The Conversation

Though CBS legend Edward R. Murrow is given credit, he wasn’t the first muckraking journalist to question Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunts

Written by W. Joseph Campbell, Professor Emeritus of Communication, American University School of Communication

CBS' Edward R. Murrow was the most influential person in the early years of television news during the 1950s.. Bettmann/Getty Images

It has been 70 years since Edward R. Murrow’s withering broadcast report about Cold War demagogue Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, a program that has been called television’s “finest half-hour.”

Legendar...

Ben Shapiro’s hip-hop hypocrisy and white male grievance lands him on top of pop music charts for a brief moment

Written by A.D. Carson, Associate Professor of Hip-Hop, University of Virginia

Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro speaks at the 2018 Politicon in Los Angeles.

Over the past decade, conservative commentator and podcaster Ben Shapiro has made a living telling his followers that rap isn’t music.

If anyone thinks so, Shapiro tweeted in 2012, “you’re stupid.”

Shapiro explained his reasoning during...

Remembering the 1932 Ford Hunger March: Detroit park honors labor and environmental history

Written by Paul Draus, Professor of Sociology; Director, Master of Science in Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Michigan-Dearborn

A Dearborn policeman knocked unconscious was the first casualty of the 1932 Ford Hunger March in Detroit and Dearborn.Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University/Detroit News Burckhardt.

The intersection of Fort Street and Oakwood Boulevard in southwest Detroit today functions mostly as a thoroughfare for...

My Malaysia ordeal shows how religion can fuse with populist nationalism to silence dissent

Written by Ahmet T. Kuru, Professor of Political Science, San Diego State University

Malaysian Islamists rally in favor of sharia law on Nov. 20, 2023.Zahim Mohd/NurPhoto via Getty Images

I hadn’t expected my book tour in Malaysia to end with a confrontation with men who identified themselves as police in a Kuala Lumpur airport.

I arrived in the Muslim-majority country in early January 2024 to promote the Malay translation of...

COVID-19 rapid tests still work against new variants – researchers keep ‘testing the tests,’ and they pass

Written by Nathaniel Hafer, Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School

Rapid tests are inexpensive, easy to use and give fast results, usually within 10 to 15 minutes.Violeta Stoimenova/E+ via Getty Images

By September 2020, just six months after COVID-19 triggered shutdowns across the U.S., it was clear that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, had mutated from its original form.

The question quickly arose...

Measles is one of the deadliest and most contagious infectious diseases – and one of the most easily preventable

Written by David Higgins, Research Fellow and Instructor in Pediatrics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Young children, pregnant people and the immunocompromised are among the most vulnerable to measles.CHBD/E+ via Getty Images

“You don’t count your children until the measles has passed.” Dr. Samuel Katz, one of the pioneers of the first measles vaccine in the late 1950s to early 1960s, regularly heard this tragic statement from...

Altitude sickness is typically mild but can sometimes turn very serious − a high-altitude medicine physician explains how to safely prepare

Written by Brian Strickland, Senior Instructor in Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Altitude sickness is rare at elevations of less than 8,200 feet but becomes much more common at higher altitudes.Maya Karkalicheva/Moment via Getty Images

Equipped with the latest gear and a thirst for adventure, mountaineers embrace the perils that come with conquering the world’s highest peaks. Yet, even those who tread more cautiously at...

The tools in a medieval Japanese healer’s toolkit: from fortunetelling and exorcism to herbal medicines

Written by Alessandro Poletto, Lecturer in East Asian Religions, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

An 'onmyoji,' an expert on yin and yang, performs divination with counting rods in an Edo-period illustration. Kyoto University Library/Wikimedia

“The Tale of Genji,” often called Japan’s first novel, was written 1,000 years ago. Yet it still occupies a powerful place in the Japanese imagination. A popular TV drama, “Dear...

Is the United States overestimating China’s power?

Written by Dan Murphy, Executive Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School

Made it, Mao! Top of the World?DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

Which country is the greatest threat to the United States? The answer, according to a large proportion of Americans, is clear: China.

Half of all Americans responding to a mid-2023 survey from the Pew Research Center cited China as the biggest risk to the U.S., with Russia...

Texas fires: With over 1 million acres of grassland burned, cattle ranchers face struggles ahead to find and feed their herds

Written by Karen Hickman, Professor and Director of Environmental Science, Oklahoma State University

Over 1 million acres of grassland burn in the Texas Panhandle in late February 2024.Greenville Fire-Rescue via AP

Strong winds spread the largest wildfire in Texas history across more than 1 million acres of rangeland in the Panhandle, the heart of the state’s cattle-producing region, and into Oklahoma in late February 2024. Light...