Stress is a part of everyday life, and yet it isn’t always clear what exactly each of us means when we say we are stressed. How do social scientists conceptualize and measure stress? We sat down with anthropologist Achsah Dorsey of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to explore her work on stress and wellbeing. You can listen here. Image: Wikimedia…
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School Days
As many students in the United States begin a new academic year, we can ask what good all of our effort to build schools and pay teachers and organize calendars actually does. Researchers have asked questions about teaching efficacy for a while now, but you might not realize what a rich discussion they have had about what those questions should…
A New Collection of Our Past Work
As we turn the page on 2021, 2022 brings a new book, one that took seven years to write. It is a collection of insights from The Measure of Everyday Life that Karen Keaton Jackson, Bridget Pittman-Blackwell, and Brian Southwell have curated and published with RTI Press as a resource for anyone who asks questions for a living. We are celebrating years of collaboration…
Seeing Everyday Life
Life unfolds everyday all around us. Whether anyone takes notes depends on whether resources are available and whether people make choices to observe and document what they see. On The Measure of Everyday Life, we often celebrate the work of researchers who organize and analyze data that describe people and their behavior. Sometimes, we also have the chance to talk…
Working Together for a Better Future
Recently, we had an opportunity to highlight various dimensions of partnership that have made our show a gratifying experience over time. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) established the ACCORD (Advanced Center for COVID-19 Related Disparities) project to address health disparities that many people have faced during the nation’s public health emergency.…
Why People Cry
Sometimes as we ponder the stars we miss the wonders of the ground on which we walk. Our show invites guests to talk about a wide range of human experiences. Some of our most engrossing discussions — the kind that stay with you for a while after they are done — involve topics that might initially seem to involve routine…
Popular Culture and Mental Health
As we turn to a new year of The Measure of Everyday Life, we recently sat down with Alex Kresovich. He’s a music producer. In fact, he is RIAA-Platinum certified and a Billboard #1 music producer and songwriter who has worked with artists like Panic! at the Disco, Cee Lo Green, and Niykee Heaton. He also is a social science researcher whose work has appeared in outlets such as…
Translating Research into Everyday Health
[Post by host Brian Southwell] Our last new episode of 2020 is fitting given the state of the world. In the episode, we sat down with vaccine researcher and community engagement specialist Dr. Michele Andrasik of the University of Washington to talk about how her work on HIV vaccine research participation has set the stage for vital new work to…
Discussing Mental Health During a Pandemic
[Guest post by Lissette M. Saavedra and Anna C. Yaros] Across the United States, it long has been a struggle for mental health service provision to meet the needs of individuals with mental illness. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit everyone especially hard, including parents, youth, front-line workers and first responders. Everyone has had to adapt quickly to living in quarantine,…
Visiting the Doctor from Your Living Room: Telehealth in Everyday Life
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged many aspects of everyday interactions, often rendering more difficult what we previously might have taken for granted. Going to the grocery store, visiting relatives, and attending school have been different for many people than in the days before the unfolding of the public health crisis. Amidst these challenges, however, innovators also have been looking for…
The Measure of Everyday Life 