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VICE
Is the flow of time nothing but an illusion?
Time feels like a river. We say it “flows.” But what is “flowing” exactly? What is time, even? American philosopher Adrian Bardon argues that the “flow” is a mental construction, a story your brain tells to organize experience, not a feature of the universe itself. This isn’t a TikTok shower thought. Ancient thinkers from Parmenides to Augustine wrestled with the idea that past and future lack physical addresses.
November 16, 2025
NPR
More liberals, people of color and LGBTQ Americans say they’re buying guns out of fear
Sociology professor David Yamane says the events of 2020 and early 2021 – the pandemic, the murder of George Floyd and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot – were particular drivers. "We do know that in that year new gun owners were disproportionately African American (and) disproportionately female," he said.
November 15, 2025
WUNC-FM (Chapel Hill, NC)
National Geographic CEO talks climate challenges and optimism in Winston-Salem
Jill Tiefenthaler, the first female CEO of the National Geographic Society, brought a message of hope for the environment during a talk at Wake Forest University on Thursday. Tiefenthaler stressed the need for bold, coordinated action involving non-governmental organizations, universities, corporations and governments to address the environmental challenges facing the world. But she remains optimistic.
November 14, 2025
Finance Monthly
The last penny has been minted after 232 years—Here’s why you shouldn’t toss yours yet
Every batch of pennies minted meant the government edged deeper into the red. Economists have watched this unfold with growing urgency, pointing to the penny's drag on efficiency in a cash-light world. Economics professor Robert Whaples captured the bittersweet relief in his words. "It's time to eliminate the penny. It saves taxpayers money, and year over year those savings add up," he said, his tone laced with the quiet triumph of fiscal common sense amid the coin's sentimental pull.
November 14, 2025
The Washington Post
So long, penny. The Treasury has officially stopped producing one-cent coins.
The problem is, most of those pennies don’t actually, you know, circulate. They sit in piggy banks and car consoles, cash register drawers and gutters, said Robert Whaples, an economics professor at Wake Forest University who since 2007 has led the charge among academics to ditch the penny. “Why do they get taken out of circulation? We won’t even waste our time to bring them back to the Coinstar or back to the grocery store,” Whaples said. “We won’t even reach down and pick up a penny we see on the sidewalk.”
Whaples shares more about the elimination of the penny on the WFU news experts page: "Why eliminating the penny makes sense."
November 13, 2025
WVTF-FM (Roanoke, VA)
Virginia’s unique term limit for governor traces back to the Founding Fathers’ anxieties
John Dinan chairs the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University and literally wrote the book on Virginia’s constitution. He said the limitation dates to the late 1700s and early 1800s. America’s founding fathers had just won a war against a tyrannical king and distrusted executive power. “The founding generation was very jealous of protecting the legislator’s power from the executive, and so their putting limits on the governor's terms was meant as a way to limit executive power and preserve a strong legislature,” he said.
November 13, 2025
The Conversation
"Human beings have been thinking about time for as long as we have records of humans thinking about anything at all," writes philosophy professor Adrian Bardon. "The passage of time is inextricably bound up with how humans represent our own experiences. Our picture of the world is inseparable from the conditions under which we, as perceivers and thinkers, experience and understand the world. Any description of reality we come up with will unavoidably be infused with our perspective."
This story was also published in the Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News, Yahoo! and dozens of other national news outlets.
November 12, 2025
WXII-TV (Winston Salem, NC)
Too old to debate? WFU hosted a debate where all participants were over the age of 70
Jarrod Atchison, director of debate at Wake Forest University, said each team knew their stance prior to taking the stage. "Now, the topic of the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution is incredibly controversial, but both sides knew that the deciding factor would be a flip of a coin," said Atchison. This relieves some of the pressure of feeling like you have to defend what you believe and describes the mission behind the vision," he said.
November 12, 2025
The World
US and China in competition for resources, with African countries stuck in the middle
US foreign direct investment in Africa has surpassed China’s for the first time since 2012. But for African countries, concerns are growing that this increase in investment could lead to a shifting picture of dependency. The World’s Host Marco Werman spoke with professor Lina Benabdallah about this dynamic. "African countries need to take advantage of these critical mineral resources and this high demand for these resources to put the future development of their countries in the center of these negotiations," Benabdallah said.
November 11, 2025
High Point Enterprise
House appointee likely to face primary
The Democratic Party appointee selected this weekend to fill out the unexpired term of former legislator Cecil Brockman still may not be the Democrat who will make it onto the ballot for next November’s general election. “There is no guarantee of course that the appointed official will prevail in the primary,” said politics professor John Dinan, “but party leaders are choosing someone who they expect and hope will prevail in the primary and hold the seat on a long-term basis.”
November 11, 2025
WXII-TV (Winston Salem, NC)
“What was the point of this?” Takeaways from the government shutdown
Political science professor John Dinan weighed in on the government shutdown, saying that neither party wins, though he believes this latest one has divided Democrats. "If an effort by Democratic senators was to ensure that they would get affordable health care passed, that has not happened," he said. With the U.S. House of Representatives expected to come back into session next week, Dinan believes air travel and SNAP benefits could return to normal by the end of the week.
November 10, 2025
NPR
The US will stop making pennies next year. Cash-only businesses are already affected
Economics professor Robert Whaples discusses why the penny shortage is already affecting some businesses. "I am a little bit surprised that it's going this fast. In fact, I envisioned it taking years or decades to totally unfold. But I guess the key is this - banks don't give you a free ride on the pennies. And so it costs them money to deal with the pennies and package the pennies. So they're charging retailers more than 50 cents for a roll of 50 pennies. That's why retailers now don't want to mess around with it."
Whaples shares more about the elimination of the penny on the WFU news experts page: "Why eliminating the penny makes sense."
November 9, 2025