120 people and the future of Popular Information

In the last 10 days, Popular Information broke the news that a top GOP Senate candidate has diverted $400,000 in taxpayer dollars to produce political ads, exposed how prediction markets are distorting cable news broadcasts, and revealed that the real cost of the Iran War has exceeded $100 billion.

That’s our mission: we investigate, uncover new facts, and reshape the national debate.

And our reporting doesn’t just inform — it creates change. Consider three examples over the past year:

After Popular Information exposed an internal Social Security Administration memo revealing plans to slash phone service for millions of seniors, the SSA scrapped the plan entirely.

After Popular Information reported that hundreds of North Carolina voters had their ballots wrongly discarded in a contested state Supreme Court race, a federal court — citing our reporting — ordered the state to certify Democrat Allison Riggs as the winner.

After Popular Information broke the news that DOGE had gained unprecedented access to sensitive data on millions of federal employees, a coalition of unions sued — citing our reporting seven times — and a federal judge blocked DOGE’s access.

In January, this newsletter was honored with the David Nyhan Prize for Public Policy Journalism from the Harvard Shorenstein Center, which praised Popular Information’s work as “meticulous investigative reporting” that is “timely, fearless, and factual.”

Support accountability journalism

With the midterms fast approaching, we have even more ambitious plans to follow the money and root out corruption.

Popular Information has over 541,000 readers, but only a small percentage support our work as paid subscribers. We could put up a paywall, but we believe access to crucial information should not be limited by income.

To keep Popular Information available to everyone, we need 120 people to upgrade to a paid subscription in the next 24 hours. As a special incentive, we’re offering 20% off paid subscriptions.

Upgrade to paid

If you value this work and can afford the discounted rate of $4.80 per month or $40 per year, please help Popular Information hold the powerful accountable.

— Judd