Open Book with Anthony Scaramucci

Neil Gross joins me for a conversation about what happened to the American college experience, how politics, polarization, and fear of speaking your mind have damaged one of the greatest institutions this country ever built. We get into where the left went too far, why the right’s attacks on higher education could make things even worse, and whether America is at risk of giving away one of its greatest competitive advantages.

Neil Gross is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology at Colby College. He is the author of "Why Are Professors Liberal?" and "Why Do Conservatives Care?", which was based on the most comprehensive study of faculty politics since the 1960s. He has taught at Harvard, Princeton, Williams, and the University of Southern California and written for The Atlantic and The New York Times.

Pick up your copy of Neil's brilliant new book What Happened to College?: How Politics Broke Higher Education and What We Can Do to Fix It (out today).

Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio.

Pre-order my next book, All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump, out on the 17th of September in the UK and the 22nd of September in the US: ⁠https://www.scaramucci.net/allthewrongmoves
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Today on Open Book, we're not joined by an author, but by a woman fighting to become the next mayor of Chicago. Susana Mendoza grew up in Chicago learning how to stand up to bullies, fight for what she believes in, and never back down. We talk about what’s gone wrong in Chicago, why she says the city can’t afford another bad mayor, and why she’s willing to risk her political career because, as she puts it, “I’m afraid to lose my city.”

Susana A. Mendoza is an American politician. She is the 10th and current Comptroller of Illinois, taking office on December 5, 2016. She previously served as the City Clerk of Chicago from 2011 to 2016. She is running for Mayor of Chicago.

Learn more about her campaign here: https://susanamendoza.com/

Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio.

Pre-order my next book, All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump, out on the 17th of September in the UK and the 22nd of September in the US: ⁠https://www.scaramucci.net/allthewrongmoves

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Fidelity is one of the most powerful financial institutions in America, but the story of the family behind it has largely remained hidden. Justin Baer joins me to reveal how the Johnson dynasty built a $13 trillion empire, and how Abigail Johnson had the courage to reinvent it before the old business model became a relic.

Justin Baer is an award-winning journalist and an editor for The Wall Street Journal. In a career that includes stints at the Financial Times and Bloomberg News, he has covered almost every significant financial event over the past two decades, including the dot-com bubble, the 2008 financial crisis and the economic fallout from the pandemic. Along the way, Baer has chronicled the ups and downs of such major institutions as Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

Get a copy of his brilliant new book, House of Fidelity: The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing

Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio.

Pre-order my next book, All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump, out on the 17th of September in the UK and the 22nd of September in the US: ⁠https://www.scaramucci.net/allthewrongmoves
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A former CIA officer sat down to write a "fun airport novel" and ended up putting a 20% probability on America actually splitting apart. James Telfer joins me to talk about what he saw from the inside that made him think the unthinkable, and why he's not laughing at his own fiction anymore.

James Telfer is a retired CIA officer. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from the University of Florida, then his Master of Science in Criminology from Florida State University. He traveled the world in service to the country, retiring in December 2025.

Get a copy of his book, The National Divorce: A Story of a Fractured Superpower

Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio.

Pre-order my next book, All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump, out on the 17th of September in the UK and the 22nd of September in the US: ⁠https://www.scaramucci.net/allthewrongmoves
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What does real courage look like when the cameras stop rolling, and the tribe wants you to fall in line? On this episode of Open Book, I sit down with Rye Barcott, Marine, author, and founder of With Honor, to talk about his book "Courage to Save Us," and why the ten Americans he profiles just might be the antidote to everything that's broken in our politics right now.

Rye Barcott is a Marine Corps veteran, social entrepreneur, investor, and New York Times-bestselling author. He is co-founder and CEO of With Honor, a cross-partisan organization that fights polarization by supporting principled veteran leadership in public office. His first book, It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine's Path to Peace, juxtaposes humanitarian and military service in Kenya and Iraq. Dartmouth College awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

Learn more about his incredible organization With Honor here: https://withhonor.org/

Get a copy of Rye's important new book, Courage Can Save US: Ten Extraordinary Americans and the Fight for Our Future

📚Books mentioned in this episode:
War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges
It Happened On the Way to War: A Marine's Path to Peace by Rye Barcott
The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education by Craig M. Mullaney

Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio.

Pre-order my next book, All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump, out on the 17th of September in the UK and the 22nd of September in the US: ⁠https://www.scaramucci.net/allthewrongmoves
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices