Resisting Attacks on Science
So it happened. We have officially withdrawn a paper accepted for publication in a scientific journal because of editorial requests to remove language deemed out of compliance with executive orders.
Self Censorship in Research
I fully recognize why social scientists craft their proposals to align with a funder’s mission – this is the reality of grantsmanship. In a soft-money research environment, success depends not only on intellectual rigor and the significance of the problem, but also on the strategic positioning of the argument. Researchers …
Critical Public Health Perspectives on Rural Outrage
Our new editorial, “Left behind again: Rural America and the hypocrisy of populism,” has just been published in the Journal of Critical Public Health. In it, we explore the sources of outrage among rural residents in the US, who are often blamed for Trump’s election, and how this outrage bolsters …
The Battle for Scientific Integrity: What is our fate as federally-funded researchers?
While scholars have long debated whether truly impartial funding sources for research exist, many consider that the federal government comes the closest. Given the current environment, can our government still be considered an impartial source of funding for public health research? I have always been skeptical of the supposed neutrality …
Making America Healthy Again?
I strongly urge anyone interested in the health of our country, and countries worldwide, to follow Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, the epidemiologist behind Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE). I discovered her during the pandemic, when she took it upon herself to start a newsletter to share reliable information about COVID-19 and vaccinations. …
Dr. Leonard Syme
This week I learned of Dr. Leonard Syme’s passing. I met Dr. Syme over twenty years ago. Though our encounter was brief, that single meeting with him set me on the path where I find myself today, a path that unfortunately may be unraveling in the face of the Trump …
When public health practice is guided by reflexes rather than reflection
Why is Tobacco Harm Reduction so fraught, despite being a legitimate public health strategy supported by extensive scientific evidence? As most of our readers know, a heated debate about the legitimacy of promoting tobacco harm reduction exists in our field. There are a lot of reasons for this, but one …
Cannabis + motherhood
I am interested in understanding what people want from their intoxication as they use substances with purpose and conscientious intent. Participants in our recent North State Intoxication study shared their experiences with alcohol and intoxication, sometimes also talking about their experiences with other substances. Over the course of the interviews, …
Housing insecurity in California’s North State
With this post I want to highlight narrative data from our participants from the North State of California who have graciously shared their time and stories with us by participating in two different research projects, one funded by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) and the other by the National …
‘Around here lately… sometimes it makes for a bad day every day’
Maggie is a single mother in her thirties living in a small town in Northern California. Most of her life has been spent in the North State…