In March, the Justice Department filed a major antitrust complaint against Apple accusing the tech giant of maintaining a monopoly over the smartphone market. This is just the latest action the government has taken against Big Tech in recent years, marking a clear shift from the cozy relationship the industry long had with Washington. What’s behind the love/hate relationship between Big Tech and our government? And what can Silicon Valley’s past reveal about the way this might all play out...

Border crossings coming into the United States are at some of their highest levels in recent history. Cities like Chicago and New York are struggling to provide services while the immigration system is running out of funding and faces a massive backlog of asylum applications. The situation is looking tough for many asylum seekers, but what happens when individuals make it through the system and are granted refugee status? Enter refugee resettlement agencies – organizations that provide food,...

Martin Luther King Jr. holds a special place in the American consciousness and is one of the few people to have a federal holiday celebrating his legacy. But what exactly is MLK’s legacy? From immigrants rights groups to gun rights activists to politicians, the history of the civil rights movement and MLK’s work and words have long been used, and contested, by many different people. Drawing from her new book, Professor Hajar Yazdiha explained why MLK holds such a prominent place in our shared...

From healthcare strikes to auto workers strikes to the Writers Guild and Hollywood actors strikes, 2023 was an eventful year for union activity. Professor Nathan Wilmers examined the implications of that activity and what it may mean for the future of the labor movement as employees fight for fair wages, equality, and protection in the workplace. Importantly, Professor Wilmers highlighted the history of the labor movement over the past few decades – as it may provide some answers for the...

Since the emergence of ChatGPT in late 2022, new artificial intelligence models have captured the attention and fascination of the world. Some Americans are still acquainting themselves with the tools while for others, these models are already becoming an essential part of their workplace. Professor Jim Samuel explained what generative AI is, how it functions, and its ethical concerns. Importantly, Professor Samuel laid out why AI tools like ChatGPT require more transparency and...

While news over Britney Spears’s 13-year conservatorship turned what was a largely unfamiliar term into one most Americans now know, involuntary care over adults with certain types of disabilities or severe mental illness is nothing new in the United States. In fact, the contentious battle between civil rights and health care needs goes back decades. Professor Alex V. Barnard explained the history of conservatorships in the state of California, examined the government’s role in overseeing...

With abortion bans passing in states all over the country since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, women experiencing miscarriages have been turned away from hospitals because doctors deemed that they weren’t in enough clear danger to receive abortion care. Meanwhile, many women experiencing fibromyalgia continue to have their social security disability claims denied because they are not able to provide concrete evidence that their condition severely disrupts their quality of life. According to...

According to a recent, federal report, while racial diversity is at an all time high in the K-12 public school system, racial inequality and segregation on school campuses persists, and continues to increase. Professor Erica Frankenberg broke down what racial segregation has looked like for marginalized students over the past few decades, what needs to be done to combat ongoing segregation, and how the recent Supreme Court decision on college admissions directly impacts this pressing issue.  ...

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) was signed into law almost one year ago, but Americans are still learning how this giant legislative package impacts them. With provisions targeting different sectors of the economy, the IRA has focused most prominently on clean energy investments, prescription drug pricing, and funding for the IRS. And to learn what research can tell us about these major provisions, we spoke to experts who study each of these issue areas. Professor Matto Mildenberger...

In an annual report, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that over half a million Americans were experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2022. According to Professor Megan Welsh Carroll, racial discrimination, criminalization, and of course, the high cost of housing all contribute to this growing crisis. And while progress is being made, many critical public services remain out of reach for this group, including one that has led to serious public health issues:...

2023 marks 50 years since the beginning of mass incarceration in 1973, when the U.S. prison population started increasing every single year for nearly four decades, according to Professor Nazgol Ghandnoosh. Ghandnoosh, who works for The Sentencing Project, shared some sobering numbers: today, over five million people are under supervision by the criminal legal system, and nearly two million people, disproportionately Black, are living in prisons. During this conversation, she delved into the...

In states across the country, a flurry of new laws are being considered, and often passed, that specifically target transgender individuals – from bills that bar access to gender-affirming healthcare for youth to legislation that bans transgender people from competing in athletics. Professor Zein Murib shared where things stand, why transgender people have become the focus of so much legislative activity, and what these laws mean for the future of the LGBTQ+ movement and American society as a...

Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Americans may at times feel as though they’re invisible. An estimated 3 million of them live in the U.S. yet have no box to mark their identities on government forms, such as the Census, and other surveys. Professor Neda Maghbouleh, who has spent years studying the exclusion faced by MENA Americans, laid out how the misrepresentation of their race impacts their lives. She explained what steps need to be taken to increase visibility for those who fall in...

In the American school system, math and science are considered essential building blocks of a good education. But for many students, those building blocks can topple over somewhere along the way. We spoke to Professor Lara Perez-Felkner, who laid out invisible barriers faced by racially minoritized and economically disadvantaged students pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). Perez-Felkner discussed ways that school administrators, policymakers, and families can come...

Gone are the days of file cabinets, wall calendars and phone books, as advances in technology have made storing information easier than ever. But given a slew of high-profile data breaches in recent years – both at governmental agencies and private companies – cybersecurity is quickly becoming one of the most pressing issues facing our country. How can our government better protect against increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks? And how might these data breaches impact the lives of everyday...

According to the CDC, more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021. And a record-breaking 627 of those deaths occurred in the state of Maine. Substance use disorder is seen as a public health emergency by the medical community – but drug arrests continue to increase all over the country. In light of these developments, professor of political science Rob Glover, alongside his colleague Karyn Sporer (professor of sociology), set out to discover Mainers’ attitudes about current...

With the midterm elections around the corner, all eyes are on the record-breaking number of Black female candidates on the ballot. We spoke to professor of government Nadia E. Brown, who shared her research on what’s contributing to the rising numbers of Black women seeking office. During the conversation, Professor Brown explored what the combined identity of being Black and female means for those who enter into politics and ways in which prior political participation becomes a key motivator...

With rent prices and mortgage rates continuing to skyrocket, finding and keeping stable housing is getting increasingly challenging for many  Americans. But according to sociology professor Prentiss Dantzler, those challenges are amplified for members of marginalized groups, such as Black Americans. Professor Dantzler spoke to us about the ways racial discrimination persists in the housing market, despite laws - such as the Fair Housing Act of 1968 - that were put into place decades ago to...

Millions of Americans are poor, food insecure, housing cost-burdened, or medically uninsured. This is where the U.S. social safety net comes in – with programs like Medicaid, food stamps, and unemployment insurance  – to catch their fall. But how many experience a smooth landing? And how can society provide tangible relief to those who miss the net entirely? We sought answers from professor of public policy Chris Howard, who broke down what’s included when we talk about the “social safety...

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine have brought an increased number of refugees to America over the past year. Enter refugee resettlement agencies – organizations that provide food, shelter, and of course, job placement to newly arrived refugees. But according to sociologist Dr. Nicole Kreisberg, their current strategy of job placement is deeply flawed: prioritizing immediate yet low-wage work over long-term reliable employment. Kreisberg spoke to us about the harms...

The US Supreme Court has a long history of firmly defending its philosophy of neutrality and did the same for the recent and historic overturn of Roe. Wade. But according to law professor Cedric Merlin Powell, the Court’s neutral stance on cases impacting marginalized groups – including women and communities of color – ignores inequalities and in doing so, worsens them. Professor Powell sat down to speak with us about the serious harms caused by a judicial branch whose decisionmaking ignores...

More and more Americans are facing massive student debt and daunting payment plans once the federal pause on loan payments runs out. But this burden is not spread evenly, and neither are the challenges of paying it off. In this episode, we spoke to Associate Professor of Public Policy Fenaba Addo about who is really facing a student debt crisis, what contributes to student debt accumulation, and how race and family wealth factor into it all. For more of Fenaba Addo’s work: Check out  her...

Millennials are often seen as a progressive-minded generation – as 80’s and 90’s kids, they grew up in a digital landscape that exposed them to a diversity of perspectives. But while expectations were high that this generation would be on the frontlines in the fight for racial equality, recent research by  Associate Professor of Political Science Candis Watts Smith paints a different picture. During our conversation, Professor Smith discussed how white millennials’ really think about race ...

Conversations around climate change often focus on the consumption habits of everyday people: the cars we drive, the food we eat, our electricity bills. But according to geography professor Matt Huber, the carbon footprints of consumers are not what we should be so concerned about, despite all the rhetoric. During our conversation, Professor Huber focused on what (and who) he argues are largely responsible for our alarmingly high rate of carbon emissions – and offered solutions.   For more...