As the world marks Earth Day, a troubling paradox has emerged in the fight to save one of the planet’s most iconic species. Data from the December 2025 CITES CoP20 global forum—a gathering where governments worldwide set the rules for international wildlife trade—highlights a startling trend. While South Africa’s anti-poaching and anti-trafficking efforts yielded a…Categories: Environment & Sustainability, Experts, Research & Discovery
Watching his kindergartener play on a school playground, Alan Brown, director of the Wake Forest Center for Literacy Education, found the theme for this year’s Visiting Scholars Speaker Series. “I was thinking a lot about a conversation that had been happening here and across the country around what should or should not be the use…Categories: Experts, Happening at Wake, Research & Discovery
Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” is an American horror film set in 1932 in the Mississippi Delta. The film stars Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, who return to their hometown in the Jim Crow South to escape their violent past as Chicago mob enforcers and establish a new life by…Categories: Arts & Culture, Experts
The success of Ryan Coogler’s "Sinners" isn't just a win for the box office; it’s a radical act of resistance against the current "streaming-first" Hollywood model. Media Studies Professor Phillip Cunningham is available to provide analysis on the groundbreaking business mechanics behind the film. He notes that Coogler’s deal with Warner Bros.—which allows him to regain ownership…Categories: Arts & Culture, Experts
When Steve Messier started researching how to best treat pain caused by knee osteoarthritis, there was no cure for the debilitating condition. More than 30 years later, that’s still the case—so the biomechanics expert and professor of Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest University wants to prevent it. Through a series of clinical studies,…Categories: Experts, Research & Discovery
In the social media era, you can look at a university’s Instagram feed and get the impression that every day rates a 10/10 and everyone belongs. But Shannon Brady, a Wake Forest University psychology professor who studies the implications of social belonging, cautions you to look deeper. Smiles on faces and free hoodies emblazoned with…Categories: Experts, Research & Discovery
As 2026 begins, Wake Forest economics professors are available to decode the partisan bias in GDP data, discuss the rounding reality of a pennyless economy, and explain how prediction markets are transforming Super Bowl betting. Economic forecasts are dominating the headlines. New research from Wake Forest University suggests these "objective" numbers might be less neutral…Categories: Experts
When William Farfan-Rios hikes through the remote forests of the Peruvian Amazon and Andes, he’s doing much more than feeding his appreciation for the natural world. He’s trying to identify the trees that can survive a warming climate—and, ultimately, save one of the world’s largest carbon sinks from collapse. As a biodiversity fellow in forest…Categories: Experts, Research & Discovery
You might have seen headlines sounding the alarm about the safety of an emerging technology called agentic AI. That’s where Sarra Alqahtani comes in. An associate professor of computer science at Wake Forest University, she studies the safety of AI agents through the new field of multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL). Alqahtani received a National Science…Categories: Experts, Research & Discovery
For many, making New Year’s resolutions is a way to chart a path toward new behaviors or away from old ones. Jan. 1 offers the promise of making changes to improve health and happiness. But setting goals and achieving them is hard. “Making a specific plan can actually free up mental energy to accomplish goals,”…Categories: Experts, Research & Discovery