News & Stories

All Feature Stories Research News & Awards Newsmakers Q&A Community Profiles
Features September 20, 2017
Politics & Polls #59: Is Free Speech Alive and Well on College Campuses?
Is free speech under threat at colleges across America? Some argue campus environments are no longer conducive to open dialogue. Others say debates on campus are alive and well.A recent nationwide survey of younger voters shows their commitment to free speech is reduced. Of 1,500 undergraduate students across U.S. universities, a fifth of them responded that it’s acceptable to use physical force to silence a speaker who makes “offensive and hurtful comments.”In this episode, Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang discuss the survey with Catherine Rampell, who wrote about it in a recent opinion piece in The Washington Post. Rampell frequently covers economics,…
Features September 15, 2017
To Predict How Climate Change Will Affect Disease, Researchers Must Fuse Climate Science and Biology
Predicting how climate change will affect the incidence of infectious diseases would have great public health benefits. But the relationship between climate and disease is extraordinarily complex, making such predictions difficult. Simply identifying correlations and statistical associations between climatic factors and disease won’t be enough, said Princeton University researcher Jessica Metcalf. Instead, researchers need new statistical models that incorporate both climate factors and the climate–disease relationship, accounting for uncertainties in both.Metcalf presented examples of possible models in a recent review paper, written with co-authors…
Features September 13, 2017
Politics & Polls #58: America’s Political Storms
The country has recently faced a number of storms, both geographic and political. Texas and Florida were both hit with significant hurricanes while President Donald Trump struck up a deal to raise the debt ceiling, causing concern among some.Prominent political players are also making their way to the media stage. Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist, said a Republican civil war is brewing, while presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s new book was released, reminding Americans of her defeat in the 2016 presidential election.How are all of these events affecting Trump’s political base? Professors Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang catch up on…
Princeton School of Public and International Affairs logo on a grey background.
Features September 13, 2017
Russia’s Use and Stockpiles of Highly Enriched Uranium Pose Significant Nuclear Risks
Russia currently holds the world’s largest stockpile of highly enriched uranium, a nuclear weapon-usable material, posing significant nuclear security risks, according to a recent report issued by the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM), a group based at Princeton University and made up of nuclear experts from 16 countries.The report, “The Use of Highly Enriched Uranium as Fuel in Russia,” provides unprecedented details of the military and civilian use of highly enriched uranium in Russia — the only country to produce highly enriched uranium as an export.Russia’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is estimated to be about 680 tons, and…
Features August 24, 2017
Politics & Polls #57: The Heart of the American Right
Some have argued that Donald Trump was propelled into office by people who have been characterized as discouraged and depressed by a world that no longer feels like their own. But what was it about Donald Trump’s motto, “Make America Great Again,” that captured the attention of so many who voted for him? In this episode, Professors Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang interview Arlie Russell Hochschild, a sociologist who traveled deep into the heart of the “American Right.” Hochschild’s five-year journey culminated in the bestselling book, “Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right,” a National Book Award finalist.Hochschild is…
Features August 22, 2017
Orange is the New Green: How Orange Peels Revived a Costa Rican Forest
In the mid-1990s, 1,000 truckloads of orange peels and orange pulp were purposefully unloaded onto a barren pasture in a Costa Rican national park. Today, that area is covered in lush, vine-laden forest.A team led by Princeton University researchers surveyed the land 16 years after the orange peels were deposited. They found a 176 percent increase in aboveground biomass — or the wood in the trees — within the 3-hectare area (7 acres) studied. Their results are published in the journal Restoration Ecology.This story, which involves a contentious lawsuit, showcases the unique power of agricultural waste to not only regenerate a forest but also to…
Features August 21, 2017
Princeton Professor Calls for Federal Guarantee of Quality Education for Kids
American children, no matter where they live or what school they attend, deserve to be guaranteed a quality education, much as we guarantee a safety net for seniors, argued Professor Marta Tienda of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Without a federal guarantee to restore the “educational social contract,” she wrote, the United States will never close educational achievement gaps or restore its schools to their former international preeminence.Writing in the August/September 2017 issue of Educational Researcher, Tienda recounted two trends in recent decades that are familiar to those who follow education…
Features August 17, 2017
Politics & Polls #56: The Aftermath of Charlottesville
