The Conversation 
Katrine L. Wallace, University of Illinois Chicago If you’ve been following the dispute between Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., you probably know that it centers on the deaths of two infants in Lancaster County in late August 2026. And you may be aware that despite the
Jennifer Talarico, Lafayette College Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you learned of the September 11 terrorist attacks that occurred 25 years ago? President George W. Bush reacts in a Sarasota, Fla., classroom after being told of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001.
Jean Lantz Reisz, University of Southern California At the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, 1.3 million individuals from 17 countries were living and working in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. TPS is a humanitarian form of protection from deportation for people who cannot return to their home countries because of
John J. Martin, Quinnipiac University The reaction to a procedural ruling by the Supreme Court on Aug. 24, 2026, was immediate and sharp. The conservative justices’ decision in the 6-3 ruling to lift a block on implementation of President Donald Trump’s March 2026 executive order imposing restrictions on mail voting had voting rights advocates and
Sarah K Lischer, Wake Forest University Widespread denial accompanied the public exposure of Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long sexual abuse and trafficking of girls and women. After the U.S. Justice Department released millions of case documents on Epstein in January 2026, billionaires, politicians, heads of state and academics proclaimed their ignorance of Epstein’s global network of sexual
Hatim Sharif, The University of Texas at San Antonio Taxi and ambulance drivers are less likely than workers in almost any other job to die of Alzheimer’s disease. That was the surprising result of a 2024 study examining the death certificates of nearly 9 million people in the U.S. These findings stopped me in my
Amy S. Badura-Brack, Creighton University Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” a new adaptation of Homer’s epic tale of Odysseus’ perilous journey home after the Trojan War, is already being described as a case study in post-traumatic stress disorder. Matt Damon as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’ Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures But even more so, actor
Jeffrey Young, Georgia Institute of Technology You’ve probably heard artificial intelligence models described as “open” or “closed.” These are not descriptions of the model’s personality. Large language model AIs like the one under the hood of ChatGPT don’t have actual personalities, despite appearances. The labels refer to whether all of the information about how an
SoRelle Wyckoff Gaynor, University of Virginia President Donald Trump’s obsession with unfounded claims of election fraud has defined his second term in office. But in recent months his fixation has moved from executive nominee litmus tests and executive orders reinforcing proof of citizenship to vote into legislation – dragging Congress into the fray. The Safeguard
Kirk McClure, University of Kansas and Alex Schwartz, The New School A sweeping housing measure, which became law on July 11, 2026, is being widely celebrated as a crucial step in addressing the nation’s housing crisis. The ROAD to Housing Act is one of the few substantive bills passed by Congress in recent years, and
John Kubale, University of Michigan Public health relies on data – whether it is tracking the effectiveness of a given year’s flu vaccine, monitoring blood lead levels around the country or estimating the prevalence of diabetes. This data forms the basis for decisions such as whether a community should expand screening for diabetes and which
Katherine Ott, Smithsonian Institution Trade the tricorn hats, bonnets and homespun shirts for flip flops, sneakers and soccer jerseys, and the intrepid revolutionaries of 1776 would have looked a lot like the people of 2026. But their sense of embodiment and experience of health was markedly different from Americans today. Life went on in the
Morgan Marietta, University of Tennessee Two Supreme Court rulings in June 2026 reinforced the trend toward broad gun rights under the Second Amendment, overriding attempts to limit concealed carry and to punish the ownership of guns by drug users. The ruling in the concealed carry case, Wolford v. Lopez, was no surprise. It followed the
By Zak Kassas, The Ohio State University Few people want to get lost when traveling. But if there are places where being lost feels especially unsettling, they tend to be the sea, desert and sky. These environments share a defining feature: the absence of distinctive visual cues. Where horizons blur, landmarks disappear and every direction
Eric Williams, Rochester Institute of Technology; Payam Saeedi, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Stacey Watson, University of Waterloo Think about the last smartphone, tablet or smartwatch you stopped using. Odds are it is not in a recycling bin or a new owner’s hands; it is sitting in a drawer. This look familiar? Peter Dazeley/Photodisc via
Achim Zeileis, University of Innsbruck In times past, when we wanted to know which team would win the World Cup, we had to turn to seers with crystal balls, use divination via tea leaves, or hope for Paul the Octopus to tell us what would happen. But modern data science can provide a better alternative.
