The Conversation

Afghanistan after the US withdrawal: The Taliban speak more moderately but their extremist rule hasn't evolved in 20 years

Written by Sher Jan Ahmadzai, Director, Center for Afghanistan Studies, University of Nebraska Omaha

In early 2021, some Taliban fighters surrendered their weapons to support peace talks with the Afghan government. Today the Islamic extremist group is battling government forces to control the country. Xinhua/Emran Waak via Getty Images

The Taliban are rapidly gaining territory in Afghanistan as the United States withdraws its forces from the...

US is split between the vaccinated and unvaccinated – and deaths and hospitalizations reflect this divide

Written by Rodney E. Rohde, Professor of Clinical Laboratory Science, Texas State University

As coronavirus cases surge, unvaccinated people are accounting for nearly all hospitalizations and deaths. Fat Camera/E+ via Getty Images

In recent weeks, one piece of data has gotten a lot of attention: 99.5% of all the people dying from COVID-19 in the U.S. are unvaccinated.

We are two researchers who work in public health and study immunity,...

Are middle lanes fastest in track and field? Data from 8,000 racers shows not so much

Written by David R. Munro, Assistant Professor of Economics, Middlebury

The fastest runners are usually rewarded with the middle lanes. Michael H/Stone vie Getty Images

As a short-distance track and field runner in high school and college, I often found myself wondering which of the eight or sometimes nine lanes on the track was the fastest. It was conventional wisdom that the middle lanes – lanes three through...

Why Gil Scott-Heron's 'Whitey on the Moon' still feels relevant today

Written by A.D. Carson, Assistant Professor of Hip-Hop, University of Virginia

Recent space flights by multi-billionaires highlight the extreme economic inequality in America.Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Not long after the July 20, 1969, Moon landing, Gil Scott-Heron – a poet hailed as the “Godfather of Rap” – released a scathingly critical song called “Whitey on the Moon.”

While others lauded...

Why women need male allies in the workplace – and why fighting everyday sexism enriches men too

Written by Meg Warren, Associate Professor of Management, Western Washington University

Women who perceive their male colleagues as allies are more likely to feel included in a workplace. 10'000 Hours/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Women and groups advocating for gender equality are increasingly urging men to become allies in the fight.

Research has shown that in the absence of male support, women have to shoulder the burden of...

Insulin was discovered 100 years ago – but it took a lot more than one scientific breakthrough to get a diabetes treatment to patients

Written by James P. Brody, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine

A single brilliant insight is only part of the story of how diabetes became a manageable disease.Douglas Grundy/Three Lions via Getty Images

Diabetes was a fatal disease before insulin was discovered on July 27, 1921. A century ago, people diagnosed with this metabolic disorder usually survived only a few years. Physicians had no way to treat their...

Lawsuits over bans on teaching critical race theory are coming – here's what won't work, and what might

Written by Frank LoMonte, Director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, University of Florida

Republican politicians have championed legislation to limit the teaching of material exploring how race and racism influence American politics, culture and law. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File

As states and school districts started threatening teachers with disciplinary action for teaching about systemic racism, the question naturally arose: Does...

COVID-19 recession: One of America's deepest downturns was also its shortest after bailout-driven bounceback

Written by Jay L. Zagorsky, Senior Lecturer, Questrom School of Business, Boston University

The U.S. economy bounced back in record time. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Thanks to a roaring economy, plunging joblessness and a consumer spending spree, it probably won’t come as a surprise that the COVID-19 recession is officially over.

We didn’t know this, formally, however, until July 19, 2021, when a group of America’s top...

Effects of childhood adversity linger during college years

Written by Toni Watt, Professor of Sociology, Texas State University

A study found that 22.8% of college students had experienced at least four adverse childhood experiences. Carol Yepes/Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

College students who experienced a high level of adversity in childhood have lower levels of social support, such as having someone to...

Why a 19th-century Russian anarchist is relevant to the mask and vaccine debate

Written by Michael Locke McLendon, Professor of Political Science, California State University, Los Angeles

Beards? Yes. Masks? Perhaps not.Wikimedia Commons

Americans who refused to don masks or get vaccinated during the pandemic don’t have an easy task constructing a valid philosophical defense of their behavior.

The go-to philosophical authorities typically cited to defend individual liberty in the U.S. – John Locke and John Stuart Mill...