The Conversation

That time private US media companies stepped in to silence the falsehoods and incitements of a major public figure ... in 1938

Written by William (Bill) Kovarik, Professor of Communication, Radford University

Father Coughlin's bully pulpit.Fotosearch/Getty Images

In speeches filled with hatred and falsehoods, a public figure attacks his enemies and calls for marches on Washington. Then, after one particularly virulent address, private media companies close down his channels of communication, prompting consternation from his supporters and calls for a...

Francis Galton pioneered scientific advances in many fields – but also founded the racist pseudoscience of eugenics

Written by Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University

A man of genius – but his ideas were not to the benefit of all humankind.Mondadori Portfolio/Hulton Fine Art Collection via Getty Images

A popular pseudoscience was leaving its mark on American culture a century ago in everything from massive reductions in quotas for immigration to the U.S., to thousands of “fitter family” contests...

What you need to know about the new COVID-19 variants

Written by David Kennedy, Assistant Professor of Biology, Penn State

B117, the SARS CoV-2 variant that was first detected in the U.K., has been found to be 30%-80% more transmissible.Juan Gaertner/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

Editor’s note: Two new strains of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 called B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 have been found in the U.K. and South Africa and are thought to be more...

Trump's Twitter feed shows 'arc of the hero,' from savior to showdown

Written by Ronald Hill, Professor of Marketing, American University Kogod School of Business

Trump's tweets depict himself as the lone savior of America.AP Photo/Brynn Anderson

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

I’ve analyzed over 30,000 tweets from Donald Trump’s Twitter feed from January 2015 to December 2020. They show Trump following a “hero’s journey,” from...

The far-right rioters at the Capitol were not antifa – but violent groups often blame rivals for unpopular attacks

Written by Mia Bloom, Evidence Based Cyber Security Program, Georgia State University

Protesters who claimed to be members of the far-right Proud Boys gather with other Trump supporters outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images

Some Republican congressional leaders, including U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks and Paul Gosar, along with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, joined President Trump in...

The simple reason West Virginia leads the nation in vaccinating nursing home residents

Written by Tinglong Dai, Associate Professor of Operations Management & Business Analytics, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing

By mid-January, only about a quarter of the COVID-19 vaccines distributed for U.S. nursing homes through the federal program had reached people's arms. Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

The urgency of vaccinating nursing home residents is evident in the numbers. The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed the lives of...

The great polio vaccine mess and the lessons it holds about federal coordination for today's COVID-19 vaccination effort

Written by Bert Spector, Associate Professor of International Business and Strategy at the D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University

Elementary students initially received polio vaccines at school.PhotoQuest/Archive Photos via Getty Images

I nervously fell into a long line of fellow first graders in the gymnasium of St. Louis’ Hamilton Elementary School in the spring of 1955. We were waiting for our first injection of the new polio vaccine.

The National Foundation for...

Capitol siege raises questions over extent of white supremacist infiltration of US police

Written by Vida Johnson, Associate Professor of Law, Georgetown University

A U.S. Capitol police officer stands at a street corner near the Capitol.Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The apparent participation of off-duty officers in the rally that morphed into a siege on the U.S. Capitol building Jan. 6 has revived fears about white supremacists within police departments.

These concerns are not new. White...

The perils of associating 'white' with 'privilege' in the classroom

Written by Ritika Goel, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

When minority groups are exposed to stereotypes that deem them inferior, they often underachieve academically, research shows.Terry Vine/The Image Bank via Getty Images

White privilege – the social advantage that benefits white people over others simply on account of skin color – has become a racial justice catchphrase.

Peggy McIntosh,...

The Confederate battle flag, which rioters flew inside the US Capitol, has long been a symbol of white insurrection

Written by Jordan Brasher, Assistant Professor of Geography, Columbus State University

A historic first: the Confederate battle flag inside the U.S. Capitol.Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Confederate soldiers never reached the Capitol during the Civil War. But the Confederate battle flag was flown by rioters in the U.S. Capitol building for the first time ever on Jan. 6.

The flag’s prominence in the Capitol riot comes as no...