MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

MIT Department of Physics and MIT | Program in Science, Technology, and Society professor David Kaiser joined GBH’s Particles of Thought podcast to discuss the best places to hunt for mini black holes (near Mars), how scientists are combing through old data and designing new experiments that could potentially catch one, and more.

Hunt for Mini Black Holes David Kaiser thinks a good place to hunt for tiny black holes might be… Mars? How do you detect something microscopic, invisible, and speeding through space? Primordial black holes have long eluded astrophysicists—if they exist at all. But the hunt is heating up. David joins Hakeem to explore ho...

Understanding the Preferences and Productivity of Workers in the United States | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab Understanding workplace incentives and the motivations of workers is important for increasing workplace productivity and organizational efficiency. Many have suggested that employees are altruistic, willing to work harder when they believe that the amount of effort they exert in their job directly t...

Trump’s Sharp Turn on China: Embracing It as a Peer Power President Trump’s warming with Xi Jinping of China, a leader he admires, has ignited anxieties in Washington and across Asia.

How do religious commentaries, colonial laws, and modern films shape our understanding of South Asian women?

Join us on Wednesday afternoons at MIT for Women, Gender, and Sexuality in South Asia. This thematic course moves beyond the textbook to analyze the "symbols" of modernity and tradition. We’ll discuss everything from goddess traditions to contemporary resistance movements.

Featured Themes:
- Representations of women in religious texts.
- The impact of the caste system.
- Violence and resistance in contemporary times.

Spaces are limited for this cross-institutional collaboration! Apply NOW: https://www.gcws.mit.edu/new-events/fa26-wgs-south-asia?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com

📣We are excited to announce J-PAL North America’s Medicaid Learning Lab, a peer-learning experience designed to help agencies test, learn, & improve health care delivery.
🔎Learn about the program: https://www.povertyactionlab.org/page/j-pal-north-america-medicaid-learning-lab
📬Join our mailing list: https://www.povertyactionlab.org/subscribe-j-pals-newsletters

MIT Political Science professor and MIT Security Studies Program affiliate Caitlin Talmadge is quoted in The Boston Globe regarding the confounding limbo between war and peace in which America, Iran, and the world currently exist. “There’s a good chance that the current equilibrium or something like it persists,” Talmadge says.

A dangerous limbo leaves Iran, and the world, between peace and war - The Boston Globe Neither Trump nor Iran appears ready to make significant concessions in negotiations for a long-term truce, with many devilish details to be worked out -- not least over the future of Iran’s nuclear program.

U.S. News and World Report speaks with MIT Philosophy professors Alex Byrne and Brad Skow about the Institute's Civil Discourse Project, which aims to educate students on how to have productive conversations about challenging topics.

“Learning how to discuss hard topics with people you disagree with ultimately requires seeing it done and doing it yourself,” Byrne and Skow assert.

The Big Idea: How This Campus Project Is Training Students to Debate Hard Topics Productively Bradford Skow and Alex Byrne, philosophy professors and two co-directors of the MIT Civil Discourse Project, discuss helping students navigate controversial topics in the classroom.

MIT Security Studies Program senior research associate Jim Walsh spoke with WBUR 90.9 FM about a possible U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal amid rising tensions in the region.

U.S.-Iran ceasefire on fragile ground President Trump says on Truth Social that he is calling off planned strikes against Iran tonight, after threatening strikes earlier on Thursday.

MIT Department of Physics and MIT | Program in Science, Technology, and Society professor David Kaiser joined GBH’s Particles of Thought podcast to discuss primordial black holes, the physics community’s return to the 50-year-old idea of primordial black holes, and more.

Are Black Holes Dark Matter? David Kaiser thinks tiny black holes from the dawn of time could be the solution to the dark matter puzzle. David joins Hakeem to discuss primordial black holes, tiny objects that may have formed in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang. First proposed by Stephen Hawking more than 50 yea...

MIT Comparative Media Studies / Writing professor Thomas Levenson's new book, “A Pox on Fools: The True Believers, Grifters, and Cynics Who Convinced Us to Reject Vaccines,” shows how arguments against vaccination reach back to the beginning of the technology itself.

"Opposition to vaccines dates back to the beginning of the vaccine era, around the early 19th century," Levenson says.

The long history of vaccine hesitancy In his new book, MIT Professor Thomas Levenson shows that hesitation, skepticism, and outright opposition to vaccines dates back to the beginning of the vaccine era, around the early 19th century.