This lecture is based on joint work with Brian Parshall.cI want to tell a story about a new model forcrepresentation theory of semisimple algebraic groups, one involvingcforcing positive gradings on finite-dimensional algebras (sometimes calledcgeneralized Schur algebras’) that control their representation theory.cThis involves, at first, fairly familiar constructions arising from radical series filtrations, but later there is a more sophisticated construction, involving descent from radical series in algebras associated to quantum groups. Several applications and conjectures state properties which do not involve gradings at all. In the background is the new notion of a Q-Koszul algebra, which is a structure similar to a Koszul algebra, but a candidate for structures modeling (at least forced graded versions of) all Schur algebras, and most generalized Schur algebras.