Topic: Alumni

Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak open the show by noting the death of Henry Kissinger, jokingly linking it to an adrenochrome shortage. They discuss the "Great Reset" in the context of recent deaths of global figures like Queen Elizabeth II and Charlie Munger. Dvorak shares an anecdote about a former UC Berkeley donor, Bill Bartt, who stopped contributing to the university due to its political spending and the repurposing of a building originally donated for a humor magazine.

The college scandal prompted renewed scrutiny of Jared Kushner’s admission to Harvard University following a large donation by his father. A distinction is made between legal, albeit controversial, legacy admissions for alumni children and the criminal fraud involving falsified test scores and athletic credentials seen in the 2019 indictments. Critics argue the media is conflating these issues to target the Trump administration.

Alumni of Clarkson University express outrage after the school awarded honorary degrees to the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement for "inventing a hashtag." The hosts discuss the devaluation of honorary degrees and the backlash from the university's donor base. Dvorak mentions his own title as a "Kentucky Colonel" as a point of comparison for honorary titles.

The culture of Facebook is criticized for its focus on birthdays and morbid updates within private groups, such as an MTV alumni group. Strategies for managing social media include using RSS feeds to automate posts from a microblog to Twitter and then to Facebook, often leading to conversations where the original poster is not actually present. Annoyances regarding Foursquare check-ins and the general "clutter" of social media updates are discussed.