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How responding to the new coronavirus is making the safety net for gig workers less flimsy

  • Written by Jamila Michener, Assistant Professor of Government, Cornell University
Uber drivers have fewer labor rights than most full-time employees.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

My brother Khary is a 40-year old former mechanic who has earned his living as an Uber driver in New York City for the past four years. He’s one of the millions of full-time American gig workers acutely experiencing the insecurity washing over all...

Read more: How responding to the new coronavirus is making the safety net for gig workers less flimsy

Can I complain about coronavirus? Why it is OK to vent, sometimes

  • Written by Arash Javanbakht, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University
Issues of New York Magazine March 16-29, 2020 are on display at a newsstand in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, Thursday, March 19, 2020. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

The COVID-19 pandemic is different from many crises in that it has affected all of us regardless of politics, economics, religion, age or nationality. This virus is a good...

Read more: Can I complain about coronavirus? Why it is OK to vent, sometimes

Stimulus package will remain half-baked unless local governments get more of the dough

  • Written by Stephanie Leiser, Lecturer in Public Policy, University of Michigan
People still need baked goods even during a lockdown.Frederic Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Lawmakers are pinning their hopes on a US$2 trillion package to prop up the U.S. economy and provide relief to individuals and business ravaged by the coronavirus.

The stimulus is expected to pump $150 billion in aid to state and local governments. But with...

Read more: Stimulus package will remain half-baked unless local governments get more of the dough

We are all humanitarian negotiators now: 3 steps for planning your ‘please take social distancing seriously’ conversation

  • Written by Rob Grace, Graduate Research Fellow, Harvard Program on Negotiation; USIP-Minerva Peace Scholar, U.S. Institute of Peace; PhD candidate in political science, Brown University
You need to plan for that serious conversation.Getty/ Jose Luis Pelaez Inc

See if this sounds familiar. You have an older relative whom you believe to be at a serious health risk if they catch the coronavirus. You call, try to persuade them to take social distancing seriously.

But your arguments fail to resonate. You both get angry and hang up,...

Read more: We are all humanitarian negotiators now: 3 steps for planning your ‘please take social distancing...

Society's dependence on the internet: 5 cyber issues the coronavirus lays bare

  • Written by Laura DeNardis, Professor of Communication Studies, American University School of Communication
The pandemic is increasing society's reliance on digital connections.MR.Cole_Photographer/Moment via Getty Images

As more and more U.S. schools and businesses shutter their doors, the rapidly evolving coronavirus pandemic is helping to expose society’s dependence – good and bad – on the digital world.

Entire swaths of society,...

Read more: Society's dependence on the internet: 5 cyber issues the coronavirus lays bare

Auschwitz: Women used different survival and sabotage strategies than men at Nazi death camp

  • Written by Judy Baumel-Schwartz, Director, the Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research, Bar-Ilan University
Women prisoners at the Auschwitz train station around 1944. ullstein bild via Getty Images

Nearly all the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland, were murdered – either sent to the gas chambers or worked to death. Life expectancy in many of these camps was between six weeks and three months.

Over a million...

Read more: Auschwitz: Women used different survival and sabotage strategies than men at Nazi death camp

10 ways to spot online misinformation

  • Written by H. Colleen Sinclair, Associate Professor of Social Psychology, Mississippi State University
When you share information online, do it responsibly.Sitthiphong/Getty Images

Propagandists are already working to sow disinformation and social discord in the run-up to the November elections.

Many of their efforts have focused on social media, where people’s limited attention spans push them to share items before even reading them –...

Read more: 10 ways to spot online misinformation

Screen time that supports new parents and young kids can enhance family health

  • Written by Dorian Traube, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Southern California
Babies don't come with instruction manuals... mobile health apps can help new parents.Tetra Images via Getty Images

Screen time for little kids takes a lot of heat under normal conditions. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ official recommendations urge families to be thoughtful and judicious about screen time for youngsters from birth to...

Read more: Screen time that supports new parents and young kids can enhance family health

Your brain evolved to hoard supplies and shame others for doing the same

  • Written by Stephanie Preston, Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan
In scary and uncertain times, having a stockpile can feel soothing.AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

The media is replete with COVID-19 stories about people clearing supermarket shelves – and the backlash against them. Have people gone mad? How can one individual be overfilling his own cart, while shaming others who are doing the same?

As a behavioral...

