In September 2024, Hurricane Helene devastated Asheville, North Carolina—once thought to be a safe “climate haven.” For Ali Zaidi, former White House national climate advisor from 2022 to 2025, the disaster underscored a stark reality: “There’s no place too inland to be sheltered from the next storm.”
Speaking at Northwestern University on Sept. 30, Zaidi urged the audience to look beyond the “doom and gloom” of climate change and embrace its opportunities for transformation. From clean energy and smarter housing development to AI-powered monitoring of deforestation, he highlighted solutions that can both reduce emissions and strengthen communities.
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Since the Columbine shooting in 1999, more than 394,000 students have witnessed gun violence at school. In a new policy research brief, IPR economists Molly Schnell and Hannes Schwandt, Northwestern economics doctoral student Max Pienkny, and Stanford economist Maya Rossin-Slater explain how school shootings affect students’ mental health. They show that after a school shooting that resulted in at least one death, surviving students’ use of medications for conditions such as anxiety and depression increased by more than 25% and stayed high for up to five and a half years.
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New York City’s mayoral election is set to take place on Nov. 4. Yet some are already hailing the winner of June’s Democratic primary run-off, Zohran Mamdani, as the city’s next mayor.
That comes as no surprise to IPR political scientist Laurel Harbridge-Yong. Her research shows that primary elections often determine who ultimately holds office, especially in districts dominated by one party. She explains that this dynamic can sometimes distort representation, since primary voters tend to be more ideologically extreme than the broader electorate.
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How do journalists translate social science research into stories that shape policy and public understanding? Join Medill and IPR faculty experts Louise Kiernan, Natalie Moore, and Charles Whitaker for an in-person conversation on Nov. 10 about how journalists and researchers can work together to make complex findings clear, compelling, and accessible—and why it’s essential for informed decision-making. Political scientist Laurel Harbridge-Yong will moderate.
Register here.
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Faculty Insights
“Social network discrimination reveals that creating a fair society requires confronting race, not ignoring it.”
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Working Papers
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