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1932

Q&A

Photo shows a section of a long queue of people waiting for help with unemployment insurance claims outside of an office. Some people are sitting in folding chairs.
Society

Why jobless payments serve the public good

Amid political debate over benefits during the pandemic, a researcher explains why unemployment insurance and other government measures are crucial for the economy and employees to survive troubled times

Patients in a mental hospital square-dancing.
The Mind

The trouble with medicating mental illness

Psychotropic drugs have severely narrowed how we treat psychiatric disorders — to the detriment of patients and society as a whole. A look at the past suggests a better way forward.

A wealthy woman walks past a homeless man on the street.
Health & Disease

America the Unhealthy: Inequality kills

Smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise? Yes, but that’s not all. A researcher tells us what really hurts US life expectancy.

Illustration shows the reach of the law grasping for a white-collar criminal escaping with a net full of cash.
Society

Corporate crime and non-punishment

The legal system makes it easy for big businesses that break the law to escape prosecution and evade reform. There is a better way — and a legal scholar tells us exactly how it could work.

A 2012 photo shows a crowd of marchers, including two young black boys, walking down 5th Avenue in New York City. Their sign reads: “Stop Racial Profiling. End Stop & Frisk.”
The Mind

Curbing implicit bias: what works and what doesn’t

Psychologists have yet to find a way to diminish hidden prejudice, but they do have strategies for thwarting discrimination 

Aerial photograph of a large city square that contains a huge poster with the words “What would you do if your income were taken care of?”
Society

The complexities of a universal basic income

It’s a hot topic under political debate: providing cash grants as a social safety net. Small programs hint at how it might work — or not — on a national scale.

Photograph of a vegetable stall. A vendor is receiving money from a customer while other shoppers mill about.
Food & Environment

What makes food ‘local’?

More people are choosing what to eat based on where it was grown, made or created. An anthropologist looks at the myriad ways we link food to place — and whether it really could make a difference.

Photograph of several people sitting in bleachers in a stadium taking part in many kinds of social interactions, such as shaking hands, kissing and talking.
Society

Why real-life places still matter in the age of texting and Twitter

Interactions in physical spaces, whether around the watercooler or at the neighborhood bar, are crucial to forming social ties

A photo shows a baby fitted with electronic sensors on its head meant to measure brain waves as part of a study on language.
The Mind

Out of the mouth of babes

Learning a language is child’s play, but linguists are still trying to understand how children do it so easily

Photo shows a small boy by himself running down the nondescript hall of a shelter.
The Mind

Treating the growing trauma of family separation

War, disasters, trafficking and immigration are tearing millions of children from their parents all around the world. A psychologist explores how to help them recover.

Photo shows solar panels piled up in a remote area of South Africa.
Food & Environment

Why green energy finally makes economic sense

Solar and wind generators have suddenly become just as cheap as other ways to produce electric power

Photograph of a row of skeletons in a trench.
Health & Disease

Profiling the perpetrators of past plagues

The ancient pathogens in old graves are as dead as the people they once infected. Still, they tell a vivid tale.

Collage shows a silhouette of surgeons working on a patient, surrounded by graphics denoting measurement and ratings.
Health & Disease

Measuring surgical quality

Not all surgeons are equally skilled with a scalpel. Doctors are developing new ways to test — and improve — operating room performance.

Still photograph from the 2015 movie The Revenant. Frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is brandishing a rifle and shouting in fury, beneath trees.
The Mind

Revenge is bittersweet at best

Research is starting to reveal how the urge for vengeance may have evolved, when it can be useful and what could prevent the violence it can provoke

Photograph of an elderly woman lying in bed. Standing and sitting around her are family members, two of them holding her hands. A hospice aide and a bottle of lotion are seen at the foot of the bed.
Health & Disease

Going gentle

A sociologist explains how to get the most out of the final months of life

A painting showing Adam and Eve in an earthly paradise setting, with a river, mountains and a waterfall in the background, and trees in the foreground. Animals of all stripes fill the scene: lions, horses, chickens, turkeys, pelicans, parrots, deer, camels, dogs, cats, tigers and more. Adam and Eve, naked, are under a tree. Eve is offering an apple to Adam as a snake in the tree looks on.
Society

On whose green Earth?

Are we supposed to take care of the planet or should it take care of us? Willis Jenkins explains how religion shapes the conflicting views over climate change and other environmental issues.

A colored engraving by French artist Louis Rémy Sabattier shows prisoners and Russian troops marching on the road of Dalny. In the foreground, some Russian soldiers are seated around a makeshift table with bottles of booze. A nearby soldier looks on, clutching a bottle.
Society

War and drugs: Together since forever

Alcohol-drenched medieval battlefields. Opium-laced imperialism. Modern-day narco-terrorism. There’s a lot of history between armed conflict and psychoactive substances.

A topographic map with lines and shades of green, yellow and brown to indicate elevation. Large structures and smaller walls and bumps are visible.
Society

Archaeology of the 99%

The vast majority of people in antiquity were too poor to leave many artifacts behind. But archaeologists have learned how to look beyond the temples and palaces.

Photograph of a statue of Lady Justice, shown blindfolded and holding a balance scale.
Society

If it pleases the Prosecution

The immense powers of prosecutors throughout the US mean that the scales are tipped against defendants — and justice itself, says a legal expert

Photograph shows a farmer surrounded by coffee plants, he is harvesting the beans by hand.
Food & Environment

A blizzard of “sustainability” labels

Earth-friendly certifications and standards abound for products like coffee, chocolate and palm oil. But do the programs work?

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