-
The Inequality Machine
- How College Divides Us
- Narrated by: Paul Tough
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $25.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
First published as The Years That Matter Most
From best-selling author Paul Tough, an indelible and explosive book on the glaring injustices of higher education, including unfair admissions tests, entrenched racial barriers, and crushing student debt. Now updated and expanded for the pandemic era.
When higher education works the way it’s supposed to, there is no better tool for social mobility - for lifting young people out of challenging circumstances and into the middle class and beyond. In reality, though, American colleges and universities have become the ultimate tool of social immobility - a system that secures a comfortable future for the children of the wealthy while throwing roadblocks in the way of students from struggling families.
Combining vivid and powerful personal stories with deep, authoritative reporting, Paul Tough explains how we got into this mess and explores the innovative reforms that might get us out. Tough examines the systemic racism that pervades American higher education, shows exactly how the SATs give an unfair advantage to wealthy students, and guides listeners from Ivy League seminar rooms to the welding shop at a rural community college. At every stop, he introduces us to young Americans yearning for a better life - and praying that a college education might help them get there.
With a new preface and afterword by the author exposing how the coronavirus pandemic has shaken the higher education system anew.
Read by the author.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
I Hate the Ivy League
- Riffs and Rants on Elite Education
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malcolm Gladwell has long relished the opportunity to skewer the upper echelons of higher education, from the institution of U.S. News & World Report’s Best College rankings to the LSATs to the luxe Bowdoin College cafeteria. I Hate the Ivy League: Riffs and Rants on Elite Education, upends the traditional thinking around how education should work and tries to get to the bottom of why we often reward the wrong people.
-
-
Great content but don’t bother purchasing if you have heard the podcasts
- By katieKo on 10-23-22
By: Malcolm Gladwell
-
How Children Succeed
- Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
- By: Paul Tough
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. But in How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, and self-control. How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character.
-
-
Article based on interviews
- By Anonymous User on 10-24-24
By: Paul Tough
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be
- An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania
- By: Frank Bruni
- Narrated by: Frank Bruni
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the last few decades, Americans have turned college admissions into a terrifying and occasionally devastating process, preceded by test prep, tutors, all sorts of stratagems, all kinds of rankings, and a conviction among too many young people that their futures will be determined and their worth established by which schools say yes and which say no.
-
-
A relatable and relevant book for our time
- By M_BTV on 05-18-15
By: Frank Bruni
-
Helping Children Succeed
- What Works and Why
- By: Paul Tough
- Narrated by: Paul Tough
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In How Children Succeed, Paul Tough introduced us to research showing that personal qualities like perseverance, self-control, and conscientiousness play a critical role in children's success. Now, in Helping Children Succeed, Tough takes on a new set of pressing questions: What does growing up in poverty do to children's mental and physical development? How does adversity at home affect their success in the classroom, from preschool to high school?
-
-
The environment matters
- By Adam Shields on 09-14-16
By: Paul Tough
-
Who Gets in and Why
- A Year Inside College Admissions
- By: Jeffrey J. Selingo
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Getting into a top-ranked college has never seemed more impossible, with acceptance rates at some elite universities dipping into the single digits. In Who Gets in and Why, journalist and higher education expert Jeffrey Selingo dispels entrenched notions of how to compete and win at the admissions game and reveals that teenagers and parents have much to gain by broadening their notion of what qualifies as a "good college". Hint: It's not all about the sticker on the car window.
-
-
A must-read for anyone applying to college
- By Nom de Guerre on 10-21-20
-
I Hate the Ivy League
- Riffs and Rants on Elite Education
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malcolm Gladwell has long relished the opportunity to skewer the upper echelons of higher education, from the institution of U.S. News & World Report’s Best College rankings to the LSATs to the luxe Bowdoin College cafeteria. I Hate the Ivy League: Riffs and Rants on Elite Education, upends the traditional thinking around how education should work and tries to get to the bottom of why we often reward the wrong people.
