The Conversation

Making progress is more than making policy – what Mamdani can learn from de Blasio about the politics of urban progress

Written by Nicole West Bassoff, Posdoctoral Research Fellow in Public Policy, University of Virginia

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speaks in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Nov. 8, 2025.AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo

After a decisive election win, Zohran Mamdani will become mayor of New York on Jan. 1, 2026. His impressive grassroots campaign made big promises targeted at working-class New Yorkers: universal child care, rent freezes and...

Supply-chain delays, rising equipment prices threaten electricity grid

Written by Morgan Bazilian, Professor of Public Policy and Director, Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines

High-voltage power lines run through an electrical substation in Florida.Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Two new data centers in Silicon Valley have been built but can’t begin processing information: The equipment that would supply them with electricity isn’t available.

It’s just one example of a crisis facing the U.S. power grid that...

How a Colorado law school dug into its history to celebrate its unsung Black graduates

Written by Rebecca Ciota, Assistant Teaching Professor, Law School, University of Colorado Boulder

The first known Black law student at the University of Colorado is pictured in a class photo from 1899.Courtesy of the University of Colorado Law School.

Class portraits line the hallways of the University of Colorado Law School, the faces of former students gazing down at the building’s current inhabitants. In a dimly lit recess in the...

How the Plymouth Pilgrims took over Thanksgiving – and who history left behind

Written by Thomas Tweed, Professor Emeritus of American Studies and History, University of Notre Dame

'The First Thanksgiving, 1621,' by Jean L. G. Ferris.Library of Congress

Nine in 10 Americans gather around a table to share food on Thanksgiving. At this polarizing moment, anything that promises to bring Americans together warrants our attention.

But as a historian of religion, I feel obliged to recount how popular interpretations of Thanksgiving...

What’s a ‘black box’ warning? A pharmacologist explains how these labels protect patients

Written by C. Michael White, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut

Black box warnings can influence whether or not clinicians decide to prescribe a drug.SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images

A “black box” warning on a health product sounds pretty scary – maybe even more so when it’s suddenly being taken off the packaging.

Americans were reminded of this type of public health messaging on Nov....

Black and Latino homeowners in Philly face discrimination when appraisers assess their properties

Written by Gregory Squires, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, George Washington University

Home appraisal bias contributes to racial wealth disparities and violates the Fair Housing Act. Jeff Fusco/The Conversation U.S., CC BY-SA

For most families, owning a home is the primary way to accumulate wealth and transfer that wealth to future generations.

But in Philadelphia and other U.S. cities, studies have shown that if you live in a Black...

Space debris struck a Chinese spacecraft – how the incident could be a wake-up call for international collaboration

Written by R. Lincoln Hines, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology

China's Shenzhou-20 spacecraft – shown here hitching a ride on a Long March-2F carrier rocket – was hit by a piece of space debris. Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

China’s Shenzhou-20 spacecraft took a hit from a piece of space debris floating through orbit, causing Chinese officials to delay the spacecraft’s return from...

Global companies are still committing to protect the climate – and they’re investing big money in clean tech

Written by Lily Hsueh, Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Arizona State University

Electric delivery vehicles powered by renewable energy are helping several multinationals lower their emissions.Mustafa Hussain/Getty Images

The Trump administration has given corporations plenty of convenient excuses to retreat from their climate commitments, with its moves to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, roll back emissions regulations, and...

Let’s go on an ESCAPADE – NASA’s small, low-cost orbiters will examine Mars’ atmosphere

Written by Christopher Carr, Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

This close-up illustration shows what one of the twin ESCAPADE spacecraft will look like conducting its science operations.James Rattray/Rocket Lab USA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Envision a time when hundreds of spacecraft are exploring the solar system and beyond. That’s the future that NASA’s ESCAPADE, or escape and plasma...

‘Simulation theory’ brings an AI twist out of ‘The Matrix’ to ideas mystics and religious scholars have voiced for centuries

Written by Rizwan Virk, Faculty Associate, PhD Candidate in Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology, Arizona State University

Computer code appears during an immersive reality screening of the 1999 movie 'The Matrix,' held in Inglewood, Calif., on May 28, 2025. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

In the most talked-about film from the final year of the 20th century, “The Matrix,” a computer hacker named Neo finds that the world he lives and works in...