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Podcast: Breaking down the 2024 election

Republican elephant and Democratic donkey
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In the latest episode of The Bully Pulpit podcast, Democrats, Republicans and the media come together for a lively discussion breaking down the 2024 primary contests, the general election, and the presidential campaigns as hosts Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy continue their work toward political solutions that overcome partisan divides.

Shrum, a Democratic strategist, and Murphy, a Republican consultant, are co-directors of the USC Center for the Political Future. For this episode, they spoke to:


  • Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian and the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities at Rice University. Jane Coaston: “The Argument” Podcast Host, The New York Times; Spring 2024 Fellow, USC Center for the Political Future.
  • Ron Galperin, former controller and CFO for the City of Los Angeles.
  • Tim Miller: political consultant, writer for The Bulwark and campaign director for Jeb Bush’s 2016 White House run.

Each of the guests is a spring 2024 fellow at Center for the Political Future.

Remember to check out The Democracy Group Podcast Fellowship, where passionate individuals, especially college and high school students, can learn to launch their podcasts. Apply at democracygroup.org/fellowship. The fellowship is sponsored by the Bridge Alliance, which operates The Fulcrum.

You can explore more featured podcasts here.

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Let’s be honest: does driving feel safe anymore? Ask anyone navigating the daily commute, especially in notoriously chaotic places like Miami, and you’ll likely hear a frustrated, perhaps even expletive-laden, "No!" That gut feeling isn't paranoia; it's backed by grim statistics. Over 200 people died on Travis County roads in 2023, according to Vision Zero ATX. Nationally, tens of thousands perish in preventable crashes. It's a relentless public health crisis we've somehow numbed ourselves to, with a staggering cost measured in shattered families and lost potential.

But imagine a different reality, one where that daily fear evaporates. What if I told you that the technology to dramatically reduce this carnage isn't science fiction but sitting right under our noses? Autonomous vehicles (AVs), or self-driving cars, are here and rapidly improving. Leveraging breakthroughs in AI, these vehicles are increasingly outperforming human drivers, proving to be significantly less likely to cause accidents, especially those resulting in injury. Studies suggest that replacing human drivers with AVs could drastically cut road fatalities. Even achieving just 10% AV penetration on our roads might improve traffic safety by as much as 50%, with those gains likely to grow exponentially as the technology becomes more sophisticated and widespread.

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