the formal “cancellation” of Arizona State University for its role in perpetuating what he sees as the scam of influencer education.

Notable Quotes

On the influencer degree:

"Swap in any random influencer with the IQ of Parmesan cheese and you get the point—this is a very stupid idea." (03:30)
On academia’s priorities:

“The university system wants you to keep crawling back on hands and knees for an education that is worth less and less with each passing year.” (16:14)
On the illusion of influencer status:

“That’s the dirty little secret. That’s not really a secret about influencers. They have no influence, or at least they have very little influence.” (22:35)
On higher education's value:

“A Bernie Madoff level scam being run by almost every university in the country to the tune of trillions of dollars.” (18:03)

Memorable Moments

The satirical description of Matt’s “ancient” podcasting pilgrimage and vision quest—a tongue-in-cheek jab at credentialism in contemporary media careers. (08:00–09:30)
Repeated riffs on the worthlessness of degrees, including mock suggestions about the criteria for university faculty and the hands-on influencer capstone project.
The segment where Matt challenges the essential fake-ness of both the influencer phenomenon and the institutions that enable it.

Final Takeaway

Matt Walsh’s return to his cancellation segment is a vehicle for a fiery critique of both the influencer economy and the modern American university system. He asserts that influencer “careers” and the degrees that support them are an empty illusion—indistinguishable from the larger academic “scam” he sees at play nationally. For Walsh, seeking influence for its own sake is misguided and self-defeating; the only worthwhile influence is that which results from genuine excellence and tangible accomplishment.

