Lean Out with Tara Henley

Earlier this month, a prominent Canadian academic made headlines when he announced his departure from the University of London. “Progressive conformity and cancel culture are distorting the teaching and research mission of universities,” he wrote on Twitter. “Between the extremely controversial and the progressive-controlled monoculture of academia is a vast and growing zone of unspoken truth.”Eric Kaufmann is an author and a professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, where he is set to establish the Centre for Heterodox Social Science. In January, he’ll launch a new, low-cost online public course titled “Woke: the Origins, Dynamics and Implications of an Elite Ideology.”You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Is cancel culture controlled by women? It’s a question that my guest on today’s program has been asking for some time. Her conclusion is that, yes, the phenomenon is driven by women — and only women can stop it. She’s founded a community that, online and in person, has begun actively pushing back. Meghan Daum is the author of six books, including The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through the New Culture Wars. She’s the host of The Unspeakable Podcast, and co-host of the podcast A Special Place in Hell. She’s also the founder of The Unspeakeasy, a community for free-thinking women.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In 2019, in the magazine Current Affairs, a former McKinsey consultant wrote, “There is no secret society shaping every major decision and determining the direction of human history. There is, however, McKinsey & Company.” My guest on the program today has spent years doing a deep-dive into the prestigious consulting company — and he’s here to talk about what he’s learned about its influence around the world, including here in Canada.Michael Forsythe is an investigative reporter for The New York Times, and co-author of When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm, which is out in paperback next week. You can read McKinsey & Company’s response to the book here.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Schools across the country are back in session — and this fall, the spotlight is on trans issues in the classroom. Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have come out with new policies for parental consent on student pronoun changes, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has launched a lawsuit, saying this violates the Charter and human rights. Add to that, today, some parents will be marching in a cross-Canada protest against what they call gender ideology. Our guest on the podcast today has been reporting on these issues for years, and she has thoughts on how we might inject some nuance into this polarized conversation.Katie Herzog is an American journalist and host of the Blocked and Reported podcast.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Between the years of 2010 and 2020, a new way of thinking about identity travelled from elite universities, to Internet subcultures, to social media, and to mainstream media, finally landing at many of our most important social, cultural, and governmental institutions, transforming longstanding rules and norms. Our guest on the 100th episode of Lean Out is among the first to take a comprehensive look at the roots of this ascendent ideology and how it became so influential — and today we’ll hear why he believes it is ultimately a trap.Yascha Mounk is a professor at Johns Hopkins University, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the founder of Persuasion. His new book is The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time. This episode is produced by Harrison Lowman. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

For the past few months on Lean Out, we’ve been doing a deep-dive into the crisis in Canadian media, speaking to critics of the status quo — and asking what’s gone wrong and where we go from here. Tara's guest on today’s program, the last episode in our summer media series, has a unique perspective on our media’s collapse. And he says government and Big Tech subsidies are compromising the vitality and validity of a free and independent press in Canada.Rudyard Griffiths is the executive director of The Hub, and the co-founder and chair of the Munk Debates.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, America’s streets filled with protesters — in some of the largest demonstrations in the country’s history. But three years later, very little concrete change has been achieved. Tara's guest on the podcast today asks: What happened? Why did this mass movement achieve so little?Freddie deBoer is an American journalist. His new book is How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement.You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

One of the most important tasks for a seasoned journalist is to pass on what you know. Journalism is something that’s learned by doing, usually alongside someone who’s done it longer. Tara enjoyed this process while at CBC, and is pleased to now be at a point with Lean Out that she can expand the operation to include working with up-and-coming journalists. Late last year, she had the pleasure of appearing on fellow Substacker Aaron Pete’s show, the Bigger Than Me podcast, and was impressed by his curiosity, perceptive questions, and thoughtful interviewing style. So she invited him to work together this summer to create an episode of Lean Out. We're thrilled to have Aaron Pete guest host the show today. One of the ongoing themes of the Lean Out podcast is the importance of viewpoint diversity — particularly on controversial issues. This topic was in the news again this month, with a lawsuit filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, against California Community Colleges state and district officials on recent diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) regulations.Daniel Ortner is a lawyer for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.Lean Out reached out to Chancellor Sonya Christian and California Community Colleges for comment. They referred us to a recent motion, filed in response to a July lawsuit that also names the Chancellor as a defendant, and is similar to the one filed in August against the Chancellor and Board of Governors. The motion reads, in part:“[The] Plaintiff has not — and cannot — present evidence to show that the regulations in any way impose an immediate threat of harm to him, or have directly impaired his ability to express himself freely. Nor is there any showing that Defendant Sonya Christian, the California Community Colleges Chancellor, has the authority to undertake any action to restrain Plaintiff’s First Amendment rights. And Plaintiff’s motion fails to present any argument or evidence that justifies the extraordinary remedy of finding state regulations duly promulgated to promote Fourteenth Amendment concepts of equity and inclusion for the benefit of the nearly two million students of California’s community colleges to be unconstitutional.”You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

This week, the friends and family of a school principal in Toronto gathered to celebrate his life. Richard Bilkszto, sadly, took his life last month, at the age of 60, and much of the reporting on his death has focused on a DEI training and the lawsuit that he launched about it. A reminder to listeners that the claims you will hear have not been proven in court. Our guest today is a reporter whose story on Richard Bilkszto has gained international attention — and our conversation grapples with a number of difficult issues, including suicide and how it’s covered in the media. Rupa Subramanya is a staff writer at The Free Press. Lean Out reached out to Kike Ojo-Thompson to request comment, and to invite her on the program. We have not yet heard back. But Kike Ojo-Thompson did release a statement to the media, which reads, in part: “The death of Richard Bilkszto is a tragedy and all of us at KOJO Institute offer our condolences to his loved ones.” It adds: “The allegations made against me and KOJO Institute within Mr. Bilkszto’s lawsuit against the Toronto District School Board are false, and we are not a party to the lawsuit.” You can read KOJO’s full statement here. We also reached out to Education Minister Stephen Lecce and his office for comment, but did not hear back. In addition, we contacted the Toronto District School Board for comment. It referred us to its two previous press statements, the first of which reads, in part: “The Board would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family, friends, and colleagues of Richard Bilkszto. Richard was a strong advocate for students, particularly for those in adult and alternative education. Throughout his over 24 years in education, he worked hard to create an environment that fostered student success for students of all ages.” The second statement reads, in part: “Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragic passing of Richard Bilkszto, retaining King International Advisory Group, an experienced and well-respected investigative firm with multi-disciplinary expertise in conducting thorough investigations. Our intention is for this investigation to be conducted in a professional, sensitive and respectful manner.” You can read those statements in full here and here. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

This summer at Lean Out, we’ve been doing a deep dive into the collapse of the Canadian media — and the role that new legislation, Bill C-18, has played in exacerbating the crisis. Tara's guest on the program today is someone who has thought a lot about the media and digital policy and public broadcasting, and she has a lot to say about where our media is at, and where we go from here.  Sue Gardner is a digital policy analyst, and the former executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation. She’s also the former head of cbc.ca. (Tara and Sue's paths did not cross there.)You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com