The Conversation

An invisible government agency produces crucial national security intelligence, but is anyone listening?

Written by Gregory F. Treverton, Professor of Practice in International Relations, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

President Harry S Truman established the initial version of the National Intelligence Council. AP Photo

This year marks the 40th anniversary of a little-known U.S. organization that has provided crucial intelligence and analysis to presidents for all those decades: the National Intelligence Council.

Right after World War II, President Harry Truman...

Mexican president López Obrador has a woman problem

Written by Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong

After the leftist firebrand Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the Mexican presidency in a landslide last year, he vowed to “govern for all, starting with the poor.”

In Mexico, “the poor” includes many women, who earn 34% less than men for doing the same job. Women in Mexico also face incessant catcalling and...

Western states buy time with a 7-year Colorado River drought plan, but face a hotter, drier future

Written by Brad Udall, Senior Research Scientist, Colorado Water Institute, Colorado State University

The white "bathtub ring" around Arizona's Lake Mead (shown on May 31, 2018), which indicates falling water levels, is about 140 feet high.AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

As Midwest states struggled with record spring flooding this year, the Southwest was wrestling with the opposite problem: not enough water. On May 20, 2019, federal officials and leaders...

At least 2% of US public water systems are like Flint's – Americans just don't hear about them

Written by Laura Pangallozzi, Visiting Assistant Professor of Geography, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Is your community's water tainted with lead? The data might not have been reported.ehrlif/shutterstock.com

More than five years after Flint’s water crisis first hit the news, the city has successfully lowered the lead levels in its water.

The most recently available testing, from the second half of 2018, puts the lead in Flint’s water at...

Selecting groceries ahead of time helps some shoppers make healthier choices

Written by Anya Samek, Associate Professor (Research) of Economics, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Yeah, right Shutterstock.com/Davizro Photography

I often toss items into my grocery cart that I have vowed to never buy again.

Maybe I cave into my 3-year-old’s demands for sugary cereal and cookies. Or perhaps I fail to resist my own urge to snack on chocolate-covered raisins.

I’m not alone. Most Americans consume more added sugar,...

4 questions answered on sex trafficking in the US

Written by Monti Datta, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Richmond

Hotels and motels along major highways are common spots for sex trafficking.Ken Stocker/shutterstock.com

The revelations about billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who is accused of sex trafficking girls, paint a grim picture of sex trafficking in the U.S. The buying and selling of human beings is strong in America more than 150 years since the end of the...

The long, bipartisan history of dealing with immigrants harshly

Written by Anthony W. Fontes, Assistant Professor of Human Security, American University School of International Service

A group of Mexican laborers boarding a train in Chicago to be deported in 1951.AP Photo

From the Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban to its family separation policy, many Americans object to the White House’s hardline immigration policies as a historical aberration out of sync with U.S. values.

Having explored the evolution of these...

The forgotten history of segregated swimming pools and amusement parks

Written by Victoria W. Wolcott, Professor of History, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

When a group of white and African American integrationists entered a St. Augustine, Fla. segregated hotel pool in 1964, the hotel manager poured acid into it.AP Photo

Summers often bring a wave of childhood memories: lounging poolside, trips to the local amusement park, languid, steamy days at the beach.

These nostalgic recollections, however,...

A booming international movie market is transforming Hollywood

Written by Weiko Lin, Associate Professor in Screenwriting, Emerson College

China is projected to surpass the U.S. in box office receipts in 2020.DGArt3D/Shutterstock.com

Marvel’s “Shang-Chi” – the studio’s first Asian superhero movie – is a sign of the times.

Destin Daniel Cretton, who is of Asian descent, will be directing the film, which will feature a Chinese superhero who...

Neuroscience and artificial intelligence can help improve each other

Written by Gabriel A. Silva, Professor of Bioengineering and Neurosciences; Founding Director, Center for Engineered Natural Intelligence, University of California San Diego

Neurons treated with a fluorescent dye show their interconnections.Silva Lab, CC BY-ND

Despite their names, artificial intelligence technologies and their component systems, such as artificial neural networks, don’t have much to do with real brain science. I’m a professor of bioengineering and neurosciences interested in understanding...