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Ordinary Unhappiness

@unhappinesspod.bsky.social
2K followers 63 following 240 posts

a podcast about psychoanalysis, politics, pop culture, and the ways we suffer now | hosted by @counterfactual.bsky.social and @patblanchfield.bsky.social free episodes every other saturday; even more for subscribers at bit.ly/OrdinaryUnhappiness

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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
🚨NEW PATREON EPISODE🚨 Narcissism, Tinseltown, Lacan, and more! Abby and Dan give Billy Wilder's 1950 classic Sunset Boulevard the Wild Analysis treatment! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 161: Wild Analysis: Sunset Boulevard | Ordinary Unhappiness
“No one leaves a star – that’s what makes one a star!” In the latest installment of Wild Analysis, Abby and Dan discuss Billy Wilder’s class
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Matthew Cheney @melikhovo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is a wonderful conversation and the Very Special Boys framing explains SO MUCH about the techbros and their ilk.
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LoveNow @carenow.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I just finished listening, and, now, I also feel lucky that @counterfactual.bsky.social asked Adrian to tell listeners where to find him, and I’m about to check out podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
podcasts.apple.com
In Bed With The Right
Society & Culture Podcast · Updated Weekly · On In Bed With the Right hosts Moira Donegan and Adrian Daub welcome a range of scholars and critics to analyze right wing ideas about gender, sex and sexu...
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Jonathan @curecanti.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
On weaponized abjection and the dystopian vision of tech’s aging failsons.
podcasts.apple.com
160: Very Special Boys feat. Adrian Daub
Podcast Episode · Ordinary Unhappiness · September 26 · 1h 52m
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
fuck the latest about whatever peter thiel "thinks." and fuck whatever we're now being to told buy/buy into about what AI "thinks." instead check out our @UnhappinessPod conversation with @adriandaub.bsky.social, author of What Tech Calls Thinking, and its sequel, What Tech Calls Governing
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Shirley Dander Appreciation Society @msbumblebee.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Highly recommend
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 What is wrong with our tech overlords? How did Silicon Valley's promises of progress and uplift flip into the sneering celebration of dominance? The great @adriandaub.bsky.social returns to unpack the current political and libidinal economy of Big Tech www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 160: Very Special Boys feat. Adrian Daub | Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick welcome back returning guest Adrian Daub. The occasion is Adrian’s latest book, What Tech Calls Governing. A follow-up to h
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The Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Patriarchy is not only a system in which men dominate women; it is a grammar that teaches people how to see the world. As our podcast of the week details, the concept makes hierarchy and injustice appear as natural. With Robin Dembroff on @unhappinesspod.bsky.social buff.ly/d0tahRS
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
reading karen horney is alternately delightful and a gut punch; so glad we could explore some of her work on the latest @unhappinesspod.bsky.social
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
🚨NEW PATREON EPISODE🚨 Summer may be over, but our Narcissism series continues! We take up the work of the brilliant Karen Horney, who rejected Freud's sexism and libido theory in favor of thinking about the self, the family, US cultural norms, and more. www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 159: Karen Horney: Narcissism, Part 7 | Ordinary Unhappiness
The Ordinary Unhappiness journey through the landscape of modern narcissism continues – and arrives in the United States! In this episode, A
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Danya Glabau @allergyphd.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Maybe it's just because I'm catching up on @unhappinesspod.bsky.social but I really need to talk to someone about why these AI bosses -- many of whom felt they were feminized as "nerds" earlier in life but now rule the world -- now want to be Daddy to God. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Why Tech Oligarchs Are Willing to Risk Apocalypse
Silicon Valley’s strange new theology.
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
still buzzing from our @unhappinesspod.bsky.social conversation with Robin Dembroff, whose book "Real Men On Top" is just fantastic too CC @academic.oup.com global.oup.com/academic/pro...
