Blair Levin joins the Community Broadband Networks Podcast to unpack what 2025 delivered and what 2026 may hold for broadband, media, and technology policy. Levin and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Christopher Mitchell revisit 2025 predictions on tariffs, deportations, Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program implementation delays, and federal broadband investment, assessing where expectations aligned with reality—and where they didn’t. The conversation also explores deeper structural issues facing the broadband ecosystem: the growing affordability crisis after the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program, the long-term implications for universal service, and the emerging tension between fiber, fixed wireless, and satellite competition. Looking beyond broadband, the episode tackles the rising backlash against Big Tech and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the expansion of online gambling, consolidation in media ownership, and what Levin calls the shift from free markets to a “market for political affection.” The discussion closes with reflections on what it will take to rebuild trust, competition, and accountability in an era where policy, power, and technology are more intertwined than ever.

President Trump has offered a variety of reasons for his intense, pugilistic ambitions in Venezuela, Greenland, and other hemispheric players. But one tie binds them all: They hold many of the critical minerals essential to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and defense technology—and therefore future global dominance. Both Venezuela and Greenland have some of the key critical minerals needed for advanced electronics and batteries. They have deposits of gallium, germanium, indium, tantalum, and silicon, which are used in advanced AI chips. Greenland has another coveted mineral that Venezuela does not have—palladium. Compared to Greenland, Venezuela has more significant quantities of coltan, a metal used in smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. Venezuela and Greenland also have thorium, a metal that can be converted into fissile uranium-233 and used as a nuclear fuel. And both are rich in clean energy minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel that can help power massive AI data centers.

The Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress to steward the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting, has voted to dissolve the organization after 58 years of service to the American public. The decision follows Congress’s rescission of all of CPB’s federal funding and comes after sustained political attacks that made it impossible for CPB to continue operating as the Public Broadcasting Act intended. “For more than half a century, CPB existed to ensure that all Americans—regardless of geography, income, or background—had access to trusted news, educational programming, and local storytelling,” said Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of CPB. “When the Administration and Congress rescinded federal funding, our Board faced a profound responsibility: CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks.”