The Conversation

Sage Meredith Goodwin, Purdue University, and Oscar Winberg, University of Turku “Is there any way we can screw him?” asked President Richard M. Nixon. “We’ve been trying to,” an aide replied, alluding to the White House’s efforts to remove from the airwaves an ABC talk show host whose critiques of the administration had placed that

Deborah Fuller, University of Washington At a Sept. 4, 2025, hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced heated questions from numerous senators about his vaccine policies, including his stance on COVID-19 vaccines and mRNA vaccine technology generally. RFK Jr. canceled $500 million of funding for research

Paul Mwebaze, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign If your morning can’t begin without coffee, you’re in good company. The world drinks about 2 billion cups of coffee a day. However, a European Union law might soon affect your favorite coffee beans – and the farmers who grow them. The beans that created this cup of

Anna Kirkland, University of Michigan For almost 40 years, people who suspect they’ve been harmed by a vaccine have been able to turn to a little-known system called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program – often simply called the vaccine court. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was established in 1986 by an act of Congress. MarsBars/iStock

By Peter Boumgarden, Washington University in St. Louis and Dilawar Syed, The University of Texas at Austin Imagine it’s April 2025 and you’re the owner of a small but fast-growing e-commerce business. Historically, you’ve sourced products from China, but the president just announced tariffs of 145% on these goods. Do you set up operations in

Aaron French, Kennesaw State University Back in 2008, The Atlantic sparked controversy with a provocative cover story: Is Google Making Us Stupid? Technology is no substitute for independent thought. SvetaZi/Getty Images In that 4,000-word essay, later expanded into a book, author Nicholas Carr suggested the answer was yes, arguing that technology such as search engines

Kevin Morris, University of Denver and Jaci Gandenberger, University of Denver In a 2022 survey of 3,000 U.S. adults, more than one-third of respondents reported that on most days, they feel “completely overwhelmed” by stress. At the same time, a growing body of research is documenting the negative health consequences of higher stress levels, which

Karen Tan, Middle Tennessee State University “My dedication was questioned.” “Managers or upper management have looked down upon taking time off.” “People think that maybe you’re not as invested in the job, that you’re shirking your duties or something.” The U.S. is the only advanced economy that doesn’t legally mandate a minimum number of vacation

Jadey O’Regan, University of Sydney Brian Wilson, leader, songwriter and producer of the Beach Boys, has passed away at age 82. The Beach Boys in 1962 in Los Angeles, California. Brian Wilson is on the left. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images He leaves behind a legacy of beautiful, joyous, bittersweet and enduring music, crafted over a

by Adam Behr, Newcastle University There’s immense variety in popular music careers, even beyond the extremes of one-hit wonders and the long-haulers touring stadiums into their dotage. There are those who embody a specific era, burning briefly and brightly, and those whose legacy spans decades. Sly Stone performing at Woodstock in August 1969. Zuma Press /

Mark Finlayson, Florida International University and Azwad Anjum Islam, Florida International University It is not often that cold, hard facts determine what people care most about and what they believe. Instead, it is the power and familiarity of a well-told story that reigns supreme. Whether it’s a heartfelt anecdote, a personal testimony or a meme

Danielle K. Brown, Michigan State University On the evening of May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by police outside a grocery store in Minneapolis. Flowers, painted benches, and handmade memorials surround a mural of George Floyd at George Floyd Square on May 18, 2025. Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images From the outset, the incident

Carmen M. Nanko-Fernández, Catholic Theological Union The world of sport is “a constellation of many stars,” Pope Francis told La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian daily sports newspaper, during a wide-ranging interview in January 2021. Players observe a minute of silence in memory of Pope Francis before the Spanish league soccer match between Real Madrid

Maureen K. Day, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Shortly after 6 P.M. in Rome, the longed-for sight appeared above the Sistine Chapel: white smoke. Over the course of a day and a half, the more than 130 members of the College of Cardinals had come to a decision on who should lead

Kirby Farah, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Mexicans representing indigenous soldiers and the French army re-enact the battle of Puebla during Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Mexico City. AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo Many Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo, but how many actually know the story of the holiday? Contrary to popular belief, Cinco

Josh Shepperd, University of Colorado Boulder The Trump administration’s drive to slash government spending on everything from the arts to cancer research also includes efforts to carry through on the Republican Party’s long-standing goal of ending federal funding for NPR, the nation’s public radio network, and PBS, its television counterpart. Cast members of the children’s

Jeffrey Fields, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Negotiators from Iran and the United States are set to meet again in Oman on April 26, 2025, prompting hopes the two countries might be moving, albeit tentatively, toward a new nuclear accord. The front pages of Iran’s newspapers in a sidewalk newsstand in Tehran,

by Mathew Schmalz, College of the Holy Cross Pope Francis, the Catholic Church’s first Latin American pontiff, has died, the Vatican announced on April 21, 2025. He was 88. Francis had served as pope for 12 eventful years, after being elected on March 13, 2013 after the surprise resignation of Benedict XVI. Prior to becoming

