The Conversation

Passeth the cranb'rry sauce! The medieval origins of Thanksgiving

Written by The Conversation Contributor

Dutch painter Pieter Claesz's Still Life with Turkey Pie (1627) features a cooked turkey that's been placed back inside its original skin, feathers and all. Wikimedia Commons

How and why did the dishes served at Thanksgiving dinner come to be so fixed?

Many assume that most of them were simply eaten by the Pilgrims during the first Thanksgiving. For...

Machine learning and big data know it wasn't you who just swiped your credit card

Written by The Conversation Contributor

Whose hand is on the card?Reuters/Issei Kato

You’re sitting at home minding your own business when you get a call from your credit card’s fraud detection unit asking if you’ve just made a purchase at a department store in your city. It wasn’t you who bought expensive electronics using your credit card – in fact,...

Why do women need special laws to protect them from violence?

Written by The Conversation Contributor

A woman and a child walk amidst an art installation of 745 pairs of women's red shoes, put on display by Mexican visual artist Elina Chauvet to protest against gender violence and femicide, at La Constitucion Square in Malaga, southern Spain, June 12 2015. Jon Nazca/Reuters

November 25 marks the United Nations International Day for the Elimination...

From the clinic to the street: how the explosion in prescription painkillers has created more heroin users

Written by The Conversation Contributor

A man injects himself with heroin using a needle obtained from the People's Harm Reduction Alliance, the nation's largest needle-exchange program, in Seattle, Washington.David Ryder/Reuters

In the early years of my clinical practice as a psychologist treating heroin users, I commonly saw adolescents and young adults using heroin as their first...

Why Thanksgiving tells a story of America's pluralism

Written by The Conversation Contributor

What is the history of the Thanksgiving dinner?Nast, Thomas, 1840-1902, Library of Congress

Thanksgiving has been a focus of autumn grade-school curriculum for a hundred years.

Because of its paradoxical combination of tradition and invention, its appeals to the past and to the future, its ancestor worship and its acceptance of diversity,...

Why do American cops kill so many compared to European cops?

Written by The Conversation Contributor

NYC police prepare for Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, 2015. Andrew Kelly/REUTERS

Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first degree murder November 24 in the death of Laquan McDonald. A video released by police shows Van Dyke shooting the teenager 16 times.

Van Dyke is an extreme example of a pattern of unnecessary deadly force...

The Asian roots of umami -- the 'fifth' taste central to Thanksgiving fare

Written by The Conversation Contributor

The savory tastes so closely associated with Thanksgiving recall umami, which was 'discovered' more than 100 years ago by a Japanese chemist. mr_t_in_dc/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

Thanksgiving is perhaps the quintessential American holiday. The fourth Thursday in November provides a moment to reflect on the good fortune of the past year and a chance to...

Where are the voices of indigenous peoples in the Thanksgiving story?

Written by The Conversation Contributor

What's missing in the telling of this history?Painting image via www.shutterstock.com

Thanksgiving is an important time, when schools teach the story of who we are and where we come from as a nation.

My own students have told me about the Thanksgiving story they learned in school, which focused solely on the survival of the Pilgrims and the friendly...

Is Black Friday a thing of the past?

Written by The Conversation Contributor

Is Black Friday already a relic?Reuters

Black Friday is the “traditional” start of the holiday shopping season, when hordes of eager consumers line up outside retailers in the wee hours to ensure they don’t miss out on steeply discounted televisions, faded jeans and smartphones. Fistfights over printers are known to occur.

But has...

Expert roundtable: the psychological benefits of our Thanksgiving rituals

Written by The Conversation Contributor

Hungry for more than just the turkey.Turkey image via www.shutterstock.com.

When Americans gather together around a table groaning with favorite dishes on the fourth Thursday of November, what are we doing beyond filling our bellies with turkey and pie? We convened four experts in the psychology of family traditions and shared meals for a...