The Conversation

The lost history of Latin America’s role in averting catastrophe during the Cuban missile crisis

Written by Renata Keller, Associate Professor of History, University of Nevada, Reno

A map prepared by the Defense Department in 1962 shows potential ranges of Soviet ballistic missiles from Cuba. Department of Defense Cuban Missile Crisis briefing materials/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

Sixty-three years ago, President John F. Kennedy single-handedly brought the world back from the brink of nuclear war by staring...

Relying heavily on contractors can cut attendance by 27% for museums, theaters and other arts nonprofits – new research

Written by Hala Altamimi, Assistant professor of Public Administration, University of Kansas

Two researchers used attendance as a way to measure the groups' success.MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

Many nonprofits face growing pressure from their donors and other funders to do more with less as their costs rise and their budgets don’t keep up. One way these organizations are responding is by trying to save...

Influencers could learn a thing or two from traditional journalism about disclosing who’s funding their political coverage

Written by Edward Wasserman, Professor of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley

When influencers accept money and don't disclose it, then they're being influenced.Bambu Productions, Getty Images

Online influencers, through their postings on Instagram, Threads, TikTok and elsewhere, have created an exuberant universe of news and commentary that often outruns mainstream media in reach and even impact. They work the same...

Navigating mental illness in the workplace can be tricky, but employees are entitled to accommodations

Written by Julie Wolfe, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Coping with mental illness can make starting and completing simple tasks at work more difficult.Fiordaliso/Moment via Getty Images

Mental health challenges can affect anyone, regardless of background or circumstance, and they are becoming more common across the United States.

In 2022, a national survey found that about 60 million American adults...

Demolishing the White House East Wing to build a ballroom embodies Trump’s heritage politics

Written by R. Grant Gilmore III, Director, Historic Preservation and Community Planning Program, College of Charleston

Demolition in process on the East Wing of the White House, Oct. 23, 2025. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

From ancient Egypt to Washington, D.C., rulers have long used architecture and associated stories to project power, control memory and shape national identity. As 17th-century French statesman Jean-Baptiste Colbert observed:

“In the absence of...

You’ve just stolen a priceless artifact – what happens next?

Written by Leila Amineddoleh, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York University

The tiara of Empress Eugénie was one of eight priceless pieces of jewelry stolen from the Louvre in Paris on Oct. 19, 2025.Zhang Mingming/VCG via Getty Images

The high-profile heist at the Louvre in Paris on Oct 19, 2025, played out like a scene from a Hollywood movie: a gang of thieves steal an assortment of dazzling royal jewels on display...

2 iconic coral species are now functionally extinct off Florida, study finds – we witnessed the reef’s bleaching and devastation

Written by Carly D. Kenkel, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Healthy staghorn coral were crucial builders of Florida's coral reef. Today, few survive there.Maya Gomez

In early June 2023, the coral reefs in the lower Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas were stunning. We were in diving gear, checking up on hundreds of corals we had transplanted as part of our experiments. The corals’ classic orange-brown...

Japan’s sumo association turns 100 – but the sport’s rituals have a much older role shaping ideas about the country

Written by Jessamyn R. Abel, Professor of Asian Studies and History, Penn State

Sumo wrestlers Daieisho and Roga compete in a Grand Sumo Tournament bout at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Oct. 19, 2025.AP Photo/Frank Augstein

A visitor to Japan who wanders into a sumo tournament might be forgiven for thinking they had intruded upon a religious ceremony.

Tournaments begin with a line of burly men wearing little more than...

Surrealism is better known for its strangeness than the radical politics and revolutionary ambitions of its creators

Written by Tom McDonough, Professor of Art History, Binghamton University, State University of New York

A visitor looks at 'Magnetic Mountain' by Kurt Seligmann at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Sandrine Marty/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

A large-scale exhibition of surrealism that first opened in Paris in 2024 will have its sole American iteration, “Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100,” at the Philadelphia Art Museum from Nov. 8, 2025,...

Building a stable ‘abode of thought’: Kant’s rules for virtuous thinking

Written by Alexander T. Englert, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Richmond

Virtuous thinking, Kant wrote, is like good carpentry: It builds strong ideas in harmony with one another. Jackyenjoyphotography/Moment via Getty Images

What makes a life virtuous? The answer might seem simple: virtuous actions – actions that align with morality.

But life is more than doing. Frequently, we just think. We observe and spectate;...