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February 5, 2024

Why We All Rely On the Organized Kindness of Strangers

Our church caught fire [i] a few weeks ago. The pastor and a few other leaders had just gotten out of a Monday night meeting when they found the sanctuary…

January 17, 2024

A Midwest State of Mind

This is an excerpt of a piece original published in American Purpose here. Although many now worry that it is endangered, American civil society has long been an important element…

December 19, 2023

Sins of Omission: Public Broadcasting Fails to Reach a Broad Cross-Section of America

Increasing numbers of Americans get their news from Facebook and Apple but nonetheless, every day, six American television networks — ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, CNN and PBS — continue…

November 13, 2023

Family’s Place in America’s Social Fabric

The family is arguably the most basic building block of community life.[i] But even as Americans continue to say their own families are centrally important in their lives[ii], family life…

November 8, 2023

Measuring the Geography of Social Networks

Social interactions shape social and economic activity across a range of domains, from migration and trade flows to job search and investment behaviors. However, quantifying the effects of social interactions…

November 1, 2023

The Ultimate Social Capital: A Story to Save the Union

The American Republic is on the brink; a revived civic national story can help us all come together to pull ourselves back from the abyss That the bonds holding the…

October 23, 2023

Teach Your Children Well

A few years ago, David Brooks wrote a column in which he took a friend without a high school degree to a sandwich shop. “Suddenly,” he recounted, “I saw her…

September 27, 2023

The Good and Bad News About Boys and Men in Utah

Utah is doing exceptionally well on most metrics. The state is booming population-wise, with an almost 7 percent increase in population since 2018. Unemployment remains below the national average and the Beehive State’s economy…

September 21, 2023

How Health Privacy Laws Are Hurting College Students and Their Families

In the midst of all our discussions about what is causing the youth mental health crisis, it might be worth examining the public policies that are making it worse. One such…

September 17, 2023

Tracking ‘two-parent privilege’ in Utah

Utah was just acknowledged by WalletHub as the happiest state in the nation, and it’s no secret that Utah leads many state performance rankings in America. From the economy — including…