Consequential

In June, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law. While full of good news for gun-reform advocates, this law—which was inspired by mass shootings—has been criticized for not actually doing much to address them. In this episode, a closer look at gun-death statistics suggests that’s not exactly the case. Importantly, the new law does at least begin to close gaps in protections against domestic homicides, which are the lion’s share of mass killings in this country.

Still, we have a long way to go.

With this crucial first step behind us, what comes next for gun reform? The University of Michigan’s April Zeoli, an expert in domestic violence and gun laws, and Carnegie Mellon’s Dan Nagin, a criminologist and professor of public policy and statistics, share their wish lists.

UPDATE: As we prepared to publish this episode, on February 2nd, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the restraining-order gun restriction is unconstitutional. While Texas and Louisiana have their own state laws on this that are still valid, it is now legal in Mississippi for domestic abusers under restraining orders to own a gun. Zeoli warns the ruling will put families in danger. Zeoli warns the ruling will put families in danger.

For more information—including a recent op-ed coauthored by Zeoli, a 2020 TedTalk about her research, and videos of Dan Nagin addressing Congress with the NSF-funded workshop’s recommendations, visit our website.

Our future isn’t a coin flip. In an age of artificial intelligence and increasing automation, Consequential looks at our digital future and discusses what’s significant, what’s coming and what we can do about it. Over the course of our first season, hosts Lauren Prastien and Eugene Leventhal will unpack the narrative of technological change in conversation with leading technologists, ethicists, economists and everything in between.

With consideration to the events of the past week and in order to hold space for the voices that are boldly challenging systemic racism and injustice, we have decided to postpone the release of our new episode. We would also like to echo the sentiment expressed by Carnegie Mellon's President Farnam Jahanian, that it is up to each one of us – no matter our background – to confront and dismantle racism and injustice wherever they exist.

Can teams still be effective when working together remotely? Is working from home the future of work? In this week’s episode, hosts Eugene and Lauren talk to Professor Anita Williams Woolley of Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business to learn about how communication and collaboration change once teams are no longer face-to-face, and we hear from people in a variety of fields about their experience working remotely.