Stanford’s star reporter takes on Silicon Valley’s ‘money-soaked’ startup culture

Theo Baker is genuinely an outlier.

While journalism arsenic a large has seen shrinking enrollment for years and is adjacent being dropped by immoderate schools entirely, Baker, a elder astatine Stanford University, has doubled down connected old-school investigative reporting, and it is paying disconnected spectacularly.

Baker archetypal made headlines arsenic a assemblage freshman erstwhile his reporting for The Stanford Daily led to the resignation of Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne. After uncovering allegations of probe misconduct spanning 2 decades, Baker — conscionable 1 period into assemblage — recovered himself “receiving anonymous letters, conducting stakeouts, and tracking down confidential sources,” according to his publisher. Meanwhile, high-powered lawyers tried to discredit his work. By year’s end, Tessier-Lavigne had resigned, and Baker became the youngest-ever recipient of the George Polk Award, 1 of journalism’s astir prestigious honors.

Shortly after, Warner Bros and famed shaper Amy Pascal won a competitive auction for the movie rights to his story.

But if that ungraded enactment Baker connected the map, his upcoming publication whitethorn cement his estimation arsenic the uncommon young writer consenting to situation Silicon Valley’s startup machine.

“How to Rule the World,” retired May 19 — 3 weeks earlier helium graduates — promises an explosive look astatine however task capitalists dainty Stanford students arsenic “a commodity,” wooing favored undergrads with slush funds, ammunition companies, yacht parties, and backing offers earlier they adjacent person concern ideas successful their hunt for the adjacent trillion-dollar founder.

“I watched successful existent clip arsenic my peers were taught to chopped corners and plied with tremendous wealthiness by radical who wanted to exploit their talent,” Baker, who turns 21 adjacent month, tells Axios. Drawing connected much than 250 interviews with students, CEOs, VCs, Nobel laureates, and 3 Stanford presidents, the publication aims to exposure what Baker describes to Axios arsenic a “weird, money-soaked subculture that has truthful overmuch power implicit the remainder of the world.”

It’s possibly an unsurprising determination from idiosyncratic who grew up astir apical journalists. His begetter is New York Times main White House analogous Peter Baker, and his parent is The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser. While his peers pursuit task superior backing and six-figure startup salaries, Baker spent his sophomore twelvemonth reporting and took his inferior twelvemonth disconnected to write, including 2 months astatine the Yaddo writers’ retreat.

That prime becomes adjacent much striking against the backdrop of journalism’s existent struggles. While accepted journalism programs neglect to capable classes and newsrooms look relentless layoffs, Baker represents thing some breathtaking and progressively uncommon: a prima pupil betting his vocation connected accountability journalism. Whether he’s a harbinger of renewed involvement successful investigative reporting remains to beryllium seen, but we’d conjecture his publication volition seizure the attraction of plentifulness of assemblage students — and it volition astir surely marque waves successful Silicon Valley portion doing it.