Warren Smith

Academia seemed like a great job, and it is.

It's got great benefits.

But what I saw there in 2016 was it shook me for sure.

I wasn't into any... I discovered the space as well, Jordan Peterson, and I was fascinated by it because there was certainly a problem with what I was encountering at school.

students 300 over 300 students marched into a faculty assembly claiming that emerson was racist and making with literally a list of demands and the administration kowtowed to it they gave in and

That was the next day, the week following that, I was taking a pedagogy course with the dean of undergrad, teaching it.

And we had to devote the four-hour class this week to discussing the systemic racism at Emerson.

And the head of the Social Justice Center, which is a literal office, literal people, you could do anonymous bias reports.

They were sitting in and the white students were told to surrender our white privilege for the duration of the four hours.

And I thought, that's so weird.

I would love to have a discussion with them, but they won't.

Probably they wouldn't have a discussion.

extremely left-wing.

I didn't meet a single conservative professor at the time there.

There was one student I can remember from grad school that was libertarian.

Well, it's a captivating narrative that creates an emotional satisfaction.

It also gives the students the ability to make demands of their professors they couldn't otherwise make.

So I was asked to teach my first class screenwriting.

And the teacher that was signing it to me, I was her TA.

She was, Warren, OK, you're about to do this.