Nicholas Jacobs, Colby College; Institute for Humane Studies Since 2016, when Donald Trump shattered the Democrats’ blue wall by winning working-class voters across the Midwest, a cottage industry has sprung up on the left dedicated to answering a single question: How can Democrats win back the working class? The answers come in different forms. Sometimes
Christopher Justin Einolf, Northern Illinois University Social scientists and commentators have for years been expressing concerns about what they call the “authoritarian playbook.” To be clear, no such book exists. But would-be and actual dictators do tend to follow a common set of strategies to consolidate power. Since the 2000s, populist leaders from Russia to
Robert I. Harris, Georgia Institute of Technology With gasoline prices still high – averaging over US$4.50 a gallon in mid-May 2026 – President Donald Trump said he wanted Congress to suspend the federal gas tax, which is 18.4 cents a gallon for gasoline and 24.3 cents a gallon for diesel. A bill has been introduced
Jasmine Farrier, University of Louisville May 1, 2026, marks the 60th day of Operation Epic Fury in Iran – a symbolically significant date designating when a president who has mounted unilateral military operations must receive Congressional approval or wind it down. However, the complex history of the War Powers Resolution clock demonstrates it is a
Shawn Datchuk, University of Iowa Recently, I worked with a group of elementary teachers in Iowa to select new reading textbooks and software. They wanted new materials to improve their district’s stagnant reading scores. After several days of reviewing materials from a state-approved list, one of the teachers asked me, “Will any of these help
Samuel Perry, Baylor University Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s conservative evangelical religious beliefs drew attention even before his confirmation hearings in January 2025. He is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches – CREC – whose beliefs have been influenced by a 20th-century movement called Christian Reconstructionism. Many CREC leaders call for the implementation
Yuval Hadash, Carnegie Mellon University and J. David Creswell, Carnegie Mellon University Imagine being asked to sit alone in a quiet room for 15 minutes with nothing to do – no phone, no music, no external distraction. In a well-known 2014 study, many participants found that task so challenging that they chose to press a
Carolina Rossini, UMass Amherst Within 48 hours, the legal landscape governing social media and children shifted in ways that will take years to fully understand and verify. On March 24, 2026, a Santa Fe jury ordered Meta to pay US$375 million for violating New Mexico’s consumer protection laws. The next day, a Los Angeles jury
Monica Duffy Toft, Tufts University Wars are rarely lost first on the battlefield. They are lost in leaders’ minds − when leaders misread what they and their adversaries can do, when their confidence substitutes for comprehension, and when the last war is mistaken for the next one. The Trump administration’s miscalculation of Iran is not
Boaz Dvir, Penn State It’s a scene that’s played out in K-12 schools around the country in recent years. Unprompted, a student expresses her thoughts or feelings about a difficult issue, such as the Iran war. A murmur spreads through the classroom. Other students prepare to jump into a heated discussion. But the teacher nips
Troy Potter, The University of Melbourne and Michael Kehler, University of Calgary International Women’s Day is an important day for everyone, regardless of gender, to raise awareness about gender inequality. This includes naming harms, celebrating gains, and recommitting to societal and institutional change. But we should be doing this every day. Schools play a fundamental
Shelley Inglis, Rutgers University President Donald Trump, in his State of the Union address on Feb. 24, 2026, doubled down on his false claims that the U.S. election system is compromised. He asserted that “the cheating is rampant in our elections. It’s rampant.” Research has found that voter fraud is rare in the United States. AP Photo/Bryon
