The Conversation

Getting poorer while working harder: The 'cliff effect'

Written by Susan R. Crandall, Director, Center for Social Policy, University of Massachusetts Boston

Average Walmart workers make twice the federal minimum wage but may still qualify for public benefits.AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Forty percent of all working-age Americans sometimes struggle to pay their monthly bills.

There is no place in the country where a family supported by one minimum-wage worker with a full-time job can live and afford a...

D-Day succeeded thanks to an ingenious design called the Mulberry Harbours

Written by Colin Flint, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Utah State University

To stage their invasion of Nazi-held France, Allied forces created floating harbors in the English Channel where ships could safely dock to send soldiers and supplies ashore.Royal Air Force

When Allied troops stormed the beaches at Normandy, France on June 6, 1944 – a bold invasion of Nazi-held territory that helped tip the balance of World...

Pilots sleeping in the cockpit could improve airline safety

Written by Scott Winter, Assistant Professor of Graduate Studies, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Airline pilots are often exhausted.christinarosepix/Shutterstock.com

Airline pilots are often exhausted. An extreme example happened in 2008, when a pilot and a co-pilot both fell asleep at the controls, missing their landing in Hawaii – earning pilot’s license suspensions as well as getting fired. More recently, overtired pilots came...

Hate crimes associated with both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism have a long history in America's past

Written by Peter Gottschalk, Professor of Religion, Wesleyan University

At a 2016 Trump rally, a man holds up a sign, 'Islamophobia is not the answer.'AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar tweeted recently that “Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are two sides of the same bigoted coin.”

Her comments came in response to media reports that the suspect behind the shooting at a San Diego synagogue was also u...

The economic cost of devastating hurricanes and other extreme weather events is even worse than we thought

Written by Gary W. Yohe, Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, Wesleyan University

June marks the official start of hurricane season. If recent history is any guide, it will prove to be another destructive year thanks to the worsening impact of climate change.

But beyond more intense hurricanes and explosive wildfires, the warming climate has been blamed for causing a sharp uptick in all types of extreme weather events across...

To tackle climate change, immigration and threats to democracy, Europe's fractious new Parliament will have to work together

Written by Garret Martin, Professorial Lecturer, American University School of International Service

The European Parliament is more fragmented than ever in its history, which could lead to legislative paralysis.Shutterstock

The European Union has survived its latest contest between pro-EU and anti-EU forces.

Helped by high turnout, pro-EU centrist and leftist parties together won more than two-thirds of seats in the European Parliament elections...

Environmental reporting can help protect citizens in emerging democracies

Written by Eric Freedman, Professor of Journalism and Chair, Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, Michigan State University

Caucasus mountains in Svaneti, northwest Georgia.Polscience/Wikimedia

What happens when an illegally logged tree falls or poachers kill endangered brown bears in the forest, but there’s no journalist to report it?

That’s the situation in the Republic of Georgia, which faces challenges that include poaching, deteriorating air quality,...

Howard Stern talks childhood trauma, and a trauma psychiatrist talks about its lasting effects

Written by Arash Javanbakht, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University

With the awakening in society of the importance of mental health, combined with advances in neuroscience and psychiatry, much needed attention to trauma and childhood trauma is slowly forming.

In a recent interview with Anderson Cooper and in his latest book published May 14, Howard Stern discussed childhood adversity and trauma. The two men also...

Pancreatic cancer specialist explains challenges of the disease and treatment advances

Written by Nathan Bahary, Associate professor of medicine, University of Pittsburgh

With Alex Trebek’s recent announcement that his pancreatic cancer is in remission, many people have wondered if this difficult cancer is now easier to treat. Pancreatic cancer remains a major cancer killer, but advances are happening.

As a medical oncologist who specializes in treating and studying pancreatic cancer, I’ll try to provide...

The question you should never ask women – period

Written by Melissa K. Ochoa, Researcher of Sociology, Texas A&M University

Just. Don't. Seriously.Cookie Studio/Shutterstock.com

Are you ever around women who seem frustrated, upset or irritated? Have you ever asked one of them if she was on her period or perhaps been tempted to inquire?

Take it from me: Don’t. Presuming that female reproductive organs make women behave irrationally is rude and sexist. It also evokes...