Seventeen year old Theo Baker, a freshman at Stanford, got a tip about data falsification in the research papers of the president of the university. He followed-up relentlessly and scrupulously, publishing an exposé of image manipulation in scientific articles that forced the president’s resignation.
I read the book because I liked the writing in an Opinion piece in the NYTimes. I did not realize that it was a thinly-veiled promotion for the newly-published book, written by the son on the NYTimes Chief White House Correspondent, Peter Baker.
Theo was awarded a Special Polk Award in Journalism in 2022, based on his preliminary articles. In the book he recalls his happiest moment — when a member of the committee whispered to him, “We selected you even before we knew who your parents were.”
Having worked in University administration, I understand the hotbed of politics and agree with Henry Kissenger, quoted in Theo’s book:
University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.
Because we know the outcome — the president is forced out and Theo graduates on-time — the book is a thriller. I loved the writing in the first three-quarters of the book, but the end bogs down into legal jousting.
It stands out that Theo is brilliant and unrelenting. I see why his parents are proud of him and why it rang the chimes of the Long Island University committee that bestows Polk awards. Theo tells us about the “Stanford within Stanford” and the mind-boggling amount of money sloshing around young coders. But I question whether Theo could understand the consequences of his actions.
I watched the Commonwealth Club’s interview of Theo, and he used the word “chutzpah” to describe his effort. I agree that it’s the job of a college freshman to see how far his talent and perseverance will take him. It is part of learning who he is, and how he fits into the community around him.
People under 25 cannot calculate the consequences of actions
College educators understand that the best students are eager and motivated, but directing their energy is crucial because the prefrontal cortex and its connected decision-making networks undergo a massive rewiring process during adolescence that is not fully finished until a person reaches their mid-to-late 20s. These structures are:
- Prefrontal Cortex (PFC): The primary brain region for weighing potential outcomes, projecting future scenarios, and linking consequences to current activities.
- Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC): This region directly mediates model-based decision-making by evaluating risks, monitoring whether outcomes match predictions, and predicting what will happen if you choose one action over another.
- Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC): A specific sub-region located just behind the eyes, critical for evaluating potential rewards and punishments before you act.
- Striatum: A deep brain area involved in evaluating risks, calculating potential payoffs, and updating your strategy when an outcome differs from what you expected
My questions are:
- What did Theo learn? That you get rewarded when you take away someone’s job?
- How did the university benefit from having to replace the president at a “seven figure cost”?
- What did Theo learn about kindness? Or the consequences of actions?
In the interview, Theo admitted that he experienced hostility and exclusion in his subsequent college years. On page 318 he says he was “attacked as a leftist hack in the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal… By spring of my sophomore year, I couldn’t leave my dorm room without being harassed. I received numerous death threats, had events canceled over nebulous “security concerns,” and eventually had to leave campus altogether.”
He acknowledged in the Commonwealth Club interview that the book has been optioned by Hollywood and in the book he thanks Amy Pascal and his agents at CAA.
What did this kid learn?
Henrich tracks the evolution of genetics and biology are weaves examples of cultural evolution to demonstrate how language and sociality launched our species on an extraordinary evolutionary trajectory. Several parts stood out for me. On page 188 he describes how, in a small society, one’s reputation provides a shield that protects them from harm or exploitation by others. Repeatedly violating social norms creates an opening for the violator to be exploited with relative impunity. I see this happening with my disabled veteran brother who is wheelchair-bound and living in relative isolation in Virginia. Because he is so difficult socially, he becomes a target for social predators. 
“In Praise of Imperfection” is the memoir of Rita Levi-Montalcini who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering Nerve Growth Factor in cancer cells. She was the fourth woman to ever receive a Nobel prize. The book details the research, including a 1952 visit to a longtime friend’s cell culture laboratory in Rio de Janeiro. Together, they discovered critical chemical tools that the body uses to direct cell growth and worked out its biochemistry. Dr. Levi-Montalcini recalls her work in Rio as “one of the most intense periods of my life in which moments of enthusiasm and despair alternated with the regularity of a biological cycle.”
Last Friday, I sang at the bedside of an eight-year-old girl. She was at home with her mother who proudly showed us a video of her daughter singing. It clearly showed that this little girl had been “medically fragile” since birth. The mother expertly infused fluids into the girl’s IV. The girl was on the couch in the living room and was on breathing support, too. We were visited by her older brother, for whom we sang Hollow Bamboo, and her baby sister, in diapers and still nursing. The mother was trying to be brave, but when the other two children were cleared from the room and she was there with us and holding the hand of her dying daughter, she began to weep during “Guide Me Through The Darkness.” We kept singing softly until she regained her composure. Eva died that night.
Hochschild develops a “deep story” to explain their traditional values of loyalty, sacrifice, and endurance. Polluting industries manipulate them into fearing the loss of their income if they don’t turn a blind eye to the secret pollution, the dying trees, the disappearing fish, the increasing illness. Church, state, and politicians tug their loyalty strings to believe in Capitalism at the expense of the environment. They endure the secret spillage into their waterways, staying close to home and their traditional values. They resent Liberals who point to the contamination and tell them they “are not feeling the right feelings.”
If need be, PAUSE the interaction altogether by suggesting you talk later, calling time out, or (last resort) telling the other person you’re done for now and hanging up the phone.
