Pushkin.

It's hard to read the news these days without asking yourself, how did we get here?

Fiasco is a history podcast for the co-creators of Slow Burn.

In our first season, Bush v. Gore, we examine an unmistakable turning point in American

politics, the 2000 election, which resulted in a high-stakes stalemate, ended with one of the most

controversial rulings in Supreme Court history. So if you're trying to make sense at the present moment,

check out Fiasco, Bush v. Gore. Listen on the Iheartart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

From Pushkin Industries, this is deep background, the show where we explore the stories

behind the stories in the news.

I'm Noah Feldman.

As the school year starts up again, I wanted to talk about a form of power that we often

overlook, and that is the power of universities. Universities are not just centers of learning

and of research and of teaching. They're also powerful actors in the socialization of young people into the values

that our society cares about. There are places where common sense is created, where new knowledge is formed.

And there are also places where there are internal power dynamics, with faculty, students, deans, and administrators, all involved in a sometimes

collaborative but sometimes antagonistic effort to determine who controls what happens in the

university. To discuss power in the American university today, I'm joined by Tamar Gendler. Tamar is the dean of the Faculty

of Arts and Sciences at Yale University, where she's also the Vincent Scully, Professor of Philosophy.

For those of you who aren't academics, the dean of the Faculty of arts and sciences is an extremely important and powerful

person. Her job is both to talk to the president and the provost on the one side, the faculty

on the other, and last and not least, the students and the people who actually make the university

run every day, the clerical and technical workers who actually

...