-
-
Great content but don’t bother purchasing if you have heard the podcasts
- By katieKo on 10-23-22
By: Malcolm Gladwell
-
How Children Succeed
- Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
- By: Paul Tough
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. But in How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, and self-control. How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character.
-
-
Article based on interviews
- By Anonymous User on 10-24-24
By: Paul Tough
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be
- An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania
- By: Frank Bruni
- Narrated by: Frank Bruni
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the last few decades, Americans have turned college admissions into a terrifying and occasionally devastating process, preceded by test prep, tutors, all sorts of stratagems, all kinds of rankings, and a conviction among too many young people that their futures will be determined and their worth established by which schools say yes and which say no.
-
-
A relatable and relevant book for our time
- By M_BTV on 05-18-15
By: Frank Bruni
-
Helping Children Succeed
- What Works and Why
- By: Paul Tough
- Narrated by: Paul Tough
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In How Children Succeed, Paul Tough introduced us to research showing that personal qualities like perseverance, self-control, and conscientiousness play a critical role in children's success. Now, in Helping Children Succeed, Tough takes on a new set of pressing questions: What does growing up in poverty do to children's mental and physical development? How does adversity at home affect their success in the classroom, from preschool to high school?
-
-
The environment matters
- By Adam Shields on 09-14-16
By: Paul Tough
-
Who Gets in and Why
- A Year Inside College Admissions
- By: Jeffrey J. Selingo
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Getting into a top-ranked college has never seemed more impossible, with acceptance rates at some elite universities dipping into the single digits. In Who Gets in and Why, journalist and higher education expert Jeffrey Selingo dispels entrenched notions of how to compete and win at the admissions game and reveals that teenagers and parents have much to gain by broadening their notion of what qualifies as a "good college". Hint: It's not all about the sticker on the car window.
-
-
A must-read for anyone applying to college
- By Nom de Guerre on 10-21-20
-
Whatever It Takes
- Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America
- By: Paul Tough
- Narrated by: Ax Norman
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What would it take?That was the question that Geoffrey Canada found himself asking. What would it take to change the lives of poor children, not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in big numbers, and in a way that could be replicated nationwide? The question led him to create the Harlem Children's Zone, a 97-block laboratory in central Harlem where he is testing new and sometimes controversial ideas about poverty in America.
-
-
Aboslutely terrific!
- By Anthony on 09-21-10
By: Paul Tough
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
Never Enough
- When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic—and What We Can Do About It
- By: Jennifer Breheny Wallace
- Narrated by: Jennifer Breheny Wallace
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the ever more competitive race to secure the best possible future, today’s students face unprecedented pressure to succeed. They jam-pack their schedules with AP classes, fill every waking hour with resume-padding activities, and even sabotage relationships with friends to “get ahead.” Family incomes and schedules are stretched to the breaking point by tutoring fees and athletic schedules. Yet this drive to optimize performance has only resulted in skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, and even self-harm in America’s highest achieving schools.
-
-
If you live or work in one of these communities, you will see yourself
- By Paula on 09-04-23
-
The Coming Wave
- Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma
- By: Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar - contributor
- Narrated by: Mustafa Suleyman
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change. Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organize your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy. None of us are prepared. As co-founder of DeepMind, part of Google, Mustafa Suleyman has been at the center of this revolution. The coming decade, he argues, will be defined by this wave of powerful new technologies.
-
-
Click bait
- By Buyer on 09-11-23
By: Mustafa Suleyman, and others
-
Valedictorians at the Gate
- Standing Out, Getting In, and Staying Sane While Applying to College
- By: Rebecca Munsterer Sabky
- Narrated by: Eliza Foss
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An inspiring battle cry for sanity in the college application process that looks beyond the rankings to successfully determine what’s truly the best school for you or your child.
-
-
Funny and wise
- By Fernando on 09-16-23
-
The Price of Admission
- How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges - and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates
- By: Daniel Golden
- Narrated by: Nancy Linari
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Naming names, along with grades and test scores, Golden lays bare a corrupt system in which middle-class and working-class whites and Asian Americans are routinely passed over in favor of wealthy white students with lesser credentials - children of alumni, big donors, and celebrities. The Price of Admission is a must-listen - for parents and students with a personal stake in college admissions but also for those disturbed by the growing divide between ordinary and privileged Americans.
