After the Fact

Floods are the costliest natural disasters in the United States, but there are ways to prepare for the storms ahead. In this episode of our “States of Innovation” season, we hear from Laura Lightbody, who directs Pew’s work to better prepare communities for floods, about how states such as Texas and South Carolina are reducing their risks through innovative solutions.

The cost of vehicle collisions with wildlife each year in the U.S. Story: In America’s West, animal herds follow ancient migration routes that are bisected by roads and highways.

The 50-state pension funding gap—the shortfall between what all the states have funded and what they actually owed public employee retirees—as of 2018.

The number of people in the United States who identify as Black. Story: The census shows that the U.S. is growing more diverse racially and ethnically, and reflecting this evolution in research data has become even more essential.

he percentage of Americans with opioid use disorder who receive medication as part of their treatment.

The percentage of census tracts in the United States where young black men end up having lower incomes than their white counterparts even though they grew up with comparable family incomes and resources. Story: In this episode of our season on race and research, our guests examine the impact of race on economic mobility.

In this episode, we consider the pipeline to the research workforce—higher education. In a conversation with Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and its vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, Katharine Cole, we explore how the university supports undergraduate and graduate students from a range of backgrounds and prepares them for STEM careers.

In this bonus episode of our “Race and Research” season, we share an extended talk with Dr. Marie Bernard, chief officer for scientific workforce diversity at the National Institutes of Health, on her experience as a Black female physician and efforts to improve diversity within health care, from at a patient’s bedside to medical research.

In this conversation with Fanta Traore, we hear about her work to support and empower Black women in economics, finance, and data science fields through The Sadie Collective.

Charita Castro, a social science researcher and ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science IF/THEN Ambassadors program, speaks about how to recruit more women and people of color to the STEM fields¾science, technology, engineering, and math¾to strengthen innovation