Read more: Your brain evolved to hoard supplies and shame others for doing the same

6 things you can do to cope with boredom at a time of social distancing

  • Written by Erin C. Westgate, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Florida
Being at home at a time of social distancing can set in a feeling of boredom.PeopleImages E+ via Getty Images

More and more of us are staying home in an attempt to slow down the spreading coronavirus. But being stuck at home can lead to boredom.

Boredom is a signal that we’re not meaningfully engaged with the world. It tells us to stop what...

Read more: 6 things you can do to cope with boredom at a time of social distancing

More Articles ...

  1. Perfection comes at a price in latest adaptation of Austen's 'Emma'
  2. Coronavirus: a new type of vaccine using RNA could help defeat COVID-19
  3. The Federal Reserve is promising to do everything it can to save the economy – but what is that, actually?
  4. Labs are experimenting with new – but unproven – methods to create a coronavirus vaccine fast
  5. Buyer beware: Counterfeit markets can flourish during a public health crisis
  6. What 'Walden' can tell us about social distancing and focusing on life's essentials
  7. The fashionable history of social distancing
  8. What does a state of emergency mean in the face of the coronavirus?
  9. What the US can learn from other countries on COVID-19 – and its own history with pandemics
  10. Coronavirus: News media sounded the alarm for months – but few listened
  11. Americans disagree on how risky the coronavirus is, but most are changing their behavior anyway
  12. 5 reasons the coronavirus hit Italy so hard
  13. Video: Why social distancing is one of the best tools we have to fight the coronavirus
  14. Hotter weather brings more stress, depression and other mental health problems
  15. Could chloroquine treat coronavirus? 5 questions answered about a promising, problematic and unproven use for an antimalarial drug
  16. Tribal leaders face great need and don't have enough resources to respond to the coronavirus pandemic
  17. Who cares for those most vulnerable to COVID-19? 4 questions about home care aides answered
  18. Coronavirus fears over farmers markets could hit new growers hard – just when Americans need them most
  19. Why people need rituals, especially in times of uncertainty
  20. In battling the coronavirus, will 'optimistic bias' be our undoing?
  21. Calling COVID-19 a 'Chinese virus' is wrong and dangerous – the pandemic is global
  22. Medical supply chains are fragile in the best of times and COVID-19 will test their strength
  23. I'm a family doctor fighting against fear and struggling with distancing while trying to keep my patients healthy
  24. The deadly polio epidemic and why it matters for coronavirus
  25. Deal with ransomware the way police deal with hostage situations
  26. There’s a name for Trump playing down the threat and failing to take action against the virus: Institutional betrayal
  27. Reaching out to isolated older adults is essential during coronavirus – here are 7 specific things you can do, just for starters
  28. Co-parenting in the coronavirus pandemic: A family law scholar's advice
  29. COVID-19 closures could hit historically black colleges particularly hard
  30. Should Congress demand America's youth give a year of service to their country?
  31. Coronavirus restrictions could lead to remote voting for Congress
  32. Tagging data show that blue sharks are true globalists
  33. It's wrong to blame bats for the coronavirus epidemic
  34. Why defeating coronavirus in one country isn't enough – there needs to be a coordinated global strategy
  35. Workplace age discrimination could become even harder to prove in court
  36. Just as in coronavirus, young people are key to stopping tuberculosis
  37. Religious communities are offering baptism by Zoom – such innovation has deep historical roots
  38. Religious communities are offering baptism by Zoom - such innovation has deep historical roots
  39. 'My first question every time I see a new patient now is: Could this be COVID-19?' A Seattle doctor on the frontlines
  40. With schools everywhere suspended, an education expert answers 4 questions about the upheaval
  41. Fleeing from the coronavirus is dangerous for you, the people you encounter along the way and wherever you end up
  42. Students could be undercounted in the census as coronavirus closes colleges – here's why that matters
  43. How do we protect ourselves at home during coronavirus, and what if someone has been exposed? 4 questions answered
  44. How one federal agency took care of its workers during the yellow fever pandemic in the 1790s
  45. What happens to charitable giving when the economy falters?
  46. Buildings grown by bacteria -- new research is finding ways to turn cells into mini-factories for materials
  47. Ancient Greeks purged city-states of disease as they would a human body – and it was the most vulnerable that suffered
  48. Coronavirus, los niños y las escuelas: experta en salud pública contesta 4 preguntas
  49. When restaurants close, Americans lose much more than a meal
  50. Workers left out of government and business response to the coronavirus