Tennis is set for a ‘Battle of the Sexes’ sequel – with no movement behind itJaime Schultz, Penn State; Kyle R. King, Penn State; Molly McCreedy, Penn State, and Sydney Johnson-Aguirre, Penn State
Medieval peasants probably enjoyed their holiday festivities more than you doBobbi Sutherland, University of Dayton
2025’s words of the year reflect a year of digital disillusionmentRoger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis
The dystopian Pottersville in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is starting to feel less like fictionNora Gilbert, University of North Texas
Large trunks discovered in a basement offer a window into the lives and struggles of early Filipino migrantsSam Vong, Smithsonian Institution
America’s teachers are being priced out of their communities − these cities are building subsidized housing to lure them backJeff Kruth, Miami University and Tammy Schwartz, Miami University
What if universal rental assistance were implemented to deal with the housing crisis?Alex Schwartz, The New School and Kirk McClure, University of Kansas
To spur the construction of affordable, resilient homes, the future is concretePablo Moyano Fernández, Washington University in St. Louis
Believe it or not, there was a time when the US government built beautiful homes for working-class Americans to deal with a housing shortageEran Ben-Joseph, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
What the world can learn from Uruguay as the global housing crisis deepensJennifer Duyne Barenstein, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and Daniela Sanjinés, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
From FIFA to the LA Clippers, carbon offset scandals are exposing the gap between sports teams’ green promises and realityBrian P. McCullough, University of Michigan and Edward Carrington, University of Michigan
George Plimpton’s 1966 nonfiction classic ‘Paper Lion’ revealed the bruising truths of Detroit Lions training campStephen Siff, Miami University
Baseball returns to a Japanese American detention camp after a historic ball field was restoredSusan H. Kamei, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Whether Netflix or Paramount buys Warner Bros., entertainment oligopolies are back – bigger and more anticompetitive than everMatthew Jordan, Penn State
The law meets its limits – what ‘Nuremberg’ reveals about guilt, evil and the quest for global justiceB.B. Blaber, Grinnell College
4 films that show how humans can fortify – or botch – their relationship with AIMurugan Anandarajan, Drexel University and Claire A. Simmers, St. Joseph's University
40 years ago, the first AIDS movies forced Americans to confront a disease they didn’t want to seeScott Malia, College of the Holy Cross
‘Jaws’ and the two musical notes that changed Hollywood foreverJared Bahir Browsh, University of Colorado Boulder
Why two tiny mountain peaks became one of the internet’s most famous imagesChristopher Schaberg, Washington University in St. Louis
Surrealism is better known for its strangeness than the radical politics and revolutionary ambitions of its creatorsTom McDonough, Binghamton University, State University of New York
How Dorothea Tanning’s ‘Birthday’ painting challenged male-dominated surrealismSally Jane Brown, West Virginia University
Tired of the same old Christmas songs? So were these countercultural carolersFlorian Walch, West Virginia University
The real reason conservatives are furious about Bad Bunny’s forthcoming Super Bowl performanceEdiberto Román, Florida International University and Ernesto Sagás, Colorado State University
Sabrina Carpenter’s and Chappell Roan’s sexy pop hits have roots in the bedroom ballads of Teddy Pendergrass and Philly soulJared Bahir Browsh, University of Colorado Boulder
How Philly anarcho-punks blended music, noise and social justice in the 1990s and 2000sEdward Avery-Natale, Mercer County Community College
More than half of new articles on the internet are being written by AI – is human writing headed for extinction?Francesco Agnellini, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Writing builds resilience by changing your brain, helping you face everyday challengesEmily Ronay Johnston, University of California, Merced
Signatures meant more in Mesopotamia than they do now − what cylinder seals say about ancient and modern lifeSerdar Yalçin, Macalester College
What’s the difference between ghosts and demons? Books, folklore and history reflect society’s supernatural beliefsPenelope Geng, Macalester College
Too many em dashes? Weird words like ‘delves’? Spotting text written by ChatGPT is still more art than scienceRoger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis
Netflix-Warner deal would drive streaming market further down the road of ‘Big 3’ dominationDavid R. King, Florida State University
Watchdog journalism’s future may lie in the work of independent reporters like Pablo TorreAlex Volonte, University of Florida
Even as Jimmy Kimmel returns to the airwaves, TV networks remain more vulnerable to political pressure than ever beforeSage Meredith Goodwin, Purdue University and Oscar Winberg, University of Turku
A white poet and a Sioux doctor fell in love after Wounded Knee – racism and sexism would drive them apartJulie Dobrow, Tufts University
Pharaohs in Dixieland – how 19th-century America reimagined Egypt to justify racism and slaveryCharles Vanthournout, Université de Lorraine
The Erie Canal: How a ‘big ditch’ transformed America’s economy, culture and even religionMatthew Smith, Miami University
A staircase in a small, decorative arts museum tells a harrowing story of terror, abuse and enslavementSusanna Ashton, Clemson University and Mollie Barnes, University of South Carolina Beaufort
Censorship campaigns can have a way of backfiring – look no further than the fate of America’s most prolific censorAmy Werbel, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)
‘My gender is like an empty lot’ − the people who reject man, woman and any other gender labelCanton Winer, Northern Illinois University
Why are women’s shoes so pointy? A fashion expert on impractical but stylish footwearMichael Watson, University of South Carolina
We’ve been tracking the number of Americans who identify as transgender – soon, there will be no reliable way to measure themJody L. Herman, University of California, Los Angeles and Andrew Ryan Flores, American University
As Mexico’s LGBTQ+ community battles for inclusion, two drag performers have become internet stars – with more than 2 million TikTok followersFrancisco Tijerina, Washington University in St. Louis
New York’s wealthy warn of a tax exodus after Mamdani’s win – but the data says otherwiseCristobal Young, Cornell University
The rise of the autistic detective – why neurodivergent minds are at the heart of modern mysteriesSoohyun Cho, Michigan State University
How mobsters’ own words brought down Philly’s mafia − a veteran crime reporter has the story behind the end of the ‘Mob War’George Anastasia, Rowan University
How ‘South Park’ could help Democrats win back the young voters the party lost to TrumpNick Marx, Colorado State University
Jimmy Swaggart’s rise and fall shaped the landscape of American televangelismDiane Winston, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
In pardoning reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, Trump taps into a sense of persecution felt by his conservative Christian baseDiane Winston, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
It’s always been hard to make it as an artist in America – and it’s becoming only harderJoanna Woronkowicz, Indiana University
After Charlie Kirk’s murder, the US might seem hopelessly divided – is there any way forward?Lee Bebout, Arizona State University
Astrology’s appeal in uncertain timesShiri Noy, Denison University; Christopher P. Scheitle, West Virginia University, and Katie E. Corcoran, West Virginia University
A culinary educator and local dining expert breaks down Michelin’s debut Philly list − and gives zero stars to the inspectorsJonathan Deutsch, Drexel University
How Hershey’s chocolate survived an attack from Mars − and adopted a business strategy alien to its founderJohn Haddad, Penn State
Would you eat a grasshopper? In Oaxaca, it’s been a tasty tradition for thousands of yearsJeffrey H. Cohen, The Ohio State University
Green gruel? Pea soup? What Westerners thought of matcha when they tried it for the first timeRebecca Corbett, University of Southern California
Writing builds resilience by changing your brain, helping you face everyday challengesEmily Ronay Johnston, University of California, Merced
Medieval peasants probably enjoyed their holiday festivities more than you doBobbi Sutherland, University of Dayton
I’m an MLK scholar – and I’ll never be able to view King in the same lightJason Miller, North Carolina State University
