It's Shameless Self-Promotion Weekend!

I've been in the media -- and on the media -- in recent days

Photo by israel palacio on Unsplash

As previously noted, the hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World has been very busy carefully nursing hangovers discussing deep political science concepts at the American Political Scientist Association the past few days. The few days before that, however, I was talking with some media folks about a variety of my intellectual bugaboos. So if you’ve already read the recommendations I proffered in my last post, you can read/listen to my expanded thoughts on some of these topics in the links below.

First, I appeared on 90 Days with Ana Marie Cox again just after the Democratic National Convention. You can watch/listen here — see if you can find the moment when I gush about Gretchen Whitmer’s whole mien!

If you’re sick of listening to me prattle on about this topic I still recommend listening to Ana’s podcast about this. She’s nabbed some outstanding guests as of late, including Beto O’Rourke, Ari Melber, and Elizabeth Spiers. And then you should become a patron for Space the Nation, where Ana and I talk about the intersection of sci-fi and poli sci!

Meanwhile, my recent posts about the rather strange media coverage of the 2024 presidential campaign prompted a discussion on WNYC’s “On The Media” podcast. I’m on the first segment of this week’s podcast, talking about how mainstream media outlets have failed to hold the Republican candidate accountable while holding Kamala Harris to a very strange standard. Give it a listen:

Finally, I spoke to the New York Post’s Rikki Schlott about why no one wants to be a college president anymore:

As universities face down a new semester of disruptive pro-Palestine protests, a couple of questions have emerged: Who will replace all the college presidents who have resigned?

And why in the world would they want the job?

Embattled Columbia president Minouche Shafik stepped down August 14, following a chaotic spring semester of protests that culminated with the occupation of Hamilton Hall and dozens of student arrests.

She’s not alone. In just the past year, the presidential positions at Cornell, Harvard, Penn, Columbia and Stanford have all turned over.

Although Harvard’s interim president, Alan Garber, was appointed to the position permanently last month, Columbia, Cornell and Penn started the new school year with interim presidents.

Recruitment professionals, professors and alumni agree that the job search is harder than ever before.

“These jobs aren’t getting any easier, and I don’t think they will anytime soon either,” Willie Funk, managing vice president of higher education recruiting firm Funk and Associates, told The Post. 

Daniel Drezner, a distinguished professor of International Politics at Tufts University, said he has been contacted by recruiting firms about presidency positions since 2010. He’s shut them all down.

You’ll have to read the whole thing to see why I’ve shut them all down. Longtime readers of Drezner’s World will be familiar with my argument, but Schlott talks to others as well. Plus, there’s profanity and everything!