
Nearly 80% of Truman Scholars, a taxpayer-funded scholarship program, from 2017 and 2018 ”have a clear connection to liberal politics, such as working for Democratic members of Congress, advocating for progressive causes, or teaching classes with a liberal focus,” reports the College Fix.
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A
Decades worth of research that the College Fix has conducted into the federally funded Truman Scholarships, which have essentially become a taxpayer funded pipeline for Democrat liberal progressive activists. And we're basically paying for their grad school through this program. The problem starts at the campuses because the professors are nominating liberal students. Then there's regional committees and the regional committees again are made up of primarily left leaning advocates. And then it goes to the national folks in Washington, D.C. we've been coming to them with our results every year for 10 years and they basically shrugged their shoulders.
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Well, hello ladies and hello gentlemen. Welcome to Victor Davis Hansen, in his own words, of course, without Victor Davis Hansen, who is the Martin and Eli Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and he's a senior contributor to the Daily Signal, which is the happy home of this podcast. Our guest is Jennifer Cabani and I'm going to give you proper introduction of her shortly. But this is the 27th of January. We're close to 5 o'. Clock. Actually we are past 5 o' clock Eastern Time. And about an hour ago I spoke to Victor and he is progressing a slog, but he is progressing from his major surgery and he hopes to be back in the saddle here in a couple of weeks. But in his absence, he's asked that this podcast continue under the criteria that I do the shows that I have important people on. And Jennifer Cabani, you are an important person. And I asked five questions in their sweet spot. In your sweet spot is journalism related to college education? The College Fix. So let me read your bio here. Jennifer Cabanis, she's the editor in chief of the College Fix. It's a publication of the Student and Free Press association, which was founded by my great friend, your friend, friend to so many people in conservatism, the great John J. Miller, who's a Dow professor of Journalism at Hillsdale. But enough about John. Jennifer is a visiting fellow with the Independent Women's Forum and she is a member of the Network of Enlightened Women. She's a speaker. Prior to her career here at the College Fix, she worked in various capacities in Southern California journalism for the North County Times that's now part of the San Diego Union Tribune. She was a City hall reporter. She's written for the Weekly Standard, the Washington Times. She's a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow, and she's written for National Review. And in college she went to San Diego State University. She was the editor in chief of the Daily Aztec. So Jennifer Cabani is a bonafide journalist. She has opinions too, but she is A journalist and a great editor. And later, I'll praise you for what you've done with the College Fix. So again, the proposition here is five questions, and the first one is going to be about, excuse me, some testimony you gave to Congress last month. And Jennifer will ask you about that when we return from these initial important messages. Since the founding of America 250 years ago, many things have changed, but some things never do. The commitment of husband and wife, the importance of passing along our values to our children. The faithfulness of God. Some wonder how we can ensure America will continue to thrive as long as we keep first things first. We've only just begun. America the Beautiful. We are back with Victor Davis Hanson in his own words. Jennifer, last month, or I should say December, yes, that would be last month you testified before the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Research that you at the College Fix and your team had conducted into federally funded the Truman Scholarship Program. So that program provides $30,000 in college grants to 50 students every year. And guess what, America, guess what? It turns out that nearly all of the recipients of the Truman Scholarships identify as Democrats or progressives. The College Fix has been doing research into this for a decade. Lawmakers reading the College Fix have finally started to say what's going on here. Enough is enough. Jennifer Cabani, tell us what happened.
