The Conversation

Bourdain, Spade suicides show how even those at the top can know the lows of depression

Written by Jonathan Rottenberg, Professor of Psychology, University of South Florida

Anthony Bourdain in a July 17, 2017, photo at the screening of 'An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.'Evan Agostin/Invision/AP Photos

We struggle to comprehend the loss of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain. Sudden deaths are shocking. It’s doubly shocking when the deaths are by suicide. Sudden suicide by people who seemingly have it all:...

Trump's presidency marks the first time in 24 years that the federal bench is becoming less diverse

Written by Rorie Solberg, Associate Professor of Political Science, Oregon State University

President Trump's judicial nominee Thomas Alvin Farr.AP Photo/Alex Brandon

President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate are pushing through nominations for federal judges at an unusually fast pace ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. That’s when the GOP could lose its majority and end the easy path to confirmation for...

Detained immigrant children stay in shelters that are already full and aren't equipped for babies

Written by Dyana Mason, Assistant Professor of Planning, Public Policy and Management, University of Oregon

Women with children in their arms protested the separation of families seeking protection at U.S. borders, as DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen addressed a Senate subcommittee. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

The Trump administration is deliberately taking immigrant children away from their parents. This practice, which has already elicited...

Why did the television reboot become all the rage?

Written by Dr. James Francis, Jr., Lecturer, Department of English, Texas A&M University

Designer Yves Saint Laurent once said, “Fashions fade, style is eternal.”

The same could be said for television: When a popular show concludes, it lives on in syndication and Blu-ray. But recently, TV immortality has assumed a new form. Networks and streaming services are increasingly pulling from the past to flood the airwaves with...

I visited the Rohingya camps in Myanmar and here is what I saw

Written by Cresa Pugh, Doctoral Student in Sociology & Social Policy, Harvard University

A camp for displaced Rohingyas in the city of Sittwe in western Myanmar.Cresa Pugh, CC BY

Myanmar recently claimed to have repatriated its first Rohingya refugee family. But, as an official from the United Nations noted, the country is still not safe for the return of its estimated 700,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees, who fled to Bangladesh in 2017...

Mexico City's new airport is an environmental disaster but it could become a huge national park

Written by Gabriel Diaz Montemayor, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Texas at Austin

Mexico City's new Norman Foster-designed airport, seen here in a computer rendering, is visually striking but environmentally problematic.Presidencia de la República Mexicana CC-by-2.0, CC BY

Mexico City long ago outgrew the two-terminal Benito Juárez International Airport, which is notorious for delays, overcrowding and canceled...

Increased deaths and illnesses from inhaling airborne dust: An understudied impact of climate change

Written by Ploy Pattanun Achakulwisut, Postdoctoral Scientist, George Washington University

A large dust storm, or haboob, sweeps across downtown Phoenix on July 21, 2012.AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File

The Dust Bowl in the 1930s was one of the worst environmental disasters of the 20th century. Intense dust storms relentlessly pounded the southern Great Plains of the United States, wreaking severe ecological damage, forcing 2.5 million...

Religion is uniquely human, but computer simulations may help us understand religious behavior

Written by Wesley Wildman, Professor of Philosophy, Theology, and Ethics, Boston University

Christchurch Cathedral in New Zealand partially collapsed after a 2011 earthquake. AP Photo/Mark Baker

When disaster strikes, people often turn to religion for comfort and support. A powerful recent example of this comes from a study called “Faith after an Earthquake,” by prominent New Zealand religion and society researchers Chris...

Memo to President Trump: Better ties between North and South Korea should come first – then get rid of nukes

Written by Lynn T. White III, Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School and East Asian Studies Program, Princeton, Princeton University

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, April 27, 2018. AP/Korea Summit press pool

At President Donald Trump’s summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, Kim may promise complete denuclearization, but Trump should know...

Rules-based trade made the world rich. Trump's policies may make it poorer

Written by Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics, Rochester Institute of Technology

Trump against the world?Jesco Denzel/German Federal Government via AP

Nations sell goods and services to each other because this exchange is generally mutually beneficial.

It’s easy to understand that Iceland should not be growing its own oranges, given its climate. Instead, Iceland should buy oranges from Spain, which can grow them more...