#130: De-Sensationalizing the News with The Boring Report
Update: 2025-10-07
Description
In this episode of Earthlings 2.0, we talk with Vasishta Kalinadhabhotla and Akshith Ramadugu, co-founders of the Boring Report — an app that strips sensationalism from the news and delivers concise, neutral summaries. We dig into why doom-driven headlines push audiences away, how their automated pipeline clusters “trending” events across multiple outlets, and the prompt-engineering they use to emphasize widely corroborated facts. The conversation covers their nonprofit approach, reader feedback loops, product roadmap, and their aim to act as a bridge that helps people re-engage with credible reporting — without the emotional hangover.
Key Points:
- Why neutral news matters – Sensational, repetitive coverage drives disengagement; neutral summaries help people stay informed without burnout.
- How it works – Crawlers cluster stories multiple outlets are covering; AI “borifies” them into a single, fact-focused summary, citing sources.
- Fully automated pipeline – From detecting trends to generating summaries, the system runs continuously with human feedback guiding prompt refinements.
- Vasishta Kalinadhabhotla, Co-Founder of the Boring Report, LinkedIn
- Akshith Ramadugu, Co-Founder of the Boring Report, LinkedIn
- Lisa Ann Pinkerton, Earthlings 2.0 Host, CEO of Technica Communications, and Founder of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability
- Poynter Institute episode
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