'Axios' Launches 'Hard Truths' Series With Events, Editorial, Podcasts

Axios has launched a new series called “Hard Truths,” dedicated to examining the root of systemic racism. The year-long project will include events, articles and features, podcasts and other content.

“Hard Truths” will look at issues such as voting, housing, education and healthcare.

“Our goal with Axios 'Hard Truths' is to help our audience clearly and efficiently understand how systemic racism continues to impact our society, institutions and culture,” Axios executive editor Sara Kehaulani Goo told Publishers Daily.

Goo and newsdesk editor Michele Salcedo are leading the newsroom-wide project.

The first, multimedia installment focuses on race and voting in America. 

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Presented by Snapchat, it includes photos, audio, timelines and data charts, examining how racial politics suppresses the vote. It also explores the history of voter exclusion, the move to restore the vote to Americans with felonies and a poll on voters of color and their concerns about threats at polling places.

The "Hard Truths" project will build on Axios’ "What Matters 2020" coverage of structural racism.

It will include bonus Saturday editions of the morning newsletter Axios AM, as well as coverage on the Axios website in a new "Deep Dive" format, a special version of the newsletter.

There will also be dedicated Axios events, coverage on the "Axios on HBO" television show, and special editions of the "Axios Today" podcast that will accompany each new topic.

"Many newsrooms, ours included, pay too much attention to news of the day, and less time examining underlying factors,” Goo said. “Through our journalism, we challenged ourselves to go deeper — to be thoughtful, clinical, and grounded in the facts - in order to show the full picture of race in America, so that we can better take in what's happening today.”

The first "Hard Truths" event features stars from "The West Wing" TV show and voting-rights advocates. It will be held on Tuesday, October 20.

The conversation will focus on voting restrictions and disenfranchisement that factor into the 2020 elections, as well as the historic barriers to people based on race. 

The event will be hosted by Goo, White House and politics editor Margaret Talev and political reporter Alexi McCammond. 

One-on-one conversations will be held with Lydia Camarillo, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project; Benjamin Hovland, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission; Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition; and “The West Wing” actors Janel Moloney and Richard Schiff.

Axios vice president Kristin Burkhalter will host a segment with Heather Foster, head of policy engagement and strategic partnerships at Lyft.


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