Nebraska in the national news: November 2024

University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty members provided expertise on political stress and painted turtles for national news stories in November. The stories were among 20-plus featuring Husker faculty, staff, students, centers and programs during the month.

• Kevin Smith, Olson Professor of Political Science, was interviewed for a Nov. 3 San Francisco Chronicle opinion piece on the difficulty of unsubscribing from political texts. “Political stimuli — news, campaign ads, texts, social media posts, etc. — effectively serve as a chronic stressor,” he said. “They are a constant and ever-present part of our environment that primarily evokes negative emotions.” Smith said there is evidence that anxiety increases as Election Day draws closer, with studies showing that alcohol use rises as does the likelihood of a heart attack.
• Smith was also quoted in a Nov. 8 Wall Street Journal article on many Americans deciding to pivot quickly to the holiday season after the election. Throwing yourself into the holidays is a “healthy response” to election stress, he said. “It sure beats sitting there saying, ‘Oh my god, this is an existential threat to the world, and I’m going to enter a doom and gloom loop,” he said. The quote was also used in a Nov. 16 Vox article.
• Ongoing research led by Larkin Powell, professor of conservation biology and animal ecology and director of the School of Natural Resources, was featured in a Nov. 18 Harvest Public Media story on how drought is impacting wildlife. Powell and his students analyzed 11 years of data and found that during dry years, painted turtles grew more slowly. Drought conditions also seemed to lower survival rates and throw off the female-to-male ratio. The story aired on High Plains Public Radio, Kansas Public Radio, KCUR (Kansas City, Missouri), KWMU (St. Louis) and Nebraska Public Media.

Additional national news coverage in November included:

• Leslie Klein, journalism, was interviewed for a Nov. 1 Education Week article on the challenges high school journalists face in covering politics. “There’s a real feeling of hopelessness that I hope does not continue,” she said. “I worry that the good student journalism we are seeing, and all the students out there pushing to cover issues that are meaningful and important to them and their peers, will become the outlier rather than the norm.”
• Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, political science, was quoted in a Nov. 3 USA Today article on the U.S. Senate race in Nebraska between incumbent Deb Fischer, a Republican, and challenger Dan Osborn, an independent. “We take pride in being different from other folks, but also independent,” Theiss-Morse said regarding Osborn’s references to former Sen. George Norris, the last independent to represent Nebraska who also helped found the state’s nonpartisan Unicameral.
• John Hibbing, political science, was interviewed for a Nov. 4 Associated Press article on the Senate race. Hibbing said besides Osborn’s working-class roots, he was helped by Fischer’s relatively limited legislative record for having served 12 years and her decision to seek a third term despite supporting a bill early in her tenure that would have limited senators to two terms. The article was picked up by several news outlets. Fischer won re-election with about 53% of the vote.
• Ber Anena, a doctoral student in English, recently received a six-figure book deal from Flatiron Books for her second novel, “The Lies We Tell for America!” Brittle Paper published a Nov. 4 article on the deal.
• A team led by Galen Erickson, animal science, leader of the university’s Beef Innovation hub, has received a five-year, $5 million Grand Challenges grant from the university to better gauge the environmental impact of the ranching industry. The project will establish scientific processes and develop technology to accurately measure greenhouse gas emissions from grazing cattle. Stories on the project appeared in KHGI, Beef magazine and The Fence Post.
• Jesse Korus, a groundwater geologist and associate professor in the School of Natural Resources, was interviewed for a Nov. 19 segment on RFD-TV. He discussed his work using electromagnetic signals to map groundwater resources.
• FindU, a startup founded by Husker sophomores and Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management students Kenny Morales and Wilson Overfield, took home the $10,000 grand prize in the Silicon Prairie Startup Week Competition, hosted by Silicon Prairie News. FindU is a platform focused on connecting first-generation students to Nebraska colleges and scholarships. Silicon Prairie News published a Nov. 20 article on the competition.
• Farms.com and The Fence Post have run an article on T.L. Meyer, a Nebraska Extension beef educator who is celebrating 25 years with the university. She uses her knowledge of animal science and agricultural journalism to serve as a resource to ranchers in the Nebraska Sandhills.
• Mark Svoboda, director of the university’s National Drought Mitigation Center, was interviewed for a Nov. 21 ABC News article on October 2024 being the second warmest month on record. He called the combination of heat and dryness a “double whammy.”
• A team from the university’s Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior is launching a first-of-its-kind study to explore potential links between beef consumption and brain health, Rural Radio Network and Beef magazine reported. Utilizing brain imaging, blood biomarkers and surveys over a 12-week study, researchers led by Aron Barbey, the center’s director, will explore how beef consumption impacts brain health in young adults.
• The university’s Cultivate ACCESS (Agriculture Career Communities to Empower Students in STEM) has launched two new academic programs: Cultivate ACCESS to Data Science in Agriculture and Cultivate Resilience. The programs aim to engage high school teachers and their students in agricultural STEM topics. Feedstuffs ran a Nov. 25 article on the new programs.
• The Cornhusker Marching Band will return to the Lied Center for Performing Arts for its annual Season Highlights Concert at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3, the Nebraska City News-Press and Broadway World reported. The concert will feature selections from all seven home football halftime shows along with pregame music. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students and seniors.

Faculty, administration, student and staff appearances in the national media are logged at http://newsroom.unl.edu/inthenews. If you have additions to the list, contact Sean Hagewood at shagewood2@unl.edu or 402-472-8514. If you have suggestions for national news stories, contact Leslie Reed at lreed5@unl.edu or 402-472-2059.