Around the United States, schools are shutting down due to coronavirus. For some Americans, this means setting up a home office and learning to work with children underfoot. But others are facing a far more serious crisis: with school cafeterias closed indefinitely and employment increasingly precarious, how will they manage to put food on the table? Professor Daphne Hernandez lays out the problem of food insecurity in America, how coronavirus is affecting the situation, and what policymakers can do to help families in need -- now and in the future.

For more on this topic:

• Check out Hernandez’s OpEd on what coronavirus means for food insecurity in The Hill
• Listen to our previous episodes on food insecurity and hunger among college students

Money. Power. Knowledge. Health. Education. When you look around the world, when it comes to resources and opportunities, there are massive imbalances between countries and even inside countries. In the name of making the world a better place, people and institutions with great wealth often donate some of their money around the world through philanthropy. Rakesh Rajani shares stories and lessons learned from years of work in global philanthropy and outlines what changes are needed to make this work more effective and meaningful.

For more on this topic:

• Check out Co-Impact and The Ford Foundation
• Read Rakesh’s interview with CNN on his work in Tanzania

With the 2020 primary in full swing, college campuses are full of conversations about politics, policy, and the future of American democracy. But many of these college students don’t turn out when it actually matters, on Election Day. In fact, in the last presidential election, only around half of all young voters came out to the polls. In this archive episode, Dr. Nancy Thomas explores what gets students to vote and how college administrators, faculty members, and students can improve voting rates on their campuses.

This episode originally aired on October 11, 2018.

For more on this topic:

• Check out the report co-authored by Thomas, Election Imperatives
• Read her interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, Here’s How Colleges Can Get More Involved in Elections -- and Not Just the Midterms
• Visit the website for the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education at Tufts University

Check out a Washington Post story about their 2018 midterm election report showing that rates among college students doubled

Social media has permeated countless aspects of our daily lives. But perhaps no platform has influenced the media like Twitter, shaping not only what many journalists cover, but also how they cover it. Professor Shannon McGregor dives into the role of Twitter in today’s media environment, why the platform is an imperfect measure of public opinion, and how social media can become a better tool for journalists working with limited resources at their disposal. 

For More on this Topic:

• Check out the book McGregor co-edited with Dr. Talia Stroud, Digital Discussions: How Big Data Informs Political Communication
• Read her opinion piece in The Washington Post, Conservatives Say Google and Facebook are Censoring Them. Here’s the Real Background.