1 There are two kinds of truth: empirical truth and revealed truth. Empirical truth is the product of a scientific process. Empirical truth is made up of proven, verifiable facts. Plants use chlorophyll to capture solar energy. We know this because it’s been scientifically proven. Revealed truth is truth we just…

Watching the protests and police riots, I was thinking about Howard Zinn recently, author of A People’s History of the United States. I was thinking, specifically, of his autobiography, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. He’s famous for A People’s History, but Zinn, who died in 2010, was…

Every social scientist and statistician knows the story behind the image at the top of this article. During World War 2, when the Allies were losing bombers by the hundreds, researchers examined the planes that made it back to determine where they were most likely to be hit, intending to…

The Day After is a 1983 made-for-TV movie about the days following a nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union, set in the area around Lawrence, Kansas. It’s available on YouTube for free. The film frightened the world. Ronald Reagan watched it and had the Joint Chiefs…

The term ‘corporal punishment’ is an archaism, or at best a legal term. No one pauses to consider what it means in a literal sense: to punish the body. In 19 states, punishing the body of a child is legal in schools. In 50 states, it is legal in homes. …

Withholding medical treatment from children is child abuse. Withholding lifesaving medical treatment from children is negligent homicide. And yet today, the legislature of Arkansas overrode the REPUBLICAN governor’s veto to ban gender affirming healthcare for trans youth. …

It took mere hours from the close of voting for hot take artists to declare the polling industry had failed, is in crisis, and should never be trusted again. As a survey researcher, I’m always jealous of writers who have the privilege of advancing assertions and theories without the burden…

I keep seeing the same questions and laments popping up on my social media feeds: “When can we travel again?” “Is it safe to go to…” “I was supposed to be going to _____ tomorrow.” Why do we travel? To experience places and cultures and peoples who are different from…

Originally published March 14, 2020. Updated March 18, 2020 The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not reflect those of his employer. Links embedded in this article do not indicate the endorsement of the views expressed therein by the author. ___________ March 11, 2020 is going to…