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Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we're joined by John Plake, Chief Innovation Officer and Editor-in-Chief of the State of the Bible research at the American Bible Society. With decades of experience as a pastor, missionary, professor, and researcher, John brings a unique perspective on how people are actually engaging with Scripture and what we should do about it. The “movable middle” is growing. // One of the most significant insights from recent research is the rise of what John calls the “movable middle”—millions of people who are open to the Bible but not yet engaged with it. This group has grown by approximately nine million people in recent years. They are curious, interested, and even positive toward Scripture, but they lack the tools, confidence, or guidance to engage it meaningfully. This represents a massive opportunity for churches willing to step in and help. People want a guide. // Through focus groups and research, John discovered that many people in the movable middle feel intimidated by the Bible. They struggle with language, context, and navigation. But perhaps most striking is they want help. Contrary to what some leaders might assume, they are not rejecting the church as a guide. In fact, many say, “If we can't trust the church to help us understand the Bible, what good is it?” This creates a clear invitation for churches to step into a more relational, guiding role in discipleship. A surprising discipleship gap. // One of the most sobering findings is that nearly half of weekly church attenders are not regularly engaging Scripture on their own. While churches invest heavily in preaching and programming, many people are not developing personal habits of Bible engagement. John suggests that churches often focus on delivering content rather than equipping people to engage Scripture themselves. The result is a gap between what happens on Sunday and what happens in everyday life. From teaching to equipping. // If churches want to close that gap, they must shift from being primarily content providers to equipping environments. This means helping people develop the skills, habits, and confidence to read and apply Scripture on their own. It also requires understanding the real barriers people face, like time constraints, confusion, or lack of community support, and addressing those barriers with practical solutions. A new tool for churches. // To help leaders take action, the American Bible Society has developed the “Next Step for Church” assessment. This free tool allows churches to measure spiritual health, Bible engagement, and key leadership behaviors within their congregation. Within a few weeks, leaders receive a detailed, data-driven report highlighting strengths, challenges, and suggested next steps. Data that leads to discipleship. // John emphasizes that data is not an end in itself; it's a tool for better shepherding. By listening to their congregation at scale, leaders can identify patterns, confirm instincts, and prioritize what matters most. The assessment surfaces both what's working and where growth is needed, giving churches a clear path forward. It also connects individuals to personalized Scripture engagement resources, helping them take their next step spiritually. Why Scripture engagement matters most. // Nothing has a greater impact on spiritual growth than a person's relationship with the Bible. In fact, Scripture engagement accounts for a significant portion of overall spiritual health. When people consistently engage with God's Word, transformation follows—affecting beliefs, behaviors, and relationships. Signs of hope for the future. // Despite broader cultural challenges, John sees encouraging trends, especially among younger generations. Millennials and Gen Z show increasing openness to Scripture, even if they are still exploring. While overall trends may appear flat, meaningful change is happening beneath the surface. For churches willing to engage this moment, there is real opportunity for impact. To explore the research further or access the free church assessment, visit church.nextstep.bible and begin discovering how your church can better equip people to engage Scripture every day. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Risepointe Do you feel like your church’s or school's facility could be preventing growth? Are you frustrated or possibly overwhelmed at the thought of a complicated or costly building project? Are the limitations of your building becoming obstacles in the path of expanding your ministry? Have you ever felt that you could reach more people if only the facility was better suited to the community’s needs? Well, the team over at Risepointe can help! As former ministry staff and church leaders, they understand how to prioritize and help lead you to a place where the building is a ministry multiplier. Your mission should not be held back by your building. Their team of architects, interior designers and project managers have the professional experience to incorporate creative design solutions to help move YOUR mission forward. Check them out at risepointe.com and while you’re there, schedule a FREE call to explore possibilities for your needs, vision and future…Risepointe believes that God still uses spaces…and they're here to help. Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. I am so glad that you have decided to tune in today. This is one of those episodes that there’s a great resource in it that going to want to make sure you engage with. There’s super helpful content. Plus it’s about an area that I know so many of us are thinking about, we’re wondering about, we’re asking questions about. Rich Birch — So super excited to have John Plake with us today. He is the chief innovator ah innovation officer and editor-in-chief of the State of the Bible Research Series, which comes from the American Bible Society. And they’re on a mission to make the Bible available to every person in a language and format each can understand and afford so that all may experience its life-changing message. ABS has really a whole bunch of different tools and approaches, and we’re excited kind of expose a little bit more about that today. John has been in ministry over 30 years. We’ll just call it over 30 years. And it served as a pastor, missionary, professor, researcher. John, welcome to the show. So glad you’re here.John Plake — Thanks so much for having me today. It’s great to be with you.Rich Birch — Why don’t you fill in the picture a little bit? Tell us a little bit about your background. You know, what brings you to your current work?John Plake — Yeah. Closer to 40 years now. Rich Birch — Nice. Yeah, yeah. That’s great.John Plake — It’s a little uncomfortable to talk about that.Rich Birch — That’s great.John Plake — Yeah. You know, I start out like a lot of people in ministry. I grew up in a home that ministry was central. Actually, both my grandfathers were ministers. My father was a minister. Ministry is kind of the family business in a way, but I really did sense a direction from God when I was about 15 years old to to pursue full-time ministry.John Plake — There was some detail around that. Ended up going to Bible college and and then started what turned out to be about nine years of full-time pastoral service. And I hadn’t been in that for very long before I realized that everything I learned in Bible College was preparing me to serve a generation that no longer existed in a culture that was gone. John Plake — And I thought, my goodness, I know God’s word pretty well. And mean, I’m a lifelong learner of God’s word. I love the Bible. And yet, didn’t really know culture very well. And I didn’t develop those tools until just years and years of practice, some missionary service, wonderful teachers at at Wheaton College and graduate school and and just a lifelong journey of learning.John Plake — So at American Bible Society, when I got here, the State of the Bible, program or this research project was already underway. And we’d been helped out by the Barna Group, which does some wonderful foundational work. And eventually it just kind of grew up and it got to a place where we had an internal team that was running it ourselves, now in collaboration with the National Opinion Research Council or NORC at the University of Chicago. We just do, I think, what is the largest ongoing study of Americans’ relationship with the Bible and faith and the church. And we get to talk about it all the time. Rich Birch — Yeah, I love it.John Plake — So, I mean, this is the best job in the world.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good. It’s it’s great research, something that I think should be on the kind of list of things that we need to be paying attention to. It’s been a gift to the church for so long and something that we should continue to to pay attention through. Now, let’s talk about you specifically. You spent three plus decades. I didn’t want to say almost 40. You know, I’m not saying that. I’m not saying that. I could say that, you know, a couple years ago, I clicked across one of those numbers with a zero on the end as my birthday. And ever since then, I’m a little sensitive about the the age thing. Rich Birch — So anyways, As a ministry, missionary professor, researcher, you’ve done a lot. How does wearing all of those hats, what do you what does that bring to you as you come to the data? How does that impact you as you think about really the state of the Bible research?John Plake — Yeah, you know, I think research can be dull. You know, it can sound like it’s all about writing questions or it’s all statistics and numbers. But for me, the research is all about the people. Rich Birch — So true.John Plake — It’s all about the people in our communities and in our churches that we’re trying to understand better so we can serve them well with the gospel. I, for years, I’ve used the analogy that that being in gospel ministry is like being a human bridge across a river. I grew up not very far from the Mississippi River in the St. Louis area, and there was a big 100-year flood when I was early on in ministry. And I mean, none of the bridges worked anymore. You couldn’t get from one side to the other.John Plake — And I thought, you know, that’s a tragedy that I encountered sometimes in ministry where maybe I was deeply rooted in one bank of the river, the text, but I wasn’t necessarily deeply rooted in the other bank of the river, which was the context.John Plake — And it’s this lived experience of the people that I was I was serving. And that I wanted to serve in my community, but I needed to understand them better. So I wasn’t just spouting you know Aristotelian logic to them. Or I wasn’t just coming at them with the pat answers that I’d learned. Like I’d never heard anybody in my life walk into my office and say, Pastor John, you got to tell me, what can you describe hamartiology to me from. You know like I had to learn that in school, but that’s not what people struggle with. Rich Birch — That’s so true. Yeah. John Plake — They had totally different questions and I needed to love them and honor them enough to understand their questions and answer them responsibly and reliably from the pages of scripture.Rich Birch — Yeah, love it. Okay, well, we’re going to dig into a little bit of just a couple of the findings just to kind of, we’re trying to whet your appetite, friends, to take steps towards this. So the 2025 data showed, and we’ve seen this, a real bump in Bible engagement, particularly among millennials and men. If I’m reading it correctly, though, we saw 2026, a shift happen, maybe back down. And so what’s going on? Actually, I heard another sociologist in a kind of a related field that was about church attendance talked about the dead cat bounce, that it was like, you know, which I thought, oh, that’s a, but there’s a similarity going on here. Pull this, this finding apart. Help us understand this.John Plake — Yeah, apologies to cat lovers out there.Rich Birch — Yes, exactly.John Plake — We were we were hoping, you know, I think we were really hoping. We looked at 2025. We saw that men in particular were leaning into the Bible in ways we hadn’t seen recently. Millennials doing the same thing. There there were some interesting numbers in 2025. And so when the 2026 numbers came to my desk in late January, I thought, I hope we’re extending I hope it’s going to be a trend. But it wasn’t. It was a blip.John Plake — And there’s more to it, though, than just the fact that scripture engagement didn’t go up. It also didn’t go down. And the level of people in America who are Bible disengaged, meaning they never pick up the Bible on purpose at all, that actually didn’t go up either. What grew was this kind of curious explorer group in the middle that we call the movable middle. And over the last two years, it’s grown by 9 million American adults. Rich Birch — Wow.John Plake — And so what we do see is there’s there’s openness to the Bible. There’s experimentation with the Bible. But people are jumping in and they’re trying it and they’re not being able to get hold of it. And I think that’s largely because of us.John Plake — Because Bible people who are around them aren’t saying, please come do this with me. Let me help you. Let me honor you enough to to respect your questions, to ask what you’re dealing with, and help you explore those issues through the pages of Scripture.Rich Birch — I love that movable middle, man, that feels like the kind of group we want to connect with and reach out to in our community. Any other, when you, when you’ve been thinking about this movable middle, what are some other kind of characteristics of those people or other things that, you know, are kind of telltale signs of this group as we’re thinking about them as it, as it pertains to Bible engagement?John Plake — Yeah, they’re an amazing group, and we’re going talking more about them all year, but they are probably my favorite subject in America. There are 74 million American adults that are in the movable middle.Rich Birch — Wow.John Plake — 74 million of our neighbors who are like…Rich Birch — Wow.John Plake — …and here’s what they tend to say: They love the Bible. They think it’s a great idea. But if you handed them a Bible, they don’t know how to find what they’re looking for. They don’t know how to navigate it. They get confused by the language in in Scripture.John Plake — I remember doing a a focus group with a bunch of people in the movable middle. I was in Chicago. it was an area I was really familiar with. I used to pastor in that area. And we got them talking about their experience with the Bible. And we said, hey, does anything ever stop you or kind of you know make you check out because you’re struggling with what’s going on? John Plake — And one young lady at the table said, yeah, you know the language of the Bible is really really hard for me to understand. It’s it’s a really old book. It uses expressions I don’t understand. And a gentleman sitting across the table from her just kind of chuckled and said, yeah, what the hell’s a mustard seed? And everybody laughed.John Plake — I was behind the glass and I just about fell out of my chair because they didn’t teach me to talk like that in a Assemblies of God seminary.Rich Birch — Yes.John Plake —Things like that, you know, that’s just not the way we roll.Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah. Yes.John Plake — But it was so authentic and he wasn’t being mean.Rich Birch — No.John Plake — He was just saying, boy, I don’t I don’t get it. And then they said, you know, we really want a guide. Rich Birch — That’s good.John Plake — And so we pushed on that a little bit. At the time, there were some clergy abuse scandals that actually there were billboards up in Chicago about clergy abuse scandals that all of us lamented. And so we’re like, OK, listen, do you trust the church to be your guide? Because ee saw these billboards, you know, and it’s your city. And so what what do you think?John Plake — And they said, well, of course we do. I mean, it’s terrible when people in the church abuse their position and abuse others. And that’s not what they’re supposed to do. But if we can’t trust the church to help us understand the Bible, what good are they, really? And so, yes, we’re looking to you, church, to help us connect more deeply with the Bible, understand what it meant to the original hearers and readers and how we apply it to our lives today.Rich Birch — Okay, that’s yeah, that’s really cool. I look forward to hearing more about the movable middle in this coming year. Another thing that jumped out to me, which I feel like, man, I’ve seen this in my church. This is like you you named a group that I see, but it’s surprising, at least it’s surprising on its face. So nearly half of weekly church attenders, weekly church attenders, which is, that’s like really engaged, you know, are not regularly engaging, engaging scripture on their own.Rich Birch — Man, what, so what should we do about that? That’s an interesting, how does, how should that impact our discipleship strategy? What are you encouraging us to be thinking about? And these people that are with us all the time, but they’re not engaged with scripture.John Plake — Well, I think the first thing to do is to just recognize it. Rich Birch — Right.John Plake — You know, a lot of pastors that I’ve talked to, when we talk about scripture engagement, they tell me things like this: Everything we do is scripture engagement. I spend my whole week preparing a scriptural message. I’m, you know, we’re preparing small group curriculum and Sunday school curriculum and all of this stuff. It’s all about the, everything we do is about the Bible. John Plake — Well, okay. But I had a I had a young youth pastor come to me not that long ago and he said, John, look, you were me once a few years ago. If you knew then what you know now, what would you do differently?John Plake — And the answer is I would do everything differently, than the way I ought to do it. Because what, in my tradition, there was a lot of emphasis on the preaching event, and I put a lot of effort into those communication events, but what I didn’t put as much effort into is empowering people in my church to do what I was doing, which was dig into scripture, understand it for themselves, giving them the tools to do that.John Plake — And then in May, we’re going to be releasing a chapter, just in a few few days now, we’re going to be releasing a chapter all about parents. And one of the startling things is the time pressure that moms are under. I mean, it’s incredible. And so we need to understand where they’re coming from and where they have barriers, but also have some compassion on them and help to support them when they’re really facing struggles. Like they don’t have enough time. They don’t have the resources or the community coming around them to help them to engage God’s word ah more fulsomely, more transformatively.John Plake — We know how to do this stuff, but we’re not connecting the dots to everybody that’s coming to hear us talk every…Rich Birch — That’s good. That’s good. I know I’ve in my seat as an XP, um you know, I’ve overseen a lot of what we do on the programming side and what we do on the weekends. And I’ve, you know, it’s like, that i don’t think I’ve ever said this publicly. It’s like the kind of behind the scenes conversation. I’ve sometimes wondered, I’ve said, you know, like, what we do on the weekend to try to make the Bible understandable is so completely different than Tuesday morning in someone’s life. Rich Birch — Like, we pull out all the stops to make it interesting. We get like world class communicators, incredible graphics, you know, emotional music, all of this to try to… But then the question is, okay, so now on Tuesday morning when you’re tired and you haven’t had your coffee yet and you’re just about to go read scripture, man, like that feels like a long ways away. There’s like a gap there that I sometimes wonder maybe we’re making it worse. You know. Maybe we’re making it harder. I said that. You didn’t say that. Rich Birch — So maybe there’s pastors that are listening here and they read this kind of report. They read this kind of finding and they’re like, hey, that’s interesting. But like, how what do I do in my church specifically? So you know we want we don’t want to just leave people with a tough stat.Rich Birch — I think we see that in our church. There’s people in our church that are here all the time. They’re not that engaged. But you’ve actually developed a new tool or ABS has developed a new tool to help us think through that. Why don’t you walk us through it? Tell us a little bit about it. How’s it work? Talk us how it can help us.John Plake — Yeah, so recently we developed two tools that kind of work together. One of them you can find on the internet at nextstep.bible. And it’s just for anybody who’s like, hey, I’m on a spiritual journey. I’m kind of stuck. I don’t really know what to do next. Maybe you’re just getting started exploring what it means to be a Christian. Maybe you’re Jesus’ little brother or sister. Wherever you are in that journey, there’s always a next step for us.John Plake — And so what we’ve done is analyzed along about a million spiritual life surveys. Rich Birch — Wow.John Plake — And from this huge quantity of data, we’ve learned that people are at different places in that journey. They’re at different points on the map. And we want to make sure that they’re equipped to have the right thing at the right time. I think currently there are 21,000 scripture engagement resources available there.Rich Birch — Wow.John Plake — They’re absolutely free. They’re in English, Spanish, and French. So go check it out, nextstep.bible.John Plake — But if you’re a pastor or you’re a church leader, you’re probably wondering, well, what’s going on in my church, right? So I see all the national data, but I think our tendency is to say, well, we’re the exception, right?Rich Birch — So true. Well, that’s not our people. John Plake — I know I know everybody else is struggling, but we’re doing okay.Rich Birch — Yes.John Plake — And and so it’s good to check our assumptions a little bit. They used to say a really sad statistic that 10 o’clock on Sunday morning was the most segregated hour in America, which makes me sad. What makes me sad also is that 12 o’clock noon in America is the most dishonest hour in America. That’s the hour when pastors tend to start greeting their people after the church service closes and they hear all these comments: oh, Pastor, that was the best sermon I’ve ever heard. And it wasn’t. It just wasn’t. All right, let’s face it.John Plake — There’s somebody out there who preaches better than you do and better than I do. They’re available on YouTube. People don’t need you to be the best Bible teacher in the world. They need you to be the best pastor for them. Rich Birch — That’s good.John Plake — And the tools that are all about focusing on their relationship with the Bible, their holistic spiritual formation, and our leadership behaviors. And so for that, we built the Next Step for Church Assessment.John Plake — It’s actually standing on the foundation or built on the engine block, if you want a different metaphor, of the old reveal research that the Willow Creek Association had come out with. It’s no longer available. And we were able to acquire all of their historical learnings, but also add in things like human flourishing and e-pastoral leadership behaviors that lead to churches really being missionally effective and strong. Excellent stuff on Bible engagement and spiritual formation. John Plake — So the the big challenge we had, I was talking with Dr. Ed Stetzer about this because he was at LifeWay Research when the Transformational Church Assessment was being built. And it was always hard because analyzing this kind of data required a lot of human intervention. It’s very expensive to do. It’s very complicated to deliver. And even a small cost can be a barrier for churches that have strained budgets. It doesn’t matter if you’re a church of, you know, 2,500 25,000 or 250. There’s always more places to put your money than there are dollars that are available to do it.John Plake — And so at American Bible Society, we said, you know what, as a gift to the church, because we love the church, we need to make it completely free. And so you can go to church.nextstep.bible and you could sign up today. Literally, we’re recording this on a on a Thursday. You could go there today and by Sunday, you could be launching your survey. Two weeks later, you’d automatically have results in your own online dashboard. You’d get key highlights emailed to you. There’s a place for custom questions. There’s just all kinds of really, really rich information.Rich Birch — So good.John Plake — And it it doesn’t take the place of the kind of learning that you have as a pastor. You learn deeply in relationship with others. You’re observing what’s going on. You have a team that’s around you. But what it does is it provides this valid, reliable sift and sort function. It’s based on well, I don’t know even know how many, well over 3000 churches, well over half a million survey responses went into building this and making it a tool that that is a good benchmark for you to say, you know what, if we want to move from where we are today to where God is calling us, here are the things we need to focus on.Rich Birch — It’s so good. And friends, I want to encourage you to to go there. Just church.nextstep.bible. I know many of us have a heart for saying, listen, we want to measure more than just nickels and noses. The number of people that show up and revenue that comes in. And this a great way to kind of inject at something that’s at the core of what we’re supposed to be doing as a church. So why don’t we just give a little bit more detail?Rich Birch — What is it? You know, what’s it actually measuring? How is it? You know, how could it be helpful? How how could it kind of dovetail with some of the things we’re already tracking? Maybe give us, you know, what kind of insights are we going to gain from this if we if we put our people through this?John Plake — Yeah, maybe it’s worthwhile to just back up and say it’s based on a congregational assessment. So really this kind of work is all about just listening to your congregation at scale. So if you have 25 people coming to church, you can probably have this conversation with them if you know how to ask the right questions. Rich Birch — Right.John Plake — You can go to the website. You’re like, what’s in the survey? There’s a button you can click. You can read the whole survey. It’s fine. We’re not going to try and surprise you with anything. But really simple stuff. How’s your relationship with Jesus? How often are you interacting with Scripture? What difference is that making in your life? We ask the standard Harvard human flourishing questions. We ask about um how the pastoral team or the senior pastor, him or herself, is doing at actually modeling Christlike leadership for you. Rich Birch — It’s so good.John Plake — And all of that reporting then gets brought into a database. It’s all anonymous. So individuals don’t, they don’t have to tell you who they are. They can’t tell you who they are other than by characteristics. And you’re going to get this really good, robust picture of what’s going on at the church. John Plake — Now, what does it take for somebody to do that? It takes about 20 minutes of their time, and time is expensive, right? People always have too much to do. So in return for that investment, at the end of their survey experience, they will have already told us everything we need to know to match them to great resources at nextstep.bible.John Plake — And with their permission, not without it, they can click a button, pass that data over to the individual nextstep.bible platform. They can create an account and right away, they’re going to be finding things like YouVersion Bible reading plans that are just for them.John Plake — If you’ve got people in your church and they’re outliers, they’re they’re way more spiritually advanced than everybody else, or they’re just getting started and everybody else is way ahead of them, these kinds of tools create bespoke pathways for them so they know what to do next. All the while, the church leadership can sit back and say, okay, here’s our results. And as a team, now what do we need to do to serve the whole congregation well?Rich Birch — I love this. You know, this is what incredible tool that you’ve put together here for our churches to wrestle through and to, you know, not only help us as a church as we’re thinking about these issues, but then help individuals in our church. What what would be some of the ways that churches might use the data that’s generated to impact what we’re doing in our programming? How how could we use this to improve what we’re doing?John Plake — Sure. There are really three things we want everybody to do. First, just discover what’s going on. Just just check your assumptions at the door and and say, okay, what do the data tell us about what’s going on in our church life and in our people’s lives? That’s the first thing.John Plake — Second thing is it’s going to surface for you the top three things that you’re doing great. And it’s going to give them to you in the report. And you need to throw a party. Like there are people who make these things happen for you. No pastor is doing this all by themselves. And so plan a party, celebrate what’s going well.John Plake — The third thing it’s going to do is it’s going to give you suggestions about, okay, here’s where your congregation is today. It won’t surprise you, but it might inform you. I’ve never seen a pastor look at the report and go, ah you guys got it wrong. Rich Birch — Sure, right.John Plake — Usually they they see the report and they go, yeah, okay, yeah, you got me.Rich Birch — Yeah. Confirmed some hunches I’ve had. Yeah. Yeah.John Plake — Right? But we don’t we don’t have time. We don’t have the resources. We don’t have the expertise to be able to sit down and and kind of scientifically walk through this process. So we do that for you. We deliver the report. And then we’re going to give you two key action items that we think churches like yours in a similar place have done that have helped move them toward spiritual health and missional effectiveness.John Plake — And that’s really what it’s all about. We want your congregation to be spiritually healthy. We want your your church as a whole to be missionally effective. And when that happens, often there’s numerical growth. Often there’s financial growth. But there’s certainly more missional impact that’s coming through your congregation and its work.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s cool. So if I’m like a church of a thousand people, let’s say, and just round number to picking out of the sky, how how what kind of percentage of my congregation would I need to take this to give me a reasonable, you know, statistical, you know, feeling good about the data for it? What what kind of number um should I be thinking about?John Plake — Well, the first thing is we’ve built in a tool that will tell you how to get to a margin of error of plus or minus 3%. Rich Birch — Love it.John Plake — And that does vary depending on the adult attendance that you have. So let’s say you’ve a thousand adults. And by adults, I mean anybody in high school or older can probably take this survey. Rich Birch — Yep.John Plake — And you can cut the data like by gender or by age. All of that live filtering is in the online platform. Rich Birch — Oh, that’s so good.John Plake — So if you’re the you’re the youth pastor and you’re like, well, wait, tell me about the young people that took the survey. You can just look right at them and compare them to the rest of the congregation, which I bet will be enlightening. But nevertheless, how many do you need if you’re a church of 1,000, it’s about 275.Rich Birch — Okay.John Plake — If it’s a smaller church than that, then you’re still going to need a pretty significant percentage. So if I roll that all the way down to a church of 100, you need 80.Rich Birch — Okay.John Plake — And if you roll that up to a church of 5,000, well, you don’t need that many more than 275.Rich Birch — Interesting.John Plake — So you’re going to report that out to you. It’s very, very doable. And, you know, I’ve pastored at large churches and I pastored a small church. And I’ll tell you, when I pastored a church of under 100, I could have gotten a census of the people, like everybody, to do a survey like this. They would have been glad to tell me these things. Rich Birch — Right.John Plake — And it’s not that I couldn’t have had a conversation one-on-one with most of the adults in the congregation. It was something different in that case. I actually didn’t know what to ask. I used to run into this when I was a campus pastor at a Christian university. And I would have young people walk into my office and I was like, I know I should be able to help them, but the challenge they’re facing is different than anything I’m familiar with. I don’t have any analog for this in my personal experience. And so this sort of takes the mystery away. We don’t ask fluffy questions. We ask research proven questions that are going to give you the information you really need so you can take action.Rich Birch — That’s amazing. That’s think this is such a great tool for people. I can see how, you know, it’d be so helpful for folks that are listening in to, you know, might be be able to plug in grab this experience for their people, help their church, help the folks that are attending. That’s, that’s incredible.Rich Birch — So, you know, you’ve picked an interesting vocation to be connected with the American Bible Society. And because, you know, this is such a critical and important part of developing people’s relationship, obviously, with Jesus; its core to all of it. And we have seen a long historical downward trend, and you’re pushing against that, which is amazing. But what gives you hope in the middle of all of that? What would it when you look at the church around you know, the country, where do you see flashes of just good things going on that are like, you know, when it comes to the relationship with scripture that even, you know, even when we see maybe the overall numbers are not as great as we want them to be, what are some kind of flashes of hope we should, that we could encourage folks with today?John Plake — Well, I’d like to maybe point to just three things that leap to mind. Rich Birch — Yep.John Plake — The first of them is I never talk to anybody in the church who says the Bible is a bad idea. Rich Birch — Sure.John Plake — Everybody likes the Bible. We’re all trying to figure out how to communicate its message better, to understand it more deeply. It’s transforming our lives, and we want to be able to share it with others. John Plake — And that’s great because, number two, there’s nothing that makes a bigger difference in somebody’s spiritual life than their relationship with the Bible. I mean, absolutely nothing. And I’m saying this as a researcher. I’ve tested it. I can’t find anything that makes a bigger difference. John Plake — In fact, when we looked at Christian college and university students, 60% of their overall spiritual health across lots of domains—beliefs, practice, putting faith into action, loving God, loving others, all these things, 60% of the variance in their spiritual health is solely accounted for by their relationship with the Bible.John Plake — So if we can help people have a dynamic relationship with scripture, we win. That’s all there is to it. It’s just that simple. And so that is really encouraging.John Plake — And then the third thing, ah the third thing is how I say this nicely? I'm I’m from Gen X and so to my Baby Boomer friends, I’m sorry, but you guys don’t have the influence that you once did.Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s true.John Plake — And that’s a good thing because there’s new openness among Millennials, and Gen Z and even younger Gen X um that we just don’t see among Baby Boomers. It’s like Baby Boomers made up their minds in the 60s and early 70s and said, this is what I believe and I’m not changing. And they haven’t. John Plake — That’s not to say that someone who’s a Baby Boomer can’t have a a spiritual experience and transformational experience. It does happen. But on the population level, like when we looked at the Bay Area of San Francisco, if you look at the scripture engagement, church engagement, love God, love others data in the Bay Area, it looks like what you’d expect, until you strip out the Baby Boomers. And then suddenly it looks better than every place else in America.John Plake — You’re like, what’s going on? Well, looks like all the unreconstructed hippies that moved to the Bay Area are actually holding a lid on the population numbers. And when you remove that and you go, oh, wait a minute, let me look under the headline and say what’s happening. There’s more going on than is easy to see. And I think this happens in big national trends.John Plake — Oh, is Scripture engagement up or down? Is you know church attendance up or down? Whats what’s going… big national trends. Yeah, okay, those are helpful, and we want those to change. But what’s changing first is below the fold. Things in Gen Z, things among Millennials, things in young men, those things are starting to change, and I think those are the first glimmerings that God is at work in a new way in America, and I can’t wait to see it.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s that’s a great word. And that lines up with what we’re seeing, even just experientially talking to churches across the country. You know we’re so we’re seeing there is something going on with younger generations, which is great to see. I was I was born in 1974, the lowest birth rate year of the 20th century. I am classic Gen X. Like you know I am like statistic I’m the statistical average Gen X and has spent a lot of my time trying to hand stuff from the Boomers to the Millennials. And, yeah, there’s lots of encouraging news there, particularly with the younger generations. Rich Birch — I also want to speak to on the the work I’ve done in the church growth stuff that I’ve done and coaching I’ve done with churches, one of the things that’s just undeniable is churches that have a high view of scripture, that is, they’re trying to get people engaged with scripture. They they talk about it like it’s actually true. How do we say don’t know what’s the best way to talk about that? Those are the churches that are prevailing, and that actually works out statistically. You see that time and again. Talk to us about that dynamic, which is kind of co-related to the things we’re talking about today. From your perspective in the stats and all that, how how have you seen that work out as you’ve looked at churches across the country?John Plake — Yeah, I think you’re exactly right. The churches that are the healthiest in America, that are growing, that where where people are spiritually healthy, have a really dynamic relationship with Scripture. And it kind of it cuts across tradition. Rich Birch — Yep.John Plake — There are some traditional things going on. I was listening to Justin Brierley and his surprising Rebirth of Belief in God podcast, and it was from last season, and he he had someone on, he was interviewing, and what she was saying was there are the parts of the church that seem to be thriving are kind of the, the the older, the ancientness traditions, whether it’s Catholic or Orthodox, that what she called somewhat irreverently, the smells and bells side of of the church.Rich Birch — Sure, sure.John Plake — And on the other side, kind of my end of the swimming pool, I’m, from the Assemblies of God, so the Pentecostal and Charismatic side. And she said, what’s going on is that both ends of that spectrum are totalizing. John Plake — They’re saying, you know what, the the Bible places certain expectations and demands on people. Christ places certain expectations and demands on people. And these parts of the church aren’t sort of shy about talking about that from a biblical perspective. She said, what’s what’s dying is that part in the middle where we’ve reduced church to a PowerPoint and you know an Excel spreadsheet. And she said, that part of the church seems to be dying and no one’s coming to the funeral. Rich Birch — That’s good. John Plake — And I thought, you know okay, right?Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah, that’s good.John Plake — So if we revitalize our relationship with God through scripture, there’s a next step for every church. It doesn’t matter what, you know whether you’re mainline or evangelical or, you know, Pentecostal or Orthodox or whatever it is, but but reviving our relationship with God through Scripture is really where it’s at.Rich Birch — That’s so good. i Yeah, I call that middle group the just because it rhymes doesn’t mean it’s true group. You know, like the, you know, were just like, it’s all my thoughts. No one wants to come and find us. They want to find God ultimately. Well, I don’t want to pick any fights with anybody that’s listening in, but I really appreciate today’s conversation, John. This has been great. So we want to send people to church.nextstep.bible.Rich Birch — The the promise of in two weeks, your church could have a comprehensive report on spiritual health, on where your church is, spiritual health is at, that’s a huge promise. And so again, this is go to church.nextstep.bible. Any kind of final words as we wrap up today’s episode?John Plake — You know, you might be familiar with Cally Parkinson. Cally was the co-author of all of the Reveal books, every single one of them. She was head of communications for the Willow Creek Association when they were running this. She’s probably had more conversations with pastors and church leaders about survey results like this than anybody I know, maybe than anybody alive. And Cally likes this so much. She said, John, I want to have a personal consultation with the first hundred churches that go through this.John Plake — And so if you want to be in that group, she’s going to offer to spend an hour with you and just walk through your results and help explain it. There are videos throughout the platform that will explain it as well. And you can’t beat talking to Cally. She loves pastors. She says you’re the salt of the earth. And she just really wants to serve you because the work that you do to save people is just so valuable to her. So anyway, just wanted to offer that. And I know you’d probably love to meet Cally.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s fantastic. Well, appreciate you being here today. Thanks for the great work you do at the American Bible Society. John, appreciate you being on today. Thank you.John Plake — Thank you.

