Commentary
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Rwanda’s Clean Cooking Challenge: Can Community Action Make the Difference?
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Asteria’s hands tremble as she strikes a match, the small flame flickering before catching onto the lump of charcoal. Her youngest daughter, Keza, stands nearby, rubbing her eyes and coughing as the smoke curls toward the low roof of their kitchen. Asteria has been cooking this way for as long…
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State Suicide: A Weapon for Progressive Politics
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It’s 2025, and healthcare for women and transgender Americans is under threat, thanks to our far-right government. Democrats are far from helpless, though: given how narrow the Republican victory was, broad support for legal abortion, and President Trump’s middling approval ratings, it is likely that the Democrats will regain Congressional…
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Yes, it’s political: Dance & Disparities during a Trump term
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The first sentence of the 2024 Republican Party Platform is its dedication: “To the forgotten men and women of America.” This powerful message can and should be expanded upon as the toll of inequality continues to rip through America. From attacks on LGBTQ+ rights to stark racial disparities in mortality…
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In Pursuit of the Limping Truth
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“Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it,” Jonathan Swift remarked over three centuries ago. Today, in an era of instant communication, this observation is more relevant than ever. Social media platforms have revolutionized access to information but have also become vectors for misinformation and disinformation, allowing falsehoods to…
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The National Flood Insurance Program is Unsustainable and Regressive
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In the ten days between September and October 2024, two catastrophic hurricanes, Helene and Milton, battered the southeastern United States. Insurance claim payouts related to Hurricane Helene are projected to total between six and seven billion dollars. Claims stemming from Hurricane Milton are estimated to increase by 30–50%. As of…
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Citizens’ Assemblies: A Path Towards A More Perfectly Representative Union
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Around the world, people seem dissatisfied with their leaders. This is particularly visible in the current era of anti-incumbency, which has taken hold in places as far-flung and different from one another as the United Kingdom to Botswana, India to South Korea, or Poland to Argentina. Incumbents are losing, or…
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The Inequality of Recession
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The public perceives recessions simply as a sign that the economy is “bad.” However, many policymakers continue to define recessions as “two-quarters of negative gross domestic product.” This outdated definition implies that policy responses could take more than six months to even begin addressing a downturn. The National Bureau of…
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It’s Time to be Creative: Student Mental Health Needs the Arts
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To students and families who transitioned back to in-person schooling after the COVID-19 lockdown, it’s clear that the pandemic significantly impacted student mental health. For some, this may have been worsened by a range of other factors, such as eco-anxiety(concern about the effects of climate change), bullying, and financial anxiety.…
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How Political Retaliation Led to the Waste of $50 Billion in Taxpayer Funds
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In 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a $1.2 trillion initiative aimed at overhauling the nation’s infrastructure. The bill was historic not just in scale but for its inclusion of a climate change mandate. This mandate demonstrates Biden’s commitment to environmental sustainability. The bipartisan legislation…
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Unmasking the Invisible Threat: Corporate America’s Battle Against AI Deepfakes
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In a stark demonstration of technological manipulation, the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) recently faced a sophisticated deepfake scheme targeting its top leadership. CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan unwittingly became the subject of AI-generated videos meant to mislead investors and potentially manipulate stock market sentiments. Cybercriminals leveraged advanced artificial intelligence to…
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The Economics of a Wealthy Academy
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There are countless examples of economists disregarding survey data in which a representative sample concludes that the American economy is concerning, generally countering with some favorable economic figure. Although the data can be noisy, metrics poorly calibrated, samples biased, and respondents irrational, there is also the possibility that these two…