Noah Gould is a Young Voices writer and recently participated in the Social Mobility Fellowship in the 2024/2025 class. He works as the Alumni and Student Programs Manager at the Acton Institute and was recently a visiting fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER).
Noah Gould’s Success Story Interview:
After completing your time as a Young Voices Social Mobility Fellow, you participated as a Visiting Fellow for the American Institute for Economic Affairs. How did your time as a Social Mobility fellow impact your current work?
The contributor program at Young Voices prepared me by giving opportunities for multiple "reps" in writing for a variety of outlets. The Visiting Fellowship at AIER gave me time to read and write intensively, which I was able to take better advantage of given my previous experience. In addition, I had already written for Fusion and Daily Economy, AIER's online publications, which gave me familiarity with their work.
The Social Mobility Fellowship specifically was tremendously helpful to broaden my writing. I learned more about interview techniques and on the ground research. The resulting articles, including my most recent for National Review, have rounded out my portfolio.
You often write about business and social mobility in society. What do you believe is the biggest issue that mainstream media or opinion journalism underrepresents on these topics?
Something that I try to peel back in my writing are the layers of cultural and philosophical questions underneath the economic and political phenomenon of the day. One of my mentors calls these the secondary questions, which are crucial to reveal unstated assumptions. In the less than 24 hour news cycle, we can read headlines without understanding the why behind them. In this article on Sam Bankman-Fried, I critiqued effective altruism, which is basically utilitarianism applied to philanthropy, and argued that it played a part in his meteoric downfall. That layer was missing in the coverage of his business and trial.
How has participating in Young Voices helped you as a writer and commentator?
The support of the editorial staff to clarify arguments has been tremendous to refine my writing. I also would be remiss to not mention the encouragement they bring to keep writing and find new outlets to break into.
Which media placement that the Young Voices content team helped you place are you most proud of?
This article on affordable housing in Grand Rapids in the Michigan Enjoyer was a blast to write. The editorial team at YV did a wonderful job of finding the right home for the piece, which ended up being complemented perfectly by the Enjoyer's focus on photojournalism in their long form reads. I have since written a second requested piece for the Enjoyer, which is a fantastic connection for pieces that are close to home for me.
Your primary role is as the Alumni and Student Program Manager at the Acton Institute. What advice would you give to young professionals building their career in the world of ideas?
I see the primary barrier to young professionals entering the world of ideas to be losing their ability to call balls and strikes. Many people get captured by ideological parties and get stuck in a pattern of writing or speaking to signal their position in a specific group rather than to shed light on actual issues impacting real people. It's easy to get lost in those incentives and you have to work hard to avoid this type of audience capture.
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