In this episode of PRIM&R's podcast, "Research Ethics Reimagined," we explore the methodology, ethics, and future of public opinion research with David Dutwin, PhD, Executive Director and Senior Vice President of AmeriSpeak at NORC at the University of Chicago. Dr. Dutwin is a senior fellow with the program for opinion research and election studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a nationally recognized survey methodologist. For more than 20 years, he has taught courses in survey research and design, political polling, research methods, rhetorical theory, media effects, and other courses as an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Arizona, and West Chester University. He discusses how probability-based sampling underpins scientifically valid survey research, the safeguards that protect participants in sensitive surveys, and how artificial intelligence is reshaping the field. 

Welcome to Season 6, Episode 19! Our guest today is Sruthi Chandrasekaran. She serves as The Asian American Foundation's Director of Data and Research. She leads strategy development and implementation for the Data and Research team and targeted studies that identify and address the needs of the AAPI community.  The Asian American Foundation, or TAAF, is the leading organization advancing safety, belonging, and prosperity for the AAPI community. Through groundbreaking programs, essential research, and cross-sector partnerships, TAAF addresses our community's most persistent challenges. We love their vision which states, "An America where opportunities to participate in all aspects of society are equally accessible, and individuals and communities are not rendered invisible, nor singled out for false stereotypes, discrimination, or hate on the basis of race."  On May 1st, TAAF released the sixth edition of the Social Tracking of Asian Americans in the U.S. Index, AKA the STAATUS Index. This year's STAATUS Index was created with the collaboration of NORC at the University of Chicago. In this essential study, they examine how Americans view AAPI communities and how AAPIs understand their own place in the country. To learn more about TAAF, you can visit their website https://taaf.org/, download the STAATUS Index, visit their AAPI History Hub for great educational resources, follow them on Instagram @taaforg, or donate to support their work. Enjoy the conversation. If you like what we do, please share, follow, and like us in your podcast directory of choice or on Instagram @AAHistory101. For previous episodes and resources, please visit our site at https://asianamericanhistory101.libsyn.com or our links at http://castpie.com/AAHistory101. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, email us at info@aahistory101.com.  

