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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.

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The Desert's Thirsty New Neighbor

A "for sale" sign in the area where the Austin, Texas-based group BorderPlex plans to build a $165 billion data center in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

Photo by Alberto Silva Fernandez/Puente News Collaborative & High Country News

The Desert's Thirsty New Neighbor

Sunland Park, New Mexico, is not a notably online community. Retirees have settled in mobile homes around the small border town, just over the state line from El Paso. Some don’t own computers — they make their way to the air-conditioned public library when they need to look something up.

Soon, though, the local economy could center around the internet: County officials have approved up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds to help developers build a sprawling data center campus just down the road.

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Handmade crafts that look like little ghosts hanging at a store front.

As America faces division and unrest, this reflection asks whether we can bridge our political extremes before the cauldron of conflict boils over.

Getty Images, Yuliia Pavaliuk

Demons, Saints, Shutdowns: Halloween’s Reflection of a Nation on Edge

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble.

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​Former Republican presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Former Republican presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. listens during a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump at Desert Diamond Arena on August 23, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona.

Getty Images, Rebecca Noble

The Saturated Fat Fallacy: RFK Jr.’s Dietary Crusade Endangers Public Health

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent embrace of saturated fats as part of a national health strategy is consistent with much of Kennedy’s health policy, which is often short of clinical proven data and offers opinions to Americans that are potentially outright dangerous.

By promoting butter, red meat, and full-fat dairy without clear intake guidelines or scientific consensus, Kennedy is not just challenging dietary orthodoxy. He’s undermining the very institutions tasked with safeguarding public health.

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Who’s Hungry? When Accounting Rules Decide Who Eats
apples and bananas in brown cardboard box
Photo by Maria Lin Kim on Unsplash

Who’s Hungry? When Accounting Rules Decide Who Eats

With the government shutdown still in place, a fight over the future of food assistance is unfolding in Washington, D.C.

As part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, Congress approved sweeping changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, affecting about 42 million Americans per month.

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