John M. Kinder, Oklahoma State University and Jennifer Murray, Shepherd University The negative public reaction to Operation Metro Surge – the violent immigration dragnet in Minnesota – was “MAGA’s Gettysburg,” wrote New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie on Jan. 28. Bouie, of course, was comparing ICE’s setbacks to the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg, the battle
Gibbs Knotts, Coastal Carolina University and Christopher A. Cooper, Western Carolina University Holding hands with other prominent Black leaders, the Rev. Jesse Jackson crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 9, 2025, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.” Like several survivors of that violent day in 1965, when police brutally
Lauren Hall, Rochester Institute of Technology When it comes to national politics, Americans are fiercely divided across a range of issues, including gun control, election security and vaccines. It’s not new for Republicans and Democrats to be at odds over issues, but things have reached a point where even the idea of compromising appears to
Annie Selak, Georgetown University The first publicly recognized Black priest in the United States, Augustus Tolton, may not be a household name. Yet I believe his story – from being born enslaved to becoming a college valedictorian – deserves to be a staple of Black History Month. “Good Father Gus” is now a candidate for
Jordan Miller, Arizona State University The U.S. departure from the World Health Organization became official in late January 2026, according to the Trump administration – a year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on inauguration day of his second term, declaring that he was doing so. He first stated his intention to do
Hengrui Liu, Tufts University and Kelly Sims Gallagher, Tufts University At the 2026 Detroit Auto Show, the spotlight quietly shifted. Electric vehicles, once framed as the inevitable future of the industry, were no longer the centerpiece. Instead, automakers emphasized hybrids, updated gasoline models and incremental efficiency improvements. The show, held in January, reflected an industry
Mathew Barlow, UMass Lowell and Judah Cohen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) A severe winter storm that brought crippling freezing rain, sleet and snow to a large part of the U.S. in late January 2026 left a mess in states from New Mexico to New England. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power across the
Tarah Williams, Allegheny College and Andrew Bloeser, Allegheny College Each year on the holiday that bears his name, Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered for his immense contributions to the struggle for racial equality. What is less often remembered but equally important is that King saw the fight for racial equality as deeply intertwined with
Amy Myers Jaffe, New York University; Tufts University In the wake of U.S. forces’ arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, U.S. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is taking over Venezuelan oil production. A sculpture of a hand holding an oil rig stands outside the headquarters of Venezuela’s national oil company. Pedro Mattey/AFP via
Shelley Inglis, Rutgers University The U.S. military operation in Venezuela and capture of President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, 2026, topped off months of military buildup and targeted strikes in the Caribbean Sea. It fulfills President Donald Trump’s claim to assert authoritative control over the Western Hemisphere, articulated in his administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy.
James Salzman, University of California, Santa Barbara; University of California, Los Angeles Growing up in the 1970s, I took for granted the trash piles along the highway, tires washed up on beaches, and smog fouling city air. The famed “Crying Indian” commercial of 1971 became a symbol of widespread environmental damage across the United States.