APEX Express is a weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. On this episode, the Stop AAPI Hate Pacific Islander Advisory Council discuss a new report on anti–Pacific Islander hate. They examine the documented impacts of hate, structural barriers Pacific Islander communities face in reporting and accessing support, and the long-standing traditions of resistance and community care within PI communities.   Important Links: Stop AAPI Hate Stop AAPI Hate Anti-Pacific Islander Hate Report If you have questions related to the report, please feel free to contact Stop AAPI Hate Research Manager Connie Tan at ctan@stopaapihate.org Community Calendar: Upcoming Lunar New Year Events Saturday, February 14 – Sunday, February 15 – Chinatown Flower Market Fair, Grant Avenue (fresh flowers, arts activities, cultural performances) Tuesday, February 24 – Drumbeats, Heartbeats: Community as One, San Francisco Public Library (Lunar New Year and Black History Month celebration) Saturday, February 28 – Oakland Lunar New Year Parade, Jackson Street Saturday, March 7 – Year of the Horse Parade, San Francisco Throughout the season – Additional Lunar New Year events, including parades, night markets, and museum programs across the Bay Area and beyond. Transcript: [00:00:00]  Miata Tan: Hello and welcome. You are tuning in to Apex Express, a weekly radio show uplifting the voices and stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. I'm your host, Miata Tan and tonight we're examining community realities that often go under reported. The term A API, meaning Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders is an [00:01:00] acronym we like to use a lot, but Pacific Islander peoples, their histories and their challenges are sometimes mischaracterized or not spoken about at all. Stop A API Hate is a national coalition that tracks and responds to the hate experience by A API communities through reporting, research and advocacy. They've released a new report showing that nearly half of Pacific Islander adults experienced an act of hate in 2024 because of their race, ethnicity, or nationality. Tonight we'll share conversations from a recent virtual community briefing about the report and dive into its findings and the legacy of discrimination experienced by Pacific Islanders. Isa Kelawili Whalen: I think it doesn't really help that our history of violence between Pacific Islander Land and Sea and the United States, it already leaves a sour taste in your mouth. When we Pacifica. Think [00:02:00] about participating in American society and then to top it off, there's little to no representation of Pacific Islanders. Miata Tan: That was the voice of Isa Kelawili Whalen, Executive Director at API Advocates and a member of Stop, A API hates Pacific Islander Advisory Council. You'll hear more from Isa and the other members of the advisory council soon. But first up is Cynthia Choi, the co-founder of Stop, A API, Hate and co-Executive Director of Chinese for affirmative action. Cynthia will help to ground us in the history of the organization and their hopes for this new report about Pacific Islander communities. Cynthia Choi: As many of you know, Stop API Hate was launched nearly six years ago in response to anti-Asian hate during COVID-19 pandemic. And since then we've operated as the [00:03:00] nation's largest reporting center tracking anti A. PI Hate Acts while working to advance justice and equity for our communities. In addition to policy advocacy, community care and narrative work, research has really been Central to our mission because data, when grounded in community experience helps tell a fuller and more honest story about the harms our communities face. Over the years, through listening sessions and necessary and hard conversations with our PI community members and leaders, we've heard a consistent. An important message. Pacific Islander experiences are often rendered invisible when grouped under the broader A API umbrella and the forms of hate they experience are shaped by distinct histories, ongoing injustice, and unique cultural and political [00:04:00] context. This report is in response to this truth and to the trust Pacific Islander communities have placed in sharing their experience. Conducted in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago, along with stories from our reporting center. we believe these findings shed light on the prevalence of hate, the multifaceted impact of hate and how often harm goes unreported. Our hope is that this report sparks deeper dialogue and more meaningful actions to address anti pi hate. We are especially grateful to the Pacific Islander leaders who have guided this work from the beginning. Earlier this year, uh, Stop API hate convened Pacific Islander Advisory Council made up of four incredible leaders, Dr. Jamaica Osorio Tu‘ulau‘ulu Estella Owoimaha Church, Michelle Pedro, and Isa Whalen. Their leadership, wisdom [00:05:00] and care have been essential in shaping both our research and narrative work. Our shared goal is to build trust with Pacific Islander communities and to ensure that our work is authentic, inclusive, and truly reflective of lived experiences. These insights were critical in helping us interpret these findings with the depth and context they deserve.  Miata Tan: That was Cynthia Choi, the co-founder of Stop, A API, hate and co-Executive Director of Chinese for affirmative action. As Cynthia mentioned to collect data for this report, Stop A API Hate worked with NORC, a non-partisan research organization at the University of Chicago. In January, 2025, Stop A API. Hate and norc conducted a national survey that included 504 Pacific Islander respondents. The survey [00:06:00] examined the scope of anti Pacific Islander hate in 2024, the challenges of reporting and accessing support and participation in resistance and ongoing organizing efforts. We'll be sharing a link to the full report in our show notes at kpfa.org/program/apex-express. We also just heard Cynthia give thanks to the efforts of the Stop A API hate Pacific Islander Advisory Council. this council is a team of four Pacific Islander folks with a range of professional and community expertise who helped Stop A API hate to unpack and contextualize their new report. Tonight we'll hear from all four members of the PI Council. First up is Dr. Jamaica Osorio, a Kanaka Maoli wahine artist activist, and an Associate Professor of Indigenous and native Hawaiian politics [00:07:00] at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa . Here's Dr. Jamaica, reflecting on her initial reaction to the report and what she sees going on in her community. Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio: Aloha kākou. Thank you for having us today. I think the biggest thing that stood out to me in the data and the reporting that I haven't really been able to shake from my head, and I think it's related to something we're seeing a lot in our own community, was the high levels of stress and anxiety that folks in our community were experiencing and how those high levels were almost, they didn't really change based on whether or not people had experienced hate. Our communities are living, um, at a threshold, a high threshold of stress and anxiety, um, and struggling with a number of mental health, issues because of that. And I think this is an important reminder in relationship to the broader work we might be doing, to be thinking about Stopping hate acts against folks in our community and in other communities, but really to think about what are the [00:08:00] conditions that people are living under that make it nearly unlivable for our communities to survive in this place. Uh, the, the other thing that popped out to me that I wanna highlight is the data around folks feeling less welcome. How hate acts made certain folks in our community feel less welcome where they're living. And I kind of wanna. Us to think more about the tension between being unwelcomed in the so-called United States, and the tension of the inability for many of our people to return home, uh, if they would've preferred to actually be in our ancestral homes. And what are. How are those conditions created by American Empire and militarism and nuclearization, kind of the stuff that we talked about as a panel early on but also as we move away from today's conversation thinking about like what is. The place of PIs in the so-called United States. Uh, what does it mean to be able to live in your ancestral homeland like myself, where America has come to us, and chosen to stay? What does it mean for our other PI family members who have [00:09:00] come to the United States? Because our homes have been devastated by us militarism and imperialism. That's what's sitting with me that I think may not. Immediately jump out of the reporting, but we need to continue to highlight, uh, in how we interpret. Miata Tan: That was Dr. Jamaica Osorio, an Associate Professor of Indigenous and native Hawaiian politics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Māno a.  Now let's turn to Isa Kelawili Whalen. Isa is the Executive Director of API Advocates and another member of the Stop A API hate Pacific Islander Advisory Council. Here Isa builds on what Dr. Jamaica was saying about feelings of stress and anxiety within the Pacific Islander communities. Okay. She also speaks from her experience as an Indigenous CHamoru and Filipino woman. Here's Isa. Isa Kelawili Whalen: [00:10:00] American society and culture is drastically different from Pacifica Island and our culture, our roots, traditions, and so forth, as are many ethnicities and identities out there. But for us who are trying to figure out how to constantly navigate between the two, it's a little polarizing. Trying to fit in into. American society, structure that was not made for us and definitely does not coincide from where we come from either. So it's hard to navigate and we're constantly felt, we feel like we're excluded, um, that there is no space for us. There's all these boxes, but we don't really fit into one. And to be honest, none of these boxes are really made for anyone to fit into one single box the unspoken truth. And so. A lot of the times we're too Indigenous or I'm too Pacifica, or I'm too American, even to our own families being called a coconut. A racial comment alluding to being one ethnicity on the inside versus the outside, and to that causes a lot of mental health harm, um, within ourselves, our [00:11:00] friends, our family, community, and understanding for one another. in addition to that. I think it doesn't really help that our history of violence between Pacific Islander Land and Sea and the United States, it already leaves a sour taste in your mouth. When we Pacifica. Think about participating in American society and then to top it off, there's little to no representation of Pacific Islanders, um, across. The largest platforms in the United States of America. It goes beyond just representation with civic engagement, um, and elected officials. This goes to like stem leadership positions in business to social media and entertainment. And when we are represented, it's something of the past. We're always connotated to something that's dead, dying or old news. And. we're also completely romanticized. This could look like Moana or even the movie Avatar. So I think the feeling of disconnected or unaccepted by American society at large is something that stood out to me in the [00:12:00] report and something I heavily resonate with as well. Miata Tan: That was Isa Kelawili Whalen, Executive Director at API Advocates and a member of the Stop A API hate Pacific Islander Advisory Council. As we heard from both Dr. Jamaica and Isa, the histories and impacts of hate against. Pacific Islander communities are complex and deeply rooted from ongoing US militarization to a lack of representation in popular culture. Before we hear from the two other members of the PI Advisory Council, let's get on the same page. What are we talking about when we talk about hate? Connie Tan is a research manager at Stop, A API hate and a lead contributor to their recent report on anti Pacific Islander hate. Here she is defining Stop A API hate's research framework for this project. [00:13:00]  Connie Tan: Our definition of hate is largely guided by how our communities define it through the reporting. So people have reported a wide range of hate acts that they perceive to be motivated by racial bias or prejudice. The vast majority of hate acts that our communities experience are not considered hate crimes. So there's a real need to find solutions outside of policing in order to address the full range of hate Asian Americans and Pacific Islander experience. We use the term hate act as an umbrella term to encompass the various types of bias motivated events people experience, including hate crimes and hate incidents. And from the survey findings, we found that anti PI hate was prevalent. Nearly half or 47% of PI adults reported experiencing a hate act due to their race, ethnicity, or nationality in 2024. And harassment such as being called a racial slur was the most common type of hate. Another [00:14:00] 27% of PI adults reported institutional discrimination such as unfair treatment by an employer or at a business. Miata Tan: That was Connie Tan from Stop. A API hate providing context on how hate affects Pacific Islander communities. Now let's return to the Pacific Islander Advisory Council who helped Stop A API hate to better understand their reporting on PI communities. The remaining two members of the council are Tu‘ulau‘ulu Estella Owoimaha- Church, a first generation Afro Pacifican educator, speaker and consultant. And we also have Michelle Pedro, who is a California born Marshallese American advocate, and the policy and communications director at Arkansas's Coalition of the Marshallese. You'll also hear the voice of Stephanie Chan, the Director of Data and [00:15:00] Research at Stop A API Hate who led this conversation with the PI Council. Alrighty. Here's Esella reflecting on her key takeaways from the report and how she sees her community being impacted. Tu‘ulau‘ulu Estella Owoimaha-Church: A piece of data that stood out to me is the six out of 10 PIs who have experienced hate, noted that it was an intersectional experience, that there are multiple facets of their identities that impacted the ways they experienced hate. And in my experience as Afro Pacifican. Nigerian Samoan, born and raised in South Central Los Angeles on Tonga land. That's very much been my experience, both in predominantly white spaces and predominantly API spaces as well. As an educator a piece of data that, that really stood out to me was around the rate at which. Pacific Islanders have to exit education. 20 years as a high school educator, public high school educator and college counselor. And that was [00:16:00] absolutely my experience when I made the choice to become an educator. And I moved back home from grad school, went back to my neighborhood and went to the school where I had assumed, because when I was little, this is where. My people were, were when I was growing up, I assumed that I would be able to, to put my degrees to use to serve other black PI kids. And it wasn't the case. Students were not there. Whole populations of our folks were missing from the community. And as I continued to dig and figure out, or try to figure out why, it was very clear that at my school site in particular, Samoan, Tongan, and Fijian students who were there. We're not being met where they are. Their parents weren't being met where they are. They didn't feel welcome. Coming into our schools, coming into our districts to receive services or ask for support it was very common that the only students who received support were our students who chose to play sports. Whereas as a theater and literature educator, I, I spent most of my time advocating for [00:17:00] block schedule. So that my students who I knew had, you know, church commitments after school, family commitments after school I needed to find ways to accommodate them. and I was alone in that fight, right? The entire district, the school the profession was not showing up for our students in the ways that they needed. Stephanie Chan: Thank you, Estella. Yeah, definitely common themes of, you know, what does belonging mean in our institutions, but also when the US comes to you, as Jamaica pointed out as well. Michelle, I'll turn it over to you next.  Michelle Pedro: Lakwe and greetings everyone. , A few things that pointed out to me or stood out to me. Was, um, the mental health aspect mental health is such a, a big thing in our community we don't like to talk about, especially in the Marshallese community. it's just in recent years that our youth is talking about it more. And people from my generation are learning about mental health and what it is in this society versus back home. It is so different. [00:18:00] When people move from Marshall Islands to the United States, the whole entire system is different. The system was not built for people like us, for Marshallese, for Pacific Islanders. It really wasn't. And so the entire structure needs to do more. I feel like it needs to do more. And the lack of education like Estella said. Back home. We have a lot of our folks move here who don't graduate from past like third grade. So the literacy, rate here in Arkansas my friends that our teachers, they say it's very low and I can only imagine what it is in the Marshallese community here. And. I hear stories from elders who have lived here for a while that in Arkansas it was a little bit scary living here because they did not feel welcome. They didn't feel like it was a place that they could express themselves. A lot of my folks say that they're tired of their race card,  but we [00:19:00] need to talk about race. We don't know what internal racism is, or systemic racism is in my community. We need to be explaining it to our folks where they understand it and they see it and they recognize it to talk about it more. Miata Tan: That was Michelle Pedro, Policy and Communications Director at Arkansas Coalition of the Marshallese, and a member of the Stop, A API hate Pacific Islander Advisory Council. Michelle shared with us that hate against Pacific Islander communities affects educational outcomes leading to lower rates of literacy, school attendance, and graduation. As Esella noted, considering intersectionality can help us to see the full scope of these impacts. Here's Connie Tan, a research manager at Stop, A API hate with some data on how PI communities are being targeted the toll this takes on their mental and physical [00:20:00] wellbeing. Connie Tan: And we saw that hate was intersectional. In addition to their race and ethnicity, over six, in 10 or 66% of PI adults said that other aspects of their identity were targeted. The top three identities targeted were for their age, class, and gender. And experiences with hate have a detrimental impact on the wellbeing of PI Individuals with more than half or about 58% of PI adults reporting negative effects on their mental or physical health. It also impacted their sense of safety and altered their behavior. So for example, it is evidenced through the disproportionate recruitment of PI people into the military. And athletic programs as a result, many are susceptible to traumatic brain injuries, chronic pain, and even post-traumatic stress disorder. Miata Tan: That was Connie Tan with Stop. A API Hate. You are tuned [00:21:00] into Apex Express, a weekly radio show, uplifting the voices and stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. You'll hear more about Connie's research and the analysis from the Stop. A API hate Pacific Islander Advisory Council. In a moment. Stay with us. [00:22:00] [00:23:00] [00:24:00] [00:25:00]  Miata Tan: That was us by Ruby Ibarra featuring Rocky Rivera, Klassy and Faith Santilla. You are tuned into Apex Express on 94.1 KPFA, A weekly radio show [00:26:00] uplifting the voices and stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. I'm your host Miata Tan. Tonight we're focused on our Pacific Islander communities and taking a closer look at a new report on anti Pacific Islander hate from the National Coalition, Stop A API hate. Before the break the Stop, A API, Pacific Islander Advisory Council shared how mental health challenges, experiences of hate and the effects of US militarization are all deeply interconnected in PI communities. Connie Tan, a research manager at Stop. A API Hate reflects on how a broader historical context helps to explain why Pacific Islanders experience such high rates of hate. Here's Connie. Connie Tan: We conducted sensemaking sessions with our PI advisory council members, and what we learned is that anti PI hate must be understood [00:27:00] within a broader historical context rooted in colonialism. Militarization nuclear testing and forced displacement, and that these structural violence continue to shape PI people's daily lives. And so some key examples include the US overthrow and occupation of Hawaii in the 18 hundreds that led to the loss of Hawaiian sovereignty and cultural suppression. In the 1940s, the US conducted almost 70 nuclear tests across the Marshall Islands that decimated the environment and subjected residents to long-term health problems and forced relocation to gain military dominance. The US established a compacts of free association in the 1980s that created a complex and inequitable framework of immigration status that left many PI communities with limited access to federal benefits. