The T.M. Landry Scandal: How a Louisiana School Faked Its Way Into the Ivy League
Gone South
Audacy Podcasts
4.8 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A unaccredited private school in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana became a national sensation when its students began landing acceptances at Harvard, Stanford, and other Ivy League universities. The viral videos were inspiring. The story seemed almost too good to be true. It was.
New York Times reporters Katie Benner and Erica Green investigated T.M. Landry and uncovered a years-long college admissions fraud: fabricated transcripts, invented extracurriculars, and personal essays built on trauma the students never experienced. Behind it all was the school's charasmatic and manipulative founder, Mike Landry.
This episode explores the rise and fall of T.M. Landry, the college admissions scandal it exposed, and who really pays the price when a system built to exclude finally gets gamed.
Subscribe to our newsletter:https://jedlipinski.substack.com/
Connect with Jed Lipinski: https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/
Katie Benner and Erica L. Green's book is "Miracle Children: Race, Education and a True Story of False Promises": https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Children-Education-Story-Promises/dp/1250759102
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | From the trusted team behind 48 hours, welcome to case-by-case. |
| 0:04.1 | Your weekly update on the biggest true crime stories unfolding right now. |
| 0:08.7 | Nick Ryder remains in custody without bail. |
| 0:11.0 | Luigi Mangione accused of stalking and gunning down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. |
| 0:16.0 | From high-profile trials and stunning evidence to major breaks in cold cases. |
| 0:22.2 | We'll follow it all case by case. |
| 0:24.8 | Follow and listen to 48 hours case by case wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:33.7 | In December of 2016, a video from a tiny high school in Brobridge, Louisiana went viral. |
| 0:42.2 | It captured the explosive reaction from a room full of black students after one of their |
| 0:46.7 | classmates learned he'd just been accepted into Cornell. |
| 0:50.2 | Oh! Yeah! A year later, a pair of videos from the same school got even more attention. |
| 1:05.4 | These showed what happened after two brothers, Alex and Ayrton Little, were accepted into Stanford and Harvard, respectively. |
| 1:13.6 | Ayrton was only 16, which made the story that much more inspiring. Here's how it sounded |
| 1:19.0 | in the room. |
| 1:19.6 | Wait, wait. |
| 1:21.0 | View up there. |
| 1:22.0 | Thank you. |
| 1:23.0 | Yeah! |
| 1:24.0 | Ayrton's video got more than 8 million views on YouTube alone. |
| 1:31.3 | Michelle Obama shared one of his social posts saying, |
| 1:34.8 | These kids won't let anything stand in their way. |
| 1:37.9 | Jeremy Lynn, the NBA star and a Harvard alumnus, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Audacy Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Audacy Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.