Theo Baker
Theo Baker is an undergraduate at Stanford University. His reporting led to the resignation of former Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne and made Baker the youngest-ever recipient of the prestigious George Polk Award. Baker’s other writing has appeared in The Atlantic, New York Magazine, The New York Times, and elsewhere. His reporting has been honored with the Dan Rather Medal for News and Guts, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, and the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence, among other honors. Baker will graduate from Stanford in June 2026.
His debut book, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University, will be published by Penguin Press in May 2026. This is the incredible journey of a reluctant teenage reporter who uncovered a story that shook the scientific world and became front-page news across the country. It is also an unprecedented inside view of the students learning to rule the world—and what they’re learning from those who already do. From slush funds to yacht parties to fraud, the book captures Silicon Valley’s training ground as never seen before.