The Conversation

A straight face, with a wink – the subtle humor of deadpan photography

Written by Emilia Mickevicius, Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography, University of Arizona

Installation view of 'Funny Business: Photography and Humor,' Phoenix Art Museum, 2025. Katie Jones-Weinert, CC BY-SA

Deadpan is not so much a type of joke as a mode of delivery, a manner of address to an audience that often provokes nervous laughter.

Comedian Nathan Fielder’s persona is marked by deadpan. In his hit HBO comedy series “Th...

The first stars may not have been as uniformly massive as astronomers thought

Written by Luke Keller, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Ithaca College

Stars form in the universe from massive clouds of gas. European Southern Observatory, CC BY-SA

For decades, astronomers have wondered what the very first stars in the universe were like. These stars formed new chemical elements, which enriched the universe and allowed the next generations of stars to form the first planets.

The first stars were...

Trump’s Epstein problem is real: New poll shows many in his base disapprove of his handling of the files, and some supporters are having second thoughts about electing him

Written by Tatishe Nteta, Provost Professor of Political Science and Director of the UMass Amherst Poll, UMass Amherst

Pollsters found that 47% of 2024 Trump voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the Epstein controversy. These supporters are at a rally in Doral, Fla., on July 9, 2024.Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images

Has President Donald Trump survived the latest and most serious firestorm of controversy over the Epstein scandal? Or has the Trump...

A Detroit street is named in honor of Vincent Chin – his death mobilized Asian American activists nationwide

Written by Jennifer Ho, Professor of Asian American Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Peterboro Street was recently renamed Vincent Chin Street in his memory.Valaurian Waller/The Conversation, CC BY-ND

The legacy of Vincent Chin has recently been commemorated in a street sign bearing his name on the corner of Cass Avenue and Peterboro Street in Detroit’s historic Chinatown.

I was glad to see it. Watching the 1987 documentary...

Tit-for-tat gerrymandering wars won’t end soon – what happens in Texas and California doesn’t stay there

Written by Gibbs Knotts, Professor of Political Science, Coastal Carolina University

Texas state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, during debate over a redrawn U.S. congressional map, Aug. 20, 2025, in Austin. AP Photo/Eric Gay

Congressional redistricting – the process of drawing electoral districts to account for population changes – was conceived by the Founding Fathers as a once-per-decade redrawing of district lines...

Wildfire disasters are increasingly in the news, yet less land is burning globally – here’s why

Written by Mojtaba Sadegh, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering; Senior Fellow at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Boise State University

Residents try to put out flames as a wildfire threatens homes in Quito, Ecuador, in September 2024.AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa

Worldwide, an estimated 440 million people were exposed to a wildfire encroaching on their home at some point between 2002 and 2021, new research shows. That’s roughly equivalent to the entire population of the European...

By ‘focusing on the family,’ James Dobson helped propel US evangelicals back into politics – making the Religious Right into the cultural force it is today

Written by Richard Flory, Executive Director, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, participates in the National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House on May 3, 2007.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

For decades, one name was ubiquitous in American evangelical homes: Focus on the Family. A media empire with millions of listeners and readers, its messages about parenting, marriage and...

Parenting strategies are shifting as neuroscience brings the developing brain into clearer focus

Written by Nancy L. Weaver, Professor of Behavioral Science, Saint Louis University

Grocery stores are a common source of tantrums and meltdowns.Cavan Images/Cavan via Getty Images

A friend offhandedly told me recently, “It’s so easy to get my daughter to behave after her birthday – there are so many new toys to take away when she’s bad!”

While there is certainly an appeal to such a powerful parenting...

‘These people do it naturally’: President Trump’s views on immigrant farmworkers reflect a long history of how farming has been idealized and practiced in America

Written by Doug Sackman, Professor of History, University of Puget Sound

Farmworkers harvest celery on March 9, 2024, in Yuma, Ariz.John Moore/Getty Images

The Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign has not spared the U.S. agricultural industry, with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement frequently raiding farms across the country in search of undocumented workers.

Now, farmers are facing a cris...

Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads

Written by Michael Vazquez, Teaching Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Students take a philosophy test in Strasbourg, France, on June 18, 2024.Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images

Philosophy majors rank higher than all other majors on verbal and logical reasoning, according to our new study published in the Journal of the American Philosophical Association. They also tend to display more intellectual virtues such as...