In 2021, Rhode Island became the first state in the nation to authorize centers for people to consume illegal drugs under supervision, and now lessons learned in the Ocean State could help pave the way for similar harm-reduction efforts elsewhere.

In honor of Mother's Day, Washington Post columnist Alyssa Rosenberg shares her favorite anecdotes from parenting writers and experts, including one from PSTC economist Emily Oster.

A $3.1 million NIH grant supports Professor Blair T. Johnson and collaborators from Brown University in analyzing the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) interventions.

If you are looking for a silver lining from the COVID-19 pandemic, it's this sad short-lived truth, Megan Ranney, MD, deputy dean at Providence, R.I.-based Brown University School of Public Health, told Becker's: "During the pandemic there were no school or workplace shootings."

Why are some countries rich and some poor? A leading economist finds the answer in the interactions of economies with the rest of the world, through trade, capital flows, and—notably—migration.

A recent survey of 1,586 women conducted by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) in partnership with YouGov, an international research organization, and economist Emily Oster found only 26 percent of respondents feel good about their retirement savings.

Behavioral science may have a role to play in making AI an aid, not a threat, to humanity.

Many days, it feels impossible to envision an America without rampant gun violence. Living in anticipation of when and where the next shooter will walk into a crowd and open fire is an all too familiar anxiety for most citizens.

The past several weeks have seen somewhat widespread discussion of a truly upsetting trend in adolescent and teen mental health. In the most recent CDC data, 40 percent of high school students indicated that during the previous year they had experienced sadness severe enough that it impeded their ability to do their normal activities for at least two weeks.

Climate change disasters’ impact on population health, health disparities, and the national health care delivery infrastructure are subjects of too little academic research at a time when policymakers’ need for such data has never been greater. That’s according to five top academic research experts convened in a virtual seminar at the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI).

The Providence Public School District is still struggling to attract enough applicants and retain them, with interest limited in jobs serving high-needs students, a new Brown University report shows.

Kate Mason — a Brown University anthropology professor who co-founded the Pandemic Journaling Project with Sarah Willen, a University of Connecticut anthropology professor — said the writings, submitted anonymously, had two things in common: "a lot of deep loneliness" and "a lot of fear and uncertainty."

As schools reckon with the toll of the pandemic, leaders across the country have begun to test out a strategy they hope will help students catch up on missed learning: tutoring.

When mothers weigh the choice to leave the workforce, childcare costs are the immediate concern, says PSTC Economist Emily Oster, That makes sense, but it doesn't mean parents considering a break from the workforce shouldn't also consider longer-term factors as well.

Sociologist Michael J. White offers context to WalletHub's recent comparison of more than 500 of the largest U.S. cities across three key indicators of ethnic diversity.

Air travel is essential to connecting firm workers who reside in different locations by effectively and efficiently shrinking the geographic distance between them. But beyond merely bridging this physical gap, can it also play a role in helping global organizations overcome cultural, temporal and other dimensions of distance and contribute to positive innovation outcomes?

Some researchers have created databases to describe mass shooters. But this is descriptive data, not a predictive model. What is it about a school kid, a lonely elderly man, or a young adult that makes them shoot themselves or someone else? Are there environmental signals that we can act on? Are they long term, or in the moment? How do we identify these signs, whether in social media or personal interactions, without violating privacy rights and without bias?

News headlines often give the impression of teacher shortages as national and state level crises, but if policymakers want to ensure classrooms are adequately staffed, they need to examine and address labor market conditions more locally, all the way down to the school level.

Professor Linford Fisher’s team of research assistants has been hunting through letters, diaries, court papers, newspapers, and other records, searching for references to Indigenous people who were enslaved or forced into other positions of servitude.

PSTC Researcher David Savitz comments on new study finding that Covid-19 infection while pregnant can increase the risk of death by seven times.

More than 40% of street drug samples tested in Rhode Island contained the animal tranquilizer xylazine, according to a new analysis out of Brown University.

There is an educator shortage in the United States, but it is crucial to understand the details. First, this is about more than teachers.

The job of a pope is, compared to that of secular leaders, enviably straightforward. He is absolute ruler of a tiny sovereign state with a vast spiritual diaspora. Where the job starts to get more complicated is in times of global crisis, when popes are expected to provide moral leadership, not just to fellow Catholics but to the whole world.

A conversation with physician and public-health researcher Megan Ranney on why the link between mental illness and mass shootings isn’t as clear as we might assume.

The state of women’s health in the US is shocking — even to us, medical sociologists and demographers with a history of studying gender and health.

Oded Galor's book, "The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth and Inequality," has been included on The Times' list of Best Philosophy and Ideas Books of 2022.

Despite an increase in wildfire risk spurred by climate change, Americans are moving to wildfire-prone areas and prioritizing lower housing costs and amenities such as temperate weather and recreational opportunities over risk of natural disasters.

PSTC Faculty Affiliate Dr. Megan Ranney explains the nationwide antibiotic shortage.

The Times of India interviews PSTC Researcher Elizabeth Fussell about key trends in climate migration.

Public health experts explain the recent overwhelming wave of illness that is pushing hospitals and emergency rooms to capacity or beyond.

PSTC Anthropologist Kate Mason discusses the origins of the Pandemic Journaling Project and engaging with archival activism.

PSTC Economist Emily Oster advocates for shifting our energies toward solving problems the pandemic revealed or created and away from arguing over choices made during the uncertainty of a novel public health crisis.

Today’s climate emergency is reminiscent of the past population growth crisis: Both represent existential challenges requiring sustained global efforts. Our success on the population issue holds key lessons for addressing the climate crisis as well.

School officials, educators, and public health experts discuss how to offset learning loss for America’s schoolchildren post-pandemic.

The nearly decade-old Veterans Affairs registry to track burn pit illnesses and help veterans get care for those injuries is achieving neither of those goals, according to research from independent health experts, who are recommending major changes to the effort.

PSTC Economist Oded Galor discusses how ancient factors like geography, culture and diversity impact today’s wealth inequality.

Eric Loucks, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Mindfulness Center at Brown University, offers ideas on how to begin a meditation regimen.

PSTC Economist Emily Oster highlights disparities within the overall decline in student test score growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Associate Professor of Education and Economics Matthew Kraft discusses compelling evidence for the implementation of high-cost, intensive, long-term tutoring as a tool in academic recovery from the pandemic.

PSTC Epidemiologist Mark Lurie explains how a major new Brown University initiative—the Center for Mobility Analysis for Pandemic Prevention Strategies, or MAPPS—could avoid another public health crisis like COVID-19.

PSTC Sociologist and Demographer Elizabeth Fussell explains why people remain in places threatened by climate crises, despite the hazards, in this USA Today investigative series.

PSTC Economist Matthew Turner explains how proposed "congestion pricing" would disincentivize travel. “People reschedule their trips, or take them by a different mode, or don’t take them at all,” he said.

Drawing upon his recent paper co-authored by Annenberg Institute post doc Josh Bleiberg, PSTC affiliate Matt Kraft explains the difficulty of studying the teacher labor market in real time and the need for better data systems.

The tribal collaborative database project, led by PSTC affiliate Linford Fisher, seeks to understand settler colonialism and its impact through the lens of Indigenous enslavement and unfreedom.