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 Can anyone ever be a "real man"? Why are conversations about "the crisis of masculinity" so repetitive and shallow? Robin Dembroff explains how fantasies of manhood function and how patriarchy harms everybody - including men themselves. www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 158: On the Impossibility of Being a Real Man feat. Robin Dembroff | Ordinary Unhappiness
What does it mean to talk about “patriarchy” in the present? What are the origins of the term, its uses, and its limits? How has it impacted
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
🚨NEW EPISODE 🚨Did 9/11 really "change everything"? Why do some events become history, and how do we know when that's happening? How do "chosen traumas" work as political touchstones, weaponize logics of identity, and even warp time itself? www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 156: 9/11: Chosen Traumas and Time Collapse | Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick bring a psychoanalytic lens to bear on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. As they
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
tomorrow's anniversary will for many of us be even more overwhelming than usual; for some, it may simply be bewildering. wherever you might be, we at @unhappinesspod.bsky.social put together this episode to give you some tools for processing and talking about it www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 156: 9/11: Chosen Traumas and Time Collapse | Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick bring a psychoanalytic lens to bear on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. As they
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
🚨PATREON-ONLY EP🚨 from liminality to the uncanny to creepypastas to COVID to AI and the sheer terror of interiority itself, we give "Backrooms" the Wild Analysis treatment! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 157: Wild Analysis: Backrooms | Ordinary Unhappiness
Episode 157: Wild Analysis: Backrooms by Ordinary Unhappiness on Patreon. Join Ordinary Unhappiness's community for exclusive content and updates.
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
a new chapter for us: new tiers, new content, and more!!! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
new tiers, a window to lock in current prices, and more OU news | Ordinary Unhappiness
Hello, friends! We hope you’re doing well as Summer of Narcissism turns into…Pumpkin Spice Narcissism Season? (That title is a work in progr
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I also want to plug the remarkable photography and prose of my dear friend and frequent collaborator @simko-bednarski.bsky.social, whose porfolio of photos - about New York and so many other things - you can find here www.simkobednarskiphoto.com/memento-mori
simkobednarskiphoto.com
9/11 memento mori - Evan Simko-Bednarski's portfolio - Evan Simko-Bednarski's Portfolio
Website of photographer Evan Simko-Bednarski
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I wanted to express particular appreciation for the indispensable writing of @attackerman.bsky.social, whom we cite throughout and focus on in particular in the last third, and to the perspective of Andrew Bacevich of @quincyinst.bsky.social. links to read and buy their works are in the description
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
we don't normally release in-depth political episodes outside the paywall, but given the significance of the event itself, the work we three put in, and the many, many people whose works we cite we wanted to make this one available as widely as possible. do please consider checking it out
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
for the latest @unhappinesspod.bsky.social, we scoured the archives and dredged up memories personal and collective, famous and forgotten, to reckon with what happened on 9/11/2001, what that event came to mean, and how that's still shaping the world we live in today www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 156: 9/11: Chosen Traumas and Time Collapse | Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick bring a psychoanalytic lens to bear on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. As they
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
🚨NEW EPISODE 🚨Did 9/11 really "change everything"? Why do some events become history, and how do we know when that's happening? How do "chosen traumas" work as political touchstones, weaponize logics of identity, and even warp time itself? www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 156: 9/11: Chosen Traumas and Time Collapse | Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick bring a psychoanalytic lens to bear on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. As they
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
new @unhappinesspod.bsky.social Summer of Narcissism content! we read and break down one of Freud's single most difficult papers so you don't have to
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
🚨NEW PATREON-ONLY EP 🚨 When is narcissism normal - and maybe even necessary? We read Freud's paper, On Narcissism (1914). Dated and reprehensible in some respects, prescient and humane in others, it's classic Freud, and still provocative today. www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 155: Freud’s “On Narcissism”: Narcissism, Part 6 | Ordinary Unhappiness
The Summer of Narcissism brings Abby, Patrick, and Dan to Freud’s landmark 1914 essay, “On Narcissism: An Introduction.” While the sexologis
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
unrelated to what's going on in your feed (but also definitely actually related), the @unhappinesspod.bsky.social Summer of Narcissism series has gotten to a key point (the birth of modern narcissism as such!!!). we're having a blast - check it out! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 154: Let’s Talk About Sex(ology): Narcissism, Part 5 | Ordinary Unhappiness
The Summer of Narcissism journey brings Abby, Patrick, and Dan to late nineteenth century Europe, and to the revolutionary and controversial
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 Summer of Narcissism continues! We explore the world of Victorian sexology, its controversies over auto-eroticism and sexual orientation, and witness the birth of the modern concept of narcissism itself! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 154: Let’s Talk About Sex(ology): Narcissism, Part 5 | Ordinary Unhappiness
The Summer of Narcissism journey brings Abby, Patrick, and Dan to late nineteenth century Europe, and to the revolutionary and controversial
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Rhys Kaminski-Jones @rhyskamjones.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
If anyone else finished 'Night Night Fawn" with no-one around to immediately talk about it, this is very welcome palliative care
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Huge news from our beloved friends at @parapraxismag.bsky.social!!!
