SAN FRANCISCO—A new podcast series called TalkShop encourages students to explore alternative career paths.

WASHINGTON—A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. Congress is proposing legislation that would designate 25 manufacturing universities across the country and provide each with $20 million over four years. The designated universities would be expected to invest the funds in creating advanced manufacturing engineering programs, strengthening partnerships with manufacturers, and enabling more manufacturing entrepreneurship.

While preparing for a recent trip to Ecuador, my wife and I spent hours practicing conversational Spanish. Once we got there, however, it became painfully clear that old dogs couldn’t learn new tricks.