Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Change through music: ‘When the Levee Breaks’

When The Levee Breaks feat. John Paul Jones | Playing For Change | Song Around The World

Music has often been a force for engaging people in the issues that are most important to them.

Recently, Playing For Change shared their new song featuring John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.


Playing for Change said this about the song:

We're excited to share our new song around the world, “When The Levee Breaks,” featuring legendary multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin!

This song is a powerful, thought-provoking and emotionally-charged classic by Led Zeppelin and a rework of the 1929 original release by Kansas Joe Mccoy and Memphis Minnie about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927; the most destructive river flooding in U.S. history.

Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks and over 20 musicians and dancers from seven different countries join John Paul Jones for this global rendition featured in Peace Through Music: A Global Event for the Environment.

Feel the impact of these compelling lyrics and let the music move your spirit!

The Fulcrum believes that music and democracy are deeply connected. If you have favorites that you would like us to share with our readers please contact us at pop-culture@fulcrum.us

.

Read More

From Vision to Action: 
Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship
blue and brown globe on persons hand
Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurs are people who launch ventures aimed at promoting positive change in their community and in the world. I am such a person. In 1982, I founded a nonprofit organization called Search for Common Ground (informally known as “Search”). My bottom line was not financial gain but making the world a better place.

My credentials as a social entrepreneur grew out of my hands-on involvement in building Search from zero into the world’s largest nonprofit group involved in peacebuilding. My partner and closest collaborator wasand ismy wife, Susan Collin Marks. By the time we stepped down from Search’s leadership in 2014, we had a deeply committed staff of 600 employees working out of offices in 35 countries. In 2018, Search was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bruce Springsteen Speaks Out: Rise With Us and Raise Your Voices

Bruce Springsteen and Max Weinberg perform during the first night of 'The Land of Hopes and Dreams' tour at Co-op Live on May 14, 2025 in Manchester, England.

Getty Images, Shirlaine Forrest

Bruce Springsteen Speaks Out: Rise With Us and Raise Your Voices

During Bruce Springsteen’s recent Land of Hope and Dreams tour in Europe, the legendary musician drew the ire of President Trump at a concert in Manchester, England, on May 14, 2025. Springsteen openly criticized the Trump administration, calling it "corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous" and urging the audience to stand against authoritarianism.

He expanded on his concerns during the introduction to My City of Ruins, delivering a powerful statement on the state of democracy. Addressing the crowd, he declared: "There’s some very weird, strange, and dangerous shit going on out there right now. In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now. In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now."

Keep ReadingShow less
Navy Midshipmen’s Win Inspires Trump’s Vision of Strength

President Donald Trump honored the Navy Midshipmen football team in the East Room of the White House during a ceremony presenting the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Washington.

Photo by Matthew Shea/Medill News Service

Navy Midshipmen’s Win Inspires Trump’s Vision of Strength

WASHINGTON – With grit and team camaraderie, the Navy Midshipmen football team marched into the White House Tuesday, ready to hoist the Commander-in-Chief Trophy for winning the series in December against the Army and Air Force academies.

Their performance, both on and off the field, mirrored the kind of resilience and relentless spirit Trump said he wanted to see across the entire U.S. military.

Keep ReadingShow less
The White Lotus Politics: Is Hollywood Storytelling Shifting Right?

Premiere of HBO Original Series "The White Lotus" Season 3 at Paramount Theatre on February 10, 2025, in Los Angeles, California.

(Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

The White Lotus Politics: Is Hollywood Storytelling Shifting Right?

As HBO's The White Lotus nears its season three finale, Mike White's dark exploration of the human condition through privilege and class has not only continued to seep into our cultural conversations but has increasingly woven itself into our political ones. The series, which has always been inherently political, made it more overt this season through the friendship of three women with clashing political views (played by Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon, and Leslie Bibb)—that culminated in a now-infamous dinner scene that captured the current political malaise defining so many of our American interactions today.

For an entertainment industry long viewed as American culture's most progressive stronghold, this show exists at a time when the Trump administration is censoring museums and muzzling news organizations, all coinciding with a swell of conservative voices gaining more visibility within the broader culture. Take NBC's Saturday Night Live, which, this March, invited country singer Morgan Wallen to perform for a second  time, years after a video surfaced of him using a racial slur outside his Nashville home in 2021.

Keep ReadingShow less