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Theo Baker's 'How to Rule the World' exposes Stanford's cult of elite
Stanford University student Theo Baker’s memoir “How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University” reveals details about his influential freshman-year reporting at the Stanford Daily that led to the resignation of the university’s president. Courtesy of Elena Seibert, Penguin PressIt’s not crazy to wonder if a current college undergraduate has enough material and life perspective to write a memoir.Then there’s Theo Baker, the Stanford University student whose freshman-year investigative reporting at the Stanford Daily eventually led to the resignation of university President Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Baker’s work, publicizing “serious flaws” in Tessier-Lavigne’s neurobiology research and a failure to correct the scientific record in a timely manner, garnered Baker a George Polk Award, making him the prestigious honor’s youngest-ever recipient.That makes “How to Rule the World” harder to dismiss outright, even with its pretentious title. Article continues below this adOK, so the kid’s got a story to tell, about how a cub reporter felled a titan of science and higher ed, all while doing normal undergrad things like hallucinating his way through a term paper, (theoretically) going to class and breaking up with his high school girlfriend. That doesn’t necessarily make him the most reliable narrator, though. After all, if he critiques Stanford and its leadership — while professing to love the university — he’s also benefiting from it. Penguin Press probably wouldn’t be publishing his account if he were a community college student.Stanford University’s Hoover Tower in 2024. Student Theo Baker’s new memoir “How to Rule the World” reveals a gifted reporter.Jessica Christian/S.F. ChronicleThe title, out Tuesday, May 19, paints a Hollywood-ready, more-absurd-than-parody Stanford where the lawn fountains might as well be filled with $100 bills. Here, scouts and fixers lurk at the campus café, waiting to shower students who have the right “vibes” with no-strings-attached “pre-idea funding” for startups. It’s athletic recruiting’s nerdier cousin, and the potential upside puts the name, image and likeness licensing beneficiaries to shame. San Francisco Chronicle LogoMake us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.Add Preferred SourceBaker describes a “Stanford inside Stanford” for the most elite of the elite, akin to the Ivy League’s secret societies and eating clubs. To get in, no tech genius or unicorn idea is required. Just confident...
Inside Stanford's War on Fun | Vanity Fair
EXCERPTParty of None: Inside Stanford’s War on FunRead an exclusive excerpt from Theo Baker’s book, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University, where the former Stanford Daily reporter and youngest recipient of the George Polk Award for investigative journalism details his first assignment.May 18, 2026David ButowThe first Friday of freshman year was meant to be when people really, truly, finally celebrated the amazing thing it is to be a college student. But, alas, it wasn’t to be.Stanford had been my dream since I was seven, much to the surprise of everyone around me on the East Coast. It wasn’t just the tech or the innovation. Students constructed makeshift boats to traverse Lake Lagunita and built motorized couches to get to class. Irreverence was said to be an integral part of the experience. I loved the idea that the university, despite its competitive excellence, had somehow still retained the reputation of being laid-back, chill. I was ecstatic upon my arrival, ready to mark the occasion.'How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University' by Theo BakerIn 2022, Stanford’s traditional first party of the year—“Eurotrash,” hosted by the Kappa Sigma fraternity— was canceled by the university on short notice, with little explanation. No other events, parties or otherwise, took its place. I decided to go out and wander campus to see if there was something I’d missed. I found nothing. No concerts, no mixers, no parties, nothing to do. I encountered not another soul. It gave me the heebie-jeebies: Something about this place was off, like Disneyland after all the rides have closed and the park is emptied for the night.It turned out that there was already a name for this. I’d just become an unwitting bystander to the “War on Fun.”The phrase had been coined a year earlier by students frustrated that Stanford was exercising ever more control over their lives. The university had long before passed the threshold of employing more administrators than it enrolled undergraduates— and this showed.To host a social gathering, I would eventually learn, one needed to apply far in advance to the Party Review Committee, which only met once a week, on Tuesdays. Few parties were approved, and even those that were could only last for a limited time, be hosted on certain days, and be open to specific people. A detailed proposal filling dozens of pages of requirements was required. And then there was the other essential component: the “...
How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University
Theo Baker is an undergraduate at Stanford University. His reporting led to former Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne's resignation and made Baker the youngest-ever recipient of the prestigious George Polk Award. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New York magazine, The New York Times, and elsewhere. He will graduate from Stanford in June 2026.
A Stanford student reflects on his ChatGPT class and a culture of "just ...
Theo Baker, graduating from Stanford University in June 2026, belongs to the first class that spent its entire college career alongside ChatGPT. The chatbot launched roughly two months after he started school in fall 2022. In a guest essay for the New York Times, Baker describes how AI tipped an already fragile culture of academic integrity at the elite university past the point of no return ...