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parapraxismag.bsky.social @parapraxismag.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Read all about KAEC, the bookshop, and what we have planned here, and how to make use of us or get involved, here: www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/ann...
parapraxismagazine.com
Announcing the Known and Elsewhere Collective, Parapraxis Books, and our new space in Oakland. — Parapraxis
August 3, 2026 Today we announce The Psychosocial Foundation’s opening of a therapeutic collective, education space, and bookstore at 1742 Franklin Street in Uptown Oakland.  Starting in just ...
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parapraxismag.bsky.social @parapraxismag.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Later that same night, we will be celebrating the launch of the collective and our space, as well as Parapraxis Issue 08: Groups, at Thee Stork Club. New York, we’ll see you for a party at Rodeo on Friday, October 2.
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parapraxismag.bsky.social @parapraxismag.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Come visit us at 1742 Franklin Street, Oakland during our open house on September 12, 12–6. The bookstore will be open, and we’ll have a marathon reading of Parapraxis contributors.
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parapraxismag.bsky.social @parapraxismag.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Any amount will help us hire space and intake coordinators, expand our programming, and ensure we keep our spaces for those who will use them–all with an aim of making a sustaining therapeutic collective for Oakland. You can pledge here: www.thepsychosocialfoundation.org/donate
thepsychosocialfoundation.org
Donate — The Psychosocial Foundation
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parapraxismag.bsky.social @parapraxismag.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Through a generous gift from a private donor, we have secured our space in Uptown for five years. To make this space and its work all they can be, and to offer all it can to Oakland, and to stay there, we need your help. Today we launch the Muriel Gardiner Campaign.
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parapraxismag.bsky.social @parapraxismag.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Five years ago, we began to dream up this collective, imagining, through deep research and historical thinking, what it might mean to develop such a project here in Oakland in the 21st century.
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parapraxismag.bsky.social @parapraxismag.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
These twin pillars of praxis and theory have always been our guiding mission at The Psychosocial Foundation, Parapraxis, and in all our associated projects.
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parapraxismag.bsky.social @parapraxismag.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
We know that we have a deeply international community of thinkers and students; most everything will remain in hybrid form. And absolutely everything will remain on offer sliding scale, down to free.
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parapraxismag.bsky.social @parapraxismag.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
The bookstore opens onto our educational space, home to everything we have built over the last five years: our seminar, our book events, symposia, and our short courses. We now have a physical space for film screenings, political education, & to host winter/summer schools.
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parapraxismag.bsky.social @parapraxismag.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Next month, the Known and Elsewhere Collective will offer individual and group therapy, assessment, supervision groups, consultation to left spaces/other clinics, & therapeutic support for asylum cases. Services will be offered sliding-scale, down to $1. www.thepsychosocialfoundation.org/therapy
thepsychosocialfoundation.org
Therapy — The Psychosocial Foundation
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parapraxismag.bsky.social @parapraxismag.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Today we announce The Psychosocial Foundation’s opening of a therapeutic collective, education space, and bookstore at 1742 Franklin Street in Uptown Oakland.
