In recent years, we have seen the diversity, equity, and inclusion industry explode in popularity and prevalence. But Tara's guest today says that at its worst, DEI runs from useless to counterproductive. And he thinks companies would be better off giving the lavish DEI consulting fees directly to the poor. Conor Friedersdorf is a staff writer at The Atlantic, and the founding editor of The Best of Journalism, a Substack newsletter that highlights exceptional non-fiction writing. Last week, he published a piece at The Atlantic titled “The DEI Industry Needs to Check Its Privilege.” 

Lean Out will be off on our annual summer hiatus for the next few weeks, but we'll be back at the end of June with more conversations with heterodox writers and thinkers from around the world.  

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com