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Just the Facts: Canadian Tariffs

Just the Facts: Canadian Tariffs

Coins on top of countries.

If Countries Stop Buying U.S. Debt, Everything Changes.

​The U.S. Constitution.

Call for a Constitutional Convention Veils Anti-Constitutionalism and Portends Political Chaos

Redistricting

Redistricting

Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs on stage

Luke Combs, politics and healing our nation's divide

The End of the American Era

The End of the American Era

News Ambassadors radio pieces begin to air across the country

News Ambassadors logo
The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumApr 25, 2024
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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Divisive partisanship continues to threaten democracy, especially in the lead-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

A new program, News Ambassadors — part of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund since 2022 — is working to lessen the divide through a collaborative journalism project to help American communities that hold different political views better understand each other, while giving student reporters a valuable learning experience in the creation of solutions reporting.

The program is directed by Shia Levitt, a longtime public radio journalist who has reported for NPR, Marketplace and other outlets. Levitt has also taught radio reporting and audio storytelling at Brooklyn College in New York and at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., as well as for WNYC’s Radio Rookies program and other organizations.

The project links journalism students to counterparts in politically or demographically dissimilar areas to collaborate on stories exploring solutions to contentious issues. News Ambassadors also fosters collaborations between journalism schools and public radio stations across the country to help fill gaps in local news coverage. The project trains journalism students on strategies to report stories that uplift solutions and common ground, and then students report stories informed by these new tools. The strongest stories are shared with local radio station partners for possible broadcast.

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This spring, News Ambassadors has introduced students to solutions journalism and complicating the narratives, a conflict mediation- informed framework designed to help journalists improve their reporting on polarizing issues. This collaborative project helps young reporters better understand the perspectives of people outside the bubbles where they live, and helps American communities that hold different political views better understand each other.

News Ambassadors’ first stories are starting to wrap up from the 2023-24 project cohort.

Today’s audio story

Latinx people have lower voter turnout than the general population of Athens, Ga. Reporter Izzy Wagner visited a local nonprofit, Ulead, that’s working to boost civic engagement to help immigrant students succeed.

Wagner recorded this audio report.

This is the first of what will be many News Ambassadors pieces by radio station partners. For this piece, WUGA has been working in tandem with the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Solutions Journalism Hub of the South to foster new radio voices as a part of its News Ambassadors program. Izzy Wagner is a senior and a News Ambassador.

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An AI Spark Worth Spreading

People working with AI technology.

Getty Images, Maskot

An AI Spark Worth Spreading

In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, policymakers face a delicate balancing act: fostering innovation while addressing legitimate concerns about AI's potential impacts. Representative Michael Keaton’s proposed HB 1833, also known as the Spark Act, represents a refreshing approach to this challenge—one that Washington legislators would be right to pass and other states would be wise to consider.

As the AI Innovation and Law Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, I find the Spark Act particularly promising. By establishing a grant program through the Department of Commerce to promote innovative uses of AI, Washington's legislators have a chance to act on a fundamental truth: technological diffusion is essential to a dynamic economy, widespread access to opportunity, and the inspiration of future innovation.

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Trump’s Gambit: Trade Tariff Relief For a TikTok Sale

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Trump’s Gambit: Trade Tariff Relief For a TikTok Sale

You know things aren’t going well in the negotiations for the U.S. operations of TikTok when President Trump has to bribe the Chinese government with billions in tariff relief.

But that’s exactly what was reported out of the White House. President Trump is willing to give the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) billions in tariff relief if they pressured TikTok to sell its U.S. operations before the April 5th deadline.

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Who gets to ask questions at the White House?

WASHINGTON, DC, USA –– White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt answers questions from journalists on Jan. 28, 2025.

(Joshua Sukoff/Medill News Service)

Who gets to ask questions at the White House?

WASHINGTON — As the Trump administration increasingly welcomes vloggers and social media influencers into press briefings and the Oval Office, established outlets like the Associated Press find themselves excluded from the century-old press pool, sparking controversy about what "transparency" truly means.

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Lost Sams and Missing Fei-Feis: Why America Needs AI Guides Now

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Getty Images, eyesfoto

Lost Sams and Missing Fei-Feis: Why America Needs AI Guides Now

In 2018, Economist Raj Chetty and his colleagues revealed a sobering truth: talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. Their research on "Lost Einsteins" demonstrated that countless young Americans with the potential to be great inventors never get the chance to develop their skills simply because they lack exposure to innovation and mentorship. The data was clear: if a child grows up in an area with a high concentration of inventors, they are far more likely to become one themselves. But for too many, particularly those in rural and lower-income communities, the door to innovation remains closed. Failure to find those “Lost Einsteins” has deprived us all of a better future. Chetty forecasted that "if women, minorities, and children from low-income families were to invent at the same rate as white men from high-income (top 20%) families, the rate of innovation in America would quadruple." That’s a more prosperous, dynamic America.

The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) carries the promise of realizing that brighter future if we learn from our prior mistakes. A lack of broad exposure among our youth to AI and the individuals shaping its development threatens to leave behind an entire generation of would-be entrepreneurs, scholars, and thought leaders. We risk creating "Lost Sams"—referring to OpenAI's Sam Altman as a stand-in for AI innovators—and "Missing Fei-Feis"—a nod to Stanford AI researcher Fei-Fei Li. Without urgent action, we will reinforce the existing gaps in AI leadership, limiting who gets to shape the future of this transformative technology.

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