-
-
Good for a view of how the admissions process favors others, but not a critically-thinking piece
- By Alejandro Wences on 01-27-20
By: Daniel Golden
-
Number Go Up
- Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
- By: Zeke Faux
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2021 cryptocurrency went mainstream. Giant investment funds were buying it, celebrities like Tom Brady endorsed it, and TV ads hailed it as the future of money. Hardly anyone knew how it worked—but why bother with the particulars when everyone was making a fortune from Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, or some other bizarrely named “digital asset”? As he observed this frenzy, investigative reporter Zeke Faux had a nagging question: Was it all just a confidence game of epic proportions? What started as curiosity—with a dash of FOMO—would morph into a two-year globe-spanning quest.
-
-
Phenomenal story
- By Michael on 10-05-23
By: Zeke Faux
-
The Privileged Poor
- How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students
- By: Anthony Abraham Jack
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Getting in is only half the battle. The Privileged Poor reveals how - and why - disadvantaged students struggle at elite colleges and explains what schools can do differently if these students are to thrive. The Ivy League looks different than it used to. College presidents and deans of admission have opened their doors - and their coffers - to support a more diverse student body. But is it enough just to admit these students? In The Privileged Poor, Anthony Jack reveals that the struggles of less privileged students continue long after they've arrived on campus.
-
-
LIVED IT!
- By Jeremy on 10-05-19
-
Ours Was the Shining Future
- The Story of the American Dream
- By: David Leonhardt
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two decades into the twenty-first century, the stagnation of living standards has become the defining trend of American life. Life expectancy has declined, economic inequality has soared, and, after some progress, the Black-white wage gap is once again as large as it was in the 1950s. How did this happen in the world’s most powerful country? And what happened to the “American dream”—the promise of a happier, healthier, more prosperous future—which was once such an inextricable part of our national identity?
-
-
A poignant analysis of our present situation
- By Beth on 11-02-23
By: David Leonhardt
-
Pedigree
- How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs
- By: Lauren A. Rivera
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Americans are taught to believe that upward mobility is possible for anyone who is willing to work hard, regardless of their social status. Yet it is often those from affluent backgrounds who land the best jobs. Pedigree takes listeners behind the closed doors of top-tier investment banks, consulting firms, and law firms to reveal the truth about who really gets hired for the nation's highest-paying entry-level jobs, who doesn't, and why.
-
-
Should have been much much shorter
- By Amazon Customer on 10-13-21
By: Lauren A. Rivera
-
The Gatekeepers
- Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College
- By: Jacques Steinberg
- Narrated by: Jacques Steinberg
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the fall of 1999, New York Times education reporter Jacques Steinberg was given an unprecedented opportunity to observe the admissions process at prestigious Wesleyan University. Over the course of nearly a year, Steinberg accompanied admissions officer Ralph Figueroa on a tour to assess and recruit the most promising students in the country. The Gatekeepers follows a diverse group of prospective students as they compete for places in the nation's most elite colleges.
-
-
Excellent insight but too much filler
- By Troyus on 07-28-14
-
Under Pressure
- Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls
- By: Lisa Damour Ph.D.
- Narrated by: Lisa Damour Ph.D.
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling author of Untangled presents an urgently needed guide to the alarming increase in anxiety and stress experienced by girls from elementary school through college.
-
-
Everyone should read/listen to this book.
- By Amazon Customer on 03-10-19
Related to this topic
-
The Smartest Kids in the World
- And How They Got That Way
- By: Amanda Ripley
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do other countries create "smarter" kids? In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they've never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy.What is it like to be a child in the world's new education superpowers? In a global quest to find answers for our own children, author and Time magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows three Americans embedded in these countries for one year.
