The Conversation

Thousands of asylum seekers left waiting at the US-Mexico border

Written by Savitri Arvey, Graduate Student Researcher at the Center for US-Mexican Studies, University of California San Diego

The U.S.-Mexico border, between San Diego and Calexico, California.Savitri Arvey, CC BY-SA

Over the past three months, the number of Central Americans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border has jumped exponentially, and total border crossings have reached levels last seen in 2006.

Yet, while the number of families arriving between official border...

What does the dust in your home mean for your health?

Written by Gabriel Filippelli, Professor of Earth Sciences and Director of the Center for Urban Health, IUPUI

Some ingredients in those tiny particles can have big impacts.Yaroslau Mikheyeu/Shutterstock.com

You vacuum it, sweep it and wipe it off your furniture. But do you know what it actually is – and how it may affect your health?

Don’t feel bad if you’re clueless about your dust. Scientists are not that far ahead of you in terms of...

Most US drug arrests involve a gram or less

Written by Joseph E. Kennedy, Professor of Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Less than one percent of state and local drug arrests involve amounts over a kilogram.content_creator/Shutterstock.com

In the long-running television drama “Breaking Bad,” viewers watched the moral devolution of Walter White, a cancer-stricken high school chemistry teacher who tried to provide for the financial future of his family by...

No African American has won statewide office in Mississippi in 129 years – here's why

Written by John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, Lagrange College

People waited outside the Supreme Court in 2013 to listen to the Shelby County, Ala. v. Holder voting rights case.AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Mississippi is home to the highest percentage of African Americans of any state in the country.

And yet, Mississippi hasn’t elected an African American candidate to statewide office since 1890.

That’s 129...

The Trebek effect: The benefits of well wishes

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

Alex Trebek pictured in Pasadena, California on May 5, 2019.Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

Long-time “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek announced in March that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Within days, he offered thanks to “the hundreds of thousands of people who have sent emails, texts, tweets, and cards wishing...

Fathers need to care for themselves as well as their kids – but often don't

Written by Derek M. Griffith, Professor of Medicine, Health & Society and Founder and Director of the Center for Research on Men's Health, Vanderbilt University

Fathers often place more emphasis on their role as head of household than their health.Marmion/Shutterstock.com

If you had to choose, which would you rather have: a healthy father or a good father?

Studies suggest men often choose being a good father over being healthy.

Becoming a father is a major milestone in the life of a man, often shifting the...

Divorced dads often dissed by schools

Written by Jessica Troilo, Associate Professor of Child Development and Family Studies, West Virginia University

Educators often fail to recognize fathers, a researcher contends. Brad Tollefson/AP

By the time Father’s Day takes place, the school year is usually over.

In many ways, that’s an apt metaphor for how divorced fathers – or fathers who don’t live with their children – get treated by their children’s schools. That...

When America had an open prison – the story of Kenyon Scudder and his 'prison without walls'

Written by Emily Nagisa Keehn, Associate Director, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School, Harvard University

The institution's west dormitory is depicted in this 1942 photograph. Scudder demanded that no walls be erected on the prison grounds.AP Photo

In a country with mass incarceration, horrific prison conditions and a penal system suffused with racism, some American prison reform activists wistfully look to Scandinavian institutions as beacons of...

Americans don't agree on whether the poor should chip in or do work in exchange for aid

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

Most adults under 49 without kids must work 20 hours a week to get food stamps.AP Photo/Julio Cortez

Americans don’t agree on how safety-net programs should work. For example, Republicans are pushing to strengthen work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP or food stamps, and co-payments for Medica...

How an aid gusher helped and hurt Liberia

Written by Jessica Eise, Ross Fellow in the Brian Lamb School of Communication Doctoral Program, Purdue University

Two violent civil wars in Liberia killed a quarter million people between 1989 and 2003 and destroyed the West African country’s economy. A massive influx of foreign aid followed that turmoil, ushering in a period of relative peace and stability. Yet Liberia remains among the world’s poorest countries.

In 2017, one democratically...