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Ben Jackson @benjaminjackson.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
An excellent series, definitely not about you in the least, worth your $5
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
🚨NEW PATREON-ONLY EP🚨 Summer of Narcissism arrives at the early modern world! We talk Luther, Calvin, Weber, Wollstonecraft, and where we get an anxious modern Self that just can't stop won't stop needing to justify itself www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 153: Everyone’s Looking at You and You’re Probably Going to Hell: Narcissism, Part 4 | Ordinary Unhappiness
The Ordinary Unhappiness journey through the origins of narcissism arrives at the early modern period and a Europe in full-blown crisis. It’
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Chris Lay @chrislay.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Watching the Sox game with the TV on mute while listening to the Ordinary Unhappiness podcast about the deep history behind the Magnifica humanitas papal encyclical feels like the most Boston thing that I have ever done.
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 The brilliant @jackhanson.bsky.social joins us for a fantastic conversation about Pope Leo and the politics of the papacy; Catholic social doctrine, JD Vance, and the state of the American church; alienation, desire, AI, and much, much more! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 152: The Pope, the Church, and the Politics of Progress feat. Jack Hanson | Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick welcome writer, critic, and religion scholar Jack Hanson for an in-depth and wide-ranging conversation about the politics a
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 25/07/2026
Lemme tell you about the angel of history being blown backwards into the future: The shackles these people have been put in are Hiatt brand, same company founded in 1780 to mass produce shackles for slaver ships.
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Nicholas Slayton @nslayton.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Before the DOD confirmed her husband's death she posted the news to social media on Sunday. That was nearly a week ago. And she apparently still hasn't heard anything else.
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
still buzzing from our wide-ranging deep-dive into the politics and significance of the contemporary Catholic Church with the great @jackhanson.bsky.social. just a phenomenal conversation, and we got to close-read an amazing encyclical to boot! CC @harpers.bsky.social www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 152: The Pope, the Church, and the Politics of Progress feat. Jack Hanson | Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick welcome writer, critic, and religion scholar Jack Hanson for an in-depth and wide-ranging conversation about the politics a
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Ordinary Unhappiness @unhappinesspod.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 The brilliant @jackhanson.bsky.social joins us for a fantastic conversation about Pope Leo and the politics of the papacy; Catholic social doctrine, JD Vance, and the state of the American church; alienation, desire, AI, and much, much more! www.patreon.com/OrdinaryUnha...
patreon.com
Episode 152: The Pope, the Church, and the Politics of Progress feat. Jack Hanson | Ordinary Unhappiness
Abby and Patrick welcome writer, critic, and religion scholar Jack Hanson for an in-depth and wide-ranging conversation about the politics a
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
it was really good to talk with Ian Masters of Background Briefing about ICE's murder spree, violence work and domestic abuse, legalized impunity, and more open.spotify.com/episode/0mdi...
open.spotify.com
July 19, 2026 - Patrick Blanchfield | Tom Mockaitis | Dr. Michael McDonald
Background Briefing with Ian Masters · Episode
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Patrick "Inverted Vibe Curve" Blanchfield @patblanchfield.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
would hogwarts hire a velociraptor? do you have to let a vampire inside your home - if he's your landlord? is a cop who fights crime as a werewolf by night technically a K9 unit who - deserves overtime? if they become partners, can they literally go anywhere and pull over whomever they want?
its some guy from the atlantic asking "What about a pro-life ethicist whose work argues that abortion is murder, and who believes that bodily autonomy arguments do not override moral duties to the fetus? Would they be hirable in any Gender Studies department at any elite (non-religious) university in America?"

at once an innocent philosophical hypothetical, its also a trenchant question that goes to the heart of actually existing conditions in american colleges and universities in the year 2026
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