-
-
a Wanna-be fiction writer avoids the subject
- By Niall on 11-23-13
By: Amanda Ripley
-
Whatever It Takes
- Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America
- By: Paul Tough
- Narrated by: Ax Norman
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What would it take?That was the question that Geoffrey Canada found himself asking. What would it take to change the lives of poor children, not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in big numbers, and in a way that could be replicated nationwide? The question led him to create the Harlem Children's Zone, a 97-block laboratory in central Harlem where he is testing new and sometimes controversial ideas about poverty in America.
-
-
Aboslutely terrific!
- By Anthony on 09-21-10
By: Paul Tough
-
How Children Succeed
- Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
- By: Paul Tough
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. But in How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, and self-control. How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character.
-
-
Article based on interviews
- By Anonymous User on 10-24-24
By: Paul Tough
-
The New Education
- How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux
- By: Cathy N. Davidson
- Narrated by: Carolyn Cook
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our current system of higher education dates to the period from 1865 to 1925, when the nation's new universities created grades and departments, majors and minors, in an attempt to prepare young people for a world transformed by the telegraph and the Model T. As Cathy Davidson argues in The New Education, this approach to education is wholly unsuited to the era of the gig economy.
-
-
Practical Enough / Scholarly Enough
- By Amazon Customer on 07-22-20
-
Excellent Sheep
- The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life
- By: William Deresiewicz
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Excellent Sheep takes a sharp look at the high-pressure conveyor belt that begins with parents and counselors who demand perfect grades and culminates in the skewed applications Deresiewicz saw firsthand as a member of Yale's admissions committee. As schools shift focus from the humanities to "practical" subjects like economics and computer science, students are losing the ability to think in innovative ways.
-
-
skip the book read the essay
- By Amazon Customer on 05-07-15
-
The Case Against Education
- Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money
- By: Bryan Caplan
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Despite being immensely popular - and immensely lucrative - education is grossly overrated. In this explosive book, Bryan Caplan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skill but to certify their intelligence, work ethic, and conformity - in other words, to signal the qualities of a good employee.
-
-
Finally, someone says what needs to be said about education
- By Brandon B. on 05-17-18
By: Bryan Caplan
-
The Smartest Kids in the World
- And How They Got That Way
- By: Amanda Ripley
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do other countries create "smarter" kids? In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they've never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy.What is it like to be a child in the world's new education superpowers? In a global quest to find answers for our own children, author and Time magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows three Americans embedded in these countries for one year.
-
-
a Wanna-be fiction writer avoids the subject
- By Niall on 11-23-13
By: Amanda Ripley
-
Whatever It Takes
- Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America
- By: Paul Tough
- Narrated by: Ax Norman
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What would it take?That was the question that Geoffrey Canada found himself asking. What would it take to change the lives of poor children, not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in big numbers, and in a way that could be replicated nationwide? The question led him to create the Harlem Children's Zone, a 97-block laboratory in central Harlem where he is testing new and sometimes controversial ideas about poverty in America.
-
-
Aboslutely terrific!
- By Anthony on 09-21-10
By: Paul Tough
-
How Children Succeed
- Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
- By: Paul Tough
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. But in How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, and self-control. How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character.
-
-
Article based on interviews
- By Anonymous User on 10-24-24
By: Paul Tough
-
The New Education
- How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux
- By: Cathy N. Davidson
- Narrated by: Carolyn Cook
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our current system of higher education dates to the period from 1865 to 1925, when the nation's new universities created grades and departments, majors and minors, in an attempt to prepare young people for a world transformed by the telegraph and the Model T. As Cathy Davidson argues in The New Education, this approach to education is wholly unsuited to the era of the gig economy.
-
-
Practical Enough / Scholarly Enough
- By Amazon Customer on 07-22-20
-
Excellent Sheep
- The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life
- By: William Deresiewicz
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Excellent Sheep takes a sharp look at the high-pressure conveyor belt that begins with parents and counselors who demand perfect grades and culminates in the skewed applications Deresiewicz saw firsthand as a member of Yale's admissions committee. As schools shift focus from the humanities to "practical" subjects like economics and computer science, students are losing the ability to think in innovative ways.
