Podcast
Wait, Wait — What Happened?
Co-hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer look back at the last five months of headlines as they celebrate the twentieth episode of Terms of Engagement.
News and Analysis
Read the latest news, commentary, and analysis from the Ash Center.
Newest
Feature
Governing with AI – Learning the How-To’s of AI-Enhanced Public Engagement
Public engagement has long been too time-consuming and costly for governments to sustain, but AI offers tools to make participation more systematic and impactful. Our new Reboot Democracy Workshop Series replaces lectures with hands-on sessions that teach the practical “how-to’s” of AI-enhanced engagement. Together with leading practitioners and partners at InnovateUS and the Allen Lab at Harvard, we’ll explore how AI can help institutions tap the collective intelligence of our communities more efficiently and effectively.
Podcast
Court Blocks Trump’s Freeze of Harvard Funds — What’s Next?
Archon Fung and Stephen Richer are joined by Andrew Crespo, Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, to discuss a recent court case that found the Trump Administration’s freeze of over $2 billion in federal grants to Harvard illegal.
Podcast
Terms of Engagement – Will President Trump Make the Trains Run on Time?
Former Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, now the Emma Bloomberg Professor of Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School, joins Archon Fung and Stephen Richer.
Podcast
Terms of Engagement – Election Administration Fight Forms
Archon Fung and Stephen Richer discuss President Trump’s assertions about mail-in voting and what they portend for future elections and voter participation.
Commentary
New data shows No Kings was one of the largest days of protest in US history
The historic number of No Kings Day protesters and their expansive geographic spread are signs of a growing and durable pro-democracy movement. This article was originally published in Waging Nonviolence.
Podcast
Terms of Engagement – South Park and the Power of Political Parody
New York Times Opinion Columnist Michelle Goldberg joins Stephen Richer and Archon Fung to discuss “South Park” and the role political satires play in political discourse.
Podcast
Terms of Engagement – The Great American Redistrict-Off
A fight is brewing between some of America’s largest states. A line has been drawn, not in the sand, but on a Texas map.
Feature
From South Texas to Cambridge, Josh Cortez Carries His Story Forward
When Josh Cortez crossed the stage to graduate from Harvard Kennedy School in May 2025 as a recipient of the Roy and Lila Ash Scholarship in Democracy, he carried more than a degree—he carried generations of heritage, grit, and purpose. His story doesn’t begin in Cambridge but hundreds of years earlier, on the banks of the Rio Grande in Starr County, Texas.