Facts Over Fear

The 2026 midterm elections delivered a stunning rebuke to President Donald Trump, with Democrats reclaiming control of both the House and Senate and setting the stage for a dramatically different political landscape in Washington. The results represent a major shift in the balance of power, giving Democrats new opportunities to investigate the administration, challenge Trump’s policies, and serve...

We’re increasingly surrounded by surveillance. License plate readers track our movements, traffic cameras record our commutes, and smartphones collect our personal data. But what happens when that infrastructure is turned toward our elections? That’s the focus of today’s Facts Over Fear conversation with Amanda Carpenter, editor at Protect Democracy, former CNN contributor, and former communicatio...

This conversation was originally recorded on September 23, 2026. You might not know it, but every time you drive past certain cameras, you could be leaving behind a record of where you’ve been. Automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, are increasingly being used to capture license plates, vehicle images, locations and timestamps creating databases that can be searched later. On the latest episod...

What does immigration enforcement look like when you’re the person being detained? And what happens when those experiences collide with an election that could help determine the balance of power in Washington? HIGHLIGHTS:00:00 — Nick Valencia on ICE and Pennsylvania’s Midterms01:45 — Why Latino Voters Matter in Pennsylvania04:00 — The Battle for Pennsylvania’s 7th District06:15 — What Voters Are S...

This interview was pre-recorded on. Sept. 30, 2026 at 4:30pm EST and has been left unedited. I will never put essential public health information behind a paywall. Period. That’s a promise. And I’m able to keep doing this work because of the people who choose to support it. My paid Substack subscribers help fund independent journalism that puts people before profit, facts before fear, and accounta...

What the Cornell sexual assault allegations and the Epstein files reveal about institutional accountability, survivor privacy and the systems that too often protect power. What happens when the institutions meant to protect survivors become more focused on protecting themselves? That’s the question at the heart of tonight’s Facts Over Fear. The allegations surrounding the “Cornell Seven” and the o...

This conversation is presented as audio only. What does it mean to be an immigrant when the country you call home is having a very public reckoning over immigration, identity and who belongs? And what happens when we stop thinking about cultural competency as simply learning about other people and start asking what we need to understand about ourselves first? Our identities shape how we see the wo...

In honor of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library legacy, I wanted to interview literacy and childhood advocates during National Literacy Month. Regardless if you have children of your own, an investment in our youth is an investment in all of us. Facts Over Fear is independent journalism focused on separating the facts from the noise, fear and political spin. Become a paid subscriber to support this...

Facts Over Fear: Nina Barbuto explains why hands-on STEAM, robotics and the freedom to fail may matter more than ever in this AI world. As AI reshapes how we learn and create, what happens when we teach kids to make, experiment, fail and build instead of simply asking a machine for the answer? Artificial intelligence is moving fast and so are the questions about what it means for creativity, criti...

This story was originally shared on September 14, 2026. As Trump tells supporters to “cheat like hell,” a whistleblower alleges DHS agents used personal information to investigate voters and that’s where the conversation with Nick Valencia A federal whistleblower has alleged that Department of Homeland Security officials directed federal agents to access state voter records by posing as individual...

This video was pre-recorded on Sept. 11, 2026 at 5:30 pm EST and is unedited. John Fetterman’s surprising appearance at a Republican midterm convention on Wednesday raised more questions than answers. The Pennsylvania senator appeared by video at this week’s GOP convention, where he praised Republican Sen. Dave McCormick and described himself as a “common-sense Democrat” who rejects “socialism” an...

The Democratic challenger is back for a rematch in Pennsylvania’s 44th House District. Pennsylvania voters are heading back to the polls as the cost of living rises, trust in government remains strained and the fight over what Harrisburg can actually accomplish gets louder. In the 44th House District, Hadley Haas is running again against Republican incumbent Valerie Gaydos, after coming within rou...