A
Well, thank you so much for having me. It's an honor and pleasure to be here. And I did, I did testify before Congress. What an exciting moment in my life to be before the House Education and Workforce Committee to talk about, yes, a decade's worth of research that the College Fix has conducted into the federally funded Truman Scholarships, which have essentially become a taxpayer funded pipeline for Democrat liberal progressive activists. And we're basically paying for their grad school through this program. We had looked at nearly 700 winners over the last 10 years. And of those, we could only find 29 students who identified as conservative, compared to nearly 400 that identified as liberal. And we're basing that on their public bios, their LinkedIn profiles, their social media accounts and what they're posting. The Truman foundation used to actually publish their bios until we started doing the research. And then a couple years ago, they started to, they stopped publishing bios because we were doing this research every year. But it's really sort of crucial that lawmakers do something about this because we kind of dug deeper and we looked at the winners from 2015 to 2020 and we worked to determine, well, what are they up to now? Okay, we paid for their grad school. But what are we up to? What are they up to now? And we found that the Truman Scholars now from that time period 35 to 1, are working in Democratic or progressive causes. They're working for top tier liberal activist law firms. They're running Democratic campaigns or they're spokespeople for Democrats in Congress or state legislatures. They're working for advocacy groups, think everything from Planned Parenthood and Greenpeace and everything in between. So these aren't just random kids that are getting a leg up. These are the next movers and shakers of the left wing movement and your tax dollars are paying for it. So testify before Congress. Hopefully something will be done. Certainly the Republicans didn't seem thrilled with the results.
B
By the way, Jennifer, I don't know if you reported on this or know this, but is there a vetting process here for the Truman Scholarship that involves outside judges or is it handled by a well established bureaucracy?
A
So that's part of the systemic intrinsic bias of this program is the people that are judging who should move forward from the colleges. Well, they're professors. So who do you think? What professor is going to put forth? A student, obviously, that has their passions and hobbies and interests that mirrors the professors. So the problem starts at the campuses. The professors are nominating liberal students. Then there's regional committees and the regional committees again are made up of primarily left leaning advocates. And then it goes to the national folks in Washington D.C. who we've been coming to them with our results every year for 10 years and they basically shrugged their shoulders. So whether or not they identify as left leaning, they certainly don't care about the bias.
B
The credentialing process is so essential to higher education and empowers where I graduated from. Look. Oh, this is a Truman scholar. They must be a genius. Let them say whatever they want to say as they put another hole into the hull of the ship of state. It's kind of nutty. Well, congrats on that, Jennifer, and I hope your testimony does change things. So now I have to, I have to pay some bills here, you know. So to our listeners, to our viewers who are still struggling with what they went through at Christmas, which is eating all that fudge that grandma made. If you want to drop extra pounds, folks, boost energy levels or reduce swelling in your legs and feet, then this message is for you pure health researchers on a mission to make America healthy again. And two of the best selling health supplements are leading the way. The first is Liver health formula. Over 100 million Americans and have a sluggish liver riddled with fatty deposits. This can kill your metabolism, pile on the pounds and make you feel tired. Liver Health Formula takes care of all that. It supports thriving liver health with special nutrients like artichoke extract and milk thistle. This is one of the easiest ways to slim down and revitalize your energy levels. The next is lymph system support. If you struggle with fluid buildup or swelling in your legs, ankles or feet, this is for you. The natural ingredients in lymph system support help gently flush extra fluid and toxins out of the body. And right now, for a limited time, you can get 35% off liver health formula and lymph system support along with all 50 plus health supplements that Pure Health Research has to offer. Head over to PureHealthResearch.com and use the coupon code Victor V I C T O R. Do that at the checkout. That's PureHealthResearch.com with the coupon code Victor. And guess What? You'll save 35% on your order today. And we thank and the good people from Pure Health Research for sponsoring Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. Jennifer Cabani. Question number two. Okay, let's see what do I got here last week? Okay. And we're talking on the 27th. This episode will be up on the 30th or the 31st. But we're talking about something that happened on Wednesday, January 21st, and this is deeply concerning. The Trump administration backed off on its moratorium banning DEI diversity, equity, inclusion in higher education. Lawyers for the Department of Education officially withdrew their appeal of a federal court ruling from last August. Last August, it had blocked the enforcement of Donald Trump's famous or infamous. Depends on how you look at it. Dear colleague letter which banned DEI programs as discriminatory. We saw a lot of universities roll back their DEI efforts after Trump's initial edict. Maybe some roll them back. Some gave them a new name, some hit them. Still, they persist somewhere in the bowels of these universities. But the big question, Jennifer, is somebody who's been on top of this through years of reporting, are we doomed to see the return of full fledged DEI yet again?
