Ted and Courtney Balaker: College Students Are Rejecting Wokeness

Reason Podcasts

Ted and Courtney Balaker are the team behind the new documentary The Coddling of the American Mind. Based on the 2018 best-selling book by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, the film follows a series of students as they navigate life on today's highly charged college campuses. I spoke with Courtney and Ted, who started his video career as one of the first hires at Reason TV, about the Gen Z mental health crisis, free speech, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs, the oppressor-victim worldview, and why they chose to host the film on the innovative platform Substack rather than a more traditional venue. 0:00— Introduction 0:54—The Coddling of the American Mind in documentary form 2:05— Finding student participants 3:22— Lucy 7:15— Kimi 11:17— Aryaan 13:32— International students vs. American students 17:16— Are we past peak woke on campuses? 20:44— Distributing films on Substack 24:30— Korchula Productions' previous projects 26:20— Are filmmakers sick of censorship yet? 28:30— The Balakers' non-traditional media backgrounds 32:10— Working with Drew Carey on Reason TV 33:20— Visual storytelling as powerful conduits for ideas 35:07— Where to see this documentary Today's sponsor: ZBiotics. ZBiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic Drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by Ph.D. scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Make ZBiotics your first drink of the night, drink responsibly, and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Get 15 percent off by going to ZBiotics/TRI and using the code TRI at checkout. Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast