Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Podcast playlist: Votes, votes, votes

Podcast playlist from The Democracy Group, focused on mechanics of voting, voting rights
Stefan Ilic/Gettty Images
Voting by mail, voting from jail, voting as a young person, voting as a woman. The intersection of identity, personal circumstances and voting is a crucial point of discussion in this tumultuous election year. This podcast playlist features episodes that dive into the mechanics of voting, voting rights and ways to make voting more fair and inclusive.

This playlist is part of The Fulcrum's partnership with The Democracy Group, a podcast network at Penn State University. All of its shows are committed to engaging in civil discourse, inspiring civic engagement and exploring the future of our democracy. This list features episodes from 70 Million, Politics in Question, The Science of Politics, Democracy Matters, Democracy Works, Another Way and How Do We Fix It.

Read More

New York Post front page reads "Injustice." Daily News front page reads "Guilty."

New York's daily newspapers had very different headlines the morning after Donald Trump was convicted in s hush money trial.

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

Why the American media and their critics won’t stop telling the same lie

The American media has a bootleggers-and-Baptists problem.

Bootleggers and Baptists” is one of the most useful concepts in understanding how economic regulation works in the real world. Coined by economist Bruce Yandle, the term describes how groups that are ostensibly opposed to each other have a shared interest in maintaining the status quo. Baptists favored prohibition, and so did bootleggers who profited by selling illegal alcohol. And politicians benefited by playing both sides.

There’s an analogous dynamic with the press today.

Keep ReadingShow less
city skyline

Reading, Pennsylvania, can be a model for a path forward.

arlutz73/Getty Images

The election couldn’t solve our crisis of belief. Here’s what can.

The stark divisions surrounding the recent presidential election are still with us, and will be for some time. The reason is clear: We have a crisis of belief in this country that goes much deeper than any single election.

So many people, especially young people, have lost faith in America. We have lost belief in our leaders, institutions and systems. Even in one another. Recent years have seen us roiled by debates over racial injustice, fatigued by wars, troubled by growing inequities and disparities, and worried about the very health of our democracy. We are awash in manufactured polarization, hatred and bigotry, mistrust, and a lack of hope.

Keep ReadingShow less