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a disproportionate health impacts in PI communities due to the historical lack of disaggregated data, unequal access to health benefits, [00:28:00] and a lack of culturally responsive care. And most recently, there are proposed or already enacted US travel bans targeting different Pacific Island nations, continuing a legacy of exclusion. So when we speak of violence harm. Injustice related to anti P hate. It must be understood within this larger context. Miata Tan: That was Connie Tan at Stop. A API hate. Now let's get back to the Pacific Islander Advisory Council who are helping us to better understand the findings from the recent report from Stop. A API hate focused on hate acts against the Pacific Islander communities. I will pass the reins over to Stephanie Chan. Stephanie's the director of Data and Research at Stop A API Hate who led this recent conversation with the PI Advisory Council. Here's Stephanie. [00:29:00]  Stephanie Chan: The big mental health challenges as well as the issues of acceptance and belonging and like what that all means. I, I think a lot of you spoke to this but let's get deeper. What are some of the historical or cultural factors that shape how PI communities experience racism or hate today? Let's start with Estella. Tu‘ulau‘ulu Estella Owoimaha-Church: Thank you for the question, Stephanie. A piece of data that, stood out to me, it was around the six outta 10 won't report to formal authority agencies. And earlier it was mentioned that there's a need For strategies outside policing. I think that, to everything that, Jamaica's already stated and, and what's been presented in the, the data why would we report, when the state itself has been harmful to us collectively. The other thing I can speak to in my experience is again, I'll, I'll say that an approach of intersectionality is, is a must because says this too in the report, more than [00:30:00] 57% of our communities identify as multiracial, multi-ethnic. And so in addition to. Who we are as Pacific Islander, right? Like many of us are also half Indigenous, half black, half Mexican, et cetera. List goes on. And there's, there needs to be enough space for all of us, for the whole of us to be present in our communities and to, to do the work, whatever the work may be, whatever sector you're in, whether health or education. Policy or in data. And intersectional approach is absolutely necessary to capture who we are as a whole. And the other, something else that was mentioned in the report was around misinformation and that being something that needs to be combated in particular today. Um, and I see this across several communities. The, AI videos are, are a bit outta control. Sort of silly, but still kind of serious. Example comes to mind, recent a very extensive conversation. I didn't feel like having, uh, with, [00:31:00] with my uncles around whether or not Tupac is alive because AI videos Are doing a whole lot that they shouldn't be doing. And it's, it's a goofy example, but an example nonetheless, many of our elders are using social media or on different platforms and the misinformation and disinformation is so loud, it's difficult to continue to do our work. And educate, or in some cases reeducate. And make sure that, the needs of our community that is highlighted in this report are being adjusted. Stephanie Chan: Thank you. Yeah. And a whole new set of challenges with the technology we have today. Uh, Michelle, do you wanna speak to the historical and cultural factors that have shaped how PI communities experience racism today?  Michelle Pedro: Our experience is, it's inseparable to the US nuclear legacy and just everything that Estella was saying, a standard outside of policing. Like why is the only solution incarceration or most of the solutions involve [00:32:00] incarceration. You know, if there's other means of taking care of somebody we really need to get to the root causes, right? Instead of incarceration. And I feel like a lot of people use us, but not protect us. And the experiences that my people feel they're going through now is, it's just as similar than when we were going through it during COVID. I. Here in Arkansas. More than half of people that, uh, the death rates were Marshallese. And most of those people were my relatives. And so going to these funerals, I was just like, okay, how do I, how do I go to each funeral without, you know, if I get in contact to COVID with COVID without spreading that? And, you know, I think we've been conditioned for so long to feel ashamed, to feel less than. I feel like a lot of our, our folks are coming out of that and feeling like they can breathe again. But with the [00:33:00] recent administration and ice, it's like, okay, now we have to step back into our shell. And we're outsiders again, thankfully here in, uh, Northwest Arkansas, I think there's a lot of people who. have empathy towards the Marshallese community and Pacific Islanders here. And they feel like we can, we feel like we can rely on our neighbors. Somebody's death and, or a group of people's deaths shouldn't, be a reason why we, we come together. It should be a reason for, wanting to just be kind to each other. And like Estella said, we need to educate but also move past talks and actually going forward with policy changes and stuff like that. Stephanie Chan: Thank you Michelle. And yes, we'll get to the policy changes in a second. I would love to hear. What all of our panelists think about what steps we need to take. Uh, Isa I'm gonna turn it over to you to talk about historical or cultural factors that shape how PI communities experience racism today.  Isa Kelawili Whalen: [00:34:00] Many, if not all, Pacific Islander families or communities that I know of or I'm a part of, we don't wanna get in trouble. And what does that really mean? We don't wanna be incarcerated by racially biased jurisdictions. Um, we don't wanna be deported. We don't want to be revoked of our citizenship for our rights or evicted or fired. All things that we deem at risk at all times. It's always on the table whenever we engage with the American government. Even down to something as simple as filling out a census form. And so I think it's important to know also that at the core of many of our Pacifica cultures, strengthening future generations is at the center. Every single time. I mean, with everything that our elders have carried, have fought for, have sacrificed for, to bring us to where we are today. It's almost like if someone calls you a name or they give you a dirty look, or maybe even if they get physical with you on a sidewalk. Those are things we just swallow. ‘ cause you have to, there's so much on the table so much at risk that we cannot afford to lose. [00:35:00] And unfortunately, majority of the times it's at the cost of yourself. It is. That mistrust with everything that's at risk with keeping ourselves, our families, and future generations. To continue being a part of this American society, it makes it really, really hard for us to navigate racism and hate in comparison to, I would say, other ethnic groups. Stephanie Chan: Definitely. And the mistrust in the government is not gonna get better in this context. It's only gonna get worse. Jamaica, do you wanna speak to the question of the historical and cultural factors that shape how PI communities experience racism? Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio: Absolutely. You know, without risking sounding like a broken record, I think one of the most meaningful things that many of us share across the Pacific is the violence of us. Uh, not just us, but in imperial militarization and nuclear testing. and I think it's easy for folks. Outside of the Pacific to forget that that's actually ongoing, right? That there are military occupations ongoing in Hawaii, in [00:36:00] Guam, in Okinawa, uh, that our people are being extracted out of their communities to serve in the US military in particular, out of Samoa, the highest per capita rate of folks being enlisted into the US on forces, which is insane. Um, so I don't want that to go unnamed as something that is both historical. And ongoing and related to the kind of global US imperial violence that is taking place today that the Pacific is is this. Point of departure for so much of that ongoing imperial violence, which implicates us, our lands, our waters, and our peoples, and that as well. And that's something that we have to reckon with within the overall context of, experiencing hate in and around the so-called United States. But I also wanna touch on, The issue of intersectionality around, um, experiencing hate in the PI community and, and in particular thinking about anti-blackness, both the PI community and towards the PI community. Uh, [00:37:00] and I Understanding the history of the way white supremacy has both been inflicted upon our people and in many cases internalized within our people. And how anti-blackness in particular has been used as a weapon from within our communities to each other while also experiencing it from the outside. Is something that is deeply, deeply impacting our people. I'm thinking both the, the personal, immediate experience of folks experiencing or practicing anti-blackness in our community. But I'm also thinking about the fact that we have many examples of our own organizations and institutions Reinforcing anti-blackness, uh, being unwilling to look at the way that anti-blackness has been reinterpreted through our own cultural practices to seem natural. I'll speak for myself. I've, I've seen this on a personal level coming out of our communities and coming into our communities. I've seen this on a structural level. you know, we saw the stat in the report that there's a high percentage of PIs who believe that cross racial solidarity is [00:38:00] important, and there's a high percentage of PIs who are saying that they want to be involved and are being involved in trying to make a difference, uh, against racial injustice in this godforsaken. Country,  Um, that work will never be effective if we cannot as a community really take on this issue of anti-blackness and how intimately it has seeped into some of our most basic assumptions about what it means to be Hawaiian, about what it means to be Polynesian, about what it means to be, any of these other, uh, discreet identities. We hold as a part of the Pacific. Miata Tan: That was Dr. Jamaica Osorio, an Associate Professor of Indigenous and Native Hawaiian politics and a member of the Stop A API hate Pacific Islander Advisory Council. Dr. Jamaica was reflecting on the new report from Stop. A API Hate that focuses on instances of hate against Pacific Islander [00:39:00] communities. We'll hear more from the PI Advisory Council in a moment. Stay with us. ​ [00:40:00] [00:41:00] [00:42:00] [00:43:00] That was Tonda by Diskarte Namin . You are tuned into Apex Express on 94.1 KPFA, a weekly radio show uplifting the voices and stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. I am your host Miata Tan, and tonight we're centering our Pacific Islander communities. Stop. A API Hate is a national coalition that tracks and responds to anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander hate. Their latest report found that nearly half of Pacific Islander [00:44:00] adults experienced an act of hate in 2024 because of their race, ethnicity, or nationality. Connie Tan is a research manager at Stop, A API Hate who led the charge on this new report. Here she is sharing some community recommendations on how we can all help to reduce instances of harm and hate against Pacific Islander communities. Connie Tan: So to support those impacted by hate, we've outlined a set of community recommendations for what community members can do if they experience hate, and to take collective action against anti P. Hate first. Speak up and report hate acts. Reporting is one of the most powerful tools we have to ensure harms against PI. Communities are addressed and taken seriously. You can take action by reporting to trusted platforms like our Stop API Hate Reporting Center, which is available in 21 languages, including Tongan, Samoan, and Marshall. [00:45:00] Second, prioritize your mental health and take care of your wellbeing. We encourage community members to raise awareness by having open conversations with loved ones, family members, and elders about self-care and mental wellness, and to seek services in culturally aligned and trusted spaces. Third, combat misinformation in the fight against. It is important to share accurate and credible information and to combat anti PI rhetoric. You can view our media literacy page to learn more. Fourth, know your rights and stay informed During this challenging climate, it is important to stay up to date and know your rights. There are various organizations offering Know your rights materials, including in Pacific Islander languages, and finally participate in civic engagement and advocacy. Civic engagement is one of the most effective ways to combat hate, whether it is participating in voting or amplifying advocacy efforts. Miata Tan: That [00:46:00] was Connie Tan, a research manager at Stop. A API Hate. As Connie shared, there's a lot that can be done to support Pacific Islander communities from taking collective action against hate through reporting and combating misinformation to participating in civic engagement and advocacy. I'll pass the reins back over to Stephanie Chen, the director of Data and Research at Stop A API Hate. Stephanie is speaking with the Stop, A API hate Pacific Islander Advisory Council, zeroing in on where we can go from here in addressing hate against Pacific Islander communities. Stephanie Chan: We've heard a lot, a lot about the pain of anti PI hate, we've heard a lot about the pain of just, ongoing militarization displacement government distrust problems with education. Anti-blackness. what three things would you name as things that [00:47:00] we need to do? What changes actions or policies we need to do to move forward, on these issues? And I'm gonna start with Isa.  Isa Kelawili Whalen: Thank you Stephanie. Um, I'll try and go quickly here, but three policy areas. I'd love to get everyone engaged. One, data disaggregation. Pacific Islanders were constantly told that we don't have the data, so how could we possibly know what you guys are experiencing or need, and then. When we do have the data, it's always, oh, but you don't have enough numbers to meet this threshold, to get those benefits. Data informs policy, policy informs data. Again, thank you. Stop. I hate for having us here to talk about that also, but definitely continue fighting for data disaggregation. Second thing I would say. Climate resiliency, uh, supporting it and saying no to deep sea mining in our Pacifica waters. History of violence again with our land and sea. There's been a number in the, in the chat and one to name the nuclear warfare and bikini at toll, where after wiping out the people, the culture, the island itself, the United States promised reparations and to never harm again in that [00:48:00] way, but. Here we are. And then third language access, quite literally access, just access, um, to all things that the average English speaking person or learner has. So I'd say those three.  Stephanie Chan: Thank you. Well, we'll move on to Jamaica. Uh, what do you think are the actions or policies that we need?  Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio: Uh, we need to demilitarize the Pacific. We need to shut down military bases. We need to not renew military leases. We need to not allow the US government to condemn lands, to expand their military footprint in the Pacific. I think one of the points that came up time and time again around not reporting is again, not feeling like anything's gonna happen, but two, who are we reporting to and we're reporting to states and systems that have contained us, that have violated us and that have hurt us. So yeah, demilitarization, abolition in the broadest sense, both thinking about Discreet carceral institutions, but then also the entire US governing system. And three I'll just make it a little smaller, like fuck ice, and tear that shit [00:49:00] down. Like right now, there are policy change issues related to ICE and carceral institutions, but I'm really thinking about kind of. Incredible mobilization that's taking place in particular in, in Minneapolis and the way people are showing up for their neighbors across racial, gender, and political spectrums. And so outside of this discrete policy changes that we need to fight for, we need more people in the streets showing up to protect each other. and in doing so, building the systems and the, the communities and the institutions that we will need to arrive in a new world. Stephanie Chan: Great word, Michelle.  Michelle Pedro: I'm just gonna add on to what, Isa said about language, access justice, equity, also protection of access to healthcare. in terms of what Ika said yes. Three West, Papua New Guinea, yeah, thank you for having me here. Stephanie Chan: Thank you. And Ella, you wanna bring us home on the policy question?  Tu‘ulau‘ulu Estella Owoimaha-Church: I'm from South Central LA Ice melts around here. yes to everything that has been said, in [00:50:00] particular, I think the greatest policy issue. Impact in our folks is demil, demilitarization. And that also goes to the active genocide that is happening in the Pacific and has been ongoing. And as a broader API community, it's a conversation we don't ever have and have not had uh, regularly. So yes to all that. And risk, it sounded like a broken record too. I think, uh, education is a huge. Part of the issue here, I think access to real liberated ethnic studies for all of our folks is absolutely crucial to continuing generation after generation, being able to continue the demil fight to continue. To show up for our folks for our islands in diaspora and back home on our islands. You know, the, the report said that, uh, we are 1.6 million strong here in the United States and that our populations continue to grow, fortunately, unfortunately here in the us. And that [00:51:00] we are a multi-ethnic, um, group of folks and that, That demands, it's an imperative that our approach to education, to political education, to how we show up for community, how we organize across faith-based communities has to be intersectional. It has to be it has to be pro-black. It has to be pro Indigenous because that is who we are as a people. We are black. And Indigenous populations all wrapped up into one. And any way we approach policy change has to come from a pro-black, pro Indigenous stance.  Stephanie Chan: Thank you, Estella. We did have a question about education and how we actually make. PI studies happen. do you have anything you wanna elaborate on, how do we get school districts and state governments to prioritize PI history, especially K through 12?  Tu‘ulau‘ulu Estella Owoimaha-Church: I'm gonna say with the caveat of under this current regime. Any regular tactics I'm used to employing may not be viable at this current [00:52:00] moment. But my regular go-to will always be to tell parents you have the most power in school districts to show up at your local school board meetings and demand that there is liberated ethnic studies and be conscious and cognizant about the, the big ed tech companies that districts are hiring to bring. Some fake, uh, ethnic studies. It's not real ethnic studies. And there are also quite a few ethnic studies or programs that are out there parading as ethnic studies that are 100% coming from the alt-right. 100% coming from Zionist based organizations That are not, doing ethnic studies actually doing a disservice to ethnic studies. And the other thing I'll say for API organizations that are doing the work around ethnic studies and, and pushing for Asian American studies legislation state by state. We're also doing a disservice because in many situations or many cases where legislation has passed for Asian American studies, it's been at the [00:53:00] detriment of black, brown, queer, and Indigenous communities. And that's not the spirit of ethnic studies. And so first I'd say for parents. Exercise your right as a parent in your local district and be as loud as you possibly can be, and organize parent pods that are gonna do the fight for you, and then reach out to folks. My number one recommendation is always liberated ethnic studies model consortium curriculum, for a group of badass educators who were, who are gonna show up for community whenever called. Miata Tan: That was Tu‘ulau‘ulu Estella Owoimaha- Church discussing how we can help to encourage school districts and state governments to prioritize Pacific Islander education. A big thank you to the Stop, A API Hate team and their Pacific Islander Advisory Council. Your work is vital and we appreciate you all. Thank you for speaking with us [00:54:00] today.  Miata Tan: [00:55:00] That final track was a little snippet from the fantastic Zhou Tian check out Hidden Grace. It's a truly fabulous song. This is Apex Express on 94.1 KPFA, A weekly radio show uplifting the voices and stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Apex Express Airs every Thursday evening at 7:00 PM And with that, we're unfortunately nearing the end of our time here tonight. thank you so much for tuning into the show. And another big thank you to the Stop, A API Hate Team and their Pacific Islander Advisory Council. We appreciate your work so much. One final note, if you are listening to this live, then it's February 12th, meaning Lunar New Year is [00:56:00] just around the corner. For listeners who might not be familiar, Lunar New Year is a major celebration for many in the Asian diaspora, a fresh start marked by family, food, and festivities. This year we are welcoming in the Year of the Horse, and you can join the celebrations too. On Saturday, March 7th, San Francisco will come alive with the year of the horse parade, and this weekend you can check out the Chinatown Flower Market Fair Head to Grant Avenue for fresh flowers, arts activities, and cultural performances. On Tuesday, February 24th, the San Francisco Public Library will Drumbeats, Heartbeats: Community as One . this event will honor Lunar New Year and Black History Month with Lion Dancers, poetry, and more. Across the bay, Oakland celebrates their Lunar New Year parade on Saturday, February 28th. From more [00:57:00] parades to night markets and museum events, celebrations will be happening all over the Bay Area and beyond. We hope you enjoy this opportunity to gather, reflect, and welcome in the new year with joy. For show notes, please visit our website. That's kpfa.org/program/apex-express. On the webpage for this episode, we've added links to the Stop, A API Hate Report on Anti Pacific Islander, hate from data on how hate is impacting PI communities to information on what you can do to help. This report is well worth the read. Apex Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preeti Mangala Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me , Miata Tan. Get some rest y'all. .  The post APEX Express – 2.12.26 – Anti-Pacific Islander Hate Amid Ongoing Injustice appeared first on KPFA.