Barnet Sherman, Boston University The Trump administration has recently revoked the visas of more than 1,300 foreign college students – detaining some – and launched immigration enforcement actions on college campuses across the country. This has raised concerns among the more than 1.1 million international students studying at U.S. universities. Headlines are filled with perspectives

Iveta Silova, Arizona State University Many American universities, widely seen globally as beacons of academic integrity and free speech, are giving in to demands from the Trump administration, which has been targeting academia since it took office. Columbia University has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. Rudi Von Briel/Photodisc via Getty Images In

Niven Winchester, Auckland University of Technology We now have a clearer picture of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs and how they will affect other trading nations, including the United States itself. Getty Images The US administration claims these tariffs on imports will reduce the US trade deficit and address what it views as unfair and

Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey, UMass Amherst; Jorge Quesada Velazco, UMass Amherst, and Kevin L. Young, UMass Amherst In 2020, American businesses responded to an unprecedented wave of racial justice protests with an equally unprecedented surge in corporate commitments. Even as President Donald Trump was calling protesters “terrorists,” companies in industries across the U.S. pledged donations, launched

Callie Maddox, Miami University For most baseball fans, hope springs eternal on Opening Day. American women have been playing baseball since at least the 1860s. Ullstein Bild/Getty Images Many of those fans – more than you might think – are women. A 2024 survey found that women made up 39% of those who attended or

Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino If there are any limits to a president’s power, it wasn’t evident from Donald Trump’s speech before a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images In that speech, the first before lawmakers of Trump’s second term, the president declared vast accomplishments during the brief six weeks

Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham, and Tetyana Malyarenko, National University Odesa Law Academy The visit of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House has not gone to plan – at least not to his plan. There were extraordinary scenes as a press conference between Zelensky and Trump descended into acrimony, with the US president

Sidney Shapiro, Wake Forest University and Joseph P. Tomain, University of Cincinnati The U.S. government is attempting to dismantle itself. President Donald Trump has directed the executive branch to “significantly reduce the size of government.” That includes deep cuts in federal funding of scientific and medical research and freezing federal grants and loans for businesses.

Alex Hinton, Rutgers University – Newark At the start of his inaugural address on Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump declared, “The golden age of America begins right now!” Attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., on Feb. 20, 2025. Andrew Harnick/Getty Images A month later, Trump’s supporters gathered at the

by Philip Klinkner, Hamilton College and Rogers M. Smith, University of Pennsylvania For many Americans, Donald Trump’s head-spinning array of executive orders in the early days of his second term look like an unprecedented effort to roll back democracy and the rights and liberties of American citizens. There’s a long history in the U.S. of

By Ambuj Tewari, University of Michigan State-of-the-art artificial intelligence systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude have captured the public imagination by producing fluent text in multiple languages in response to user prompts. Those companies have also captured headlines with the huge sums they’ve invested to build ever more powerful models. An AI

Robert C. Donnelly, Gonzaga University Former President Jimmy Carter, who died on Dec. 29, 2024, at age 100 at his home in Plains, Georgia, was a dark horse Democratic presidential candidate with little national recognition when he beat Republican incumbent Gerald Ford in 1976. The introspective former peanut farmer pledged a new era of honesty

Ken Hughes, University of Virginia The Nixon administration’s enemies list inspired bipartisan revulsion. Its purpose was, in the immortal words of President Richard Nixon’s White House counsel, to “use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.” President Richard Nixon used the government as a weapon against his perceived enemies. Wally McNamee/Corbis Historical The

Stephen Lind, University of Southern California It’s hard to imagine a holiday season without “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” The 1965 broadcast has become a staple – etched into traditions across generations like decorating the tree or sipping hot cocoa. In 2024, the beloved special is streaming on Apple TV+. Apple TV+ But this beloved TV

Jordan Batchelor, Arizona State University; Charles Max Katz, Arizona State University; and Taylor Cox, Arizona State University Mounting evidence shows that veterans need targeted suicide prevention services. adamkaz/E+ via Getty Images America’s military veterans make up about 6% of the adult population but account for about 20% of all suicides. That means that each day,

Daniel J. Mallinson, Penn State Pennsylvania was for months considered the key swing state that would decide the 2024 election. Candidates, political parties and advocacy groups spent over US$1 billion courting the commonwealth’s small number of persuadable voters. People gather at McGillin’s Olde Ale House in Philadelphia as election results trickle in. Ed Jones/AFP via

Kate Starbird, University of Washington and Stephen Prochaska, University of Washington On Sept. 20, 2024, a newspaper in Montana reported an issue with ballots provided to overseas voters registered in the state: Kamala Harris was not on the ballot. Election officials were able to quickly remedy the problem, but it was not before accusations began to

Mark Satta, Wayne State University Shortly after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States in January 2017, George Orwell’s 1949 novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” shot to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list. Apparently, lots of people thought Orwell had something relevant to say in that political moment. Donald Trump hugs an American flag

