Perspectives

The Brown School’s Mark Rank, an expert on poverty band inequality, writes an article in The Conversation about how poverty in the United States has changed since 1964, yet the federal government’s measurement tools have not.

Zach Neronha, a student at the School of Medicine, writes a letter to the editor about the effort to expand Medicaid in Missouri. Voters approved expansion last year, but the Legislature and governor didn’t move forward with expansion, and the issue is now before the Missouri Supreme Court.

Even small Supreme Court reforms could have larger benefits, writes Dan Epps, the Treiman Professor of Law. They put the justices on notice that elected officials are paying attention — and that those officials have the power to rein in a court that goes astray. In our democracy, that’s a healthy reminder for unelected Supreme Court justices to hear.

We still have time to implement policies that pull us back from the brink, but the window is closing. Without action, we will be remembered for debasing the environment so badly that it finally altered or eradicated even the toughest creatures in Earth’s history, writes Michael Moore, post-doctoral fellow with the Living Earth Collaborative.

If the U.S. ever hopes to finally win the war LBJ began in 1964, the poor need to be seen in order for the government to lift them out of poverty, writes Mark Rank, Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare.

Ena Sendijarević’s debut feature, Take Me Somewhere Nice, follows a young Bosnian refugee as she sets off to visit a native country she no longer knows, writes Eileen G’Sell in her review of the film.

In this episode of the “Show Me the Science” podcast, WashU physicians discuss safety for kids when school resumes this fall, as well as treating children who have become seriously ill from COVID-19.

Sociologist and author Caitlyn Collins in Arts & Sciences appeared on the “Lead with Indeed” podcast to discuss her research on working mothers and how companies can support all employees’ needs to balance careers and caregiving responsibilities.

Arts & Sciences’ Christine Johnson, a historian of the Middle Ages, finds parallels between the post-pandemic labor shortages of today and the temporary shift in power to workers after the Black Death reduced Europe’s medieval population by a third. Then and now, she writes, the ruling classes seek a return to the previous status quo.

Rebecca Schwarzlose, a postdoctoral researcher in psychiatry at the School of Medicine, is the author of a book about brain organization titled “Brainscapes: The Warped, Wondrous Maps Written in Your Brain — and How They Guide You.”