Wake in the News
Major national and regional news organizations regularly interview Wake Forest faculty, staff, and students for their expertise and perspectives on current events, and to feature programs and activities on campus.
The New York Times
Trump’s return to power elevates ever fringier conspiracy theories
Politicians understand that conspiracy theories are “what scratches our collective psychic itch” at the moment, said communication professor John Llewellyn, who studies urban legends and rhetoric. Repeating such narratives, and promising to act on them, enables a sort of rhetorical sleight of hand, like performing a card trick with the right hand to misdirect from what is happening with the left, he said. Pursuing policy action on nonexistent dangers of chemtrails, for example, allows officials to deliver “symbolic satisfaction that doesn’t require any tax increases or wrestling with health care challenges or otherwise solve any of the real and emergent problems in our society,” he added.
May 6, 2025
The Conversation
As the Trump administration continues to make significant cuts to NIH budgets and personnel and to freeze billions of dollars of funding to major research universities, citing ideological concerns, there’s more being threatened than just progress in science and medicine. Science benefits society only if it is rigorous, ethically conducted and fairly funded. Current NIH policy directives and steep cuts to the agency’s size and budget, along with attacks on universities, undermine globally shared goals of increasing understanding and improving human health. This article appeared in news outlets nationwide, including Yahoo.
May 9, 2025
A Catalyst for Good
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