A
Well, I've got sort of bad news. DEI never really went away despite Trump's edict to. Basically what he did when he first got into office was he threatened to yank federal funding from any university that funded DEI programs. He essentially called DEI programs discriminatory. And we're talking like the segregated dorms, the segregated graduations, you know, scholarships that are only for women or only for Students of color, color, these type of programs. And they basically scared the universities into rolling back a lot of, on the surface level, DEI verbiage. Some schools closed their DEI offices. But I think that more had to do with, in the red states, the state legislation. But it was a lot of window dressing. There was a lot of linguistic gymnastics, if you will. A large chunk opted to just simply rename their DEI offices and shuffle staff. So now, instead of dei, you have words like community access, engagement, inclusive excellence, student success, if you get my meaning. I mean, they're basically misnomers for dei, but they just put a different, you know, a different lipstick on the pig. But they did a couple of cursory surface things. They scrubbed their websites of DEI terminology. They basically asked faculty remove their preferred pronouns from their email addresses and so on. But at the end of the day, it's still there. And why is it there? Because personnel is policy, and it's the professors who are teaching your children and your grandchildren that are going to be teaching them one side of the story. And therein lies the problem, is because you could still take out DEI language on a website, but until you balance the curriculum, it's still gonna be there. But, yeah, Trump basically backtracked on his Dear Colleague letter, which was essentially an edict, because he saw the writing on the wall. The courts were saying, look, it's too vague. You didn't go through the legislative comment period that you're supposed to, and it violates free speech. So some people think it was a strategic or tactical withdrawal so that there wasn't a higher court issuing a precedent. But, yeah, no, DEI is still there. We're still fighting the good fight on that one. There's been some movement on there, but at the end of the day, it's still deeply embedded in academia.
B
Jennifer, we're gonna go to a break in a second, but it is 2026, and this year will be the 75th anniversary of my old boss, William F. Buckley's first book, God A Man at Yale. And what was happening at Yale in 1950, 51, is not what's happening at Yale in 2026. Nevertheless, this cause is actually at the root of the founding of the conservative movement, and this evil still persists. I'll say one other thing that Victor has talked many times on the podcast about very active DEI with no name of that. So when he was. When he himself was a professor, and he hasn't been in a classroom teaching for 25, 30 years, and it was, you know, they didn't have a brand name for it. But this is something that, as you mentioned, the word systemic. Yeah, it's pernicious and systemic. So thanks for your ongoing coverage of this. And folks, if you want to see the madness that's going on, maybe some good things too. On campuses across America, the College Fix is a place to check out daily that is very robust. And this is not like, oh, the same article's the article that has been up all week. No, you have tremendous amount of content there. So we're going to take a little break and then when we come back, I'm going to talk about some of the culture war coverage that goes on at the College Fix and we'll do that when we return from these messages.
A
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B
We are back with Victor Davis Hansen in his own words again. I just want to kind of reinforce Victor, who cares so deeply. He's lived the life of the battles of higher education. So having you here, Jennifer, is very much in line with things very dear to his heart. I just want to ask you, before I get into the culture thing, can I, I just, I'm curious about your job as editor. I, I have to believe it's joyful and you have a staff, but you also have a broad staff of students. Could you just tell us about that? Yeah. You're a pipeline for great writers.
A
Absolutely. So the College Fix F I x dot com. We're a daily news website focused on higher education. And we publish articles that the campus news and the mainstream news often doesn't want to tell about what's going on at colleges and universities today. But it's not just a website. We train undergrads how to be campus reporters. So we assign them stories and we edit their work. That's a side by side mentorship process. And then we give them a leg up, launch their careers with networking and fellowship opportunities. We have a lot of very prestigious outlets that we're blessed to place students at every summer, spring and fall. And now we have almost 150 alumni over our 15 year history that are working at the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, even a few at the Washington Post. But everything in between Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Washington Free Beacon, Associated Press, and even local outlets, you know, big, you know, statewide newspapers. We even have a young man at tmz. So our staff, our alumni reaches far and w. But I can tell you they all have one thing in common. They're brave, truth telling, liberty minded young people who want to reform media through old school gumshoe journalism, which we love. I'm an old school gumshoe journalist. I was raised by picking up my newspaper on the front porch with my coffee in my bathrobe. So I'm trying to keep that alive in these younger generations.