Recorded during the 2025 National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media (NCHCMM) in Atlanta, NPHIC's Public Health Speaks podcast continues its Voices from the Field series with a thoughtful and timely conversation on health autonomy, motivation, and the role of artificial intelligence in public health communication.In this episode, NPHIC is joined by Amelia Burke-Garcia, PhD, a longtime health communicator and Director of the Center for Health Communication Science at NORC at the University of Chicago. With more than 20 years of experience in the field, Burke-Garcia shares insights from her recent opinion piece, What Supporting [Health] Autonomy Should Look Like & How Artificial Intelligence Can Help, and unpacks how Self-Determination Theory can strengthen health communication practice.The conversation explores how autonomy—often cited as a core principle in medicine and public health—can become uneven or conditional when people are overwhelmed by complex, and sometimes conflicting, health information. Burke-Garcia discusses how health communicators can better support autonomy by designing messages that are more empathetic, relevant, and empowering, while still advancing population health goals. She also examines how emerging AI tools may help scale tailored, evidence-based messaging in ways that build trust and meet people where they are.Tune in for practical insights and a hopeful path forward for health communicators navigating an increasingly complex information environment.

摘要 2025年轉眼將屆，回顧過去的一年，美中對峙精彩了一整年，到了現在，反而因為明年的川普可能訪問中國，迎來了難得偃旗息鼓，不過，歲末年終，美國、中國仍舊各有各頭痛的問題。美國的通貨膨脹、中國的貿易出口，都是明年待解的習題。 一， 川普總算被潑了冷水，12月11日，由芝加哥大學美國民意研究所公共事務研究中心(NORC)和美聯社進行的民調顯示，只有31%的美國人支持川普處理經濟的方式，比今年3月的40%又掉了不少，川普當然氣得要死，立刻在 Truth Social發文表示：「我什麼時候才能因為創造了史上最偉大經濟、而且沒有通膨而被大家看懂。」 很明顯，美國人面對的物價，跟川普提到物價下降截然不同。而川普大手伸入聯準會積極推動降息，一心一意想以寬貨幣寬鬆取悅選民，甚至安撫大家對高物價的不滿，根本沒有作用。 其實川普也急了，12月9日前往賓州舉辦大型造勢活動時，除了大打民生牌，又開始老調重彈強調通貨膨脹是民主黨政府留下的問題，希望挽回選民支持。我們到底應該怎麼解讀美國的通貨膨脹問題？ 二， 12月8日，中國海關總署報告顯示，今年前11個月的中國貨物淨出口額正式超過1兆美元，創下了歷史新高。看來美國關稅未能阻擋中國，中國顯然繞過了貿易壁壘的迂迴空間。摩根士丹利預測，到2030年，中國在全球出口中的市場份額將從目前的約15%升至16.5%，這當然得益於在先進製造業以及電動汽 車、機器人和電池等高增長領域的優勢。 這麼龐大的順差瞬間引發了全球擔憂。高盛最近的一份報告標題直接就是《以鄰為壑》。 12月10日，國際貨幣基金組織IMF則呼籲中國積極解決貿易失衡問題。瑞銀UBP首席經濟學家就表示，美國目前尚未嚴格限制第三國轉運，使中國得以間接受惠。 也有人說貿易順差的提升，雖然表示中國對於國外市場的需求又提升到另一個層次。但如果今天已開發經濟體團結起來開始拒買中國貨，則中國過剩的產能就會轉化成為過剩的庫存，接著碰到經濟崩盤的窘境。我們要怎麼解讀？ Powered by Firstory Hosting

After stirring up trouble in the longhouse, our heroes head out to liberate their captive ally and some gear for their fellow rabblerousers! Will the Cleftheads put down their rebellion before it begins? Tune in now! Website: hideouslaughterpodcast.com Patreon: patreon.com/hideouslaughter Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/hideouslaughterproductions  BESTOW CURSE RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/bestowcurse/feed.xml Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HideousLaughterPod Discord: https://discord.gg/ruG6hxB Email: thehideouslaughterpodcast@gmail.com Twitter: @laughterhideous Facebook/Instagram: @hideouslaughterpod Reddit: reddit.com/r/HideousLaughter Produced by Allard LaRue @ Lossless Productions Theme Song By Dark Fantasy Studio

Peggy Smedley and Dan Gaylin, president and CEO, NORC, author, Fact Forward, talk about what brought him to the idea for his new book. He says he has a desire to help make sure our most important decisions are informed by good data and not led astray by faulty data. They also discuss: Why the data ecosystem has become so messy. The four main data errors that anyone can commit and the ways to guard against them. How to create a data literate society. norc.org  factforwardbook.org  (8/19/25 - 933) What You Might Have Missed:  Work from Anywhere AI: Threat or Help? The Power of AI IoT, Internet of Things, Peggy Smedley, artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, digital transformation, cybersecurity, blockchain, 5G, cloud, sustainability, future of work, podcast, Dan Gaylin, NORC This episode is available on all major streaming platforms. If you enjoyed this segment, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts.

Peggy Smedley and Dan Gaylin, president and CEO, NORC, author, Fact Forward, talk about what brought him to the idea for his new book. He says he has a desire to help make sure our most important decisions are informed by good data and not led astray by faulty data. They also discuss: Why the data ecosystem has become so messy. The four main data errors that anyone can commit and the ways to guard against them. How to create a data literate society. norc.org  factforwardbook.org  (8/19/25 - 933) What You Might Have Missed:  Work from Anywhere AI: Threat or Help? The Power of AI IoT, Internet of Things, Peggy Smedley, artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, digital transformation, cybersecurity, blockchain, 5G, cloud, sustainability, future of work, podcast, Dan Gaylin, NORC This episode is available on all major streaming platforms. If you enjoyed this segment, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts.

What happens when you combine statistical expertise, cross-cultural collaboration, and a mission to build statistical capacity internationally? You get the ASA's Educational Ambassador Program—and one inspiring episode of Practical Significance! Cohosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein sit down for a lively conversation with three dynamic guests: Carolina Franco (NORC at The University of Chicago); Andrzej Kosinski (Duke University School of Medicine); and Paulo Canas Rodrigues (Federal University […]

In this episode, I have a deep conversation with Dr. Tenia Davis who is redefining what it means to lead in Human Resources. As a distinguished HR executive with a stellar record of success, Tenia has left a lasting impact within the leadership ranks of globally recognized companies, including HBR Consulting, Raise, iManage, Johnson Publishing Company, and HARPO Productions - home of the Oprah Winfrey Show. Now serving as the Chief People Officer at NORC at the University of Chicago, Tenia continues to elevate the standards of operational excellence, talent acquisition, and company culture. Dr. Davis holds an MBA from Loyola University Chicago and a PhD from Benedictine University's Center for Values-Driven Leadership. You can learn more about Dr. Tenia on her website: https://www.theleadershipwise.com/. Her book - The Feedback Blueprint: Unlocking the Power of Constructive Insights - is available on Amazon.com. ******************************************** Want to learn how to scale your business to increase revenue, improve cash flow and maximize profits? Then join my Business Success Mastermind group. A new cohort is starting. Now accepting applications: https://ib4e-coaching.com/mastermind ******************************************** Please support this podcast: https://ib4e-coaching.com/podinfo #leadership #leadershipcoaching #business #success #teniadavisphd #servantleadership #ib4ecoaching ******************************************** If you like this podcast, consider supporting the effort. Every little bit helps. Thanks.

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.Health Affairs' Rob Lott interviews MacKenzie Hughes of NORC at the University of Chicago about her recent paper reviewing how transitional care management was associated with healthier days at home and lower spending after hospital discharges for patients.Order the June 2025 issue of Health Affairs.Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcast Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

Practical Significance focuses on the passion and commitment members bring to advancing the ASA’s mission of promoting the practice and profession of statistics. Cohosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein chat with two guests—Susan Paddock, executive vice president and chief scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago, and Bo Li, professor at Washington University in […]

Practical Significance focuses on the passion and commitment members bring to advancing the ASA’s mission of promoting the practice and profession of statistics. Cohosts Donna LaLonde and Ron Wasserstein chat with two guests—Susan Paddock, executive vice president and chief scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago, and Bo Li, professor at Washington University in St. Louis—about the career-changing and life-enhancing impact of their service to the American Statistical Association community. From their first “yes” to now helping shape the future of our profession, Susan and Bo share personal stories, unexpected ... The post Practical Significance | Episode 54: The Power of Saying, “Yes”— Volunteering & Service in the ASA first appeared on Amstat News.

