Bridging the Budget Gap With Stolen Lunch Money
Results of a survey from the American Association of School Administrators shows how K-12 school officials across the country made cuts to their schools’ programs.
Battling World Hunger Through Innovative Technology
From innovation in architecture and robotics to mobile apps and interactive games, technology is reshaping our understanding of and approach to world hunger.
Wonking Week: Dirty Laundry
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss political missteps and the norms of masculinity. In addition, Emily Badger looks into Meredith Attwell Baker and reforming the FCC.
Wonking Week: Walls and Bridges
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In addition, Emily Badger looks at perceptions in the Muslim world.
Wonking Week: Get Your Motor Running
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss high gas prices, while Emily Badger looks at the possibility of sunsetting some provisions in the Patriot Act.
Wonking Week: Foreign Policy
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss immigration reform and Emily Badger looks at a proposed rule for U.S. Agency for International Development.
Wonking Week: Collateral Murder
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss the death of Osama bin Laden. In addition, Emily Badger looks at WikiLeaks and the curious case of Julian Assange.
Wonking Week: Cap and Gown
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss how media influence the United States’ national school lunch program while Emily Badger looks at cap-and-trade legislation.
Wonking Week: Detain and Passover
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss Chinese artist and political dissident Ai Weiwei, and Idea Lobby author Emily Badger looks at a proposal for cybersecurity.
Wonking Week: Nature™
In this week’s audio newsletter, we talk with T.C. Boyle about how he employs futility and progress in his latest novel, When the Killing’s Done. In addition, Emily Badger looks at the latest debate in patent law involving human genes.
Wonking Week: Shutdown and Reboot
In this week’s podcast newsletter, Emily Badger examines the implications of a government shutdown. In addition, we open with a discussion of how technology and artistic effort coexist uneasily.
Wonking Week: Play Hardball
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss the fracas in Wisconsin and the start of the baseball season. In addition, Idea Lobby blogger Emily Badger examines academic freedom.
Wonking Week: The Threat of Invasion
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss the situation in Libya. In addition, Emily Badger examines how the military is responding to the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’
Wonking Week: Disaster
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss the horrific events in Japan, while Emily Badger examines the state of nuclear energy regulation in the U.S.
Wonking Week: Slugging
In this week’s podcast, we discuss the juvenile justice system. In addition, Emily Badger examines the practice of slugging for the work-day commute.
Remembering California’s Nuclear Meltdown
We provide some background and context for the nuclear-power crisis in Japan.
Funny Things Are Everywhere
In this week’s Wonking Week podcast, we discuss the politics of Dr. Seuss. In addition, Emily Badger examines collective bargaining.
Wonking Week: Brought to You By…
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss inventive memory tricks and the psychology behind last names. In addition, Emily Badger examines funding models for PBS.
Wonking Week: Star-Crossed Lovers
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss the anxieties of gift giving on Valentine’s Day. In addition, Emily Badger examines the U.S. government’s awkward relationship with cyberspace.
Wonking Week: My Little Town Blues
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss the perilous state of the arts (and our economy). In addition, Emily Badger examines new plans announced by the FCC to bring broadband access to all.
Wonking Week: Spud-nik Moment
In this week’s audio newsletter, we tackle science and technology. In addition, Emily Badger examines changes in the food industry.
Wonking Week: Go Daddy
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss teen pregnancy and the NFL’s big game. In addition, Emily Badger examines developments in the auto industry that may create genuinely smart cars.
Keys to a Happy Marriage
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss the key to a happy marriage. In addition, Emily Badger examines Citizen’s United: the Supreme Court case decision now pitting fears of corruption from special interest against fears of tyranny from the majority.
Winds of Change
In this week’s audio newsletter, we discuss the buzz around decibel levels on wind turbine farms and introduce a new segment on neuroscience called ‘Where’s Your Head At?’ In addition, Emily Badger examines political rhetoric and its effect on political violence.
The Rule Book
This week, we discuss the rules of attraction: what drives our romantic interest. In addition, Emily Badger examines new house rules governing the 112th Congress.
Pop and Jangle
This week, we discuss the so-called tax on soda, while Emily Badger talks about new year’s resolutions.
Awkward Silence and Civil War
This week we discuss awkward silences, while Emily Badger examines the U.S. Civil War and the mythology that grown up around it.
Anti-Semitism 2.0
This week we discuss a new era of anti-Semitism, while Emily Badger examines voting.
Freedom and Censorship
This week we discuss buying freedom and public censorship, while Emily Badger examines resegregation.
Branding and Profiling
This week we discuss the power of market branding, while Emily Badger examines racial profiling.
Bah! Humbug! And Other Traditions
This week we discuss symbolism in modern holiday celebrations, while Emily Badger examines congressional reapportionment.
Social Innovation Fund and Cigarettes
This week, Emily Badger examines a new program to help fund social programs, while Tom Jacobs and Jessica Hilo discuss changes to the warning on cigarette packs.
Fewer Skeeters and More Women in Politics
This week we discuss how using predators’ traits may reduce mosquito numbers where we don’t want them, while Emily Badger examines a new program to push successful women into running for office.
Cultural Puritanism and Political Negativity
Emily Badger examines just how negative advertising in the U.S. midterms was, and why that might not be a bad thing, while Tom Jacobs explains that puritanism may be bred in the American bone.
Charter Schools and Science Reasoning
In this week’s podcast we look at the relative success rates of charter schools while our Emily Badger discusses the failure of the administration’s commitment to science to take hold.
Electric Cars and Facebook Physicals
In this week’s podcast we look at how social networking site may reveal the reality of how we care for our bodies, while Emily Badger discusses a new program to provide a jump start to electric cars.
Greenwashing, Spelling Bees
In this week’s podcast newsletter, we look at the ABCs of spelling bees and the FTC’s new focus on curbing deceptive ‘greenwashing.’
Skipping Rope and Taking Names
In this week’s podcast, learn how an experiment that involved skipping rope demonstrated the value of self-doubt, while Emily Badger examines the idea of taxing drivers by the miles they travel, not the fuel they use.
Wonking Week: Facebook and Fedflix Edition
This week our Tom Jacobs discusses the fallacy that our Facebook friends are our political fellow travelers, while Emily Badger plunders Uncle Sam’s video cabinet.
Wonking Week: Art and Tracking Edition
In this week’s podcast, we look at what can be learned by analyzing artistic preferences, and about efforts to create a cyber ‘do not track’ list.
Wonking Week: Volunteer and Live Longer
In this week’s podcast Miller-McCune looks at federal employees working from home and older people living longer through increased volunteer work.
Wonking Week: Quick Fix Extravaganza
In this week’s podcast, Tom Jacobs and Jessica Hilo rip through a slew of quick fixes, including looks at the 14th amendment, the Ground Zero mosque, the role of public defenders and cyber warfare.
Wonking Week: Make Me Mad, Make Me Creative
In this week’s podcast, we examine how anger can stimulate creativity and look at two aspects of voter behavior — how the polling place affects our actions and how desperation affects whether we actually participate.
Wonking Week: Surveying Troops, Elderly Rats
In this week’s podcast, Emily Badger reviews the rationale behind asking U.S. troops about their opinions on gays serving openly, and fellow Jessica Hilo examines promising advances in research on aging.
Wonking Week: Take Two Composers and Call Me in the Morning
In this week’s podcast, Tom Jacobs discusses the Prozac-like qualities of classical music and Emily Badger reveals that some research tagged as wasteful actually has solid scientific applications.
Wonking Week: Military Oil and Smokers’ Toil
In our weekly podcast Emily Badger reviews her reporting on the military’s oil use and Tom Jacobs discusses the how luxuriating in thoughts of tobacco may be a better way to quit it.
Wonking Week: Women, Math and Science
In this week’s podcast, Tom Jacobs and Melinda Burns discuss studies they reported on concerning gender differences in math and science, while Emily Badger examines the hubbub over the idea of government oversight of Google search algorithm.
Wonking Week: Humming and Hawing
In this week’s podcast Tom Jacobs discusses how music creates a cooperative spirit and Emily Badger explains how the concerns over employment lead many to reject greater environmental or safety regulation that likely would benefit them.
Wonking Week: E-mail Inspection and Lie Detection
In this week’s podcast we listen to Emily Badger discussing the Presidential Records Act and Tom Jacobs on how “Lie to Me” make us worse at ferreting out the truth.
Wonking Week: Personal Redemption Through Cliches
In this week’s podcast, we look at how men rationalize their mistakes through proverbs, research that suggests lobbying is less effective than thought, and how microfinance is not the solution to global poverty.
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from the source
Gender Wage Gap Skewed By Survey Flaws
The wage gap between the sexes in America has been closing much faster than anyone realized, but that’s tempered by learning it’s been much wider than measurements had shown.
‘Orcas as Slaves’ Argument Sinks
An effort to identify five performing orcas as slaves failed in part, argues one scholar, because there’s no legal precedent establishing them as persons.
The Perceived Delicacy of the Female Conductor
New research finds listeners judge symphonic music differently when they’re told the conductor is a woman.
House Puts Transportation in Partisan Crossfire
Transportation used to be one of the few guaranteed areas of agreement when ideology trumped pragmatism in D.C. But that’s no longer the case.
Pressure to Conform Can Inspire Creativity
New research suggests less-creative people do more innovative thinking when they are told individualism is the norm, and instructed to conform.
Better Super Bowl Makes for Better Ads
A lot of people say they watch the Super Bowl mostly for the ads. But it turns out a good game surrounding those ads makes them seem better.
Overseas Troops Finally Get Fair Shot at Voting
After decades of obstacles hindering the voting process, new laws will allow overseas and military voters to submit their votes in time for the 2012 election.
Neglected Tropical Diseases Neglected No More?
World health leaders announce coordinated push to eradicate or control neglected tropical diseases.
Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
A survey of award-winning children’s picture books from 1938 to 2008 suggests our increasing estrangement from the natural environment.
Traffic Solution: Make Drivers Less Lonely
Rather than moaning about too many cars on the road, the Ridesharing Institute says the real key to battling traffic congestion and pollution is filling empty passenger seats.