B
To be clear, you could be a student at say, University of South Carolina and be an aspiring journalist and you could be writing for as an undergraduate for the College Fix, being trained by you and your staff and improving their writing skills, et cetera. So that's a great opportunity for young aspiring journalists. I just want to recommend if you're a young aspiring journalist and you're watching this podcast, check it out. You're mom and dad or grandma, grandpa, the young aspiring journalist. Let them know what the College Fix is doing. So, Jennifer, question number three has to do with some of the culture wars that happen on the campus and headlines that are just Babylon Bee kind of material. They're so shocking. Here's an example. Over the weekend there was a feminist historian, wrote about Shakespeare, was really a black Jewish woman. I don't even have a joke to follow that, Jennifer. That's like not.
A
That's dangerous territory, Jack.
B
Yeah, yeah, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna leave it to the professionals. What are some of the jaw dropping stories that the College Fix has published in recent months?
A
So just to let you know, when I became editor of the College Fix, I introduced a no satire rule. We couldn't retweet satire, nothing satire. Because our headlines, our stories far surpassed anything, anything that the Babylon Bee had. Actually, we predate Babylon Bee, but it was unbelievable. It was jaw dropping, it was shocking. So I just want to warn the listeners now that these aren't made up kind of funny. These are actual real life stories from the halls of higher education. And there's never a dull moment at the College Fix. But you might have heard, I don't know if you recall, but last fall that made a big splash, that Harvard hired a drag queen to teach its students the name of this dragon queen, Lahore Vajistan. And she currently he. She. I don't actually know currently this spring semester, she's teaching rupolitics, drag race and desire. So that's what Harvard's best and brightest are learning this spring. That headline made quite a splash.
B
Yeah.
A
We also have some scholars who had chided parents that you shouldn't change your child's, your baby's diaper without their consent because you don't know if they are giving you consent to change their diapers. So you have to get down on their level and say you need a nappy change and then pause so they can take it in. This is from the brilliant scholars today. I mean, again, these are some of the more fringe stories, but we want to make sure we're covering that because some of these articles are a canary in a coal mine on higher education. You know, a lot of times we're covering some of these zany scholarly journal articles that get published. We have one professor that was exploring queer canine and lesbian feminist cyborg politics. Please don't ask me to explain what that is because I really don't know. I mean, the jargon that these academics use is so ridiculous. But that's an actual journal article topic. But then we also do cover a lot of mainstream shocking headlines. For example, Franklin and Marshall College is looking to ditch its Ben Franklin mascot for a more gender neutral mascot. Now, that one was kind of shocking to me because I thought Ben Franklin, of all the founding fathers, was the most well liked and the least offensive. But apparently at Franklin and Marshall, he's a problem. So these are just again, and these silly things like Loyola, Maryland, English department says literature is built on white supremacy and so on and so forth. We even have in the STEM fields. A lot of times scholars are talking about space exploration and whether it's too, you know, too pro colonialism. A lot of STEM scholars fret that the first man on, on Mars might be white, God forbid. So, you know, these are the kind of things that are requiring serious study and federal funding at our colleges and universities. Granted, again, these are kind of the most more extreme ones. But it's, it's fun to keep a tab, tabs on those. If you follow the college fix, there's 1, 2, 3 a week that you're.
B
In a way you might be saying. And please, we can edit this out, Jennifer, because it could be depressing.
A
Some of these sorts of people must have the truth.
B
Yeah. And the truth will set you free. But to think that this goes on. This kind of stuff happens all over mainstream campuses and many of them bankrolled, ongoing bankrolling by conservative dollars because let's say a college has some level of prestige to it. You want to keep that prestige going because you graduated there and maybe you want your grandson to. I'll give it $100 million. Even though they're changing my grandchildren into communists. There's some culpability here for people who know better and fund these things. And I'll stop spieling in a second, but have you ever written about the level of activity of college boards and trustees? They essentially oversee these things, but it all happens on their watch. And there doesn't seem to me much trustee activism.