Send us a textWhat if the future of senior care lies in the seamless integration of technology and human compassion? Get ready to explore this fascinating intersection in our latest episode of the Senior Care Academy podcast. Aaron and I delve into the trends shaping senior care in 2024, as the industry recalibrates after the COVID-19 disruptions. We uncover the significant demand for senior care services despite the stagnant growth in caregiver numbers. Join us as we highlight insights from the Utah Symposium on Aging Care, which inspire fresh approaches to meet these challenges and underscore the government's role in supporting aging in place through initiatives like the Older Americans Act.The promise of technology holds immense potential for aging populations, and we are thrilled to share how it's being embraced worldwide. From the heartwarming innovation of Paro, the therapeutic robotic seal, to the capable assistance of RoBear, the nurse robot, we spotlight the ingenious solutions transforming senior care. Japan's pioneering efforts in addressing demographic challenges offer a model for others, especially the U.S., where home care expenditure is notable. Embracing technology isn't just an option; it's a necessity for enhancing the quality of life for seniors and their caregivers.Beyond tech, we discuss the enriching concept of community integration, moving away from isolating seniors in facilities towards a vibrant intergenerational living model. This approach not only fosters a sense of purpose but also combats loneliness through diverse activities. We explore practical steps like adopting smart home technologies to support senior independence without the intimidation of full-time care. As we embark on this exciting series of industry insights and updates, we invite you to share your thoughts and suggestions for future topics. Let's navigate the evolving landscape of senior care together.On this episode, we touched on...• The importance of returning to normalcy in senior care post-COVID• The overwhelming preference for independent living among seniors• The role of AI and technology in enhancing elder care• Challenges to technology adoption in the senior demographic• Global trends in aging populations and their implications• Strategies to combat senior loneliness through community engagement• Discussion on future housing solutions for seniors and support systemsTimestamp to help you navigate the podcast:1:33 – Return to normalcy2:50 – COVID had a good impact on the senior care industry6:30 – AI trend for senior care12:19 – Integrating AI to the industry14:30 – Internet can help disconnected people to be connected22:10 – Upskilling the workforce using AI24:10 – NORC (natural occurring retirement community)27:13 - Combating senior's loneliness27:50 – Find senior's niche community28:27 – You dont have to be the innovator, you have to be the integratorWatch our episode with Ezra Torres hereSupport the show

In this enlightening episode, we welcome Dr. Kathy MacLaughlin, an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, to discuss the transformative potential of self-collection for cervical cancer screening. Dr. MacLaughlin explains how this innovative method differs from traditional screening processes and shares the latest FDA-approved options available to patients. We review the current research, examining the accuracy and effectiveness of self-collection through large-scale studies and its successful implementation in other countries. The conversation also highlights the public health implications, including how self-collection can empower individuals, enhance access to screening in underserved areas, and ultimately reduce cervical cancer rates. Join us as we explore the future of cervical cancer screening and the critical role of community engagement in promoting this life-saving approach. Did you connect with this episode? Share your thoughts with us on social media using #CervivorPodcast or by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠emailing us.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   For more Cervivor-related content, check out: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Cervivor.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow Cervivor on all social media platforms. If you would like to be interviewed as a potential guest for an upcoming episode or would like to request a speaker or topic for a future podcast episode, email us at info@cervivor.org. More About The Guest: Dr. Kathy MacLaughlin is an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at Mayo Clinic with a passion for cervical cancer elimination. She co-chairs the HPV Self-Collection work group for the American Cancer Society National Roundtable on Cervical Cancer and previously co-chaired the IT/EHR group for their Primary HPV Screening Initiative. She has served as a subject matter expert for NORC in their work with the Federal Cervical Cancer Collaborative on the Cervical Cancer Moonshot℠ Roundtable Series and with HRSA's Office of Women's Health Cervical Cancer ECHO Learning Series for Safety-Net Settings. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cervivor/support

Eric flies solo for this episode with a recap of his positconf 2024 adventures! Also how not to panic when you see a merge conflict in Git, the genesis of the new R ARUG community in India, and a great primer on creating your own Quarto templates.Episode LinksThis week's curator: Eric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Please let me merge before I start crying and other things I've said at the Git terminalA New R Community in Ahmedabad, India, focused on Clinical Research and Pharmaceutical IndustriesDesigning and deploying internal Quarto templatesEntire issue available at rweekly.org/2024-W34Supplement ResourcesShiny-based clinical submissions using WebAssembly https://rpodcast.github.io/shiny-webr-posit2024/#/sectionIntroducing saperlipopette, a package to practice Git! https://masalmon.eu/2024/01/18/saperlipopette-package-practice-git/NORC crime tracker Shiny app https://livecrimetracker.norc.org/#homeSupporting the showUse the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedbackR-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.A new way to think about value: https://value4value.info Get in touch with us on social mediaEric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)Mike Thomas: @mikethomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) and @mikeketchbrook (X/Twitter) Music credits powered by OCRemixYou Are Not Confined - Final Fantasy IX - Sonicade - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01064Seven Pipes to Heaven - Super Mario Land - Nostalvania - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03256

Dr. Chandria D. Jones is a Principal Research Scientist in Public Health and Affiliate Staff at the Center on Equity Research at NORC at the University of Chicago. Dr. Jones works in the areas of behavioral health, health equity, and health communications. She leads equity-focused projects that leverage community engagement and participatory methods, emphasizing culturally responsive and equitable evaluation and research. Her research examines social and environmental determinants of health for historically marginalized populations such as people from racial and ethnic minority groups, youth and families with lower incomes, and persons with mental health and substance use disorders. Dr. Jones' work has a strong racial equity and systems change focus emphasizing the need to understand the complex social, cultural, and historical factors necessary to transform policies and practices. Dr. Jones earned her Ph.D. in Behavioral and Community Health from the University of Maryland, College Park, and her M.P.H. from Florida International University. RESOURCES RELATED TO THIS EPISODE Follow Chandria on LinkedIn Follow Chandria on X Culturally Responsive & Equitable Evaluation: Visions and Voices of Emerging Scholars The Center on Equity Research How Right Now Campaign CREDITSTheme Music by lesfm from Pixabay.Produced by ChatWithLeadersMedia.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ashani Johnson-Turbes, Ph.D. is the Vice President & Director of the Center on Equity Research, a multi-disciplinary Center in The Bridge at NORC at the University of Chicago. The Center advances equity through the development, implementation, and dissemination of high-quality inclusive, and equitable social science research and methods. Johnson-Turbes leads the Center, focused on scientifically rigorous, social science research, expanding culturally responsive research, engaging the community, building partnerships, and embedding equity principles in research across a range of activities and departments. She is an experienced and award-winning social scientist with over 20 years of conducting communication, social marketing, public health, and public policy research, including rigorous measurement of communication messages, materials, and campaigns to promote equity. Johnson-Turbes blends her academic background in political science, political behavior, and public policy with years of work in public health, health communication, and evaluation. She received her BA at Hampton University, MA, and PhD at Purdue University with continued studies in political science and quantitative methods at Leiden University and the University of Chicago. Johnson-Turbes serves on the Board for BLKHLTH, as an Adjunct Professor at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, and the Vice President for the Society for Health Communication. RESOURCES RELATED TO THIS EPISODE Follow Ashani on LinkedIn The Center on Equity Research NORC EquityCorps Video Series How Right Now Campaign CREDITSTheme Music by lesfm from Pixabay.Produced by ChatWithLeadersMedia.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Misinformation has proven to be among the most polarizing topics in 21st century society, creating negative to severe consequences like poor decision-making and even the loss of human lives. But what does misinformation mean in a research context and how does misinformation impact the work of public opinion researchers? What can researchers do to navigate the future with improved accuracy, data ethics and techniques that harness a single version of truth? In this episode, host Arundati Dandapani, MLitt, CAIP, CIPP/C, CIPM, speaks with Amelia Burke-Garcia, PhD and Frank Graves to dissect and uncover what misinformation means for public opinion researchers and how to prepare for a future with improved accuracy and data ethics. Host: Arundati Dandapani, MLitt, CAIP, CIPP/C, CIPM, CIPM, CIPM, Founder and CEO of Generation1.ca and Professor at the Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Canada Guests: Amelia Burke-Garcia, PhD, Director of the Center for Health Communication Science and Digital Strategy and Outreach Program Area Director at NORC at the University of Chicago and Frank Graves, Founder and CEO of EKOS Research Associates, Canada Technical Producer and Editor: Erin Spain, MS, Studio Spain Media Group, LLC

We've heard many stories about how AI has become increasingly responsible for spreading misinformation, whether in politics, health information or otherwise. But did you know that AI can be used to combat misinformation too? In this episode we chat with Amelia Burke Garcia, Director at the Center for Health Communication Science at NORC at the University of Chicago and Rebecca Soskin Hicks, Pediatrician and Fellow at NORC. We discuss their new initiative to create health communication using AI. Their thesis is that AI can be the next form of opinion leader like social media influencers have been so far. We discuss the theory behind this thesis, how this AI model gets trained and interacts with humans, what the ethical concerns are. As a clinician Rebecca discusses the barriers to entry for using AI in her practice and we talk about the future of the study and share some contemporary tips for identifying health misinformation online.

With the 2024 election only five months away, polls abound. But since 2016, polls have had somewhat of a bad rap, and many Americans have become skeptical of their reliability. David Dutwin, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at NORC at the University of Chicago, said we’re thinking about polls all wrong. On the show today, Dutwin explains what polls can and can’t tell us, how to spot a high-quality poll and what kind of role polling should play in our understanding of elections. Plus, what’s keeping pollsters up at night. Then, we’ll talk about how the Joe Biden administration is addressing an issue that’s top of mind, according to a new Gallup survey: immigration. And, a Half Full/Half Empty update on the job market. Later, one listener’s small-scale solution to the Big Food problem, and a divisive grammar debate. Plus, a listener was wrong about the meaning of “vibecession.” Here’s everything we talked about today: “What Can Election 2024 Polls Really Tell Us?” from Scientific American “Polling in 2024” from Reuters View the latest national polls from FiveThirtyEight “Public Opinion Polling Basics” from Pew Research Center “We still don't know much about this election — except that the media and pollsters blew it again” from The Washington Post “US Job Openings Fall to Lowest Since 2021 in Broad Cooldown” from Bloomberg   “Immigration Named Top U.S. Problem for Third Straight Month” from Gallup “Biden issues new executive action: Much of southern border to close at midnight” from Politico  “Biden prepares an order that would shut down asylum requests at US-Mexico border” from The Associated Press “Kyla Scanlon wants to remind us that ‘people are the economy'” from Marketplace We love to hear from you. Send your questions and comments to makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

With the 2024 election only five months away, polls abound. But since 2016, polls have had somewhat of a bad rap, and many Americans have become skeptical of their reliability. David Dutwin, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at NORC at the University of Chicago, said we’re thinking about polls all wrong. On the show today, Dutwin explains what polls can and can’t tell us, how to spot a high-quality poll and what kind of role polling should play in our understanding of elections. Plus, what’s keeping pollsters up at night. Then, we’ll talk about how the Joe Biden administration is addressing an issue that’s top of mind, according to a new Gallup survey: immigration. And, a Half Full/Half Empty update on the job market. Later, one listener’s small-scale solution to the Big Food problem, and a divisive grammar debate. Plus, a listener was wrong about the meaning of “vibecession.” Here’s everything we talked about today: “What Can Election 2024 Polls Really Tell Us?” from Scientific American “Polling in 2024” from Reuters View the latest national polls from FiveThirtyEight “Public Opinion Polling Basics” from Pew Research Center “We still don't know much about this election — except that the media and pollsters blew it again” from The Washington Post “US Job Openings Fall to Lowest Since 2021 in Broad Cooldown” from Bloomberg   “Immigration Named Top U.S. Problem for Third Straight Month” from Gallup “Biden issues new executive action: Much of southern border to close at midnight” from Politico  “Biden prepares an order that would shut down asylum requests at US-Mexico border” from The Associated Press “Kyla Scanlon wants to remind us that ‘people are the economy'” from Marketplace We love to hear from you. Send your questions and comments to makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

With the 2024 election only five months away, polls abound. But since 2016, polls have had somewhat of a bad rap, and many Americans have become skeptical of their reliability. David Dutwin, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at NORC at the University of Chicago, said we’re thinking about polls all wrong. On the show today, Dutwin explains what polls can and can’t tell us, how to spot a high-quality poll and what kind of role polling should play in our understanding of elections. Plus, what’s keeping pollsters up at night. Then, we’ll talk about how the Joe Biden administration is addressing an issue that’s top of mind, according to a new Gallup survey: immigration. And, a Half Full/Half Empty update on the job market. Later, one listener’s small-scale solution to the Big Food problem, and a divisive grammar debate. Plus, a listener was wrong about the meaning of “vibecession.” Here’s everything we talked about today: “What Can Election 2024 Polls Really Tell Us?” from Scientific American “Polling in 2024” from Reuters View the latest national polls from FiveThirtyEight “Public Opinion Polling Basics” from Pew Research Center “We still don't know much about this election — except that the media and pollsters blew it again” from The Washington Post “US Job Openings Fall to Lowest Since 2021 in Broad Cooldown” from Bloomberg   “Immigration Named Top U.S. Problem for Third Straight Month” from Gallup “Biden issues new executive action: Much of southern border to close at midnight” from Politico  “Biden prepares an order that would shut down asylum requests at US-Mexico border” from The Associated Press “Kyla Scanlon wants to remind us that ‘people are the economy'” from Marketplace We love to hear from you. Send your questions and comments to makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Within the past few years, organizations that help improve public well-being by providing data-driven insights have witnessed significant changes. From a digital transformation hastened by big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to the globalization of evidence-based solutions for problems that transcend borders, changes in technology, society, and culture are challenging leaders to rethink how their organizations operate. On the latest episode of Mathematica's On the Evidence podcast, NORC at the University of Chicago President and Chief Executive Officer Dan Gaylin joined Mathematica President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Decker for a wide-ranging discussion about leadership, AI, globalization, the COVID-19 pandemic, and advocating for the use of high-quality evidence without straying into activism. Find a full transcript at mathematica.org/blogs/norc-and-mathematica-ceos-on-the-future-of-data-and-evidence Read an article by Dan Gaylin on LinkedIn where he explains his philosophy around the importance of sharing research findings: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-silence-significance-case-sharing-your-research-dan-gaylin-d1cve/?trackingId=Mm6Fa4kN4WbH29J%2FQArQrg%3D%3D Learn more about NORC's AmeriSpeak Panel: https://amerispeak.norc.org/ Learn more about NORC's 2020 Election Research Project for Facebook: https://www.norc.org/research/projects/2020-election-research-project.html Learn more about NORC's Advanced Data Solutions Center: https://www.norc.org/about/departments/advanced-data-solutions-center.html Watch Decker's interview with Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, which includes a discussion about the declining response rates in federal surveys and what they might mean for informing policy decisions: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/mark-zandi-chief-economist-of-moodys-analytics-on-data-driven-decisions-in-public-policy Watch Decker's interview with Max Stier, the president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service: https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/the-partnership-for-public-services-max-stier-on-using-data-to-improve-the-government

At various times and places in the Bible, the devil shows up to wage war against God's people. God's people can find themselves in a War Zone doing battle with the devil. Thankfully, we wear the full armor of God.In this episode, Dr. Bruce Becker explores the origin of the devil which was good, but what followed was bad. The devil is an example of a good supernatural entity gone bad. Although there are many questions the Bible doesn't answer for us, there are clues as to what happened with the devil and why God kicked him out of heaven. If you enjoy this podcast and make it a regular part of your week, would you consider helping us with your support? Thank you!Reference to the Gallup poll (https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/diversity-inclusion/4107968-belief-in-god-the-devil-falls-to-new-low-gallup/) Reference to the NORC poll (https://apnorc.org/projects/belief-in-angels-and-heaven-is-more-common-than-belief-in-the-devil-or-hell/).