By Alan McPherson, Temple University In the dead of night during the holidays, the United States launched an operation inside a Latin American country, intent on seizing its leader on the pretext that he is wanted in U.S. courts on drug charges. The date was Dec. 20, 1989, the country was Panama, and the wanted
D. Brian Blank, Mississippi State University and Brandy Hadley, Appalachian State University The U.S. economy heads into 2026 in an unusual place: Inflation is down from its peak in mid-2022, growth has held up better than many expected, and yet American households say that things still feel shaky. Uncertainty is the watchword, especially with a
Andrew Latham, Macalester College President Donald Trump is reportedly setting his sights on a Christmas peace deal in the Ukraine-Russia war. British and German troops observe a temporary truce on Christmas Day 1914. Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix via Getty Images The timing is apt. Every December, political leaders reach instinctively for the language of goodwill. Meanwhile, diplomats
Deborah Lee, Mississippi State University Three years ago, if someone needed to fix a leaky faucet or understand inflation, they usually did one of three things: typed the question into Google, searched YouTube for a how-to video, or shouted desperately at Alexa for help. ChatGPT has become the go-to app for hundreds of millions of
Ivis García, Texas A&M University Picture this: You’re looking to buy a place to live, and you have two options. Option A is a beautiful home in California near good schools and job opportunities. But it goes for nearly a million dollars – the median California home sells for US$906,500 – and you’d be paying
by Kenny Monrose, University of Cambridge “I have a dislike for politicians as they’re not truthful people. It’s the nature of politics that you cannot be straight, you have to lie and cheat,” said the reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, who died on November 24 at the age of 81. Martial Trezzini/EPA Cliff was born James
Amy Wrobleski, Penn State Like many mushroom harvesters, I got interested in foraging for fungi during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pennsylvania is home to a diverse range of wild mushrooms, both edible and poisonous. I had been preparing for a summer of field work studying foraged desert plants in a remote part of Australia when the
Gerry Lanosga, Indiana University Long before the first shots were fired in the Civil War, beginning early in the 19th century, Americans had been fighting a protracted war of words over slavery. On one side, Southern planters and slavery apologists portrayed the practice of human bondage as sanctioned by God and beneficial even to enslaved
Lily Hsueh, Arizona State University The Trump administration has given corporations plenty of convenient excuses to retreat from their climate commitments, with its moves to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, roll back emissions regulations, and scale back clean energy incentives. Electric delivery vehicles powered by renewable energy are helping several multinationals lower their emissions. Mustafa Hussain/Getty
By Kenneth M. Evans, Rice University U.S. science always suffers during government shutdowns. Funding lapses send government scientists home without pay. Federal agencies suspend new grant opportunities, place expert review panels on hold, and stop collecting and analyzing critical public datasets that tell us about the economy, the environment and public health. In 2025, the
David Patterson Soule, University of Richmond, and Kyle Redican, University of Richmond After the U.S. census is conducted every 10 years, each state must redraw its congressional districts to account for any loss or gain of congressional seats and to maintain an equal population in each district. The new congressional districts in Texas and the
Leila Amineddoleh, New York University The high-profile heist at the Louvre in Paris on Oct 19, 2025, played out like a scene from a Hollywood movie: a gang of thieves steal an assortment of dazzling royal jewels on display at one of the world’s most famous museums. The tiara of Empress Eugénie was one of
Torrey Trust, UMass Amherst and Robert Maloy, University of Massachusetts When teachers rely on commonly used artificial intelligence chatbots to devise lesson plans, it does not result in more engaging, immersive or effective learning experiences compared with existing techniques, we found in our recent study. The AI-generated civics lesson plans we analyzed also left out
David Smilde, Tulane University Few can doubt the courage María Corina Machado has shown in fighting for a return to democracy in Venezuela. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures during a protest in Caracas on Jan. 9, 2025. Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images The 58-year-old politician and activist is the undisputed leader of the
Morgan Marietta, University of Tennessee The most influential cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this term, which begins on Oct. 6, 2025, reflect the cultural and partisan clashes of American politics. The U.S. Supreme Court building at dawn in Washington, D.C. Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images The major cases in October and November address the
Gonzalo Maturana, Emory University; Andrew Teodorescu, Stanford University, and Christoph Herpfer, University of Virginia As the federal fiscal year draws to a close, an increasingly familiar prospect is drawing near in Washington, D.C.: a possible government shutdown. And for federal workers, it couldn’t come at a worse time. A sign indicates the closure of federal
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
Sarah J. Morath, Wake Forest University Microplastics seem to be everywhere – in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. They have turned up in human organs, blood, testicles, placentas and even brains. Microplastics are a growing concern in marine environments. As they break down, the particles can become microscopic.