A
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, most of the trustees, not all, because we have seen in the last five years a huge surge in alumni activism, the free speech alliances that have formed at a lot of these prestigious universities, Cornell and other. Yeah, so kudos to them. But yeah, most of the trustees are appointed. It's a sort of a glamour role. You just pat on the back, go do something important. And they rubber stamp so much of this. And then when they try to get involved and try to make a change, then they're accused of being fascist and biased and overstepping academic freedom. So they walk a fine line. But we do need to pay more attention to who we are nominating and putting as trustees because they do have the power to make some really important changes. In fact, at the University of Virginia, they were making a lot of strides. And then more recently, a Democratic governor was elected and they basically just wiped away all of. They got rid of all the trustees and they're rolling back all the gains. So it's a battle, it's a back and forth. But trustees and boards are very important. We need people with a backbone and courage.
B
Well, I'm going to ask you about AI and higher education bubble in a second. But first, to our listeners and to our viewers, if you've studied enough history, you start to see a pattern. Nations don't lose their way overnight. They drift through debt and division until one day you realize the foundations you thought were permanent were never permanent at all. And today America is spending at levels once reserved for wartime. We've normalized deficits that would have stunned earlier generations. And policymakers now debate whether the only path forward is more intervention, more printing, more distortion. But here's the historical truth. Every society that pushed its currency beyond discipline eventually paid a price. The wise never waited for collapse. They prepared for the correction. And that's why so many thoughtful Americans, especially those nearing or in retirement, are reallocating part of their wealth into something that has outlasted every paper experiment in human history. And I'm talking about physical gold, not as speculation, but as insulation. Reputation matters, which is why we're partnering here at Victor Davis Hanson in his own words with Allegiance Gold, a company distinguished by integrity, reliability and an A rating from the Better Business Bureau. For years they've guided Americans through transparent education and long standing relationships built on trust. And right now they're extending a special liberty offer for our listeners to help you get started with real gold. Whether your funds are in a retirement account or sitting in a bank, if you believe that the best time to reinforce your position is before the storm becomes obvious. Get your pencil. That's what I use, a pencil. Get paper. Write this down. Call 8447-909191-84479, 09191 or visit protectwithvictor.com that's 8447-909191-84479, 09191, or again, visit protectwithviktor.com history rewards those who take the long view. And we thank the good people from Allegiance Gold for sponsoring Victor Davis Hanson in his own words. Jennifer Cabani, we're going to ask you one more question. We're going to take a break and then question five is going to come up as we round out. We're coming around the bend here in this conversation on Victor Davis Hanson in his own words. There's been talk of a higher education bubble. I put that in quotes, higher education bubble for over a decade now. Jennifer Cabania, are we any closer to seeing a massive shift from in higher education with the emergence of AI?
A
I think so. I think first of all, people have finally started to wise up and said to themselves, hmm, do I really wanna spend 100, 200, 300 grand to send my child to get indoctrinated for four years for a return on investment where they're working at Starbucks? So that has been slowly percolating in the American psyche for some time and I think it's finally making an impact. I just saw a survey last week that community college enrollment is outpacing four year enrollment. So that shows that there are people saying, hey look, I'm gonna save some dollars and have some cents and maybe pound out my general education at the local community college. So there is a wisening up of the American people. But we're also seeing a growth in vocation tech schools. We're seeing huge growth in online university degree programs. And quite frankly, AI is changing the game faster than we can keep pace. I recently spoke at a conservative high school conference and the kid was like, well, what should I major in. And I said, you know, I can't answer that question because AI is making so many jobs obsolete right now. The College Fix had an article a couple months ago about how computer science majors are having a really high unemployment rate right now. Now, of course, you probably recall a long time ago when computer science majors were the smart ones because they were gonna get a good job and a high paying job and now they're struggling to get a job. So AI is changing the game. We're all kind of like riding this roller coaster together, but students need to be very discerning on how much money they're going to plunk down for a four year degree on a job that a machine might be doing tomorrow.
