The Conversation

How Vladimir Putin uses natural gas to exert Russian influence and punish his enemies

Written by Lena Surzhko Harned, Assistant Teaching Professor of Political Science, Penn State

Pipes for Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline are loaded onto a ship at a German port, June 1, 2021.Stefan Sauer/picture alliance via Getty Images

The recent U.S.-Russia summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin suggests that a controversial Russian natural gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2, is a done deal.

If completed as planned by the...

Biden's goal to permanently boost support for families echoes a failed Nixon proposal from 50 years ago – will it take off this time?

Written by Leslie Lenkowsky, Senior Counsellor and Professor Emeritus of Practice in Philanthropic Studies, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUI

Raising children strains most household budgets.Universal Images Group Editorial/Getty Images

In July 2021, households with up to 88% of all U.S. children will get their first of six no-strings-attached monthly payment from the federal government.

The money comes from a temporary expansion of the child tax credit in the Biden administration’s...

I have city kids make comic books to create a buzz about mosquitoes and ecology

Written by Katherine Richardson Bruna, Professor, Sociocultural Studies of Education, Iowa State University

Campers at the "Mosquitoes & Me" summer camp in Des Moines, Iowa, learn about mosquito science through hands-on outdoor activities. Katherine R. Bruna, CC BY-ND

If humans and mosquitoes had a battle at the end of the world, who would win? That’s the question I pose to 30 young kids each summer during a two-week camp called “Mosquitoe...

What is the religious exemption to Title IX and what's at stake in LGBTQ students' legal challenge

Written by Kif Augustine-Adams, Professor of Law, Brigham Young University

Around 100,000 LGBTQ students study at religious institutions in the US.iStock/Getty Images

While federal law shields most U.S. students from gender and sexual orientation discrimination, an estimated 100,000 LGBTQ students at religious institutions do not have the same protections.

Under a religious exemption provision, scores of colleges and...

Global herd immunity remains out of reach because of inequitable vaccine distribution – 99% of people in poor countries are unvaccinated

Written by Maria De Jesus, Associate Professor and Research Fellow at the Center on Health, Risk, and Society, American University School of International Service

A COVID-19 field hospital in Santo Andre, Brazil. The pandemic has killed over 503,000 people in Brazil; just 11% of the population is fully vaccinated. Mario Tama/Getty Images

In the race between infection and injection, injection has lost.

Public health experts estimate that approximately 70% of the world’s 7.9 billion people must be fully...

'Upcycling' promises to turn food waste into your next meal

Written by Rodney Holcomb, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Oklahoma State University

New processed food products might contain what would otherwise be waste from other foods.GCShutter/E+ via Getty Images

How would you like to dig into a “recycled” snack? Or take a swig of juice with “reprocessed” ingredients made from other food byproducts? Without the right marketing, these don’t sound like the most...

Explorer Robert Ballard's memoir finds shipwrecks and strange life forms in the ocean's darkest reaches

Written by Suzanne OConnell, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Wesleyan University

Tube worms, anemones and mussels clustered near a hydrothermal vent on the Galapagos Rift.NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Galapagos Rift Expedition 2011/Flickr, CC BY

Who doesn’t love a good story, especially one about amazing discoveries in Earth’s farthest reaches? Oceanographer, Navy veteran and explorer Robert D. Ballard has written...

White Gen X and millennial evangelicals are losing faith in the conservative culture wars

Written by Terry Shoemaker, Lecturer, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Arizona State University

Younger evangelicals are openly questioning the religious and political traditions of their parents and grandparents.Julie Bennett/AP

Since the 1970s, white American evangelicals – a large subsection of Protestants who hold to a literal reading of the Bible – have often managed to get specific privileges through their political...

The gas tax's tortured history shows how hard it is to fund new infrastructure

Written by Theodore J. Kury, Director of Energy Studies, University of Florida

Gas taxes have long been used to pay for roads and bridges.AP Photo/Seth Perlman

As the Biden administration and Republicans negotiate a possible infrastructure spending package, how to pay for it has been a key sticking point.

President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress want to raise taxes on the rich, while some Republicans have been pushing...

US third parties can rein in the extremism of the two-party system

Written by Bernard Tamas, Associate Professor of Political Science, Valdosta State University

An editorial cartoon from 1900 shows the Populist Party swallowing the Democratic Party.J.S. Pughe/Buyenlarge/Getty Images

When the Republican Party ousted Liz Cheney from a leadership position, it exposed a major ideological divide within the current GOP. That caused some people, including prominent Republicans, to suggest there might be a third...