What's The Line Between 'Dirty' And 'Clean' Money When Financing Academic Research?

Two academics are cutting ties to MIT's Media Lab because of the Lab's ties to financier Jeffrey Epstein. This comes after an apology from the Lab's director, Joichi Ito last week. Ito admitted to an "error in judgment" for letting Epstein donate to the Media Lab through foundations, inviting Epstein to visit the Lab, and accepting his money for Ito's own outside funds that support start ups.

We speak with MIT Professor David Kaiser about how this incident fits into the longer history of how university's evaluate where their funds are coming from.

David Kaiser, professor of the history of science and physics at MIT.