B
Yeah. Also, by the way, I'm throwing this at you, but another problem colleges are facing are speaking of bubbles, the demographic bubble, maybe that's an inverse bubble. And the Americans seem to stop having less babies in 2008 and that class or lack of numbers has started into the system. So colleges are fighting. There are far fewer customers to be had and it's pretty difficult to be a high priced private education charging 80 to $100,000 a year when you can get the same education at a state college. A much cheaper. This is. And I'll finish my spiel in a second, I think it's especially applicable to some religious institutions, Catholic colleges that are nominally Catholic and charging high prices versus never mind what kind of job you're going to get when you get out versus authentic institutions. So I think we have problems here. We have problems with demographics. We have problems with AI challenges and very difficult times for higher education. Not crying for higher education, but it is a difficult time. Jennifer, we're going to take a little break and we're going to come back with final question for you here on Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. We are back with Jennifer Cabani and I need to have a little sip of water and Jennifer, I'm going to do it with my. For those who are watching this on a video, I'm doing it with my College Fix mug. This is my go to. My go to. What kind is this a yeti thing? This is my go to. Yeah. Oh, delicious. Yeah. I drink coffee out of a college fixed mug. I drink water out of a college fixed thing. You know, when you're friends with John Miller, you get booty. So not that kind of booty, but all right. So Jennifer, final question here. What advice? And you have to get this all the time. You said you just went and spoke at a high School conference. You do a lot of speaking. I've got to believe you're buttonholed relentlessly. What advice would you give to parents and grandparents whose children are headed off to college?
A
So this, I'm very passionate about sounding the alarm on this. And my mantra is don't let your kids teachers be their only teachers. And that starts in kindergarten. That starts in kindergarten. I mean, you as a parent, as a grandparent need to start having these conversations right away and have them over and over and over and over again until they're out the door. I personally did. I had my children watch Prager U videos. I had them watch Dinesh d' Souza documentaries. I had them. I learned. I taught them about apologetics and intelligent design. We watch the news and discuss it. I asked them what they learn in school. I mean this dinner time, tables talk, conservative talk radio in the car, like everything, all of it, constantly. Now, there was still a chance. My daughter's about to go to college. She's a senior in high school. I'm still a little worried. Did I do enough to inoculate her? Did I arm her with enough facts and data and logic? I hope so. But this is a project as a parent, as a grandparent that starts when they're five and it doesn't end until they're out the door. You must constantly counteract what the culture, what the media and what the, you know, K12 and higher education academic system is trying to teach your children and trying to convince them of. So don't let your kids teachers be their only teachers. Take a proactive role and arm them with the facts and the logic and the data they need to discern academic claptrap.
B
We live in a time of social emotional learning, sel and that means you're not learning facts. You talk to anybody who's been a professor and they will tell you the level of actual knowledge, facts, geography, whatever stuff that you would think anyone would know coming into a college classroom as a freshman today versus 10 years ago. And there's just a real level of ignorance. I'm not saying kids are ignorant, but they, well, not maliciously saying so. And they had Covid to amplify that, but you just have less factual learning. You have again, the SEL stuff. I know somebody teaches pre K where they start to A, B, C education and A is for apple, right Jennifer, isn't it? No, A is for anxiety. I mean this is what they're teaching three year olds. So you're right. From the get go, you need involvement. So Jennifer, again I want recommend folks visit it's collegefix. Or is it the college thecollegefix.com college fix?
A
Yeah, you gotta add the. The.
B
Okay, yeah, do that again. It's, it's. There's always every day ample new reporting there. And I want to congratulate you for just the tremendous amount of output. The your, your journalism standards are very high. No one questions the veracity of something when they read it in the College Fix. So you have done a tremendous job there. So thanks for that and thank you very much for coming here today and sharing your wisdom. And we will be back soon, folks. Thanks for watching, by the way and thanks for listening. We'll be back soon with another episode of Victor Davis Hansen in His Own Words. Bye bye.
A
Thank you.
B
Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like share and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website@victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features. In addition, the new year brings new health goals and wealth goals. Protecting your identity is an important step. Your info is in endless places that could expose you to identity theft leading to lost funds. LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Resolve to make identity, health and wealth part of your New year's goals with LifeLock, save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com podcast terms apply.
