College Matters from The Chronicle

Before There Was Woke, There Was 'PCU'

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In 1994, a movie called PCU opened in theaters to little fanfare. But three decades on, the cult classic feels like an on-the-nose satire of the kinds of identity politics, liberal extremism, and right-wing intolerance that fuel many of today’s hottest disputes in higher education. In a conversation with The Chronicle’s Jack Stripling, Zak Penn, a co-writer of PCU, talks about how the film looks in 2024. Later, Chronicle staff share their impressions of the movie.

Related Reading:

  • A Decade of Ideological Transformation Comes Undone: What the congressional antisemitism hearing really means. 
  • What Does ‘Woke’ Mean Anyway?
  • The Oral History of PCU, the Culture Wars Cult Classic 


    • Guest: Zak Penn, a co-writer of PCU


    For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.

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