A brutal protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, left three people dead and dozens injured on Aug. 11 and 12 as white nationalists, white supremacists and Neo-Nazis descended on the city and clashed violently with anti-racism protestors. President Donald Trump initially condemned the conflict on Twitter and then a few days later placed blame upon both parties involved in the clash.The event, which has rattled Americans, has brought racial tensions to the forefront. In this episode, Professors Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang discuss the aftermath of Charlottesville — and what to expect in the weeks ahead.ABOUT THE HOSTSZelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes…
Features August 14, 2017
Lower-Income Children Raised in Counties With High Upward Mobility Display Fewer Behavioral Issues, Perform Better on Cognitive Tests
Children who grow up in urban counties with high upward mobility exhibit fewer behavioral problems and perform better on cognitive tests, according to a study led by Princeton University.Children in these counties display fewer behavior problems at age 3 and show substantial gains in cognitive test scores between ages 3 and 9. Growing up in a county with higher intergenerational mobility reduces the gap between economically advantaged and disadvantaged children’s cognitive and behavioral outcomes by around 20 percent. The study, published Aug. 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides further evidence that place, measured at…
Features August 14, 2017
Doctors Trained at Lowest-Ranked Medical Schools Prescribe More Opioids
Physicians trained at the United States’ lowest-ranked medical schools write more opioid prescriptions than physicians trained at the highest-ranked schools, according to a study by Princeton University. The study suggests that better training for physicians, and for general practitioners in particular, could help curb the nation’s opioid epidemic.From 2006 to 2014, “If all general practitioners had prescribed like those from the top-ranked school [Harvard], we would have had 56.5% fewer opioid prescriptions and 8.5% fewer overdose deaths,” said Janet M. Currie, the Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson…
Features August 10, 2017
Politics & Polls #55: Has the Conservative Revolution Succeeded? A Conversation with Nancy MacLean
Joining today’s episode is Nancy MacLean, an award-winning scholar of the twentieth-century United States, whose new book, “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America,” has been described by Publishers Weekly as “a thoroughly researched and gripping narrative… [and] a feat of American intellectual and political history.” Booklist called it “perhaps the best explanation to date of the roots of the political divide that threatens to irrevocably alter American government.”MacLean discusses her book with Professors Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang, as well as the widely publicized controversial debates that have…
Princeton School of Public and International Affairs logo on a grey background.
Features August 07, 2017
Junior Summer Institute Serves as “Boot Camp” for Future Leaders in Public Policy
"You have every right to have a say and to lead in the domestic affairs of your country. You have every right to have a say and to lead in the foreign affairs of your country. You have every right to have a say and to lead in global affairs. These are not the preserves of a selected few."With this inspirational message, James Gadsden MCF ’85, former U.S. ambassador to Iceland (2002-2005) and former lecturer and diplomat-in-residence, concluded the international policy workshop he taught this summer to rising college seniors from around the country.The students are at Princeton University through the Public Policy & International Affairs (PPIA)…
Features August 04, 2017
Study Links Unhealthy Segregated Neighborhoods to Childhood Asthma
Researchers have had trouble explaining why black children are much more likely than other children to suffer from asthma. A new study by Princeton University strongly suggests that much of the answer lies in persistent residential segregation, which traps minority children in unhealthy, polluted neighborhoods.In the United States, black children are twice as likely as other children to develop asthma. Past research has attributed some of this difference to low birth weight, as black children are also more likely than others to be born at a low weight — defined as less than 2,500 grams, or about 5.5 pounds — and low birth weight is a risk factor for…
Features August 03, 2017
Politics & Polls #54: The Republic of Spin with David Greenberg
Spin. It’s used by public relations gurus and politicians to shape an image or message, thereby influencing the public’s perception of a story. And it’s engrained in American politics, as presidents and presidential candidates both have used the art of spin to frame stories and public opinion. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} To discuss the art of spin, David Greenberg, a professor of history and journalism and media studies at Rutgers University, joins this episode of Politics & Polls. Greenberg’s book, “Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency,” examines the rise…
Features July 31, 2017
Supreme Court Rulings Can Signal a Shift in Societal Norms
When the Supreme Court issued its 2015 ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, Americans understood the decision as a signal of Americans’ increasing support of same-sex marriage, according to a study published by Princeton University. The researchers found that, regardless of political ideology, non-LGBTQIA Americans perceived stronger and increasing public support for gay marriage in the wake of the Court’s ruling than before the decision. This was in spite of the fact that personal attitudes and feelings toward gay marriage did not change in reaction to the decision.Published in Psychological Science, the research, which features a time series survey…