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
Charles J. Russo, University of Dayton With the start of another high school football season around the corner, a long-simmering dispute has heated up: prayers at games. Private schools want to pray over the loudspeaker – at a public facility, during games run by a state association. John Coletti/Photodisc via Getty Images Kennedy v. Bremerton,
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
Chris Vagasky, University of Wisconsin-Madison About 600 miles off the west coast of Africa, large clusters of thunderstorms begin organizing into tropical storms every hurricane season. They aren’t yet in range of Hurricane Hunter flights, so forecasters at the National Hurricane Center rely on weather satellites to peer down on these storms and beam back
Julie Leininger Pycior, Manhattan University “Bill Moyers? He’s spectacular!” George Clooney said – and no wonder. I mentioned this legendary television journalist to the actor and filmmaker after Clooney emerged from the Broadway theater where he just had been portraying another news icon: Edward R. Murrow. Or as the Museum of Broadcast Communications put it
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
Paul Bierman, University of Vermont Look closely at your mobile phone or tablet. Touch-screen technology, speech recognition, digital sound recording, and the internet were all developed using funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation. The National Science Foundation funds America’s next great innovations, including space-related research. Heritage Space/Heritage Images/Getty Images No matter where you live,
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 MacKeigan, Michigan State University Cancer research in the U.S. doesn’t rely on a single institution or funding stream − it’s a complex ecosystem made up of interdependent parts: academia, pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology startups, federal agencies and private foundations. As a cancer biologist who has worked in each of these sectors over the past three
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
by Linggong Kong, Auburn University When Donald Trump pulled back on his plan to impose eye-watering tariffs on trading partners across the world, there was one key exception: China. While the rest of the world would be given a 90-day reprieve on additional duties beyond the new 10% tariffs on all U.S. trade partners, China
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
Deborah Fuller, University of Washington and Patrick Mitchell, University of Washington Nearly every modern medical treatment can be traced to research funded by the National Institutes of Health: from over-the-counter and prescription medications that treat high cholesterol and pain to protection from infectious diseases such as polio and smallpox. The remarkable successes of the decades-old
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
Fred L. Pincus, University of Maryland, Baltimore County President Donald Trump issued an executive order on March 20, 2025, that calls for closing the U.S. Department of Education. The Heritage Foundation flag flies over its building on July 30, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images The president needs congressional approval to shutter the department.
Kevin A. Schug, University of Texas at Arlington and Alexander Kaplitz, University of Texas at Arlington In 1950, global plastic production was about 2 million tons. It’s now about 400 million tons – an increase of nearly 20,000%. As a material, it has seemingly limitless potential. Plastic is inexpensive to produce while being lightweight and
Charlie Hunt, Boise State University Facing a threat of imminent government shutdown, nine Democrats joined GOP Senate colleagues to defeat a filibuster, moving the six-month government funding bill to final passage in a late-day vote on March 14, 2025. U.S. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was one of 10 Democrats who voted to break the
Katherine A. Foss, Middle Tennessee State University As the pandemic accelerated in 2020, U.S. hospitals – including this one in New York City – set up tents to diagnose patients with COVID-19. Misha Friedman via Getty Images Five years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a global
Joanna Fong-Isariyawongse, University of Pittsburgh Investigations into the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster revealed that key decision-makers worked on little sleep, raising concerns that fatigue impaired their judgment. Similarly, in 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil spill resulted in a massive environmental catastrophe. The official investigation revealed the third mate, in charge of steering the ship,
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
Daniel J. Olson, Purdue University English should be the official language of the United States, says a new executive order signed by President Donald Trump on March 1, 2025. The move follows the Trump administration’s termination of the Spanish-language version of the White House website and its Spanish-language account on X, formerly Twitter. The Obama
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
Richard Forno, University of Maryland, Baltimore County The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), President Donald Trump’s special commission tasked with slashing federal spending, continues to disrupt Washington and the federal bureaucracy. According to published reports, its teams are dropping into federal agencies with a practically unlimited mandate to reform the federal government in accordance with
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
By Shelley Inglis, University of Dayton Democracy is in trouble, despite popular uprisings and dynamic social movements in Lebanon, Hong Kong and across Europe and Latin America. Scholars say countries across the globe are experiencing a rise in autocratic rule, with declines in democratic ideals and practice. Autocratic rule – also known as authoritarianism –