Former President Donald Trump’s New York trial on charges related to paying hush money to an adult film star begins on April 15,  The Conversation U.S. asked Tim Bakken, a former New York prosecutor and now a legal scholar teaching at West Point, and Karrin Vasby Anderson, a political communication expert at Colorado State University, to set the […]

In many ways, Brunswick is a prototypical New England college town. The respected and highly thought-of Bowdoin College sits on the hill, spreading the aura of learning and sophistication over the landscape. At the other end of Maine Street sits the old mill buildings rescued from the scrap heap of history, contributing to the local […]

April 22, 2024, will be the 55th Earth Day. Let’s compare where we were on our sustainability journey in 1970, where we are in 2024, and where we’re headed for 2079 when we will have celebrated 55 more Earth Days. In 1970, we filled our cars with leaded fuel; we mixed lead into “regular” gasoline […]

Donald Trump is a lucky person. His social media website goes public, and he gains a bonanza worth billions. He is indicted for crimes and with each new charge, he seems to become more popular. He holds a campaign fundraiser and rakes in tens of millions of dollars from billionaires, even though some of that […]

Thanks to the so-called culture wars, debates about events on college campuses are being employed as useful weapons for attacking the gradual democratization that has occurred in higher education since the 1950s. Those of us who are academics and see education as crucial should be alarmed at the specter of partisan attacks, not to mention […]

“It wasn’t my fault the car in front of me hit me. I glanced at my text message for only a second when our bumpers collided.” “How could the car in front of you hit you?” “The idiot stopped to let a deer cross the street — and dented my front bumper with his rear […]

I’ve not often driven north in recent years, but a total eclipse seemed more than enough reason. A friend recently relocated to Guilford after summering there for years, and that became the destination. It’s just down the road from Dover-Foxcroft, shire town of Piscataquis County. With plenty of local knowledge, we headed west, passing a […]

THE CONVERSATION — U.S. presidents often leave the White House expressing “strategic regret” over perceived foreign policy failures. Lyndon Johnson was haunted by the Vietnam War. Bill Clinton regretted the failed intervention in Somalia and how the “Black Hawk Down” incident contributed to his administration’s inaction over the Rwandan genocide. Barack Obama said the Libyan intervention was “the worst mistake” of […]