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I recently read an article that distressed me so deeply I feel it needed a trigger warning. The article reported that millennials are more likely to support socialism. In fact, the piece was written by our executive director for this very newsletter. Of course I was offended by such a smear, I am after all part of the snowflake generation. As Oliver has already written, Lukianoff and Haidt are right in arguing that this snowflake culture is likely to set... Read more

Zombies are hard to kill. Since the classical zombie only really occurs in fiction, accounts vary. But it never seems easy. Things that would kill or at least stop any normal living creature barely seem to faze the undead. Read more

There is a saying about the news media: "If it bleeds, it leads". Not to be crude, but the recent rise in coverage of period poverty is a classic example of such thinking.The period poverty movement appears torn in its objectives: is the problem periods or is it poverty? Because for all the concern behind the movement, the focus on poverty seems to have been lost.For those who have not heard of the concept, "period poverty" refers to the costs... Read more

Back in 1986 the Beastie Boys released what would become one of their most well-known songs. While (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!) captured the imagination of young people, parents, politicians and society at large began hand-wringing about all the partying, drunken antics and teenage rebellion. Fast forward to 2018 and it’s not the youthful Millennials fighting for their right to party… it’s their grandparents. Read more

As a researcher, I sometimes feel a bit awkward or apologetic talking about poverty, and particularly how to measure it. It is easy to get stuck in the abstract, talking about definitions and statistical accuracy, and forget that there are families struggling and children whose basic needs are not being met. Meanwhile, there are people working in social services who are making real changes to peoples’ lives regardless of how the government defines poverty. Read more