-
-
skip the book read the essay
- By Amazon Customer on 05-07-15
-
The Case Against Education
- Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money
- By: Bryan Caplan
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Despite being immensely popular - and immensely lucrative - education is grossly overrated. In this explosive book, Bryan Caplan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skill but to certify their intelligence, work ethic, and conformity - in other words, to signal the qualities of a good employee.
-
-
Finally, someone says what needs to be said about education
- By Brandon B. on 05-17-18
By: Bryan Caplan
-
The Exceptions
- Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science
- By: Kate Zernike
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1963, a female student was attending a lecture given by Nobel Prize winner James Watson, then tenured at Harvard. At nineteen, she was struggling to define her future. She had given herself just ten years to fulfill her professional ambitions before starting the family she was expected to have. For women at that time, a future on the usual path of academic science was unimaginable—but during that lecture, young Nancy Hopkins fell in love with the promise of genetics. Confidently believing science to be a pure meritocracy, she embarked on a career.
-
-
Unbelievable and deeply inspiring.
- By Lilit Garibyan on 06-05-23
By: Kate Zernike
-
Where You Are Is Not Who You Are
- A Memoir
- By: Ursula Burns
- Narrated by: Ursula Burns
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company looks back at her life and her career at Xerox, sharing unique insights on American business and corporate life, the workers she has always valued, racial and economic justice, how greed is threatening democracy, and the obstacles she’s conquered being Black and a woman.
-
-
Relatable story, flaws and all
- By Anonymous User on 01-06-22
By: Ursula Burns
-
The Redemption of Bobby Love
- A Story of Faith, Family, and Justice
- By: Bobby Love, Cheryl Love
- Narrated by: Harvey Reaves, Cheri VandenHeuvel
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bobby and Cheryl Love were living in Brooklyn, happily married for decades, when the FBI and NYPD appeared at their door and demanded to know from Bobby, in front of his shocked wife and children: “What is your name? No, what’s your real name?” Bobby’s thirty-eight-year secret was out. As a Black child in the Jim Crow South, Bobby found himself in legal trouble before his 14th birthday. Sparked by the desperation he felt in the face of limited options and the pull of the streets, Bobby became a master thief.
-
-
Heart Wrenching and Heart Warming
- By ArizonaBorn on 01-01-22
By: Bobby Love, and others
-
Yale Needs Women
- How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant
- By: Anne Gardiner Perkins
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the winter of 1969, from big cities to small towns, young women across the country sent in applications to Yale University for the first time. The Ivy League institution dedicated to graduating "1,000 male leaders" each year had finally decided to open its doors to the nation's top female students. The landmark decision was a huge step forward for women's equality in education. Or was it?
-
-
A Long Struggle
- By Anonymous User on 08-21-20
-
My Remarkable Journey
- A Memoir
- By: Katherine Johnson, Joylette Hylick, Katherine Moore
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The remarkable woman at heart of the smash New York Times best seller and Oscar-winning film Hidden Figures tells the full story of her life, including what it took to work at NASA, help land the first man on the moon, and live through a century of turmoil and change.
-
-
Amazing Woman, Interesting Life
- By Grace on 08-20-21
By: Katherine Johnson, and others
-
Radical
- Fighting to Put Students First
- By: Michelle Rhee
- Narrated by: Shannon McManus
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part memoir, part manifesto, Radical is this fearless advocate's incisive, intensely personal call-to-arms. Rhee combines the story of her own extraordinary experience with dozens of compelling examples from schools she's worked in and studied-from students from unspeakable home lives who have thrived in the classroom to teachers whose radical methods have produced unprecedented leaps in achievement. Radical chronicles Rhee's awakening to the potential of every child, her rage at the special interests blocking badly-needed change, and her recognition that it will take a grassroots movement to create outstanding public schools.
-
-
Good read after seeing Waiting for Superman
- By Marie on 04-10-13
By: Michelle Rhee
-
The End of College
- Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere
- By: Kevin Carey
- Narrated by: James Yaegashi
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Exploding college prices and a flagging global economy, combined with the derring-do of a few intrepid innovators, have created a dynamic climate for a total rethinking of an industry that has remained virtually unchanged for a hundred years. In The End of College, Kevin Carey, an education researcher and writer, draws on years of in-depth reporting and cutting-edge research to paint a vivid and surprising portrait of the future of education.