AP correspondent Haya Panjwani reports on findings from a new AP poll on TikTok

We're delving into new research addressing the where and the who of hearing loss in the U.S.Principal investigator David Rein, of NORC at the University of Chicago, and audiologist Nick Reed, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, discuss the Sound Check project. This research initiative includes new estimates of bilateral hearing loss and an interactive map that presents the data by state, county, and more.Hear the researchers observe trends and share takeaways from this comprehensive look at hearing loss in the U.S.Transcript

AP correspondent Donna Warder reports on a new airline travel AP poll.

What do some Americans think about the continued Israeli war in Gaza? AP correspondent Donna Warder reports on AP Poll Israel Palestinians

AP correspondent Donna Warder reports on a new poll on President Joe Biden and the economy.

Less than a month remains before South Carolina's winner-take-all primary contest, between former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and former President Trump. The former President has repeatedly called for Haley to drop out of the race, citing polling and lack of party support, but Haley insists the race is not over, until every voter makes their pick for the GOP nominee. Congressman Ralph Norman (R-SC-5) joins the Rundown to discuss why he put his support behind Nikki Haley, why he believes she has what it takes to beat the former President, and addresses GOP leadership urging Haley to drop out of the race before the South Carolina Primary.   Despite being on the decline for the last few years, drunk driving fatalities are increasing in the United States. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is working toward requiring new vehicles to include technology to detect when a driver is drunk. However, a future where cars prevent intoxicated persons from getting behind the wheel is still years away. On the Rundown, James C. Fell, a nationally recognized traffic safety researcher and a principal research scientist within NORC at the University of Chicago, explains the technology and what happens when one's blood alcohol level goes beyond the legal limit.   Plus, commentary from host of the evening opinion show Tomi Lahren is Fearless on Outkick.com, Tomi Lahren.   (Image: Sean Rayford Via AP) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Less than a month remains before South Carolina's winner-take-all primary contest, between former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and former President Trump. The former President has repeatedly called for Haley to drop out of the race, citing polling and lack of party support, but Haley insists the race is not over, until every voter makes their pick for the GOP nominee. Congressman Ralph Norman (R-SC-5) joins the Rundown to discuss why he put his support behind Nikki Haley, why he believes she has what it takes to beat the former President, and addresses GOP leadership urging Haley to drop out of the race before the South Carolina Primary.   Despite being on the decline for the last few years, drunk driving fatalities are increasing in the United States. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is working toward requiring new vehicles to include technology to detect when a driver is drunk. However, a future where cars prevent intoxicated persons from getting behind the wheel is still years away. On the Rundown, James C. Fell, a nationally recognized traffic safety researcher and a principal research scientist within NORC at the University of Chicago, explains the technology and what happens when one's blood alcohol level goes beyond the legal limit.   Plus, commentary from host of the evening opinion show Tomi Lahren is Fearless on Outkick.com, Tomi Lahren.   (Image: Sean Rayford Via AP) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AP correspondent Donna Warder reports on what issues are most important to Americans.

AP correspondent Shelley Adler reports on a new poll about top issues.

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on AP Poll Election 2024 Voting.

In today's episode, I spoke with Louise Hawkley about loneliness. We spoke about the paradox of feeling lonely even when surrounded by people, why loneliness is so painful to us on a visceral level, and how we are hardwired for social connection.Louise's work has shown the significant consequences that loneliness can have on our mental health and our physical health. Loneliness can completely distort the way we see the world, and it can have serious physiological, hormonal, and genetic effects. We also discussed some of the drivers of loneliness in our modern world - such as social media and changing family dynamics - and finally, what we can do about it. We shared practical ways to combat loneliness, overcome social anxiety, and cultivate more meaningful relationships. Tune in to learn more about loneliness and the ways in which we can build a more connected society. Prof. Louise Hawkley is a principal research scientist at NORC of the University of Chicago, and her research focuses on loneliness, its impacts on physical and mental health, with a special emphasis on the aging population. -- 00:00 Intro 01:02 What is loneliness? 04:33 Why is loneliness so painful? 06:00 Are we in a loneliness epidemic? 09:44 Mental health effects of chronic loneliness 14:45 Overcoming social anxiety 19:45 Loneliness causes diseases of inflammation 31:00 Cultivating relationships for life 34:28 Men and women suffer from different types of loneliness 39:14 Causes for the rise in loneliness - is social media to blame? 44:00 Authenticity is key for true belonging This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebiggerpicturepod.substack.com

AP correspondent Donna Warder reports on a new poll on the next presidential election.

AP correspondent Jennifer King reports on AP Poll Asian Americans

Michelle M. Johns, PhD, MPH is a Senior Research Scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago. Johns has over 15 years of experience serving as a researcher, evaluator, and educator on health equity issues, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ communities. As a mixed methods scientist, Johns tailors the use of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to meet the goals of a wide range of research and evaluation studies. Her own research examines how social stigma and resilience shape the lives of LGBTQ+ communities, in particular how factors across the social ecology (e.g., social, community, relationship) affect individual experiences of minority stress, violence victimization, and behavioral health over the life course. Johns holds a PhD and MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education and a Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies from the University of Michigan. RESOURCES RELATED TO THIS EPISODE  Follow Michelle M. Johns PhD, MPH on LinkedIn PFLAG The Trevor Project GLSEN CREDITS Theme Music by lesfm from PixabayProduced by ChatWithLeadersMedia.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports on AP Poll-Ukraine Aid.

Since the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, University of Chicago Prof. Robert Pape has been closely observing the threats to our democracy. Now, the renowned terrorism expert says that violent ideas coming from a dedicated minority are moving from fringe to mainstream.In 2021, Pape's team along with NORC at the University of Chicago launched the Dangers to Democracy tracker, an ongoing series of surveys to track Americans' thoughts and attitudes about political violence. In one recent survey, about 12 million Americans said they believe violence is justified to restore Trump to power. Still, Pape believes the data may give us some answers about how to move forward, and how to strengthen the center.

[Explicit Content] The latest crappy polls and the truth about Biden's record. Molly Jong-Fast's new article in Vanity Fair. The semi-complete list of Biden's accomplishments. A clarification on a poll about Democratic voters' views of Biden's age. The Fascism Gap. Elon Musk deliberately shut down Starlink to sabotage the Ukrainian military just before an offensive against Russia. Bring back the 90 percent tax rate. New lawsuits to disqualify Trump from running. Alabama AG says anyone who helps women leave the state for an abortion could be prosecuted. Federal judge orders Texas to remove cruel RIo Grande barriers. E. Jean Carroll won her second lawsuit against Trump. With Jody Hamilton, David Ferguson, music by Betamax DC, Sammi Garett, and more!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The poll of 1,165 adults was conducted Aug. 10-14, 2023, using a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 30. Stop AAPI Hate doesn't just aggregate discrimination and racism. They are a consortium of organizations dedicated to doing research, surveys, and reports to collect data and share the Asian American Pacific Islander experience. In this episode, we talk about and discuss their latest report, Righting Wrongs: How Civil Rights Can Protect Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders Against Racism. They worked with NORC at the University of Chicago to do this work. We also discuss the latest annual  Social Tracking of Asian Americans in the U.S.  Index that is organized by The Asian American Foundation. Now in its third year, the STAATUS Index does a great job tracking trends and feelings of belonging, stereotyping, and discrimination of the AANHPI community. We highly recommended reading the full reports for both (don't worry, they're pretty short and easy to consume), but both have shorter executive summaries. We close the show by sharing what we're watching and talk about Asian American representation in the Titans as well as Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies. For previous episodes and information, please visit our site at https://asianamericanhistory101.libsyn.com or social media links at http://castpie.com/AAHistory101. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, email us at info@aahistory101.com. Segments 00:25 Intro on Data 03:27 Righting Wrongs: How Civil Rights Can Protect Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders Against Racism 15:36 STAATUS Index 32:52 What Are We Watching? Titans and Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Wednesday, July 12th, 2023. Olive Tree Biblical Software: Discover why more than a million people use the free Olive Tree Bible App as their go-to for reading, studying, and listening to the God’s Word. Start by downloading one of many free Bibles and start taking notes, highlighting verses, and bookmarking your favorite passages. You can read at your own pace, or choose from a large selection of Reading Plans, including the Bible Reading Challenge. When you are ready to go deeper into your studies, Olive Tree is right there with a large selection of study Bibles, commentaries, and other helpful study resources available for purchase. There’s also an extensive bookstore allows you to build your digital library one book at a time and Olive Tree’s sync technology lets you pick up where you left off on your tablet, pc or phone and get right to studying on another supported device. Now here's the best part – You can start with the Olive Tree Essentials Bundle for FREE. Visit www.olivetree.com/FLF and download it today!  We start things off in China! https://dailycaller.com/2023/07/10/chinese-military-kindergarteners-war-bootcamps/ The Chinese Military Is Training Kindergarteners For War In Bootcamps Across The Country The Chinese military is training kindergarteners to handle firearms and fight like soldiers in boot camps across China this summer, according to dozens of school social media accounts. The boot camps feature combat training for boys and girls with a wide variety of toy weapons including knives, grenades, rifles and shoulder-fired missiles, and require the children to adopt military behavior, such as saluting, the schools’ social media posts show. The rise in the militarization of China’s youth appears to follow a 2019 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee push for increased “National Defense Education” and a related effort directing schools to hold National Defense Education activities in 2022, according to government documents. Uniformed People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers oversaw all of the kindergarten boot camps. The boot camps were located in major Chinese cities, such as Beijing, Nanjing and Shenzhen, and were also run in more than half a dozen provinces. The programs featured roughly the same sequence of activities, according to a DCNF review of posts from the participating kindergartens. The boot camps generally began with basic military etiquette and proceeded to teach various military skills ranging from combat to emergency medical training. Additionally, a number of these programs also taught the children about famous PLA heroes and martyrs, according to the schools’ accounts. In May 2023, faculty members and more than 80 children of numerous provinces assembled on the playground for the opening ceremony of their school’s week-long National Defense Education camp, all wearing matching camouflage fatigues. “INHERIT THE RED GENE, CARRY FORWARD PATRIOTIC FEELINGS, LOVE CHINA, LITTLE SOLDIER,” declared a large PLA banner, which partially hid the kindergarten’s playset. Uniformed PLA soldiers then performed a flag-raising ceremony, with all attendants singing the Chinese national anthem, the social media post stated. “We solemnly swear to love the motherland from now on, to dedicate our hearts to working together to build the dream of a powerful country,” the children then pledged, according to the social media post. “Even if I fall to the ground I will continue onward!” PLA soldiers then taught the kindergarten recruits how to groom themselves and make their beds in accordance with military standards, before drilling them in how to stand at attention, stand at ease and salute. Experts say recent efforts to militarize China’s youth are part of the CCP’s ideological goals. Now compare that to the U.S., where students are regularly pushed into ideologies that despise everything the Founding Father’s did. https://notthebee.com/article/just-unfathomable-disney-world-is-just-about-empty-during-summer-vacation-season?fbclid=IwAR2ZgkovaL7WZCwrL8WVQuUm3MNqIpPK8z9WvOLKpsRIph9epbgE0Xknj4E "Just unfathomable": Disney World is "just about empty" during summer vacation season It takes real skill to drive this many customers away. The July 4th weekend was a 10-year-low for the massive company's Disney World amusement park in Orlando, but all the parks have been suffering recently. According to the Wall Street Journal, Park visitors in recent weeks have had significantly lower wait times to get on rides, according to data from Touring Plans, a company that tracks wait times at major amusement parks, including Disney World and Disneyland in California. Industry analysts say shorter wait times generally correlate with smaller crowds. The average posted wait time at the Magic Kingdom park in Florida — which has a special fireworks display on July 4 — was 27 minutes this year for the holiday, down from 31 minutes in 2022 and 47 minutes in 2019, the Touring Plans analysis shows. "It's something that nobody would have predicted — just unfathomable," says Len Testa, a computer scientist who runs Touring Plans. Testa says wait times rose in the following days. The Journal offers an assortment of potential reasons for the lull: Cruises and European vacations are back after the pandemic, Disney isn't offering much new, and Disney wants to slim down the crowds for richer guests anyway. But unlike the journalist class, most of America understands the two primary reasons: Your wallet is hurting Disney went woke https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4085828-a-record-share-of-americans-are-living-alone/ A record share of Americans is living alone Nearly 30 percent of American households comprise a single person, a record high. Scholars say living alone is not a trend so much as a transformation: Across much of the world, large numbers of people are living alone for the first time in recorded history. “It’s just a stunning social change,” said Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist at New York University and author of the book “Going Solo.” “I came to see it as the biggest demographic change in the last century that we failed to recognize and take seriously.” Homo sapiens is a social animal. Historians tapped ancient census rolls to show that our species has lived in groups for as long as such records have existed, stretching back at least to 1600. The U.S. Census shows that “solitaries” made up 8 percent of all households in 1940. The share of solo households doubled to 18 percent in 1970 and more than tripled, to an estimated 29 percent, by 2022. The solo-living movement intersects with several other societal trends. Americans are marrying later, if at all. The nation is aging. The national birthrate is falling. People are living longer — or they were, until the pandemic arrived. More than anything, perhaps, the rise of single-person households is about women entering the workforce and achieving economic self-sufficiency. The share of adult women participating in the labor force reached 50 percent around 1980. Historically speaking, “you don’t really see people living alone until women have control of their own lives and their own bodies,” Klinenberg said. Researchers see a marked downside to living alone, especially for older Americans, for people who live outside thickly settled cities and for pretty much anyone who is not alone by choice. A New York Times report on aging solitaries concluded that, “while many people in their 50s and 60s thrive living solo, research is unequivocal that people aging alone experience worse physical and mental health outcomes and shorter life spans.” The nation’s declining birth rate and aging population portend a time when America doesn’t have enough working-age citizens to sustain the national economy or to support the spiraling health care needs of its oldest citizens. The rise of single-person households can be seen as both a cause and effect of those challenges. “I think it’s something we should be worried about,” said Wendy Wang, director of research at the Institute for Family Studies, a conservative thinktank. “If we have fewer and fewer children, that means we have fewer people to work, to be consumers, to pay taxes.” Wang notes that low fertility rates are a global problem. Indeed, solo households are far more common across much of Europe than in the United States. According to United Nations data, solitaries make up 39 percent of households in Denmark, 45 percent in Finland, 42 percent in Germany, 38 percent in the Netherlands, 39 percent in Norway and 40 percent in Sweden. Even now, living alone is not quite so common in the United States as the data suggest. While nearly 30 percent of households comprise a single person, far fewer than 30 percent of Americans live in them. Roughly 13 percent of American adults live alone, research shows. Breaking down that figure by age groups, the population of solitaries rises from 4 percent of adults at ages 18-24 to 9 percent at 25-34, dips to 8 percent at 35-44, then rises again, to 12 percent at 45-54, 17 percent at 55-64 and 26 percent at 65 and up. Living alone is much more common in large cities. Singles now make up more than 40 percent of households in Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Denver, according to a paper by the British historian Keith Snell. Half of all Manhattan dwellings are one-person residences. Snell identified a Midtown Census tract where 94 percent of households comprised a single person. At younger ages, men outnumber women in one-person households. Young men are far more likely than young women to be single, and they tend to marry later. The gender gap in solitary living closes with age. In the retirement years, women are more likely than men to live alone. That statistic is partly about women outliving husbands, and partly about “grey divorce,” the rising rate of marriages that dissolve after age 50. The grey divorce rate has doubled since 1990. “It used to be that if people were married for 30 years and they entered their 60s, basically, they were going to stay married,” said Barbara Risman, a distinguished professor of sociology at the University of Illinois Chicago. “You would pass the risk of divorce. No one is ever past the risk of divorce anymore.” Through much of the 20th century, marriage was so universal that the very act of living alone carried a stigma. The share of Americans who had not married by age 40 hovered below 10 percent from 1950 through 1980, according to a Pew Research analysis. The figure has soared in recent decades, reaching 25 percent in 2021, a record high. The share of Americans in prime marriage years who are actually married has dwindled from about two-thirds to around half since 1990, Pew data show. Nearly two-fifths of Americans are “unpartnered,” neither married nor cohabiting. Researchers consider living alone a risk factor for loneliness and social isolation, conditions associated with a host of physical and mental maladies, from heart disease to obesity to anxiety and depression. Men tend to fare less well than women in single-person households, said Louise Hawkley, a researcher at the NORC thinktank who studies loneliness and social isolation. - Perhaps because we’re meant to be taking dominion & building families… Now for my favorite topic… sports! https://www.foxnews.com/sports/us-soccer-star-megan-rapinoe-support-trans-athlete-uswnt-roster-i-see-trans-women-as-real-women US soccer star Megan Rapinoe would support trans athlete on USWNT roster: 'I see trans women as real women' U.S. women’s soccer icon Megan Rapinoe has been a public advocate for the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports, and ahead of what will be her final World Cup appearance before retiring, the one-time Golden Boot winner said she would "absolutely" support having a trans woman on the USWNT roster. Even if that meant replacing a biological female. In an interview with Time published Monday, Rapinoe recalled highlights from her lengthy career, including her battles both on and off the pitch. She was asked specifically about her push to defend transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports. "We as a country are trying to legislate away people’s full humanity," she told the outlet. Rapinoe was one of 40 professional athletes to co-sign a letter to House lawmakers in April in opposition of the Protection of Girls and Women in Sports Act, arguing that the bill would exclude women and girls from getting "mental and physical health benefits." "It’s particularly frustrating when women’s sports is weaponized," Rapinoe said in the interview. "Oh, now we care about fairness? Now we care about women’s sports? That’s total bulls---. And show me all the trans people who are nefariously taking advantage of being trans in sports. It’s just not happening." Rapinoe was asked specifically if she would support a trans woman playing on the United States Women’s National Team, even if it meant replacing a biological female. The OL Reign star said she would, but added that she did not view the act as "taking a ‘real’ woman’s place." "Absolutely," she told Time. "‘You’re taking a ‘real’ woman’s place,’ that’s the part of the argument that’s still extremely transphobic. I see trans women as real women. What you’re saying automatically in the argument—you’re sort of telling on yourself already—is you don’t believe these people are women. Therefore, they’re taking the other spot. I don’t feel that way." Rapinoe will make her final World Cup appearance this month as the United States Women’s National Team heads to Australia and New Zealand with the hopes of making history: becoming the first women’s or men’s team to win a three-peat. The 38-year-old soccer star announced over the weekend her plans to retire at the conclusion of the 2023 National Women’s Soccer League season.

