Theo Baker on Investigating Stanford's President as a 17-Year-Old Journalist
The young journalist details how he got sources to open up about power at Stanford.
Theo Baker, the journalist behind the freshman-year investigation that led to the resignation of Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, sat down with Jordan Klepper on THE DAILY SHOW to discuss the research misconduct probe that made him a national story before he had even finished his first year of college. Baker described the experience as formative, telling Klepper, "It's a special thing to be a 17-year-old and to feel as if you can ask questions of people in power and hopefully do some good for your community by doing so."
Baker is described as an award-winning journalist and bestselling author of "How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University," the book that grew out of his investigation into Tessier-Lavigne, whose resignation in 2023 followed the reporting Baker conducted as an undergraduate. The conversation with Klepper centered on how a teenage student journalist managed to convince powerful sources to speak candidly with him about a university president.
Much of the discussion focused on what Baker calls Stanford's "Faustian bargain" with Silicon Valley, examining how the university's close ties to the tech industry have funneled extraordinary money and influence toward undergraduates. Baker and Klepper worked through how that dynamic shaped the culture he was investigating and why it made his findings resonate beyond the campus itself.
The appearance gave Baker a platform to walk through the mechanics of landing sources willing to trust a college freshman with sensitive information about one of the most powerful figures at their university, a process he detailed as central to how the investigation ultimately came together.
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