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[00:00]
A
Longtime fans of this show will remember the daily cancellation segment, which was unceremoniously disbanded some months ago. We've always intended to bring the segment back as a weekly installment, where once a week we cancel whichever person, place, or thing most richly deserves it, according to me. And it's taken us a few months to launch the new segment because we've been deliberating over what to call it. And finally, after many weeks of heated debate and many sleepless nights and fervent prayers, a moment of inspiration at last came to me. We should call the weekly cancellation the Weekly Cancellation. I proposed this name to my producers. They wept with joy and hailed my genius, which they're contractually obligated to do in response to any of my suggestions as a condition of their employment. But anyway, our inaugural weekly cancellation must go to Arizona State University Now. ASU earns this prestigious honor after announcing that it will be the first major university to offer a degree in being an influencer. As Yahoo. Finance reports, the university has introduced a new Bachelor of Arts in Content Creation through its Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, giving students the opportunity to earn a four year degree focused on becoming professional content creators, digital storytellers, and influencers. Now, there's no word on who will be teaching this course. Perhaps we can expect to see Professor Clavicular Professor Sneako. It's been clear for years that most universities don't have a policy prohibiting the mentally handicapped from getting jobs on the faculty, so Sneako, you know, shouldn't run into any problems. There are also obviously no policies against Muslim Communists. But I repeat myself, and all these mentions of Sneako raise the obvious question, which is who the hell is that? And the answer is that it doesn't matter. Swap in any random influencer with the IQ of Parmesan cheese and and you get the point that this is a very stupid idea. But ASU is not alone. CNN reports that Syracuse University is launching its own interdisciplinary minor designed to prepare students for careers in content creation, digital entrepreneurship, and the broader ecosystem supporting creators and online businesses. But ASU was apparently the first school to offer students the opportunity to major in influencer dumb. Various articles on the subject insist that this new degree path makes sense because half of Gen Z aspires to be influencers. The influencer economy, which is a phrase that I sadly did not make up, is growing rapidly, we're told. The Yahoo Finance report informs us that annual influencer marketing budgets have grown 171% since last year. The average influencer today earns apparently more than $90,000 a year, roughly on par with the average salary of a registered nurse. And as Covid showed us, the average nurse wants to be an influencer too. But you don't need a bachelor's degree to be a nurse. So if any nurse wants to make the career jump to becoming a full time influencer, they'll need to go back to school for a few more years. At least that's how it'll work if ASU has its way. More from the Yahoo Article Quote According to asu, students will learn content strategy, personal branding, audience analytics, multimedia production, podcasting, social media marketing, and videography while building their own online presence. They'll learn how to analyze performance across multiple platforms, test different content strategies, and improve results using audience data. One of the program's most attention grabbing offerings is a course called how to Become an Influencer. Students can also choose classes in podcasting, on camera presence, social media, foundations, photography, videography, editing, vocal delivery, and interpersonal influence. Well, you know, it's very good that they'll be offering classes in podcasting. Take it from me, you know, podcasting is serious business. You can't embark on podcasting podcasting career without years of training and preparation. Now, I've been in this business so long that they didn't have podcasting classes when I started out. I had to learn the old fashioned way, which of course meant that as a fledgling podcaster, according to the customs of the day, I was sent into the wilderness where I wandered for 40 days and 40 nights. Finally, I came to a tall mountain and I ascended it. And at the top I found the great podcasting guru who imparted to me the timeless podcasting wisdom of our forebears. He spoke to me of the ancients, you know, the great podcasters of legend, Joe Rogan, Adam Carolla, Tom Green. And then I was given a hallucinogenic substance and I went on a vision quest and my brain was permanently damaged and I became slightly psychotic, which as you've noticed, is a prerequisite for podcasting. And I did all this and I never even got a degree out of the bargain. So times are certainly changing. Now what does this degree program entail? Will they just be reading books written by podcasters? Now it must involve more than that, especially because most podcasters haven't written a book. In fact, most podcasters have never read a book. And it turns out that there is more than just reading books. There's a hands on element to this program. The curriculum culminates in a capstone project where students are expected to grow a real audience. So instead of simply submitting a paper, students select a platform such as TikTok or YouTube, develop a content strategy, publish original work throughout the semester, and demonstrate measurable audience growth. By graduation, students are expected to have an established platform with five followers and engagement metrics that they can show potential employers or sponsors. Yes, grow a real audience. How quaint. How adorable. Most of the top influencers and podcasters don't have real audiences. If ASU wanted to actually help students pursue a successful modern career in influencing, they teach them how to harness armies of bots, which is how it's actually done now. As one of the few podcasters who's never used bots, I'd actually be interested in getting that information just for educational purposes. I'm not sure how one contacts the bot farms and works out an arrangement with them. Is there an email address I should contact? No one's ever explained that to me. I don't know. I am aware that there's nothing new about universities offering frivolous degrees. I mean, you can go to major college campuses across the country right now. You can get degrees in like puppetry or pop culture or scuba diving or auctioneering or baking or costume design or bagpiping. You can get even more useless and fake degrees like women's studies or psychology. But a degree in becoming an influencer is still notable, I think, for a couple of reasons. Right now, a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy can order the abortion pill online. And sometimes she does this before anyone has the chance to tell her she isn't alone. Before anyone has a chance to offer help. Before anyone has the chance to show her hope. Well, that's why the work of preborn is so important. At Preborn Network clinics, mothers are welcomed with compassion, practical support, and a free ultrasound. When a mother sees her baby and hears that tiny heartbeat for the first time, fear often gives way to hope. More than 80% of abortion vulnerable women choose life after seeing their baby on an ultrasound at a Preborn Network clinic. One moment, one ultrasound, one life changed forever. And often a mother is introduced to the hope of Jesus Christ as well. This is our opportunity to stand for those who cannot speak for themselves to just $28 provides one life saving ultrasound. $140 helps rescue five babies. If you're a business owner, would you consider making a larger tax deductible gift? A donation of $1,000 $2,000 $10,000 $15,000 can sponsor an ultrasound machine for a clinic helping save countless lives. For years to come, please don't wait. Dial £250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250 baby. Or give securely at preborn.comwalsh that's preborn.comwalsh Every gift is tax deductible. Now, first of all, this is the clearest evidence you could ask for if you somehow needed more evidence that the university system is a giant scam. Out of state tuition at ASU runs up to $40,000 a year. Now, if I were offering a $40,000 a year course in podcasting, I would be shut down by the FBI and arrested as a scam artist, and rightfully so. And yet my course in podcasting, while no doubt worthless, would still be more credible and more worthwhile than whatever classes ASU might offer on the subject. Because I at least have a successful podcast. I mean, I don't know who's going to teach the class at Arizona State, but I can be fairly certain that it's not going to be someone who's actually done the thing at a high level. And this, of course, is a much larger problem in academia that many people have remarked on over the years, related to subjects that are far more important than podcasting. As the saying goes, those who can do, those who can't, teach. Somebody might add that those who can't do or teach podcast, but that would be a really hurtful thing to say, and also obviously true. Asu, in any case, isn't worried about providing a useful education and being an influencer or a podcaster, if there could even be such a thing as a useful education in that topic, which there most certainly cannot. The university system to include. ASU is obviously a business, so they're as worried about the effectiveness of your education as Apple is concerned about the longevity of your iPhone. The incentives actually run the other way. Apple wants you to buy a new phone every few years, so they don't want the phone to last for a decade. And the university system wants you to come back for more education. You know, if you couldn't get the job you wanted with just that bachelor's degree, come back from a master's, come back for a doctorate, maybe come back for a second bachelor's or a third, which is exactly what millions of people do. And that's why 50% of all federal student loan debt is held by graduate students. The university system wants you to keep crawling back on hands and knees for an education that is worth less and less with each passing year. It is just a matter of statistical reality. Now to say that College degrees have never cost more or been worth less. Tuition rates have gone up on average by 100% over the past couple of decades. Meanwhile, record numbers of young college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. 