Can America guarantee free expression of religion in public as an officially secular, but culturally Christian nation? Expressing religious faith in public is both protected by law and socially...

The pandemic shook America’s trust, especially in vaccines. But it also taught us something about building trust in institutions. During the pandemic, Americans lost trust across the board. Today,...

Care work is the labor essential to life. But two-thirds of caregiving goes uncompensated. What do we miss when we don’t value care work and how does this affect care workers? If we multiplied all...

There are more than 100,000 people on the waitlist for an organ transplant. Every day 17 of them die. Most organs for transplant come from deceased donors. But the organs in highest demand for...

Meet the teams behind Top of Mind and Uncomfy in this special crossover episode, where we share stories of sticking with a challenging perspective while working on the shows. We are exposed to a lot...

Only 44% of Americans say they have a "great deal" or "quite a bit of confidence" that the results of the 2024 election will be accurate. But party affiliation is a big part of the story. If you...

Presidential elections in the US are twice as expensive as they were just a decade ago, and so are the most competitive Congressional races. Even state and local elections now routinely see record...

A trial by jury is an important American right, enshrined in the 6th and 7th amendments of the constitution. But do jury trials work the way we want them to? Not all countries use citizen juries in...

Why is it so hard to draw the line between what’s funny or offensive? We love to laugh and we prize a good sense of humor in ourselves and others. But the ancient Greeks – Aristotle and Plato –...

For a century, the ACT and SAT played a central role in filtering college applicants. Most colleges and universities stopped requiring standardized test scores during the pandemic; that change has...

Most Americans are anxious about when – or even if – they’ll be able to retire. And we’re not wrong. Social Security is on shaky footing. Half of Americans on the cusp of retirement have no...

Compared to other wealthy nations, America has twice as many traffic deaths per capita. And in recent years, pedestrian and cyclist deaths have spiked. Experts say road design plays a big part in...

What does it mean to be a father in 2024? In most U.S. households today, the role of fathers is changing. The “primary breadwinner dad” is increasingly rare, while the "primary caregiver dad”...

More than two-thirds of children under the age of 6 in the U.S. live in a household where all available parents work. But in most communities, there’s a shortage of slots in childcare centers and...

Americans have a perplexing perception of crime. One in three Americans report watching, listening, or reading true crime on a weekly basis. But our fixation on crime goes deeper than entertainment....

These days anything that's widespread might be called an "epidemic." Violence, obesity, opioids, even loneliness. But in the public health space, the label "epidemic" carries special significance...

Since 2020 — when George Floyd's murder was seen around the world and protests for racial justice swept the country — many Americans with white skin have begun to think explicitly about race and...

We’re in between episodes this week on Top of Mind. In the meantime, we’ve got a story for you from a podcast we think you’re really going to like. It’s called When the People Decide, a...

In this podcast episode, Julie and the other members of the Top of Mind team reflect on moments from previous episodes that challenged them to stay curious and stick with uncomfortable perspectives...

Our “Stick With It” series on the Top of Mind podcast continues with a story from David Beckemeyer, host of the podcast “Outrage Overload.” Beckemeyer used to spend his time engaging in...