When a killer stands to inherit from their victim, the law steps in. After the deaths of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, attention has turned to the “slayer rule” — a long-standing legal doctrine that bars murderers from profiting from their crimes. Here’s how it works: buff.ly/vmfNOet

Doctors relied on cholesterol levels to assess heart disease risk for decades. In 2025, accumulated research led to more screening for C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, as a better predictor of heart attacks and strokes, a professor of family medicine explains: buff.ly/5mrGLNB

Christmas trees costs are way up, to between $50 and $870 this year in Denver. A researcher there who studies the psychology of consumption explains why prices have roughly doubled over the past decade. buff.ly/G7apino

“I believe that the founders of our nation would be horrified by the contemporary use of the pardon power, which represents a far cry from the unifying act of mercy it was intended to be.” - Stewart Ulrich, political scientist, Sam Houston State University buff.ly/TiSnN4h

School districts are rushing to adopt "one chatbot per child" models, but decades of research shows learning is fundamentally social. Here’s why isolating students with AI tutors may undermine the classroom interactions that actually support brain development. buff.ly/gv76wEl

Pandas, pingpong and ancient canals: President Xi’s hosting style says a lot about Chinese diplomacy buff.ly/OG3sdN5

From civil disobedience to networked whistleblowing: What national security truth-tellers reveal in an age of crackdowns buff.ly/NiSJ8TN

Sexy pop didn’t start on TikTok. Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan are tapping into a lineage that runs through “The Philadelphia Sound,” with soul artists like Teddy Pendergrass and Marvin Gaye. buff.ly/YhXmYRI

Undocumented teens already live with deportation fears, but now getting into college is a whole new challenge. States like South Carolina are blocking them from public universities or taking away in-state tuition. buff.ly/1Lqrl0m

If your holiday gift list includes someone with cancer – or any health issue, for that matter – consider instead choosing an item (or task!) that provides practical help. theconversation.com/buying-a-gif...

Doctors relied on cholesterol levels to assess heart disease risk for decades. In 2025, accumulated research led to more screening for C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, as a better predictor of heart attacks and strokes, a professor of family medicine explains:

I study rat nests − here’s why rodents make great archivists buff.ly/3Gy5Kur

Local democracy is holding strong, but rural communities are falling behind, new survey of Michigan officials shows

ByteDance’s agreement to sell TikTok puts app’s algorithm in the spotlight – a social media expert explains how the ‘For You’ page works and what’s to come buff.ly/JjOckYg

How to reduce gift-giving stress with your kids – a child psychologist’s tips for making magic and avoiding tears

From truce in the trenches to cocktails at the consulate: How Christmas diplomacy seeks to exploit seasonal goodwill

As DOJ begins to release Epstein files, his many victims deserve more attention than the powerful men in his ‘client list’ buff.ly/cQ3G54R

Aryna Sabalenka will face Nick Kyrgios in December in a "Battle of the Sexes" tennis rematch. But the 2025 event has no stakes similar to Billie Jean King's 1973 victory, which advanced the feminist movement and women's equality in sports. buff.ly/yqIcjc8

Trump is far from the first president to be deeply skeptical of the academic research community. But his actions this year went far beyond the precedent. buff.ly/C7WkXkq

U.S. electricity prices rose 7.4% in just one year, and energy policy analysts expect them to keep climbing faster than inflation in 2026. Meanwhile, data centers powering AI could nearly triple their energy use by 2030. buff.ly/KE663ZA

Nearly all school shooters are current or former students already familiar with the building. So locking doors may actually trap potential victims with the attacker. A criminal justice scholar explains why schools need to focus on noticing warning signs instead. buff.ly/FyWCy8I

The #iwasfifteen hashtag and ongoing Epstein coverage show how traffickers exploit the vulnerabilities of teens and tweens. A clinical psychologist who studies intimate violence and child exploitation explains: buff.ly/pmkKbv6

Karoline Leavitt’s White House briefings aren’t just spin – they reflect what George Orwell warned about: lies divorced from reality, and the use of “doublethink” to have a word (like “transparency”) mean just the opposite. A historian who studies Orwell explains: Thread ⬇️ buff.ly/tb8q3ES

5 objects found in forgotten steamer trunks tell the story of early Filipino migrants in America (thread) ⬇️

The U.S. faces a projected shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036, yet immigration policies are making it harder to fill health care workforce gaps. Immigrants make up roughly 1 in 4 physicians and 1 in 3 home health aides nationally. buff.ly/Tyn9yO4

Walking in nature reduces activity in the brain region linked to sadness and rumination. A psychologist on why active rest periods—not couch time—are what actually restore us during the holidays. buff.ly/ls00al0

