By Robert Muggah, Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow na Bosch Academy e Co-fundador, Instituto Igarapé; Princeton University
Brazil’s “criminal economy” does not appear on any national balance sheet. Yet the cost of violence, contraband, tax evasion and environmental crime can be measured in the tens of billions of dollars every year and serves as a major drag on Brazil’s economic growth and stability.
Attempts to quantify this burden go back at least a decade. An influential 2017…
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By Jared Bahir Browsh, Assistant Teaching Professor of Critical Sports Studies, University of Colorado Boulder
When Sabrina Carpenter’s provocative 2024 pop single “Bed Chem” plays on the radio, and I hear the lyrics
“But I bet we’d have really good bed chem / How you pick me up, pull ‘em down, turn me 'round / Oh, it just makes sense / How you talk so sweet when you’re doing bad things”
it reminds me of a song released 45 years earlier:
“Let’s take a shower, said a shower together, yes / I’ll wash your body and you’ll wash mine, yeah / Rub me…
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By Tim Slack, Professor of Sociology, Louisiana State University
Shannon M. Monnat, Professor of Sociology, Syracuse University
Many people understand rural America through stereotypes. Two scholars who study rural communities bust 6 of those myths, complicating the conventional wisdom.
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By William McCorkle, Associate Professor of Education, College of Charleston
Not letting undocumented students pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities can make the cost of a college education prohibitive.
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By Skip York, Nonresident Fellow in Energy and Global Oil, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University
As the Trump administration makes announcement after announcement about its efforts to promote the U.S. fossil fuel industry, the industry isn’t exactly jumping at new opportunities.
Some high-profile oil and gas industry leaders…
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By Jutta Haider, Professor in Information Studies, Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås
Björn Ekström, Lecturer in Information Studies, University of Borås
James White, Postdoctoral Researcher, Sociology and Digital Tech, Lund University
From automatically generated overviews to chatbots in spreadsheets, so-called artificial intelligence is increasingly being integrated into our watches, phones, home assistants and other smart devices.
AI-in-everything is becoming so ordinary and everyday that it is easy to overlook. But this normalisation is having a dangerous effect on the environment, the planet and our response to climate change.
AI’s direct environmental costs are undeniable.…
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By Vikram Niranjan, Assistant Professor in Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Limerick
After joining the GBD 2021 Household Air Pollution team, an international effort to quantify the global health burden of household air pollution from 1990 to 2021, I expected familiar work: analysing how indoor smoke harms the body. Instead, what first looked like household data revealed a far deeper picture of global inequity.
The urgency of that inequity has rarely felt more immediate. In December 2025, the UK government published an…
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By Robert Dempsey, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University
It’s December, the weather’s turning, and the holidays are fast approaching. You’ve got to find the perfect gift for your partner, parents or that weird relative you only see once a year. At work, there’s the secret Santa for a colleague you barely know, and the office party you’d rather avoid.
Maybe you’re planning Christmas lunch – is it turkey and all the trimmings? There’s travel to sort out, dodging the rush hour trains or traffic. You might feel obliged to appear merry, even if you’re already exhausted.
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By Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies, Bangor University
Kubrick’s final film isn’t just set at Christmas. It’s a subversive critique of class, desire and the fantasies we buy into during the festive season.
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By Vincent Charles, Reader in AI for Business and Management Science, Queen's University Belfast
Tatiana Gherman, Associate Professor of AI for Business and Strategy, University of Northampton
From ancient slavery to the factory floor, progress has often relied on the exploitation of human beings. We might like to believe those days are well behind us. But in the digital age, AI and the metaverse risk repeating that pattern with new forms of invisible labour and inequality.
Ridley Scott’s 2000 film Gladiator told the story of Maximus Decimus Meridius, a betrayed Roman general who becomes enslaved and must fight as a gladiator to entertain the Roman elite. The sequel offered a new perspective on cycles of exploitation and the struggle for dignity.
Both films hold…
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