CSU's The Audit

Most people have experienced déjà vu at one time or another, that eerie feeling that you've been in a situation before when you know that you haven't. But what is déjà vu? And why does it happen? Colorado State University Psychology Professor Anne Cleary, who researches human memory and specifically déjà vu, says the reasons are a lot more normal than paranormal. Cleary recently spoke with The Audit about what actually happens when you experience this memory phenomenon. 

In 1983, Spirit Halloween stores began popping up with a very unique business model — rent out a large, vacant store front; fill it with Halloween costumes and temporary employees for about eight to 10 weeks; and then as of Nov. 1 — poof! They vanish like a ghost. 

Colorado State University College of Business Associate Professor Zac Rogers researches the financial impact of supply chain sustainability, emerging logistics technologies, as well as purchasing and logistics issues. Rogers recently spoke with The Audit about how the Spirit store model has influenced how we do business and whether its latest endeavor to enter the Christmas market will be a success.

Comedians have been joking about politics for probably as long as there have been politicians. But in the past few years, there's been a noticeable shift in political comedy. 

No longer just a spotlight for the Democrats, more and more conservatives are getting in on the act, too, from the rise of comic and podcaster Joe Rogan to Fox's answer to “The Daily Show,” "Gutfeld," right-wing conservative comedy is on the rise. Colorado State University Associate Professor Nick Marx researches media industries and American politics and culture and is the coauthor of the book "That's Not Funny How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them." Marx recently sat down with The Audit to talk about this cultural shift and what it could mean for comedy and for politics.

Jessie Luna is an associate professor of sociology at Colorado State University. Her research investigates how cultural politics intersect with processes of capitalism to produce and naturalize social inequalities and environmental change. She recently spoke to CSU's The Audit about how cultural stereotypes impact our everyday lives, even during a simple trip to the zoo. 

Can you put a price on nature? Or maybe the better question is, should you put a price on nature?

It may sound like a bizarre concept, but it’s one that renowned environmental economist Ed Barbier says could be key to saving the planet.

Barbier is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics at Colorado State University, as well as a Senior Scholar in the School of Global Environmental Sustainability. His main expertise is natural resource and development economics and the interface between economics and ecology. He’s also the author of several books, including “Economics for a Fragile Planet: Rethinking Markets, Institutions and Governance,” which offers a blueprint for a greener and more inclusive economy. 

In that book, Barbier writes that managing an increasingly delicate ecosystem requires us to rethink the “underpricing” of nature, and to decouple wealth creation from environmental degradation through business, policy and financial actions aimed at better stewardship. 

Barbier recently spoke with CSU's The Audit about what a green economy looks like and how he believes we can get there. 

There are lots of different types of friends. Best friends, work friends. Facebook friends, even frenemies. Each has an important role in our lives that has been shown to impact our mental and physical health.

Now the American Friendship Project, a new program co-led by Colorado State University communication studies researcher Natalie Pennington, provides one of the most complete looks at this highly critical — but rarely studied — relationship. In this episode of CSU's The Audit podcast, Pennington spoke about the project's findings, how we view friendship and how we can stay better connected.

Despite its landlocked location, Colorado State University is well known all along the Atlantic coast for its seasonal hurricane forecasts. Each spring, these forecasts predict the total amount and potential strength of storms for the upcoming hurricane season.
The forecasts were first developed and shared by pioneering atmospheric science researcher William Gray, and are frequently used by media, officials and community leaders to inform the public and make planning decisions. Today, Gray’s former grad student Phil Klotzbach leads the effort to inform communities up and down the East Coast of the dangers the upcoming season presents. 

Klotzbach is a senior research scientist for the Department of Atmospheric Science within the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering, and along with a team of students, faculty and research staff, has authored the forecasts since 2006. 

In late June, Klotzbach spoke to CSU’s The Audit about the University’s role in developing hurricane research, the increase in hurricane activity and destructiveness over the years, and what we can expect in terms of size and scale for future hurricane seasons.

In March, a New York state judge ruled that a lawsuit could go forward against several social media companies alleging that the platforms contributed to the radicalization of a gunman who killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York in 2022. 

The lawsuit claims companies like Meta, Reddit and 4Chan “profit from the racist, antisemitic and violent material displayed on their platforms in order to maximize user engagement.” However, the platforms say they are instead merely message boards containing third-party content and should not be held liable for what others post. 

While the case itself won’t likely see the inside of a courtroom for years, it has sparked a debate on just how culpable - and calculating - social media platforms really are. 

Hamed Qahri-Saremi is an Assistant Professor of Computer Information Systems in Colorado State University’s College of Business. He recently collaborated on a new theory that social media misinformation might actually be taking a page from Shakespearean tragedies.

Methane is odorless, colorless, and invisible to the naked eye. But it's also one of the most damaging greenhouse gases impacting climate change. 

Colorado State University biology professor Joe von Fischer researches how humans, plants, soil and soil microbes influence greenhouse gas emissions, including methane. Today, we're talking with Von Fischer about how methane compares to the more notorious carbon dioxide, his research into ways we can better measure methane emissions, and why measuring and reducing methane is a critical opportunity in the climate fight.

Accounting may not be the sexiest topic but in the early 2000s everyone was talking about it after the energy company Enron was found to have committed widespread accounting fraud. Hiding billions of debt, Enron and its accounting firm Arthur Anderson misled Enron's board of directors and its shareholders, who eventually filed a $40 billion lawsuit against the company. 

In addition to causing the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, the fallout from the Enron scandal sent shock waves through the financial system, leading to calls for new regulation to ensure better accuracy and accountability in financial reporting for publicly traded companies. And so, the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or SOX Act for short, was enacted. 

More than 20 years later, Colorado State University assistant accounting professors Eric Lohwasser and Michelle Draeger have researched the effectiveness of the SOX Act, as well as some of its unintended consequences.