The Conversation

What ‘gooning’ reveals about intimacy in a world cordoned off by screens

Written by Jennifer Pollitt, Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, Temple University

Gooning usually involves streaming online pornography across multiple screens and browsers for hours at a time.Tero Vesalainen/iStock via Getty Images

Four years ago, I started a class at Temple University titled, “Social Perspectives of Digital Pornography: The Other Sex Ed,” centered on porn literacy, or what young people learn...

Iran war and other tough topics give K-12 teachers chance to teach students how, not what, to think

Written by Boaz Dvir, Associate Professor of Journalism, Penn State

Many teachers are missing the opportunity to use events like the Iran war as teachable moments. Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images

It’s a scene that’s played out in K-12 schools around the country in recent years. Unprompted, a student expresses her thoughts or feelings about a difficult issue, such as the Iran war. A murmur spreads...

How the Emerald Isle shaped the Steel City – Pittsburgh’s rich Irish history

Written by Paula Kane, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Pittsburgh

Tens of thousands of locals will line Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh for the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade on March 14, 2026.AP Photo/Erin Hooley

Downtown Pittsburgh will turn green on Saturday, March 14. Tens of thousands will line Grant Street for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, one of the largest celebrations of its kind in the...

Jesse Jackson’s misdiagnosis of Parkinson’s is common – new genetic discovery could lead to treatment for this deadly disease

Written by Jose Abisambra, Professor of Neuroscience, University of Florida

Rev. Jesse Jackson died at age 84 after living with progressive supranuclear palsy.AP Photo/Erin Hooley

“Yes, doctor. My dad’s first fall was on his 65th birthday. He stood in the driveway and suddenly dropped backwards on his back. After he fell two more times, we came to the clinic.”

The symptoms the patient’s son...

As the Oscars approach, Hollywood grapples with AI’s growing influence on filmmaking

Written by Holly Willis, Professor of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

Artificial intelligence's relationship to filmmaking is rapidly evolving, with each week bringing new – often startling – developments.Nick Lehr/The Conversation, CC BY-SA

I teach a course on AI and filmmaking at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and lately, rather than planning each session well in advance, I’ve been...

I was teaching virtue and knowledge while lying on the side

Written by Katherine Moses, Instructional Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion, University of Mississippi

Vice usually emerges from a series of small permissions and self-deceptions that gather steam.Rafa Elias/Moment via Getty Images

I had been with my boyfriend, Tyler, for almost 10 years when we finally agreed that we should get engaged and married. Up until then, our respective jobs – mine as an academic, his as a fisherman – had forced...

While the US government is investigating unidentified anomalous phenomena, academic researchers studying them face stigma

Written by Darrell Evans, Professor of Environmental Science and Sustainability, Purdue University

A famous UAP video shows an unexplained object as it soars high along the clouds, traveling against the wind.Department of Defense via AP

President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon and other federal agencies to begin releasing government files related to UFOs and unidentified anomalous phenomena – called UAP – in February 2026,...

When US fights in the Middle East, American Muslim students often face discrimination

Written by Amaarah DeCuir, Senior Professorial Lecturer in Education, American University

People protesting the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran gather in front of a New York Public Library location on March 8, 2026. Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images

The war in the Middle East is rapidly expanding across the Gulf countries, including Iran and Lebanon. The conflict has already targeted the region’s civilians, natural resources, to...

How sewage treatment plants could handle food waste, sparing landfills and the climate

Written by Ahmed Ibrahim Yunus, Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Treatment plants can capture over 95% of methane from food waste, compared to about 50% at landfills.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Every day, food scraps disappear into trash bags, are hauled away and forgotten. But that waste could be turned into something productive.

Across the United States, about 97 million metric tons of food waste are discarded...

Nearly 1 in 3 missing children in the US are Black, driving Pennsylvania and other states to propose ‘Ebony Alerts’ to ensure equal protection and public safety

Written by Itay Ravid, Associate Professor of Law, Villanova University

A disproportionate number of Black and Indigenous children go missing in the United States.Catherine McQueen/Moment Collection via Getty Images

Nearly one-third of U.S. children reported missing are Black, even though Black people constitute roughly 14% of the U.S. population.

To address one dimension of this problem, Pennsylvania and a few other...