New limits on abortions: U.S. Supreme Court decision could spur a cascade of legal changes across states
The Supreme Court is weighing potentially sweeping changes to the right to an abortion, after two hours of arguments on December 1 over a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The court’s conservatives, who hold a 6-3 majority, appeared...
Sick before the pandemic: How the COVID catastrophe distracted Americans from the obesity epidemic
The United States spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world and yet it has had the largest share of the more than five million global COVID-19 deaths. We are not out of the woods yet, but the number of new infections has been declining in recent...
No one can opt out: Why ultra-processed foods are engineered to be addictive and unhealthy
By Ashley Gearhardt, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan Every year millions of Americans try to cut down on ultra-processed foods, industrial formulations that are typically high in added fat, refined carbohydrates or both. Think cookies, cakes,...
Appetite for gentrification: When foodscapes make neighborhoods unaffordable for longtime residents
By Pascale Joassart-Marcelli, Professor of Geography and Director, Urban Studies and Food Studies Programs, San Diego State University It seems that everybody welcomes the arrival of new restaurants, cafés, food trucks and farmers markets. What could be the downside...
Efforts by White nature conservationists are upending a generations-old way of life for Black farmers
In Pembroke, the well-intended efforts of mostly white nature conservationists overlook one thing: The township’s Black farming community has never fully supported them. Now, a generations-old way of life is threatened by the push for conservation. The Sweet Fern...
Greenhouse Gases: How increased food production impacts land use and contributes to climate change
By Xiaoming Xu, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Atul Jain, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Producing enough food for a growing world population is an...
Virgil Abloh: Wisconsin alum and visionary fashion designer dies from cancer at 41
Top fashion designer Virgil Abloh, the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection, died on November 28 at the age of 41 from cancer. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he completed a master’s degree in architecture from the...
Making unacceptable acceptable: The political combat behind the linguistic slur of “Let’s Go Brandon”
By Roger J. Kreuz, Associate Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of Memphis During an interview with NASCAR driver Brandon Brown on October 2, NBC sportscaster Kelli Stavast made a curious observation. She reported that Talladega Superspeedway spectators were...
Vaccine Inequalities: How a one-size-fits-all approach to eradicating the pandemic opens a door to variants
We are entering into a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many of the countries that have been worst affected by the virus having vaccinated enough of their vulnerable patients and health staff to avoid the worst of the pressure on their health systems, even...
Omicron Variant: Scientists warn of new virus strain that can carry a high number of mutations
Scientists recently said a new COVID variant that carries an “extremely high number” of mutations may drive further waves of disease by evading the body’s immunity defenses. Only 10 cases in three countries have been confirmed by genomic sequencing, but the variant...
Why Moderna refuses to share the rights for a COVID-19 vaccine developed with taxpayer funding
By Ana Santos Rutschman, Assistant Professor of Law, Saint Louis University A quiet months-long legal fight between the U.S. National Institutes of Health and drugmaker Moderna over COVID-19 vaccine patents recently burst into public view. The outcome of the battle...
Whiteness as Property: Why the acquittal of Rittenhouse is an affirmation of Critical Race Theory
It is well known that no one is teaching critical race theory in the K-12 system. The current discussions of Critical Race Theory (CRT) are the result of a tried-and-true right-wing strategy to create weird forms of cathexis where they link the name of something...
