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[0:00] Brad Forenza: My fellow listeners, since Around the Sun's release, morale has gone up, indifference has gone down, connectivity has gone up, isolation has gone down.

[0:09] Yeah, but what about good cheer and merriment?

[0:11] Well, friend, after this episode, Upper West, starring David Alan Basche and Alysia Reiner, you tell us how we're doing via hashtag AroundTheSunPodcast. I'm series creator Brad Forenza, and I approve this message.

[0:35] Narrator: It is afternoon in a conjoined pre-war living dining room on the Upper West side as Alex thumbs through a nondescript book.

[0:41] Alex: Oh no, oh no, no, no, no.

[0:51] Sam: Yes, yes.

[0:54] Sam: I hear what you're saying, Margot, but the provost must understand that the purpose of higher education is not to train one for the niches of her job function. The purpose of higher education is to create and disseminate new knowledge.

[1:10] I accept that the provost is also the vice president of academic affairs, Margot, but higher education is already a tool used to segregate the classes. It has been for years.

[1:22] Look, I will follow up with the provost directly the next time I'm on campus, but in the interim, do remind him that we are not a diploma mill. Faculty Senate will not support any more cash cow degrees. Thank you, Margot. Ciao.

[1:46] Sam: Oh, Alex, the day I had.

[1:47] Alex: Faculty Senate again.

[1:48] Sam: It's the administration. They want to turn that college into a job shop, online degrees for every function imaginable, strategic systems, organizational communication, healthcare management.

[1:58] Alex: What's wrong with that?

[2:00] Sam: What's wrong with that? What about humanities? What about the social sciences? Not to mention the arts. Alex, those are the pillars of a higher education, not business analytics.

[2:12] Alex: Well, yeah, sure, but.

[2:13] Sam: Twenty years ago, if somebody had told me that higher education adhered to such a predatory business model, I would have chosen the Peace Corps over the Academy.

[2:21] Sam exits to an offstage kitchen.

[2:23] Alex: The Academy must do more than.

[2:25] Alex retrieves the book and searches for a better hiding spot.

[2:30] Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Oh, my.

[2:36] Alex hides the book in the back of his pants.

[2:38] Sam: Alex, are you all right?

[2:43] Alex: Yeah, fine. Just a little twitch.

[2:49] Sam: As I said, the Academy must empower its young to think critically about the institutions and organizations that systematically oppress us. The union is all that separates our school from the unaccredited ones. You know that, don't you, Alex?

[3:04] And a school without accreditation is an unregulated minefield.

[3:08] It's a Reagan White House waiting for its Iran contra.

[3:12] Sam: What time should I expect dinner?

[3:13] Alex: Nowadays, any corporate underling can log in remotely, hang out on a browser for a few months and finish up with a degree in power lunching without having gained an ounce of global perspective.

[3:23] Sam: When are we going to eat? I'm starving.

[3:25] Alex: As soon as I'm done with my rant here.

[3:26] Wait, has Franklin been home from school yet?

[3:29] Sam: Franklin was here around 3:30.

[3:31] Alex: Yeah, he threw his stuff down and ran back out.

[3:34] Something about choir practice or drama club.

[3:37] Sam: I do love that Franklin spent so much time with other youth from the community.

[3:40] Alex: I'll just order him some sashimi when he gets home.

[3:43] Sam: Yeah, good idea.

[3:45] Alex: Wait, what's in your pants?

[3:48] Sam: What, who, me?

[3:50] Alex: What's that now?

[3:51] Sam: You have a book in the back of your pants.

[3:53] Alex: Why?

[3:53] Sam: A book?

[3:56] Alex: That's silly.

[3:57] Sam: Why would I have a book in my pants?

[4:00] Alex: I'm a behavioral scientist. If you think I'm going to ignore the empirical evidence that just availed itself to me, you have another thing coming.

[4:08] Sam: Now, wait a second.

[4:09] Alex: You don't want to do this.

[4:10] Sam: Why not?

[4:11] Alex: You may not like what you see.

[4:13] Sam: There's nothing in a book that can shock me. I'm the child of a Scientologist, for God's sake. I spent a semester in Amsterdam. My dissertation was conducted in communion with arthritic sex workers.

[4:24] Alex: I'm asking you, in the nicest way possible, to let sleeping dogs fly.

[4:29] Sam: What is it? Something pedestrian?

[4:32] Alex: No.

[4:33] Sam: No?

[4:34] Alex: No.

[4:34] Sam: Alex, if you don't give me that book, I'm going to tell the whole science department that you lie about listening to NPR.

[4:40] Alex: What?

[4:40] Sam: No. I'm the one who listens to NPR, Alex, not you.

