This week, Katie shares an intimate conversation with Mackenzie Fierceton, the 24-year-old subject of a lengthy, riveting and much-shared profile in the New Yorker written by Rachel Aviv. Mackenzie grew up as a star student in a St. Louis suburb where she lived with her mother, a prominent local radiologist. Behind the facade of her seemingly privileged life though, Mackenzie was allegedly being abused by her mother and her mother’s boyfriend. After one particularly violent episode, she ended up in the hospital for 22 days and was placed in foster care. Mackenzie eventually won a full scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania and a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford…and that’s when her story took yet another turn. After facing accusations that her depiction of her past was inaccurate, Mackenzie lost her Rhodes scholarship and is now in the midst of a legal battle with Penn. Beyond the specifics of Mackenzie’s harrowing story though, her experience raises a lot of questions about the thorny politics of higher education, our assumptions about race and class regarding abuse, and so much more. A word of caution to our listeners –  Katie’s conversation with Mackenzie touches on themes of physical and sexual abuse, which may be difficult for some listeners.

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