The Chuck ToddCast
Interview Only w/ Vanan Murugesan - The Importance Of Community-Based Journalism
01 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an iHeart Podcast.
Guaranteed human.
Chapter 2: What are community news deserts and why do they matter?
This episode of the Chuck Todd cast is brought to you by Ethos.
Chapter 3: How does Sahan Journal serve immigrant communities in Minnesota?
And what Ethos does is it helps you find life insurance.
Chapter 4: Why are immigrant stories often overlooked in mainstream media?
Let me tell you why life insurance bailed me out. My father died when I was 16. We didn't have a lot of money when it happened. And we were in a pretty tough financial spot after it happened. I'm an only child. Suddenly my mother's single.
Chapter 5: How does Sahan Journal differentiate itself from mainstream outlets?
Single mother. She had a job. Suddenly lost a job looking for another job. And we were struggling. You know, my dad didn't leave us in the best financial situation, but he did make one purchase. He bought a life insurance policy. It wasn't a huge chunk of change, but it was enough when we found it. And when I say we found it, meaning we went through his desk and we found, oh, look at this.
Let's see if there's anything here. And it helped us out at a time that we really needed it. And that's why I think it's important that if you can, especially if you have young children, if you can get life insurance, you should get it. Life is full of unexpected emergencies, unexpected things happen.
Chapter 6: What is the ideal funding model for community journalism?
It is an extra bit of security, something you can leave and help out at a time when you're not there to help. So what does Ethos do? Well, Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy, and it's 100% online. You can get a quote in seconds, you can apply in minutes, and you can get same-day coverage. They will find you the right fit. There's no medical examinations.
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Application times may vary and rates may vary. Well, in my continuing coverage, and yes, Local News Day on April 9th, circle your calendars, Local News Day on April 9th. One of my goals has been to essentially profile, if you will, different types of local news startups that are out there. And obviously part of the goal of Local News Day on April 9th is to create more awareness out there.
Chapter 7: How do immigrant newsrooms innovate in a fractured media landscape?
And there are a lot of local new startups in your neighborhood that you may have not heard about. Some of them are very community specific, maybe for a smaller community that's a part of your area. Maybe it's geographic, maybe it's ethnic, but these startups are everywhere.
Chapter 8: What challenges do immigrant newsrooms face in sustainability?
And in fact, the profile of the organization I wanna showcase today is the Sahan Journal. It's based in Minnesota. And we have the publisher here with us, Vanan Murugesan. He's not the original founder. He actually just he is essentially taken it over and expanded it from its original intent. It is a news organization that has been vital to the immigrant community in Minneapolis in particular.
But it's not just about one community. You know, what's been what's been interesting about Minneapolis over the last couple of decades and what's given it.
some amazing cultural features, if you will, that make it an even more unique place to visit today than it was 30 years ago when Prince was walking the city streets, is that it has a lot of new communities, a Somali community, a Hmong community, in addition to sort of maybe more familiar immigrant communities that many of you have out there. And they're just doing gangbusters. And this is a...
A story of a local news outlet filling the vacuum for a community that was just completely underserved. We know that there are geographic news deserts, but sometimes there are community news deserts. And I think what the Sahan Journal was able to ā essentially a gap they were able to fill is for ā
A community news organization that doesn't just meet them subject on the subject matters that they care about, but also on the platforms that they use. And I think this is something a lot of traditional newsrooms don't realize. the various ways immigrant communities get their information. There are a lot different apps than the apps you see, whether it's WhatsApp being a big one, even Telegram.
And so the work that the Sahan Journal has done there, I think, will serve as something of, for some of you out there in this space, there's going to be a lot to learn. So without further ado, let me bring Vanan into the conversation. Vanan, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Chuck, for having me. It's a pleasure to be here today.
Well, before we get started, tell me, how did I do in the introduction to the news organization? And please fill in some gaps. What did I miss? How would you, if you're in an elevator with me and we're riding up 15 flights, how are you describing it to somebody? Oh, 15 flights.
Wow. That's quite generous of you here. Yeah. I'm assuming we have five minutes, right?
Yeah.
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