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Wednesday, July 12th, 2023. Olive Tree Biblical Software: Discover why more than a million people use the free Olive Tree Bible App as their go-to for reading, studying, and listening to the God’s Word. Start by downloading one of many free Bibles and start taking notes, highlighting verses, and bookmarking your favorite passages. You can read at your own pace, or choose from a large selection of Reading Plans, including the Bible Reading Challenge. When you are ready to go deeper into your studies, Olive Tree is right there with a large selection of study Bibles, commentaries, and other helpful study resources available for purchase. There’s also an extensive bookstore allows you to build your digital library one book at a time and Olive Tree’s sync technology lets you pick up where you left off on your tablet, pc or phone and get right to studying on another supported device. Now here's the best part – You can start with the Olive Tree Essentials Bundle for FREE. Visit www.olivetree.com/FLF and download it today!  We start things off in China! https://dailycaller.com/2023/07/10/chinese-military-kindergarteners-war-bootcamps/ The Chinese Military Is Training Kindergarteners For War In Bootcamps Across The Country The Chinese military is training kindergarteners to handle firearms and fight like soldiers in boot camps across China this summer, according to dozens of school social media accounts. The boot camps feature combat training for boys and girls with a wide variety of toy weapons including knives, grenades, rifles and shoulder-fired missiles, and require the children to adopt military behavior, such as saluting, the schools’ social media posts show. The rise in the militarization of China’s youth appears to follow a 2019 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee push for increased “National Defense Education” and a related effort directing schools to hold National Defense Education activities in 2022, according to government documents. Uniformed People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers oversaw all of the kindergarten boot camps. The boot camps were located in major Chinese cities, such as Beijing, Nanjing and Shenzhen, and were also run in more than half a dozen provinces. The programs featured roughly the same sequence of activities, according to a DCNF review of posts from the participating kindergartens. The boot camps generally began with basic military etiquette and proceeded to teach various military skills ranging from combat to emergency medical training. Additionally, a number of these programs also taught the children about famous PLA heroes and martyrs, according to the schools’ accounts. In May 2023, faculty members and more than 80 children of numerous provinces assembled on the playground for the opening ceremony of their school’s week-long National Defense Education camp, all wearing matching camouflage fatigues. “INHERIT THE RED GENE, CARRY FORWARD PATRIOTIC FEELINGS, LOVE CHINA, LITTLE SOLDIER,” declared a large PLA banner, which partially hid the kindergarten’s playset. Uniformed PLA soldiers then performed a flag-raising ceremony, with all attendants singing the Chinese national anthem, the social media post stated. “We solemnly swear to love the motherland from now on, to dedicate our hearts to working together to build the dream of a powerful country,” the children then pledged, according to the social media post. “Even if I fall to the ground I will continue onward!” PLA soldiers then taught the kindergarten recruits how to groom themselves and make their beds in accordance with military standards, before drilling them in how to stand at attention, stand at ease and salute. Experts say recent efforts to militarize China’s youth are part of the CCP’s ideological goals. Now compare that to the U.S., where students are regularly pushed into ideologies that despise everything the Founding Father’s did. https://notthebee.com/article/just-unfathomable-disney-world-is-just-about-empty-during-summer-vacation-season?fbclid=IwAR2ZgkovaL7WZCwrL8WVQuUm3MNqIpPK8z9WvOLKpsRIph9epbgE0Xknj4E "Just unfathomable": Disney World is "just about empty" during summer vacation season It takes real skill to drive this many customers away. The July 4th weekend was a 10-year-low for the massive company's Disney World amusement park in Orlando, but all the parks have been suffering recently. According to the Wall Street Journal, Park visitors in recent weeks have had significantly lower wait times to get on rides, according to data from Touring Plans, a company that tracks wait times at major amusement parks, including Disney World and Disneyland in California. Industry analysts say shorter wait times generally correlate with smaller crowds. The average posted wait time at the Magic Kingdom park in Florida — which has a special fireworks display on July 4 — was 27 minutes this year for the holiday, down from 31 minutes in 2022 and 47 minutes in 2019, the Touring Plans analysis shows. "It's something that nobody would have predicted — just unfathomable," says Len Testa, a computer scientist who runs Touring Plans. Testa says wait times rose in the following days. The Journal offers an assortment of potential reasons for the lull: Cruises and European vacations are back after the pandemic, Disney isn't offering much new, and Disney wants to slim down the crowds for richer guests anyway. But unlike the journalist class, most of America understands the two primary reasons: Your wallet is hurting Disney went woke https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4085828-a-record-share-of-americans-are-living-alone/ A record share of Americans is living alone Nearly 30 percent of American households comprise a single person, a record high. Scholars say living alone is not a trend so much as a transformation: Across much of the world, large numbers of people are living alone for the first time in recorded history. “It’s just a stunning social change,” said Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist at New York University and author of the book “Going Solo.” “I came to see it as the biggest demographic change in the last century that we failed to recognize and take seriously.” Homo sapiens is a social animal. Historians tapped ancient census rolls to show that our species has lived in groups for as long as such records have existed, stretching back at least to 1600. The U.S. Census shows that “solitaries” made up 8 percent of all households in 1940. The share of solo households doubled to 18 percent in 1970 and more than tripled, to an estimated 29 percent, by 2022. The solo-living movement intersects with several other societal trends. Americans are marrying later, if at all. The nation is aging. The national birthrate is falling. People are living longer — or they were, until the pandemic arrived. More than anything, perhaps, the rise of single-person households is about women entering the workforce and achieving economic self-sufficiency. The share of adult women participating in the labor force reached 50 percent around 1980. Historically speaking, “you don’t really see people living alone until women have control of their own lives and their own bodies,” Klinenberg said. Researchers see a marked downside to living alone, especially for older Americans, for people who live outside thickly settled cities and for pretty much anyone who is not alone by choice. A New York Times report on aging solitaries concluded that, “while many people in their 50s and 60s thrive living solo, research is unequivocal that people aging alone experience worse physical and mental health outcomes and shorter life spans.” The nation’s declining birth rate and aging population portend a time when America doesn’t have enough working-age citizens to sustain the national economy or to support the spiraling health care needs of its oldest citizens. The rise of single-person households can be seen as both a cause and effect of those challenges. “I think it’s something we should be worried about,” said Wendy Wang, director of research at the Institute for Family Studies, a conservative thinktank. “If we have fewer and fewer children, that means we have fewer people to work, to be consumers, to pay taxes.” Wang notes that low fertility rates are a global problem. Indeed, solo households are far more common across much of Europe than in the United States. According to United Nations data, solitaries make up 39 percent of households in Denmark, 45 percent in Finland, 42 percent in Germany, 38 percent in the Netherlands, 39 percent in Norway and 40 percent in Sweden. Even now, living alone is not quite so common in the United States as the data suggest. While nearly 30 percent of households comprise a single person, far fewer than 30 percent of Americans live in them. Roughly 13 percent of American adults live alone, research shows. Breaking down that figure by age groups, the population of solitaries rises from 4 percent of adults at ages 18-24 to 9 percent at 25-34, dips to 8 percent at 35-44, then rises again, to 12 percent at 45-54, 17 percent at 55-64 and 26 percent at 65 and up. Living alone is much more common in large cities. Singles now make up more than 40 percent of households in Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Denver, according to a paper by the British historian Keith Snell. Half of all Manhattan dwellings are one-person residences. Snell identified a Midtown Census tract where 94 percent of households comprised a single person. At younger ages, men outnumber women in one-person households. Young men are far more likely than young women to be single, and they tend to marry later. The gender gap in solitary living closes with age. In the retirement years, women are more likely than men to live alone. That statistic is partly about women outliving husbands, and partly about “grey divorce,” the rising rate of marriages that dissolve after age 50. The grey divorce rate has doubled since 1990. “It used to be that if people were married for 30 years and they entered their 60s, basically, they were going to stay married,” said Barbara Risman, a distinguished professor of sociology at the University of Illinois Chicago. “You would pass the risk of divorce. No one is ever past the risk of divorce anymore.” Through much of the 20th century, marriage was so universal that the very act of living alone carried a stigma. The share of Americans who had not married by age 40 hovered below 10 percent from 1950 through 1980, according to a Pew Research analysis. The figure has soared in recent decades, reaching 25 percent in 2021, a record high. The share of Americans in prime marriage years who are actually married has dwindled from about two-thirds to around half since 1990, Pew data show. Nearly two-fifths of Americans are “unpartnered,” neither married nor cohabiting. Researchers consider living alone a risk factor for loneliness and social isolation, conditions associated with a host of physical and mental maladies, from heart disease to obesity to anxiety and depression. Men tend to fare less well than women in single-person households, said Louise Hawkley, a researcher at the NORC thinktank who studies loneliness and social isolation. - Perhaps because we’re meant to be taking dominion & building families… Now for my favorite topic… sports! https://www.foxnews.com/sports/us-soccer-star-megan-rapinoe-support-trans-athlete-uswnt-roster-i-see-trans-women-as-real-women US soccer star Megan Rapinoe would support trans athlete on USWNT roster: 'I see trans women as real women' U.S. women’s soccer icon Megan Rapinoe has been a public advocate for the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports, and ahead of what will be her final World Cup appearance before retiring, the one-time Golden Boot winner said she would "absolutely" support having a trans woman on the USWNT roster. Even if that meant replacing a biological female. In an interview with Time published Monday, Rapinoe recalled highlights from her lengthy career, including her battles both on and off the pitch. She was asked specifically about her push to defend transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports. "We as a country are trying to legislate away people’s full humanity," she told the outlet. Rapinoe was one of 40 professional athletes to co-sign a letter to House lawmakers in April in opposition of the Protection of Girls and Women in Sports Act, arguing that the bill would exclude women and girls from getting "mental and physical health benefits." "It’s particularly frustrating when women’s sports is weaponized," Rapinoe said in the interview. "Oh, now we care about fairness? Now we care about women’s sports? That’s total bulls---. And show me all the trans people who are nefariously taking advantage of being trans in sports. It’s just not happening." Rapinoe was asked specifically if she would support a trans woman playing on the United States Women’s National Team, even if it meant replacing a biological female. The OL Reign star said she would, but added that she did not view the act as "taking a ‘real’ woman’s place." "Absolutely," she told Time. "‘You’re taking a ‘real’ woman’s place,’ that’s the part of the argument that’s still extremely transphobic. I see trans women as real women. What you’re saying automatically in the argument—you’re sort of telling on yourself already—is you don’t believe these people are women. Therefore, they’re taking the other spot. I don’t feel that way." Rapinoe will make her final World Cup appearance this month as the United States Women’s National Team heads to Australia and New Zealand with the hopes of making history: becoming the first women’s or men’s team to win a three-peat. The 38-year-old soccer star announced over the weekend her plans to retire at the conclusion of the 2023 National Women’s Soccer League season.

On this episode, Martha is joined by Catholic priest and Author, Father Mike Schmitz to discuss research from a recent Wall Street Journal - NORC poll, that acknowledged the fading of religious, family, and patriotic values among Americans.   Later, Father Mike discusses his upbringing and his ultimate decision to enter the priesthood. He also shares with Martha his thoughts on clerical celibacy and reveals how parents can encourage their children in their walk with God.   Follow Martha on Twitter: @MarthaMacCallum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly half of Americans are living with obesity, according to a new analysis from NORC at the University of Chicago. States in the South and Midwest are showing some of the highest obesity numbers. Plus, Moderna's CEO gets grilled by Congress. And, Muslim Americans lend a helping hand this Ramadan. Guests: Axios' Arielle Dreher and Zakat Foundation of America's Halil Demir. Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Robin Linn, Naomi Shavin, Lydia McMullen-Laird, Fonda Mwangi and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at podcasts@axios.com. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893. Go Deeper: Nearly half of Americans are living with obesity The Zakat Foundation Families scramble as union strike shutters hundreds of L.A. schools Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices