“Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?”

My anthropology class replied, “SpongeBob Squarepants.” Their thunderous response filled the auditorium.

Nearly 20 years ago, the underwater world of SpongeBob and his quirky, colorful friends debuted as a cartoon. The cultural icon is now a Broadway musical, up for 12 Tony awards.

My...

As the furor over NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem rekindles, the full power of the players themselves has not yet come into play. Presidential politics and U.S. culture wars combined to make the issue a dominant subplot of the 2017 NFL season. In...

Editor’s note: Italy managed to form a government after briefly slipping into political crisis, which sent markets around the world into a panic as investors fretted about the fate of the European Union. The crisis began on May 27 when the political party that won the...

Hospital visits for kids in the U.S. who have contemplated or thought about suicide have risen sharply.

As a child and adolescent psychiatrist, I am not surprised. For years, I ran a child psychiatric hospital, where we treat kids after they...

“If you don’t get away from those areas, you are going to die.” That statement concluded Puerto Rico Secretary of Public Safety Héctor Pesquera’s press conference before Hurricane Maria.

As of Dec....

Durante más de una década documenté la deportación de un hombre, el impacto que tuvo en su familia y su eventual regreso a Estados Unidos.

Hice esto como parte de mis estudios de la...

Durante más de una década documenté la deportación de un hombre, el impacto que tuvo en su familia y su eventual regreso a Estados Unidos.

Hice esto como parte de mis estudios de la...

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a campaign to discourage e-cigarette vaping. While it targeted all e-cigarette vaping, the campaign makes a powerful visual reference to Juul, a device that can be recharged in a computer...

A teenager’s father is murdered in Somalia, and the boy travels to the United States seeking asylum. Another teen’s father and brother are murdered by extremist groups in Afghanistan and he too makes his way...

In the U.S., the geography of poverty is shifting.

According to a May report from the Pew Research Center, since 2000, suburban counties have experienced sharper increases in poverty than urban or rural counties.

This is consistent with research across the U.S. over the past decade – as well as my...