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What could make people be able to empathize? People who have experienced very little loss in their lives can miss the ability to grasp the pain others live with every day. If they had tragedy happen in their lives my wish would be that from that tragedy they would henceforth be able to empathize with those they have dismissed throughout their privileged lives.

Less than five years ago, Aubree Rosenberg had something few people in their 20s have: a living will. She was presented with the document by her father after being discharged from the hospital following a suicide attempt. Having spent years in and out of treatment facilities, battling multiple mental health diagnoses and addiction to alcohol, benzodiazepines, and opiates, Rosenberg, who is now 26 years old, describes the moment as having changed her life: “For my father to do that was a huge...

Cissy's note: The TedTalk below is given by one of my good friends, Alissa. When she first told me about the restorative justice work she was doing with Dr. Jill Levenson, speaking with convicted of sexual offending, where she shared about her experiences as a survivor of sexual assault, (aka, without her "professional shield," as she says), I was concerned. Was it safe, wise, and helpful? What would the impact be on her? Part of me felt that it's not the place of survivors to help...

Around the country, women physician researchers make 7 to 8 percent less per year than men. At the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, efforts to eliminate such a gender disparity have cut the difference in salaries from 2.6 percent in 2005 to a statistically insignificant 1.9 percent in 2016. But even with that improvement and seemingly small pay gap, women faculty are likely to accumulate much less wealth over their lifetimes, Johns Hopkins researchers found. The researchers used...

There isn’t currently a federal right to education. The Supreme Court made that much clear in the 1970s. But should there be? For one side of the debate Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute, guaranteeing a federal right to education is the only way to fix the sinking ship of inequitable American education. For opponents, it’s a “utopian abstraction” that will inevitably result in increased federal meddling in local decisions. The crux of the debate was the Supreme Court’s 1973...

An economy that’s rigged to benefit the richest 1% has left most of America behind. While wages for workers have remained flat for decades, expenses for healthcare, housing, and most basic needs have risen. Alongside record concentrations of income and wealth at the top, America’s racial wealth divide has persisted – or worsened. As people of color make up a larger share of the diversifying US population, that persistent racial wealth divide is bringing down America’s median wealth . But...

Now that I’m a parent, I pay more attention to bad news headlines than I used to. I can’t help but be unsettled by looming “ financial crisis storm clouds ,” rising global debt, trade conflicts, and divisive, short-sighted policy decisions. After all, the events of today determine the future that my preschooler will grow up in. So how do I prepare him for that future—even if it includes uncertain and tumultuous global economic challenges? In a recent study , Claremont Graduate University...

People with disabilities are disproportionately affected by disasters, which are worsening and increasing because of climate change. The National Council on Disability estimated that a “ disproportionate number of the fatalities ” amid Hurricane Katrina were people with disabilities. Typical evacuation routes and disaster plans are often not accessible to this vulnerable group, while interruptions to electricity are deadlier for those who require machines to treat medical conditions. And it...

A new report from the University of East Anglia in England is the first to offer an empirically established causal path from climate change to conflict to cross-border migration. The report analyzes data from 157 countries between 2006 and 2015. While it didn't find an overall causal relationship between climate change, conflict, and migration across the world during that time period, it pinpoints a particular area and time period where it had a profound impact: countries affected by the...

January 24, 2019; New York Times “Can social service agencies…shift from a focus on isolated needs—safety, housing, health, or employment—in favor of a broad view that supports human well-being?” This is a central question that David Bornstein in the New York Times poses in an article that profiles a nonprofit called the Full Frame Initiative . The group works with social service agencies to help them push against bureaucratic boundaries and cooperate with each other to achieve better...

Claire’s Story: She didn’t know how to be a mom By P. Berman, K. Hecht, & A. Hosack I am being torn apart. This baby is killing me. This baby must hate me. Will anybody help me? Nurse Karin checks on Claire a few hours later to find her having intense and fast contractions. Karin stood with her and tried to help Claire breath through the contractions. When transition started, and the severe labor pains came right on top of each other, Claire grabbed Karin's hand and squeezed it and Nurse...

They didn’t write the lesson plan or instruct Cristopher Bautista’s ninth-grade English class. But members of United Teachers Los Angeles were a powerful presence in the classroom where he works at Oakland Technical High School. UTLA had taken to the streets 370 miles south, striking for smaller classes, a living wage and more help for their mostly low-income students. Bautista was teaching “Cannery Row,” John Steinbeck’s classic tale of Central Coast haves and have-nots. “I’ve been teaching...