Episode · Freakonomics Radio · 2026-06-26
Books mentioned on 679. Why Does Vanderbilt Keep Winning?
It’s a hard time to run a university: public trust is low, political pressure is high, and finances are fragile. But Daniel Diermeier, who trained as a political scientist, has Vanderbilt humming.
Stephen Dubner discussed The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
The New Jim Crow
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander is a groundbreaking sociological study arguing that the American war on drugs functioned as a deliberate system of racial control, driving mass incarceration and stripping millions of African Americans of their basic civil rights.
Discussed“So, the example that they picked was this book The New Jim Crow, which I'm really simplifying there, but makes the argument that the mass incarceration after the war on drugs basically was intended and had the consequence of suppressing African-American communities.”
Where to get it
