Blog

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday appointed Tony Perkins, president of the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council, to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The independent and bipartisan federal commission “reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress.” Three of its commissioners are appointed by the president, and one...

Even some of the most powerful tech companies start out tiny, with a young innovator daydreaming about creating the next big thing. As today’s tech firms receive increased moral scrutiny, it raises a question about tomorrow’s: Is that young person thinking about the tremendous ethical responsibility they’d be taking on if their dream comes true? Greg Epstein, the recently appointed humanist chaplain at MIT, sees his new role as key to helping such entrepreneurial students think through the...

California gubernatorial candidates John Chiang (D), Delaine Eastin (D) and Antonio Villaraigosa (D) headlined a forum last night dedicated to the issues facing the state’s most vulnerable children and families. Before an estimated crowd of 600 in Los Angeles, the candidates offered their views on the state’s foster care and juvenile justice systems and also tackled other issues, such as child poverty, educational equity, children’s health and children’s access to technology. Leading...

The Relentless School Nurse: Speaking Truth to Power in a Collaborative Op-Ed The power of social media cannot be underestimated! A few short months ago, I connected with Sunny Hallowell, PhD, RN, a Nurse Faculty from Villanova University on Twitter. Sunny had just returned from Florida where she was presenting Nursing Rounds at a Miami hospital the day of the Parkland shootings. When she returned home, her 5-year-old son shared his experience during his school’s active shooter drill. Sunny...

Empathy is the behavioral manifestation of respect

The advertising executive Michael Franzini, founder of the nonprofit ad agency Public Interest, has created campaigns to fight AIDS, spur Holocaust awareness, and advocate for STEM education. The cause driving his latest campaign is a tricky one: He wants to bring housing policy—a topic that is now largely the purview of wonks, developers, big city activists, and a select few politicians—into the forefront of our national discourse. “In the same way that Al Gore put climate change on the...

Kim Syman has lofty ideas about how New Profit , a social-impact funding organization that she helped get off the ground 20 years ago this week, can do better work. Much of it involves changing perceptions around the role of business in social enterprises, which can be a daunting task. Case in point: New Profit’s mission to finance nonprofits in an unconventional way — that is, with venture capital funding. But venture capital is usually designed to make the rich even richer, while...

The following is the text of a keynote speech given by Mark Brown to the Design in Mental Health conference at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham on 16th May 2018 ‘The institution’ looms large over the history of mental health,” said then Conservative health minister, and later racist pin-up, Enoch Powell in 1961 in his famous ‘Water Towers’ speech: “There they stand, isolated, majestic, imperious, brooded over by the gigantic water-tower and chimney combined, rising unmistakable...

With obesity now a global epidemic, there is increased focus on risk factors that contribute to weight gain, especially in postmenopausal women. Although many women may blame genetics for their expanding waistlines, a new study shows that as women age they are more likely to overcome genetic predisposition to obesity through exercise. Study results are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). Previous studies have suggested that the...

In her recent interview on Dateline, Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney disclosed that she was abused “hundreds of times” by Team USA’s former doctor Larry Nassar. For years, her cry for help went unheard. Maroney’s story isn’t uncommon. Thousands of children across America share the anxiety, fear, and confusion that come with experiencing sexual abuse. And like her, many are left without the power to recognize or report it. A theatre program in Virginia called Hugs and Kisses is now...

Children growing up in America today are likely to end up less well-off than their parents. And those of us living in the self-proclaimed land of opportunity are also less likely than most Europeans to move up the economic ladder. Thanks largely to the pioneering studies of economist Raj Chetty and his collaborators, there is a large and growing body of research on how the places where we live affect our ability to achieve the American Dream. Chetty and company’s research shows that our...

School officials have issued warnings to parents ahead of the second season of the Netflix drama "13 Reasons Why," which premieres this week. The first season, which centered on the suicide of a high school student, triggered cautions from the National Association of School Psychologists. Netflix has responded to concerns by adding PSA-style messages filmed by the cast and putting up a web site with links to resources. The national attention comes at a time when, new research suggests, one...