For a supposedly secret society, it’s pretty damn famous. Skull and Bones.
The name conjures images of naked undergrads ensconced in marble crypts, oddball initiation rites and privileged, powerful white men. Four presidents, including the two George Bushes, a gaggle of Senators, Supreme Court justices, business titans, even the famous peacenik William Sloane Coffin were Bonesmen first. But beyond secret handshakes and candlelit ceremonies, there’s the suggestion of a subterranean path to power. Membership, after all, has its privileges.
But is it an express elevator to prestige’s penthouse, or just a fancy credential to add to your cocktail party introduction? And what really goes on inside that rarefied realm anyway? We’re digging up Skull and Bones.
(Hosted by Alex Beam)
Guests:
Ron Rosenbaum, contributor to the New York Observer;
Frank Foer, staff writer with The New Republic.