In 2013, the science-fiction drama Her questioned whether communication with artificial intelligence could be indistinguishable from communication with humans. While this day is yet to come, AI is increasingly facilitating human-to-human communication. This ph... More »
On January 31, the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) released its latest food price index report, showing that food prices have trended upward since July 2020. The primary agricultural commodities — soybeans, wheat, and other cereals, corn, rice, a... More »
Even before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, socioeconomic inequality plagued cities across the globe. The pandemic itself has both deepened those existing wounds and ripped open new ones. In the United States, neighborhoods predominantly inhabited by pe... More »
The coronavirus pandemic has proven to be the great amplifier of existing inequities in internet access across communities in the United States, driven by the need for both access and affordability.According to the Boston Consulting Group and Common Sense Medi... More »
While much of global warming research focuses on the natural world — considering how climate change impacts ecosystems, agriculture, and biodiversity — a new wave of research studies how climate change will reshape the social and economic world. In this emergi... More »
While the threat of the pandemic loomed, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) was busy stuffing his personal coffers. On Feb. 13, just one day after he was briefed on the severity of COVID-19, Sen. Burr sold over a million dollars in stocks. One week later, the market ... More »
After the end of World War II, a network of international organizations was created to deal with what they determined at that time to be the biggest threats to global political stability. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established in 1949 as... More »
Lockdowns and stay at home orders from Chicago to London to Beijing have resulted in fewer cars on roads and reduced public transit ridership. The nosedive in daily commuters has transformed large swaths of cities around the world into a sea of deserted asphal... More »
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the US economy and produced record-high unemployment. To make matters worse, more than half of the US adult population—about 158 million people—receives health insurance through their employer. This means that the current econ... More »
Humans naturally exist in social networks where they exchange ideas and form relationships. Times of collective crises magnify the importance of our social embedding. Understanding how social networks are formed—and how they adapt to new circumstances—can help... More »
Democrats are reconsidering their relationship with the Supreme Court. In the wake of the failed Merrick Garland nomination in 2016—and amid a rushed effort to confirm conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett—some in the party are discussing familiar ideas to prev... More »
In March, as the world stared into a financial and epidemiological abyss, Congress acted more swiftly and dramatically to save the U.S. economy than during any crisis in American history. The CARES Act—signed into law by President Trump on March 27 after facin... More »