YouSaid · the spoken record

Theo Baker

lines on the record: 60
first: 2026-06-04
most recent: 2026-06-04
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Well, I mean, exactly that, right? My parents have already done it. You know, they're political journalists, which is obviously not the same thing, but, you know, they are really good at what they do. And I always wanted to stake my own identity. And I did love technology very genuinely and passionately. And it also seemed like a good idea to go through thousands from home and make my own reputation. I joined the student paper, you know, mostly on a LARC, but also especially to feel When I was a freshman, I showed up, I joined the student paper right away, even though I didn't expect this to be an all-consuming part of my life, but my grandfather had just passed away a few weeks before I arrived at Stanford, and he wasn't a journalist, but he talked more about his time on his Ogue College paper than anyone I've ever met in my entire life. And so he used to sit me down on his knee. Let me get me.”
2026-06-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Theo Baker Cracks Open Stanford’s Faustian Bargain With Silicon Valley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I remember seeing this image of these teenagers, you know, in their Stanford t-shirts and their flip-flops lounging in the shade of a palm tree, right up against the self driving car they just helped to build. And I just thought this is the coolest place on earth where all of the new things are happening and the most brilliant teenagers are going about their lives. And it's so cool. And it's Northern California and it's all of that. Staffer still has parts of that, right? That image isn't false. It's just that this school works so hard to maintain its sterling reputation that a lot of other stories get swept under the rug that might belie such an idyllic and paradisal view.”
2026-06-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Theo Baker Cracks Open Stanford’s Faustian Bargain With Silicon Valley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Becomes this institutional juggernaut. Right. Well, no, and that's exactly right. It still thinks of itself as this underdog, right? Where the out”
2026-06-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Theo Baker Cracks Open Stanford’s Faustian Bargain With Silicon Valley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is the chair of the board of alphabet? Yeah, exactly. And it's so fascinating, right? That Stanford was once this regional institution. It's literally called the farm because this used to be a horse farm where Leland Stanford Sr. had his horses. You know, he was the robber bear and who started this university in the name of his son.”
2026-06-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Theo Baker Cracks Open Stanford’s Faustian Bargain With Silicon Valley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, Stanford has done this really intentionally, right? That Silicon Valley wouldn't exist without this university. You know, it grows out of the Stanford Research Park and efforts made by then-provost Fred Torman to encourage this no-boundaries relationship with industry. Between 2000 and 2015, Stanford, under the leadership of then President John Hennessey, goes on this extraordinary run. They build over 70 new buildings on campus. They become the first school in the nation to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.”
2026-06-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Theo Baker Cracks Open Stanford’s Faustian Bargain With Silicon Valley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, no, I mean, I think there's just something really engaging, you know, when you're like a teenager or kid or something and you learn that if you become skilled enough at programming, right, that you can translate the ideas you have into something working, that I've never been great with paint. You know, I'm not a great artist. But here was the way to create something that maybe then could solve a problem in my life, you know, if I was trying to do something that or do some research that I found interesting, that was, you know, something I really enjoyed doing, working on natural language processing stuff was really interesting to me. And so when I showed up at Stanford, this was what I thought, you know, my life was going to look like. And very quickly, I realized that things didn't work out here exactly as I thought they might.”
2026-06-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Theo Baker Cracks Open Stanford’s Faustian Bargain With Silicon Valley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's such an amazing thing to learn that, you know, as a teenager, right, that the things you do can directly translate from words on a screen into something new, something that actually does something. I found that so fun and enjoyable. And I showed up at Stanford, and I think this is like...”
2026-06-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Theo Baker Cracks Open Stanford’s Faustian Bargain With Silicon Valley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All computer Well, so I was one of those 17 year old kids who shows up at Stanford and thinks that computer science is the world. You know, I was like the kind of kid who would like code a machine learning model, you know, from scratch in my bedroom in high school and call it a fun Friday night. And I showed up at Stanford.”
2026-06-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Theo Baker Cracks Open Stanford’s Faustian Bargain With Silicon Valley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no. What stupid thing to do? I don't remember you saying anything stupid to be clear. Look, I think you and I have a somewhat similar perspective in that I come at this from the idea that tech is good is awesome and fraud is bad, right? That you don't have to throw the baby out with the bathwater to understand that something has gone deeply off the rails here.”
2026-06-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Theo Baker Cracks Open Stanford’s Faustian Bargain With Silicon Valley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Why? I asked you for advice. I reached out to you for help and thinking through this reporting challenge I was working on, which turned into the book that we're now here talking about. So thank you to you.”
2026-06-04 · On with Kara Swisher · Theo Baker Cracks Open Stanford’s Faustian Bargain With Silicon Valley · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT