Resolve Riffs Investment Podcast · ReSolve Asset Management

John Skrentny: STEM Burnout and the Future of US Scientific Innovation

·1 hr 5 min·4 clips

A Facebook worker said, 'I felt like I had blood on my hands.'

1. Resolve Riffs Investment Podcast talks with UC San Diego sociology professor John Skrentny about his book Wasted Education and the future of U.S. scientific innovation. 2. John Skrentny is the guest and author, and Adam Butler is the host who brings the topic in through investing, labor markets, and national competitiveness. 3. The episode asks whether the U.S. is producing STEM graduates for jobs that actually use STEM skills or just for a pipeline that feeds other industries. 4. John says a scholar at an immigration conference told him only about a third of STEM grads are in STEM jobs, and that statistic sent him into years of research. 5. He explains that many people assume STEM is booming and guarantees secure careers, but employer behavior does not look like a true shortage. 6. John compares today’s broad “more STEM, the better” messaging with the more targeted logic of the Manhattan Project, which had a specific wartime task. 7. He argues that modern STEM policy often assumes innovation will happen automatically if enough graduates are produced. 8. John says the U.S. spends billions of dollars trying to move students into the STEM pipeline, while the employment data still show many graduates outside STEM occupations. 9. He distinguishes between strict occupational definitions of STEM jobs and a broader question of whether workers are using bachelor’s-level STEM expertise. 10. He gives examples of finance workers, quantitative analysts, and department chairs whose work uses some STEM skills but does not fit a narrow STEM label. 11. John describes the STEM education industrial complex as philanthropy, government, companies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Research Council all pushing the same message. 12. He says one major area of U.S. innovation is ad science and data analytics for advertising, which he treats as a poor fit with public ideas of competitiveness. 13. John argues that software attracts STEM workers because it scales easily, needs no factory, and can produce huge returns from low-risk investments. 14. He points to Instagram being bought for $1 billion with 11 employees as an example of the upside that pulls investment toward software. 15. John says AI, fintech, surveillance capitalism, and platform work can pull STEM talent toward products that many workers do not feel good about building. 16. He quotes a Facebook worker who quit and said she felt like she had blood on her hands because engagement could turn into enragement and feed anger. 17. The discussion is interview-style, with Adam Butler pressing follow-up questions and John answering with examples from his research, his neighbors, and his book. 18. The tone is analytical and conversational, with policy language, labor-market detail, and occasional direct advice for students and parents. 19. Best for sociology readers, STEM students, parents, and policy-minded investors. 20. Less useful for listeners wanting a light or purely technical science discussion.

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