[4:44] I told you about the subway graveyards in the Atlantic Ocean and the skunks in Prospect Park just so you could sound like you have half a brain when you spoke to your geeky colleagues.

[4:53] Alex: So we're geeky now, are we?

[4:54] Sam: We're academics.

[4:56] Alex: Got it!

[4:57] Okay, Sam. You got it.

[4:59] Okay. Are you happy?

[5:00] Sam: Are you happy now?

[5:01] Alex: Because now you're going to regret it. You're really going to regret it.

[5:04] Sam: I will give you one more chance to come clean.

[5:07] Alex: All right. The book is...

[5:10] Sam: It's a book written by...

[5:12] Alex: Yes.

[5:14] Alex: Sam, I know you're not going to like this because of how much it subjugates people, but if you must know, it's a book of pornography that I purchased for myself.

[5:24] Sam: No, it isn't.

[5:25] Alex: Okay. It's a book of pornography that I'm holding for a friend.

[5:28] Sam: Alex.

[5:29] Alex: Okay. Look, Sam. This afternoon when Franklin dropped off his stuff, this book was on top of his bag.

[5:34] Sam: And?

[5:35] Alex: It's Franklin's book, Sam.

[5:38] I never should have seen it.

[5:39] Sam: So it's none of our business.

[5:41] Alex: It's none of our business what he reads.

[5:43] Sam: Date your thesis.

[5:44] Alex: Come on. Franklin is a good kid. He's sweet. He's likable.

[5:49] Sam: Hallelujah.

[5:50] Alex: He's gay.

[5:51] Sam: Sam.

[5:51] Alex: Franklin is gay.

[5:52] Sam: And this is a book on coming out.

[5:56] Alex: We have to be unconditionally supportive and meet him where he's at.

[6:02] Sam: We must have this conversation on his terms.

[6:06] Alex: But first, we must put some champagne on ice to celebrate.

[6:11] Sam: I wish it were that easy.

[6:13] Alex: Open it.

[6:19] Sam: I know.

[6:21] Alex: I know.

[6:22] Sam: After all these years, you think you know a kid.

[6:24] Alex: Oh my god.

[6:24] Sam: You get him involved in the arts, in debate club and civil society.

[6:28] You teach him how to recycle and use mass transit.

[6:32] Alex: He's practically half a vegan these days.

[6:34] Sam: And still, our son, our only son, is a...

[6:39] Alex: Is a...

[6:41] Sam: A Republican?

[6:43] Alex: Not just any Republican.

[6:46] Sam: The art of the deal?

[6:48] Alex: Just remember, Sam. Franklin didn't invite us into this part of his life.

[6:53] Sam: What do you mean he didn't invite us?

[6:56] Alex: This is my home. I don't need an invitation that I should walk around blind to the world around me like some ignorant Republican.

[7:07] Sam: Keep your voice down.

[7:09] Alex: Now when Franklin gets home, you have to pretend you never saw that book.

[7:13] Sam: I don't have to pretend anything.

[7:15] Alex: This is a gateway book.

[7:18] Sam: Call the neighbors. We need an intervention.

[7:21] Alex: Maybe it's a phase.

[7:23] Sam: Or maybe Franklin is acquiring that global perspective you're always talking about.

[7:27] Alex: I mean, isn't that what we've always wanted?

[7:29] Sam: No, I want a nice gay son that I can help accessorize and take to the opera.

[7:34] Alex: If Franklin is happy, I'm happy.

[7:37] Sam: If this is what he wants, to be a...

[7:40] Alex: Republican.

[7:42] Sam: Then who are we to say otherwise?

[7:44] Alex: Now, I will get that champagne.

[7:45] Sam: But remember, we have to be unconditionally supportive and meet him where he's at.

[7:49] Alex: But what if where he's at is that global warming is a hoax?

[7:53] Sam: Or trickle-down economics holds water?

[7:56] Alex: What if he starts speaking in broad generalities and towing his hair over?

[8:04] Sam: We'll deal with it, Sam.

[8:06] Alex: We always have.

[8:08] Sam: You just think about how we're going to tell your parents.

[8:10] Alex: No!

[8:11] Sam: Alex!

[8:14] Alex: They grow up so fast.

[8:21] Narrator: Around the Sun is written and directed by Brad Forenza, co-produced by Suzanne Ortiz-Curry and Brian Daschuk, with sound design by Brandon Alexander Villarreal, conceptual art by Jean Epiphan, graphic design by Melanie Hibbert, and theme music by Shane Curry.

[8:34] If you enjoyed this episode, please like, share, and subscribe. And continue the conversation by using the hashtag AroundTheSunPodcast.