The Power of the Purse
The first time a president withheld funds for something approved by Congress, it led to the Impoundment Control Act. We’ll soon find out if that law has teeth.
“Protecting Kids” from Gay Marriage
Leading up to a 2004 debate about same-sex marriage, conservatives shifted their focus away from moral issues and toward arguments about children’s welfare.
Laughing Matters
Sophia McClennen, author of Trump Was a Joke, discusses how political satire decoded the chaos of the forty-fifth presidency.
Declaration of Conscience: Annotated
In June 1950, Senator Margaret Chase Smith criticized Joseph McCarthy's anticommunist campaigns. She was the first of his colleagues to challenge his Red Scare rhetoric.
The Media’s Bottom-Line Problem
The health of our democracy depends on a free press. What happens when the thirst for profits, eyeballs, and clicks drives political coverage?
How Media Stifles Deliberative Democracy
As outlets that welcome rational exchanges of ideas dwindle those that serve as echo chambers are exploding. What does that mean for free speech and the health of the US?
What’s It Like to Be an Editor of a Prison Newspaper?
The incarcerated editor of The Nash News in North Carolina shares about the power of higher ed and his work at the prison newspaper.
Just How Unrepresentative Are the Iowa Caucuses?
There's no denying the whiteness of the state. But scholars cite other qualities that make Iowa more like the rest of the country.
The Science of Baby-Name Trends
What makes a name suddenly pop—and then die? Social scientists and historians have been puzzling over this for decades.