Robert Shand, American University When it comes to education policy, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris not only have mostly distinct visions but also distinct track records. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris present dueling platforms for U.S. education. Getty Images Harris is calling for a wider role for the federal government and

Rosalyn R. LaPier, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign I am a direct descendant of family members who were forced as children to attend either a U.S. government-operated or church-run Indian boarding school. They include my mother, all four of my grandparents and the majority of my great-grandparents. A photograph archived at the Center for Southwest

Jennifer Selin, Arizona State University Rumors and lies about government responses to natural disasters are not new. Politics, misinformation, and blame-shifting have long surrounded government response efforts. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the effects of Hurricane Milton on Oct. 10, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images When Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017,

Valerie Thomas, Georgia Institute of Technology The United States is producing more oil and natural gas today than ever before, and far more than any other country. So, what roles did the Trump-Pence and Biden-Harris administrations play in this surge? Both administrations supported banning some offshore drilling, but also saw rises in oil and gas

Mikel Delgado, Purdue University and Judith Stella, Purdue University Many people have seen dogs fetch, but cats like to get into the game too. Despite their very different hunting and play styles, fetching appears to combine elements of predatory and social behavior for both species. Throw it for me! Purple Collar Pet Photography/Moment, via Getty

Farhad Tabatabaei, University of Delaware Eco-friendly hotels increasingly are asking guests to forgo daily housekeeping or use their towels more than once. At the same time, hospitality researchers have long assumed that guests find these efforts to promote sustainability inconvenient and undesirable. My research, however, suggests that this is not – or is no longer

Tam Nguyen, University of Dayton CAPTCHAs are those now ubiquitous challenges you encounter to prove that you’re a human and not a bot when you go to log in to many websites. It’s not easy for computers to tell humans from other computers posing as humans. Andrii Shelenkov/Stock via Getty Images Websites and mobile apps

Dae Hee Kwak, University of Michigan On June 5, 2024, the Boston Red Sox placed relief pitcher Chris Martin on the 15-day injured list. It wasn’t for a sore shoulder, a tight elbow, or a tweaked groin. Teammates check on Boston Red Sox pitcher Chris Martin after he fell to the ground fielding a ball

Julie Maslowsky, University of Michigan Adolescence and young adulthood is a time of identity formation, when young people figure out who they are and who they want to be. One of the ways they do this is by considering the world around them, paying attention to social issues and starting to understand their society and

by Ian Brodie, Cape Breton University, and Moira Marsh, Indiana University Sometimes lameness – not laughter – is the point. “Dad, I’m hungry.” “Hi, hungry. I’m Dad.” If you haven’t been asleep for the past 20 years, you’ll probably recognize this exchange as a dad joke. The term dad joke is credited to a 1987

William McCorkle, College of Charleston As debate over U.S. immigration policy heats up during the 2024 presidential campaign, separating fact from fiction on the U.S.-Mexico border becomes increasingly difficult. Asylum-seekers at the Rio Grande near the U.S.-Mexico border in Matamoros, Mexico, on May 11, 2023. Alfredo Estrella/AFP via Getty Images In May 2023, shortly after

Arie Perliger, UMass Lowell Eight months after Israel invaded the Gaza Strip, some critics observe that the Israeli military hasn’t met either of its goals of destroying Hamas and rescuing all of the remaining 133 hostages Hamas is holding. Protesters wave Israeli flags and protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on May 20,

Chih-Ling Liu, Lancaster University and Robert Kozinets, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Here mum, I’ve bought you something! Fizkes/Shutterstock After your daughter spends the weekend visiting, a surprise gift seems like a kind gesture – until you open it and find a vacuum cleaner. What does this say about her visit and what

Randall W. Parkinson, Florida International University Wetlands have flourished along the world’s coastlines for thousands of years, playing valuable roles in the lives of people and wildlife. They protect the land from storm surges, stop seawater from contaminating drinking water supplies, and create habitat for birds, fish, and threatened species. Wetlands at Blackwater National Wildlife

H. James Gilmore, Flagler College and Tracy Halcomb, Flagler College Former MLB executive Pat Gillick won three World Series titles and served as general manager of four baseball teams from the 1970s to 2000s. Texas Rangers scout Brian Williams takes notes at Roberto Clemente Stadium in Carolina, Puerto Rico. H. James Gilmore and Tracy Halcomb,

Regina Smyth, Indiana University Long lines of Russians endured subzero temperatures in January 2024 to demand that anti-Ukraine war candidate Boris Nadezhdin be allowed to run in the forthcoming presidential election. It was protest by petition – a tactic that reflects the legacy of Alexei Navalny, the longtime Russian pro-democracy campaigner. Authorities say Navalny, a

Rodney Benson, New York University and Victor Pickard, University of Pennsylvania For the journalism industry, 2024 is off to a brutal start. Most spectacularly, the Los Angeles Times recently slashed more than 20% of its newsroom. Though trouble had long been brewing, the layoffs were particularly disheartening because many employees and readers hoped the Times’