SHASS

For The New York Times Magazine’s interactive project “The Revolution Through the Eyes of Seven Everyday Founders” Adjunct Prof. Marjoleine Kars tells the story of Baptist preacher John Leland who championed religious freedom and the separation of church and state through the 18th century New Lights movement. “Leland proclaimed that all should be free to worship ‘either one God, three Gods, no God, or twenty Gods,’" says Kars. “It was precisely such convictions about spiritual independence that led Leland to yoke his pulpit to political activism.”

In an interview with Fortune reporter Nick Lichtenberg, Prof. Daron Acemoglu discusses AI’s economic impact and his book, What Happened to Liberal Democracy. Acemoglu estimates AI will deliver roughly 0.55% in total factor productivity gains. “It’s not that you cannot get big productivity gains from automation. It is that it’s not as easy as sometimes it’s presumed,” says Acemoglu. 

Prof. Alan Lightman details how his childhood fascinations with science experiments and writing helped shape his self-confidence, humanity, and connection to the physical world in an essay for Scientific American’s special section, “The Young American Scientists.” Lightman writes: “Science has given us automobiles, antibiotics, computers. The humanities have given us values and guidance on how to live our lives. Now more than ever, when much of the world, including the U.S., has lost its moral compass, leading to a dog-eat-dog mentality, we need science combined with literature, philosophy, history and art.”

In an interview with U.S News & World Report, Prof. Bradford Skow and Prof. Alex Byrne, two of the co-directors of the MIT Civil Discourse project, explain how the effort is aimed at helping students productively debate challenging issues using the Braver Angels format. “Lectures on how to ride a bike are useless; you learn by hopping on and pedaling,” they explain. “Lectures on civil discourse are marginally more effective, but learning how to discuss hard topics with people you disagree with ultimately requires seeing it done and doing it yourself.”

For The Atlantic, reporter Rogé Karma describes how Prof. David Autor and Principal Research Scientist Neil Thompson found a basic pattern for technological changes and job displacement based on the evolution of inventory clerk versus accounting clerk positions. “The story is almost never as simple as: We’re in a race with machines and machines will win,” says Autor. “What matters for a given profession is whether technology enhances a worker’s expertise or commodifies that expertise.”

In a Forbes article, contributor Wes Kilgore cites a study by MIT economists that reveals how timely hospice use can create healthcare savings in the U.S. “When families avoid hospice because of fear or legal confusion, patients return to emergency rooms, see specialists, undergo procedures, and drive-up Medicare costs,” writes Kilgore. 

Wall Street Journal reporter Gary Rivlin speaks with Prof. Daron Acemoglu about the growing use of AI in the business world. “Whether you’re a CEO, a manager, a journalist, a professor or a construction worker, I see your skills as beyond what AI can perform,” says Acemoglu. 

Prof. Charles Stewart III speaks with Newsweek reporter Jasmine Laws about the speed of ballot-counting in California. "California’s Legislature has decided to listen to election rights groups more than other states in an effort to make sure that every vote counts," said Stewart. 

In an interview with CNN reporter Madeline Holcombe, Prof. Sherry Turkle shares her views on AI tools and companionship, and how AI chatbots can impact social connection and isolation. “Intimacy requires vulnerability — there is no intimacy without vulnerability,” says Turkle. “What AI offers is connection without vulnerability. You are not getting a sustaining form of intimacy and connection. You are getting a non-nourishing combination that may give the sense of a quick fix, but is not sustaining.” 

Forbes contributor Michael T. Nietzel spotlights the 120 new members and 25 international members elected by the National Academy of Sciences for 2026. Several MIT faculty members – including Professors Michale Fee, Gareth McKinley, Keith Nelson, Bengt Holmstrom and Catherine Wolfram – were selected. 

Prof. Kate Brown speaks with Zoe Matthews of GBH about growing interest in urban gardening. Matthews highlights Brown’s course about cooperative agriculture at MIT, during which “her students produced an accessible how-to guide on starting an urban farm.” 

Prof. Daron Acemoglu joins Slate’s “Money Talks” podcast to explain his research into pro-worker technologies and how we can not only avoid the AI job apocalypse but also improve workers’ lives by shifting the goal of AI from automation to collaboration. “Artificial intelligence is quite different than human intelligence,” says Acemoglu. “And when two things are different, a natural way to combine them is in a complimentary way.”

Prof. Kate Brown, author of “Tiny Gardens Everywhere,” speaks with Forbes reporter Alan Ohnsman of Forbes about the benefits of home gardens. Brown notes that people can “put in some healthy soils that are rich with compost, which feeds microbes and worms and black soldier flies, all these creatures that are in the soil so the soil is alive. Then you put in plants, trees, berry bushes, lettuces, greens, whatever. And when it rains, those healthy soils soak up a lot more water… [which is] great for flooding. They sequester a lot of carbon, more than any of our aesthetic alternatives. And of course, they can feed people.”

Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. Kate Brown and David Greenwood-Sanchez of the University of Iowa explore the growing popularity of transforming residential yards into home gardens. They emphasize: “With food prices up 27 percent since 2020, it is a good time for Massachusetts legislators to consider protecting gardeners from vegetation restrictions so that they can grow plants that, in contrast to turf grass, nurture birds, bees, and the occasional rabbit — and their own families and neighbors.”

Writing for the Financial Times, Institute Prof. Daron Acemoglu explores the rise of New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and the future of U.S. democracy and liberalism. “I argue that nothing short of forging a new working-class liberalism can succeed,” writes Acemoglu. “This has to center on shared prosperity, a reintegration of the lower-education workers into politics, a commitment to local governance by all communities (within the bounds of protecting basic liberties) and true diversity of opinion (even on controversial matters).”