Wake Forest News

NPR

If we’re being truthful, people are saying ‘honestly’ all the time

In the mid-twentieth century, use of “frankly” outranked “honestly,” but the words were not synonymous at the time. Through the 19th and early 20th centuries, “honestly” had a narrow and morally charged meaning, said philosophy professor Christian Miller, a former director of the Honesty Project at Wake Forest. “When people would talk that way, it was understood that they were talking about things like moral truthfulness. People might think lying is pretty common, and early research suggests that,” Miller said. “But more recent research found that lying is actually less common than you might think and that the majority of people rarely lie.”

November 7, 2025

Bankrate

The penny is out. Experts weigh in on what it means for consumers

After a run of more than 230 years, the U.S. is done producing the penny. While some consumers are lamenting the loss, many are left wondering: Will there be any tangible impacts on the economy? Some retailers have already started rounding down consistently when they don’t have enough pennies to make change. Economics professor Robert Whaples’ local grocery store, Harris Teeter, has begun doing this, “only in the customer’s favor,” he tells Bankrate.

December 1, 2025