News/Features

Feb 9, 2015 (Washington Post) As media attention to the measles outbreak in California continues to grow and prominent politicians weigh in with conflicting messages on requiring vaccines, health policy scholars and political scientists warn of the dangerous consequences that politicization can have on public support for vaccination. And they do so for good reason.

Feb 6, 2015 (Chicago Sun Times) If you and another person get arrested together in Chicago, you’re both part of a loose network of people with a high risk of getting shot in the future, Yale University researchers say in a newly published study.

Feb 5, 2015 (The Pulse – Newsworks) Vaccines are a huge health topic right now, especially with the recent measles outbreak that originated in California's Disneyland. Alison Buttenheim, an assistant professor in the school of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania,  joined us this week to talk about what research suggests about whether or not this outbreak is likely to change parent perspectives on vaccines.

Feb 5, 2015 (The Toronto Star) Jooyoung Lee feels sick to his stomach some days. Not because he’s ill, but because of what he’s been reading. Lee is teaching a course at the University of Toronto called The Sociology of Murder. It focuses on serial killers and perpetrators of genocide.

Jan 13, 2015 (Los Angeles Times) A long workweek may drive you to drink, new research shows. Researchers analyzed data on more than 430,000 people and found that those who worked at least 49 hours a week were up to 13% more likely to engage in “risky alcohol use” compared with those who were on the job for only 35 to 40 hours a week, according to a study published Tuesday by the journal BMJ.

Jan 7, 2015 (Reuters) People who develop a debilitating or chronic illness could be at least twice as likely to default on their homes or risk foreclosure, a recent U.S. study suggests.

Jan 5, 2015 (The Guardian) Being poor has an adverse effect on one’s health and poorer communities have a higher mortality rate. That’s no secret, admits Amani Nuru-Jeter, associate professor at University of California Berkeley.

Jan 2, 2015 (The Week) A UCLA neuroscientist named Keely Muscatell has published an interesting paper showing that wealth quiets the nerves in the brain associated with empathy: If you show rich people and poor people pictures of kids with cancer, the poor people's brains exhibit a great deal more activity than the rich people's

Dec 11, 2014 (Variety) “Film can be a very powerful tool for social change. I gravitate towards films that can teach us about where we want to go, and stories that don’t otherwise get the chance to be told.”

Dec 11, 2014 (CBS Money Watch) The large increase in inequality in recent years has been well documented by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, among others. But less is known about the consequences. What impact has rising inequality had on the overall economy and on individual households?