Pediatric brain cancer research: cut. Faster chemical safety testing: cut. Training doctors to treat addiction: cut. Six scientists spoke about the devastating impact of 2025’s federal science funding cuts on their work, on their colleagues and on society. buff.ly/cx6x1Ho

The number of Americans receiving ACA subsidies doubled between 2021 and 2024. Now that pandemic-era subsidies are set to expire, a gerontologist who studies the health system argues any real solution requires lawmakers to resolve the question of who should pay for health care. buff.ly/rpABrvG

The US government has started modifying a childhood vaccine schedule built on decades of rigorous testing. Vaccinations have succeeded in making the targeted diseases so rare that many parents have never seen them, explains an infectious disease physician. buff.ly/Jd6B167

A rat nest preserved for over 200 years under the floorboards of a historic Philadelphia house contains thousands of plants that help archaeologists understand daily life in colonial America. One archeologist pored through 11 pounds of material from the nest.

Boredom affects all ages, genders and cultures, and teens are especially prone to boredom. Natural selection favors traits that offer a leg up, so it is unlikely that boredom would be so prevalent if it did not deliver some advantages. buff.ly/EKMBBAC

With wolves absent from most of eastern North America, can coyotes replace them? buff.ly/CLLmvUi

Local democracy is holding strong, but rural communities are falling behind on voter engagement, new survey of Michigan officials shows buff.ly/5p6D4WR

Nick Fuentes is a white nationalist who believes America’s identity depends on preserving a white majority. A scholar of the American right examines how antisemitism and antizionism are connecting him with some Black conservative influencers. buff.ly/vz3cX89

Seventy years ago, Jonas Salk and his team worked in a lab between a morgue and a darkroom to develop the world’s first successful polio vaccine. A filmmaker who made a documentary on Salk’s work explains why forgetting life before vaccines has real consequences: buff.ly/VYpqOy4 #vaccineswork

Nick Fuentes is a white nationalist who believes America’s identity depends on preserving a white majority. A scholar of the American right examines how antisemitism and antizionism are connecting him with some Black conservative influencers.

As #AI increasingly brings people the news, it does more than simply pass along information. Large language models subtly highlight certain viewpoints while minimizing others, often without users realizing it. buff.ly/bEvfU8c

Autocracies in transition: In 2025, Cameroon and Tanzania rulers clung to power — but look more vulnerable than ever buff.ly/ivE1Mh7

The partial release of the Epstein headlines keep asking who’s on the list? The better question: why aren’t the victims the focus? Have rules designed to protect victims of sexual violence actually pushed them to the side? buff.ly/rDkvKuJ

The Vietnam and Iraq wars were preceded by White House deception and lies -- and now Trump's case against Venezuela is eerily similar. buff.ly/8iHXFVa

Sudan's civil war has killed more than 150,000 people and displaced millions in just over two years, making it among the world's deadliest conflicts today. A historian provides a visual guide to help us understand what is going on and the toll it has taken on the Sudanese population.

The Quad partnership between the U.S., India, Australia and Japan was supposed to be "here to stay." A cancelled November summit suggests otherwise, with Trump's tariffs and India's warming ties to China creating diplomatic paralysis. buff.ly/RubzXq6

The U.S. faces a projected shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036, yet immigration policies are making it harder to fill health care workforce gaps. Immigrants make up roughly 1 in 4 physicians and 1 in 3 home health aides nationally.

Walking in nature reduces activity in the brain region linked to sadness and rumination. A psychologist on why active rest periods—not couch time—are what actually restore us during the holidays. buff.ly/RxJjMbO

Scientific skepticism is a lot different from climate skepticism. Scientists ask questions and demand evidence. Those claiming climate change is a hoax despite overwhelming data are doing the opposite. One thing that helps: remind people of past beliefs disproved by science. buff.ly/qxImJxl

Our final classic news quiz of 2025. Good luck! 🧠 💡 High prices for Christmas trees this year are, surprisingly, a result of what factor? Try the full quiz: theconversation.com/us/quiz Next week we'll start a supersized, 2-part Year in Review quiz! #news #trivia #christmastree

Aryna Sabalenka will face Nick Kyrgios in December in a "Battle of the Sexes" tennis rematch. But the 2025 event has no stakes similar to Billie Jean King's 1973 victory, which advanced the feminist movement and women's equality in sports. buff.ly/yqIcjc8

The $4 billion school security industry can’t back up claims for its tech. The silver lining: That’s partly because there aren’t enough school shootings to study. buff.ly/ihDBx6z

Why is it so hard to tell whether a piece of text was written by AI? One thing that could make it easier is if the AI system intentionally embeds hidden markers in the text. But a statistics professor explains there’s no foolproof method: buff.ly/Du7Q7V0

Wolves and coyotes feed on similar things – but their diets aren’t identical. An ecological researcher studied predator diets to find out the differences. buff.ly/a1jZXqb