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The Harvard Plan

The Harvard Plan

The Boston Globe 8 Episodes Nov 15, 2025

The Harvard Plan examines the conflict over the future of America's oldest and most prestigious university. Hosted by award-winning reporter Ilya Marritz, it is a co-production of The Boston Globe and WNYC's On The Media. Season One focuses on the turmoil at Harvard in 2024, including the rise and fall of its first Black president, Claudine Gay. Season Two looks at the personal and moral consequences of the Trump administration's pressure on higher education.

Episodes

The Endless Frontier
The Endless Frontier Nov 15, 2025 3098 Universities were not always so vulnerable to the whims of politics. The whole system of taxpayer-funded, university-led scientific research came about at the end of World War II, and was the brainchild of a man named Vannevar Bush. He felt the partnership of government and academics had to be equal in order to yield breakthroughs. Today, the Trump administration is proposing a new “compact” that
Jay & Alan
Jay & Alan Nov 5, 2025 3063 Harvard president Alan Garber and National Institutes of Health director  Jay Bhattacharya are at the heart of the national fight over the future of academia. Alan Garber has been cast as the defender of academic freedom and democracy; Jay Bhattacharya is Donald Trump’s pick to lead the NIH, the agency withholding billions of dollars in research grants from Harvard. Oddly enough, the two men go wa
And so it begins...
And so it begins... Oct 29, 2025 3055 What happened at Harvard after Donald Trump’s inauguration? Three main characters, all Harvard insiders, tell the story from their perspective: politics professor Ryan Enos, genetics professor and cancer researcher Kamila Naxerova, and Kit Parker, a colonel in the United States Army Reserve and professor of bioengineering and applied physics. Their personal perspectives interweave with the dramati
Season Two Trailer
Season Two Trailer Oct 23, 2025 115 Season One of The Harvard Plan anticipated what could happen to Harvard and academia once the new Trump administration came to power. Season Two picks up where the story left off. Host Ilya Marritz investigates the pressure Harvard's been under since January 2025, through the stories of some of the key players. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“The Universities Are The Enemy”
“The Universities Are The Enemy” Dec 20, 2024 2847 In part three of this collaboration with WNYC’s On The Media, the deep history of Harvard and the distinctly American idea of “diversity” is the hidden subtext for much of the recent strife. For most of the past half-century, the academy (and the business world) has embraced a concept of diversity as a social good.That concept, was developed at Harvard and endorsed by the Supreme Court, until the
“Diversity Hire”
“Diversity Hire” Dec 12, 2024 1858 In part two of this collaboration with WNYC’s On The Media, Claudine Gay is accused of academic plagiarism, just days after giving testimony to Congress. The drip-drip of new allegations keeps the story in the headlines. It also reinforces critics’ allegation that Gay is a “diversity hire,” unworthy of the job. We hear from two of the writers who broke that news, and from a defender of Harvard’s d
A President on Trial
A President on Trial Dec 5, 2024 2063 In part one of this collaboration with WNYC’s On The Media, Claudine Gay’s history-making inauguration as Harvard’s first Black president in September 2023 is seen by many as an inspirational moment for the university.  But by December 2023, that hope sours as her presidency becomes a proxy battleground for American culture wars  After war breaks out in the Middle East, Gay struggles to navigate
The Harvard Plan Season One Trailer
The Harvard Plan Season One Trailer Dec 4, 2024 60 Universities have become a battlefield in the American culture wars in a way that’s dramatic and new. In the past year, Congress subpoenaed and investigated the inner workings of private colleges for the first time; four ivy league presidents quit their jobs amid mounting pressure and many institutions rolled back their commitments to be welcoming places for all. Meanwhile, President-elect Trump c

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