-
-
40 pages of content inflated to 250 pages
- By Brian Dickinson on 04-28-15
By: Kevin Carey
-
Pay Off
- How One Millennial Eliminated Nearly $80,000 in Student Debt in Less than Five Years
- By: Shannon Young
- Narrated by: Sandy Rustin
- Length: 1 hr and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2009, amid the global financial crisis, 21-year-old Shannon Young graduated from college with a degree in English and more than $80,000 in student debt. Less than five years later, she was completely debt-free. This is her story - a cautionary tale with a surprisingly hopeful outcome.
-
-
Completely Unremarkable.
- By Drew on 03-15-15
By: Shannon Young
-
The Global Achievement Gap
- Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills our Children Need - and What We Can Do About it
- By: Tony Wagner
- Narrated by: Paul Costanzo
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Education expert Tony Wagner situates our school problems in the context of the global knowledge economy and analyzes the skills necessary for our young people to succeed.
-
-
made obsolete by 'MostLikelyToSucceed'-still great
- By MichaelS on 04-01-16
By: Tony Wagner
-
The Prize
- Who's in Charge of America's Schools?
- By: Dale Russakoff
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Mark Zuckerberg announced in front of a cheering Oprah audience his $100 million pledge to transform the Newark Schools - and to solve the education crisis in every city in America - it looked like a huge win for then-mayor Cory Booker and governor Chris Christie. But their plans soon ran into a constituency not so easily moved - Newark's key education players, fiercely protective of their billion-dollar-per-annum system.
-
-
Well-researched - Provides Good Answers
- By Denyse on 01-11-16
By: Dale Russakoff
-
Kids These Days
- Human Capital and the Making of Millennials
- By: Malcolm Harris
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knows "what's wrong with millennials". Glenn Beck says we've been ruined by "participation trophies". Simon Sinek says we have low self-esteem. An Australian millionaire says millennials could all afford homes if we'd just give up avocado toast. Thanks, millionaire. This millennial is here to prove them all wrong.
-
-
A devastating dream of revolution
- By Kevin Tierney Jr on 11-23-17
By: Malcolm Harris
-
Debt-Free U
- How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching off My Parents
- By: Zac Bissonnette, Andrew Tobias
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These days, most people assume you need to pay a boatload of money for a quality college education. As a result, students and their parents are willing to go into years of debt and potentially sabotage their financial futures just to get a fancy name on a diploma. But Zac Bissonnette is walking proof that the assumption is not only false, but dangerous.
-
-
Too long winded
- By Raquel on 08-06-13
By: Zac Bissonnette, and others
What listeners say about The Inequality Machine
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jetaun Davis
- 05-20-21
A must-read/listen!
The sharing of research findings and stories of students, administrators, and teachers are the perfect combination for such an impactful book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mike Tabs
- 06-22-22
Missed opportunity
Overall this book has good insight into the inequality found within the US in regards to higher Ed. The author meanders through stories when I wished he would have focused more on data - which is peppered throughout the book. The missed opportunity, and frankly bizarre ending to this book was the last chapter on the GI Bill. Not only does this chapter feel out of place, the author of this “inequality” book fails to even reference the inequality that took place with veterans of color with the GI Bill. This major miss calls into question what else the author failed to include in the rest of the text.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tiamo
- 07-02-24
Hard truths
This book has so much science backed truth that one won't want to belive about what really happens in society. I do feel he gives some hope though. Highly recommend.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- KRH
- 03-05-24
The connection with individuals navigating higher education.
Very powerful and motivating book. The book helped me connect with the stories of the individuals navigating higher education. Felt a penmanship with some of the students working to succeed in a college atmosphere.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Davena
- 12-01-22
Absolutely Phenomenal!
I learned so much about college, admissions and why it’s so important to go to school. Please, please read this book, I promise you won’t regret it. It’s jammed packed with the information you need to succeed in America.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!