Paul Solman, PBS Economics Correspondent, describes his early career and idea for helping America.

Ideas and Lives

Paul Solman is an award-winning journalist who has specialized in economics, business, and politics since the early 1970s. He has been the business and economics correspondent for the PBS NewsHour since 1985, with occasional forays into art reporting. Paul describes how his early involvement in writing and journalism, starting as an Art reporter for the Brandeis University newspaper, led to a career as a print and TV reporter and editor. His interest in business issues emerged during his Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, where became intrigued by the business cases studied at the Harvard Business School. He has won eight Emmys, three Peabodys, and a Loeb award. Solman also taught at the Harvard Business School from 1985 to 1987. He joined the PBS NewsHour, then known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, in 1985. He still produces and presents interesting segments on business and economic issues for the News Hour. Paul concludes by highlighting his concerns about polarization in the US and why he is working on an initiative to bring together youth from diverse political and geographic groups called the American Exchange Project.