Your Custom Text Here
Improving America's high schools is an exceptionally complex and difficult task. But all across the country, the most enlightened educators are working to narrow the gap between student achievement and the needs of an evolving workplace.
Our guest, Liz Willen, is editor-in-chief of the groundbreaking Hechinger Report. Using solutions journalism, data, stories, and research from classrooms and campuses, Hechinger looks at how education can be improved and why it matters.
Read moreAre opinion polls accurate? Did they miss the rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders? Do they properly measure America's increasingly sharp political and cultural divisions? What's the difference between a well-designed poll conducted with careful methodology and a sloppy opt-in online survey?
Our guest is Gary Langer, an internationally recognized opinion researcher and longtime director of polling at ABC News. He has overseen and analyzed more than 750 surveys on a broad range of topics.
Gary has a passion for numbers and explains what listeners should know about polls. He tells us that surveys were taken at least a year ago - when many pundits dismissed Trump as an outlier - clearly showed that his views on banning overseas Muslim visitors and building a wall along the border with Mexico had substantial support among Republican voters. Trump led the GOP field throughout the lead-up to the primary season.
"The news media have for far too long indulged themselves in the lazy luxury of being both data-hungry and math-phobic," Gary tells us. "I would suggest polls are anti-pundit. A good quality poll ... holds a pundit's feet to the fire "
In this episode, we get some vital takeaways on how well-researched randomized polls are conducted and what changes have been made recently to ensure that a representative sample is reached.
Would Britain face lasting economic and political harm if it votes to quit the European Union in June 23rd's referendum? Our show looks at the case for Brexit.
Steve Hilton, one of David Cameron's closest friends and a former senior political advisor to the Prime Minister, is a leading member of the Vote Leave campaign. He tells us in this episode that a bureaucratic, over-centralized EU has become far too entangled in British life and is incapable of reform.
Richard and Jim disagree on the best outcome for Britain and Europe. They discuss some of the arguments for and against.
Read moreWith technology in overdrive, self-driving cars are no longer a fantasy. The first autonomous cars and trucks made by major auto manufacturers could be on the road within several years.
But "Fix It" guest Eddie Alterman, Editor-in-Chief of Car and Driver magazine says not so fast. "It's a scary concept anyway you look at it," he tells us.
Read more"At the end of the day everybody is biased," says our guest, John Gable, founder CEO of AllSides. "You're biased by what you know. You're biased by what you know and you're biased by your entire human existence before then."
AllSides is unique in how it covers the news - displaying stories on its front page - from different points of view. It urges readers to "engage in civil dialog and discover a deeper understanding of the issues."
Read moreIn this episode, we interview David Bornstein, who writes for the Fixes blog of The New York Times and is co-founder of SolutionsJournalismNetwork.org.
"The news tends to focus far more on what's wrong than on the credible efforts around the world of people who are trying to fix things, whether they are successful or not." David tells us.
"I think the main thing is that the problems scream and the solutions whisper. The problems are always clamoring for attention. Solutions, you really do have to be proactive and go look for them."
Read more