News
What We’ve Learned in One Year of Pressing Issues
Some appreciations and reflections about our inaugural year
Julio Ricardo Varela
Julio Ricardo Varela is the senior producer and strategist at Free Press. He is also a working journalist, columnist and nonprofit-media leader. He is a massive Red Sox, Knicks and Arsenal fan (what a combo).
News
The Longest-Detained Journalist in U.S. Custody Keeps Fighting
Carlitos Ricardo Parias — aka Richard LA — was shot by ICE officials and has been detained for more than 300 days
Tech
Bridget Todd and the Business of AI Intimacy
A Pressing Issues conversation with the host of “There Are No Girls on the Internet” about her new audiobook
Media
Puerto Rico Journalists Just Beat a ‘Fake News’ Law in Federal Court
Sandra Rodríguez Cotto, one of two reporters who sued over a COVID-era censorship law, talks with Pressing Issues
Future of Journalism
How I Found Hope and Humanity at a Journalism Conference in New Orleans
Reflections from a harrowing and inspiring long weekend with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists
Media
El Grito in the Time of ICE Killings
How LULAC’s new digital-only newsroom is leading with community-driven journalism
Tech
Three Words to Fix Government Spying: ‘Get a Warrant’
Why do so many Democrats still want to give Donald Trump unchecked surveillance powers?
History
Our Copa: A Different World Cup Is Possible
The planet’s greatest sporting event has become a site of autocracy, corruption, repression and surveillance
History
Five Questions with Jazmine Ulloa
How the history of the United States flows through El Paso
News
ICE Detains Another Journalist
Attorneys and allies push to free Nashville’s Estefany María Rodríguez Florez
Public Media
Public Media’s Promise Was Never the Problem
This is the moment to find a better solution. But the winning coalition must be as broad and as honest as the problem is large.
Tech
How Grok’s Demons Are Already Haunting the 2026 Election
One independent researcher’s effort to stop Elon Musk’s election-disinformation machine