Episode: EXPOSED: Taxpayers Paying For Democrat Activists’ Grad School Tuition
Host: Jack Fowler (filling in for Victor Davis Hanson)
Guest: Jennifer Kabbany, Editor-in-Chief, The College Fix
Release Date: January 30, 2026
This episode centers on Jennifer Kabbany’s research and reporting on higher education, specifically the alleged ideological bias in the federally funded Truman Scholarship program. The episode covers Kabbany’s recent Congressional testimony, the persistence of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs on campuses, the culture war in academia, the challenges facing higher education (including the rise of AI and demographic shifts), and advice for parents navigating the college landscape. While Victor Davis Hanson is absent, the episode maintains his critical, historically-aware perspective on higher education and broader cultural currents.
Main Topic: Taxpayer funding of graduate education for liberal/progressive students via the Truman Scholarship.
Findings from The College Fix:
"These aren't just random kids that are getting a leg up. These are the next movers and shakers of the left wing movement and your tax dollars are paying for it." — Jennifer Kabbany (05:54)
Process Bias:
"The problem starts at the campuses... The professors are nominating liberal students. Then there's regional committees... and then it goes to the national folks in Washington D.C." — Jennifer Kabbany (07:27)
Timestamps:
Main Topic: The ongoing prevalence of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) policies and offices after supposed policy rollbacks.
Post-Trump DEI Landscape:
"There was a lot of window dressing. There was a lot of linguistic gymnastics... Instead of DEI, you have words like community access, engagement, inclusive excellence, student success, if you get my meaning." — Jennifer Kabbany (12:09)
"Personnel is policy, and it's the professors who are teaching your children and your grandchildren that are going to be teaching them one side of the story." — Jennifer Kabbany (13:16)
Timestamps:
Main Topic: The model, mission, and influence of The College Fix.
How It Works:
"Our staff, our alumni reaches far and wide. But I can tell you they all have one thing in common. They're brave, truth telling, liberty minded young people who want to reform media through old school gumshoe journalism, which we love." — Jennifer Kabbany (18:03)
Opportunities:
Timestamps:
Main Topic: The wild, often satirically unreal headlines coming from American campuses.
Recent Examples:
"Our headlines, our stories far surpassed anything... the Babylon Bee had. Actually, we predate Babylon Bee, but it was unbelievable." — Jennifer Kabbany (20:01)
Timestamps:
Main Topic: The ineffectiveness (and occasional promise) of college trustees and alumni in reforming higher ed.
Observation:
"We do need to pay more attention to who we are nominating and putting as trustees because they do have the power to make some really important changes." — Jennifer Kabbany (25:29)
Timestamps:
Main Topic: The higher education "bubble" may finally be popping, with AI and demographic decline as drivers.
Trend Shifts:
"AI is changing the game faster than we can keep pace... Students need to be very discerning on how much money they're going to plunk down for a four year degree on a job that a machine might be doing tomorrow." — Jennifer Kabbany (29:13)
Timestamps:
Main Topic: Kabbany's strategies for families to prevent ideological capture of their children.
Key Message: Parents and grandparents must consistently provide alternative perspectives and critical thinking tools.
"Don't let your kids' teachers be their only teachers... This is a project as a parent, as a grandparent that starts when they’re five and it doesn’t end until they’re out the door." — Jennifer Kabbany (32:54)
Practical Steps:
Timestamps:
“We found that the Truman Scholars now from that time period 35 to 1, are working in Democratic or progressive causes.” — Jennifer Kabbany, [05:45]
“There was a lot of window dressing. There was a lot of linguistic gymnastics, if you will… But at the end of the day, [DEI is] still there.” — Jennifer Kabbany, [12:09]
“Don’t let your kids’ teachers be their only teachers.” — Jennifer Kabbany, [32:54]
The episode maintains a conversational yet deeply skeptical tone regarding the state of higher education. The host, Jack Fowler, supports his guest with prompting questions and affirmations aimed at a concerned conservative audience. The content focuses on critique, cautionary tales, and calls to action, mixing data with anecdote and policy analysis.
Summary prepared exclusively from content-rich, non-promotional portions of the episode.