Citations Needed · Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson

News Brief: As Trump Crushes Academia, the NYT and Atlantic Still Fight 'Woke' Wars from 5 Years Ago

February 18, 2026·46 min·2 clips

Chenjerai Kumanyika argues that attacks on higher education target climate research, health care, and democratic participation.

1. Citations Needed examines attacks on higher education, connecting Trump administration actions to a 50-year history of privatization and anti-intellectual politics. 2. Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson host Todd Wolfson, an American Association of University Professors leader and Rutgers professor, and Chenjerai Kumanyika, an NYU journalism professor and podcast host. 3. The central argument is that attacks on universities accelerated under Trump but began with earlier efforts to weaken public funding, academic independence, and collective organizing. 4. Wolfson describes receiving about 50 daily messages from frightened faculty and identifies attacks on DEI, equity-focused research, biomedical funding, and the NIH and NSF. 5. Kumanyika says targeting climate research, health programs, and university-linked care systems affects communities far beyond campuses. 6. The guests trace current conflicts to Ronald Reagan's California politics, the Lewis Powell memo, tuition increases, loans, and university financialization. 7. Johnson criticizes the New York Times, Atlantic, Ezra Klein, David Brooks, and Nick Kristof for repeating claims that universities are obsolete, excessively woke, or economically unjustified. 8. Kumanyika argues that the narrow return-on-investment framework ignores critical inquiry, art, history, community, and students who still want journalism despite AI-driven coding concerns. 9. The discussion presents Gaza protests, campus encampments, ICE resistance, mutual aid, and the February 13 United Educators of San Francisco strike as examples of organizing around universities. 10. Best for listeners tracking media criticism, academic freedom, labor, and contemporary higher-education politics.

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