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Welcome to Bishop Gray Academy, the country's

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most exclusive boarding school, a place where

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the best and brightest aren't fighting to

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be prom queen or captain of the

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football team. They're on track

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to become the next Supreme Court

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Justice. Academy is

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a new scripted podcast from Wondery

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and Atwill Media that follows Ava

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Richards, played by HBO's industries, Mahala

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Harold, a brilliant scholarship student who

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has to quickly adapt to her

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newfound eat or be eaten world.

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Ava sets her sights on being the first

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scholarship student ever to make the list. Bishop

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Gray's all coveted academic top

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ten, curated by the headmaster himself.

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But this ambition comes at the

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expense of new friendships and budding

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romances. When she realizes there's no way

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she'll make the list on her own,

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Ava is recruited by the Knight

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of the Wolf, Bishop Gray's underground

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society with more secrets than the

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Illuminati. If she bends to their demands

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in exchange for her own success, she could

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have one of the ten coveted

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spots. But at what cost?

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Academy takes you into the world of a cutthroat

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private school where power, money, and

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sex collide in a game of

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life and death. I'm about

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to play a clip from Academy. Follow Academy

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on the Wondery app or wherever you get

1:16

your podcasts. Bishop

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Gray Academy. The

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most prestigious boarding school in the country.

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And the most cutthroat. Everything.

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And I mean everything at

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Bishop Gray revolves around...the list.

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Is it fucked up that our school publicly ranks

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the top ten students on campus? Of course!

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Would I cut off both of my arms to get on? Absolutely.

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And on, you need to excel in three areas. Academics.

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I take four APs, two languages, and an

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intensive writing seminar. And I'm only

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on 30 milligrams of Adderall! Extracurriculars.

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The competition is brutal, man, so you need to

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participate where I... I'm the VP of

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the VP I'm

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not supposed to be here. Nobody

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in my hometown of Loveland,

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Pennsylvania, population 12,000, understands why

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I sacrificed my friends, my

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sanity, and my childhood to

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get here. But I'm here now.

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And I'm not going to settle for mediocrity, because

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getting into the top 10 opens up a

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lot of doors. Harvard,

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Yale, Google, Apple, US,

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and if you graduate number one, the entire

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world is yours for the choosing. I

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want that. And it's going to

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be mine. Congrats.

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First break of the year. Come clean it up. It's

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just a planter. It happens all the time. Let

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me out.

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You're new. How'd you know? Well,

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you're not allowed to be in here unless you're part of the

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gardening club. But I won't tell. Thanks.

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You're a teacher? Wow.

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I looked that old. No,

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senior. It's

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nice in here, right? It's a good

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escape from the trust fund kids having panic attacks out

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there. I

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really shouldn't be this clumsy. Back

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home in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania,

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we had a little garden. But it

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was nothing like this glass and steel

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conservatory with, like, humidity control. Damn.

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Cottagecore. That's cool. I

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don't know if I would say cottagecore. Well, what'd

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you say? grow just normal stuff

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tomatoes garlic eggplant I've

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always found eggplant tricky and these two

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huge cherry trees sweet Stella

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cherries they're the best sweet

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Stella cherries love to try some

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so what convinced you to leave the cottage for Bishop Gray

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a lot of things the academics the

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people the prestige sure

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I guess yeah

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I see so you're one of those strivers

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what does that mean you know the

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people who freaked out about their GPA going up or

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down like a tenth of a point it's

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not really my speed why did you come here

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I've been at Bishop Grayson's kindergarten

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just a few miles away from here my

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parents came before that and

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my grandparents before that so

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you're a legacy I hear

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you guys get all the awards and attention maybe

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if you're looking for attention so

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you want to join the gardening club or what yeah

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I don't know I'm gonna be pretty

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busy this semester trying to get on the list

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maybe eventually

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but there's a lot to

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do first like getting

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an orchestra audition slot I'm actually big an

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orchestra if you need a wreck really that

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would be great oh yeah you should see

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me play the triangle very

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funny don't worry you'll figure it

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out people have all sorts of

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different ways of thriving and surviving at Bishop

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Gray money and professional networks help

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of course and the

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secret societies if you believe

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in that sort of thing I gotta

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get back to these tomatoes but hey you should

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join the garden club for real you'd

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be perfect for it this

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is a pair did you get it yeah

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I got your awful fun thanks

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but I have a lot on my plate well if you

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ever need an escape I'm

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Jesse welcome to Bishop Gray

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I'm Eva And,

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unfortunately, I can't

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pick my extracurriculars based solely off

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of membership of Tall, Hot, Boys.

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Binge all episodes of Academy early

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and ad-free right now by joining Wondery

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Plus in the Wondery app or on

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Apple Podcast.