# Why Many Elites Denigrate the Very Values That Made Them Successful | Rob Henderson

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/american-thought-leaders-1056274/why-many-elites-denigrate-the-very-values-that-made-them-successful-rob-henderson
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/american-thought-leaders-1056274/why-many-elites-denigrate-the-very-values-that-made-them-successful-rob-henderson.md
Podcast: [American Thought Leaders](https://stenobird.com/podcast/american-thought-leaders-1056274)
Published: 2026-07-03T01:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.theepochtimes.com/podcasts
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/8b8d31d2-5633-4ca6-8f13-859c75e1edc2.mp3
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Duration seconds: 2395

## Resource

Rob Henderson grew up in poverty in Los Angeles moving from foster home to foster home, seeing addiction, instability, and family breakdown all around him. He joined the U.S. Air Force at 17, entered Yale University at 25 with help from the GI Bill, and completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge. He climbed “every rung on the American class ladder,” as he describes it. But at Yale and other elite universities, he saw the spread of radical ideas—abolish the police, empty prisons, dismantle marriage, decriminalize all drugs—ideas that he understood would be devastating to the communities he grew up in. And that’s how he came to develop his now famous concept of luxury beliefs: “Luxury beliefs are ideas and opinions that confer status on the affluent … while inflicting costs on the less fortunate members of society,” he says. How is it that these ideas came to be so pervasive? And what are their true consequences for society? Henderson is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, contributing editor of City Journal, and bestselling author of “Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class.” Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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