What happens when Washington becomes a casino and the people making the rules are also placing the bets? Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are exploding turning everything from elections and government decisions and the economy into something people can wager on. And we’re already seeing the consequences. Former Rep. George Santos received Kalshi’s first lifetime betting ban after wage...

What happens when a multi-agency law enforcement task force operates with little public visibility and even less accountability? That’s the question veteran journalist Nick Valencia has been investigating on the ground in Memphis, TN. The Memphis-Safe Task Force (known as the “Unsafe” Task Force by locals interviewed by Valencia) has flooded the city’s streets since last year, bringing together mu...

A traffic ticket can become much more than ‘just’ a ticket. Consider how fines, court costs, administrative fees and late penalties can add up if you can’t afford to pay the original ticket. And if you can’t pay, you can face consequences that make it even harder to get back on your feet, including losing your driver’s license. Now add another layer: automated surveillance. License plate readers a...

How to Fight Project 2025 and Protect Voting Rights Under Trump We are living through a moment when the stakes can feel enormous and the headlines come so fast that it’s easy to become overwhelmed, angry and, ultimately, disengaged. But paralysis is not an option. The Trump administration is moving aggressively to reshape the federal government, while the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 agenda...

What if the people who told you that you were safe were wrong and what if they had information you never got to see? Three years after the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, residents are still learning what happened to their community. New research detected evidence of vinyl chloride exposure in 74% of urine samples collected from people living within a mile of the derailment. R...

Can we buy our way out of a system built to extract from us? For generations, Black Americans have been told that economic liberation means getting a bigger piece of the pie: own the business, buy the house, build generational wealth, become the CEO, become the billionaire. But what happens when the problem isn’t simply who gets to a piece of the pie, but who controls the bakery? (Can you tell it’...

According to reporting from PublicSource, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking 60 contiguous parking spaces in Pittsburgh near its existing facility as part of a nationwide effort to secure additional parking near ICE facilities in 14 cities. Why does this matter? On its own, a parking request might not sound like a major development. But this request comes at a time where the Trump...

Power Imbalance, Patriarchy and the Broken Systems Behind Celebrity Scandal, Motherhood, MAHA and Trump Who holds power, who pays the price and what happens when women are treated as spectacle, symbols of virtue (or sin) and collateral damage? Welcome to Facts Over Fear, where we look past the headlines to examine the systems shaping our lives and separate facts from fear. Today, I’m joined by Cat...

As Linda McMahon pushes early career pathways and teachers sound the alarm over student literacy, the debate is bigger than college versus trade school. It’s about choice. Opportunity. What if we’re telling kids what they can become before they’re old enough to decide? Education Secretary Linda McMahon says children should be put on career pathways toward jobs like plumbing, electrical work and HV...

ICE raids. Artificial intelligence. Data centers. Local police cooperating with federal immigration authorities. National political fights can feel abstract, but what happens when all of those issues land simultaneously in the same small community? Facts Over Fear is independent journalism focused on separating the facts from the noise, fear and political spin. Become a paid or free subscriber to...

JOURNALISTS ARE BEING CENSORED AND KIDNAPPED BY ICE 🚨 When Censorship Goes Offline: TikTok, ICE and the Expanding Power to Control What We See The people in power want to stay in power — by any means necessary. From social-media moderation to the shooting, kidnapping and detention of a journalist, the lines between information control, immigration enforcement and public accountability are getting...

The last time Conor Lamb was at the center of Pennsylvania politics, the state’s political landscape looked very different. It was 2022. Donald Trump was still out of the White House. John Fetterman was riding a massive wave of momentum. The Democratic Senate primary became one of the most closely watched and consequential races in Pennsylvania’s history. And Lamb lost. But a lot has changed since...

Journalism is at a crossroads. Can independent journalists and content creators save it? Liz Kelly Nelson, Founder of Project C, joins Natalie to discuss this and more! As public trust in journalism continues to erode at the same time AI reshapes the information landscape, and legacy newsrooms collapse, one question matters more than ever: Who do we trust to tell us the “truth?” There was a time w...