About

Why The Signal? There’s an idea out there that, more and more, people only want to see the world through a partisan lens—that they only want to hear about it in an overarching story that features them on the right side of history and casts maybe half their country’s population as an enemy.

And it’s true, a lot of us do seem to want these things.

But The Signal is for those who need something different.

All over, there are people with lives shaped by demanding commitments—in their work, in their families, in their communities—who have no time for consuming media as a relentless, addictive, exhausting form of distraction … however high-stakes it all might feel.

They have no time for it, in part, because they’re busy.

But they have no time for it, more fundamentally, because they appreciate something important: What’s truly high-stakes for them, in their understanding of current events, isn’t how much it supports a partisan story or keeps them “engaged” with the spectacle of the news.

What’s truly high-stakes for them is how their understanding of current events helps them develop three things: their integrity as individuals who have to think for themselves; their capability to navigate a complex world effectively; and, ultimately, their capacity to develop responsibility and genuine leadership for who and what they care about.

These are people who’ve long been averse to the spin of political parties and ideological cliques. But they also now recognize that they can’t rely, either, on the rapid takes of professional pundits or the careful narratives of professional writers—even the good ones.

We created The Signal because we’re among these people. The Signal isn’t for those who want answers that will confirm their biases about the world. It’s for those who trust themselves to recognize a good question—and know a good answer always leads to more of them.

That’s us. And we’re very glad to have you with us.

—John Jamesen Gould