35% of college graduates of all age groups are working jobs that don't require any bachelor's degree. And for recent college graduates, that number is closer to half. Now, you might hope that fortunes will change for those recent college grads, but according to one prominent study, 73% of college grads who start out underemployed will remain underemployed a decade after graduating. And those numbers are also trending in the wrong direction. Now, could any other business get away with selling a product that has plummeted in effectiveness while skyrocketing in price at the exact same time? Well, you might argue that certain businesses have gotten away with exactly that. Such as basically all businesses. And you'd probably be right. But none of those businesses, aside from maybe gambling sites, are making their money by plunging 18 year olds into a lifetime of six figure debt. I mean, this is a Bernie Madoff level scam being run by almost every university in the country to the tune of trillions of dollars. So it's actually a Bernie Madoff level scan times about a million, give or take. Now, some will say that a college education isn't just about getting a job. It's also something that has value for its own sake. Right? But you know, that excuse doesn't work because the education itself, when judged just as an education and not as a career strategy, is still garbage. A recent survey found that a large preponderance of college students failed to answer basic questions about US history and civics, such as identifying the length of terms for U.S. senators naming the father of the U.S. constitution, explaining what the 13th Amendment accomplished. A larger preponderance probably can't tell you what the word preponderance means. I mean, college students and college graduates now possess a level of ignorance that should be unacceptable for third graders, much less grown adults who've been informal schooling for a decade and a half. The average four year education in America, when you factor in living expenses on top of tuition, now costs just north of $160,000 in total. So if the value of an education is going to primarily be the education itself, if the idea is general enlightenment and knowledge, it cannot cost the equivalent of three years of the average American's salary without even factoring in interest on the loan. That is far too high a premium to put on education for its own sake, especially when the education is so shoddy. And even more especially when every book ever written and all of the accumulated knowledge of mankind is available to anyone who wants it anytime. But the most important point here isn't that the university system is a godforsaken scam. That does need to be said. But if you followed my work for a while, you know that I've already said that many times over for good reason. In terms of villains in the Matt Walsh show universe, colleges rank just below like trans activists and Christopher Nolan. So that ground is well trodden. We've been over it. The most important point for our purposes today is that college degree or not, being an influencer is not a profession that anybody should actively pursue. So the fact that half of Gen Z aspires to be influencers is perhaps the most deeply depressing fact about a generation that is constantly providing us with new reasons to be deeply depressed. And I realize that some will see this as ironic, considering the source. I might be accused of being an influencer myself. Now, I believe I'm innocent of that charge. If we arrive at a day when influencers are being hunted down, arrested, put on trial, executed, and I'm not saying I want that to happen, I'm also not saying that I don't want that to happen, then I'm confident that my innocence will be easily established in a court of law. I can be exonerated simply based on the fact that I have a well established, long running disdain for selfies, which are the number one tool of the influencer trade. I've never even taken a selfie in my entire life, not once. Aside from pictures, I snap with the fish that I catch, but that doesn't count as a selfie. At worst they're like selfies in name but not in spirit. And aside from that, I'm much too cynical and ill tempered to be an influencer. Influencers as a species are bubbly, enthusiastic, excitable, retarded. And I am none of those things, or most, only one of them. So I don't fit the psychological profile and I should be acquitted on all charges, I think. But whether you indict me as an influencer or not, the point remains. This is not a career path. Now, there's nothing wrong with wanting to have influence, but influence should be a byproduct of excellence. It should be the sort of gravitational pull that naturally comes from doing something substantial and doing it well. And the irony is that people who pursue influence for its own sake will never actually have very much Influence at all. I mean, that's the dirty little secret. That's not really a secret about influencers. They have no influence, or at least they have very little influence. I mean, for the most part, their influence is an illusion. They're able to sell that illusion to sponsors and advertisers for profit. But it's like a bubble. And in a weird way, the influencer bubble is so thin and so imaginary that it feels paradoxically indestructible. Because how can a bubble pop when it doesn't exist to begin with? And none of this bothers the influencers, because, as it turns out, influencers don't actually desire influence. What they desire is attention. Now, in our culture, we conflate influence with attention, which is an understandable mistake. After all, in order to influence someone, you first need to get their attention. It stands to reason that a person who gets a lot of attention must wield a lot of influence. But the attention attracted by influencers is of such a fractured and fleeting variety that there is but scant influence attached to it. You know, an influencer might get the public's attention for a million cumulative hours in a given month or year or whatever, but that chunk of time is divided into tiny pieces among millions of people. Each person only engages with them for a few seconds at a time. So the influencer is just one meaningless piece of content in an endless stream of content. That's how you end up with influencers who have millions of followers. Content that's been viewed hundreds of millions of times and are virtually unknown. There are plenty of influencers with objectively large platforms who could walk through any Walmart in America for hours and never be stopped by a single fan or recognized by anyone. Millions of followers, yet still essentially anonymous, should really tell you something. And this, then, is the worst thing about influencers. It's not that the job, if you can call it a job, is shallow and narcissistic though it is. It's that it's fake. It's an illusion. Now, there are people who make their living producing content on the Internet, and also through that content, have an influence. But they have influence because the content they make actually has value. They're good at doing something. They have real skill. Their influence is a byproduct of that skill. So if you want to go create something and distribute it through the Internet in some form, go ahead. I'd certainly be the last person to try to dissuade you from doing that. But if all you want is attention for its own sake, if all you seek is the shallow, virtually non existent influence of an influencer, then you're better off doing anything else. And the last thing you should be doing is spending 40 grand a year on a degree in the subject. That degree will be fake, just as most degrees are fake, just as the university system is fake. So on second thought, if you insist on getting any college degree, maybe it might as well be an influencer degree. It's going to be worthless either way. And that, more than anything, is why Arizona State University is today canceled.