Some people can’t take statins because of side effects. “If they go home and don’t take it, it’s not doing any benefit,” said cardiologist Eugene DePasquale of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “It’s really important to have an alternative.”
(USA Today)
A study from the climate change storytelling consultancy Good Energy and USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center found less than 3% of the more than 37,000 analyzed movie and TV scripts written between 2016 and 2020 made any reference to climate change. But scenes featuring discussions about climate change or fire control methods, such as raking leaves off a lawn, don’t exactly make for scintillating screen time.
USC Marshall’s Rodney Ramcharan dismissed criticism that the bank reportedly donated millions to Black Lives Matter and similar groups as “trivial and irrelevant,” given the bank had more than $200 billion in assets before it failed. (Los Angeles Times; may require subscription)
The movie and TV series are recognized as the year’s best adaptation of the written word.
USC Annenberg’s Robin Stevens is working with Instagram’s Well-being Creator Collective, a pilot program that trains and educates influencers and content creators on how to create responsible mental health content.
Research conducted by USC’s Matthew Kahn found that L.A. was the fifth-greenest large metropolitan area in the country as measured by carbon emitted by an average household — almost entirely because of relatively mild weather. If L.A. built more housing, there would be less building in areas such as Atlanta or Houston, which have higher greenhouse gas emissions.
An annual report from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative also found that half of the women over 45 who led or co-led a movie were women of color.
“If you go back 30, 40 years, women went on the education committee, or maybe dealt with health care — whatever little bone was thrown their way,” says Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a retired USC political science professor. “Dianne didn’t follow the typical path. … She didn’t let herself get pigeonholed as a ‘woman’ senator.”
The entertainer is now part of an elite sorority of Black women who’ve been featured on Super Bowl stages. Shaun Harper of the USC Race and Equity Center explains why that’s important: Rihanna and other Black women work in an industry dominated by white executives and by men, few of whom are Black.
USC’s Robert Kozinets and a colleague describe how to bring transparency and accountability to social media.
One challenge: the absence of uplifting hormones. “There are a lot of endorphins and chemical changes that happen in our body when we exercise,” says Jared Vagy, USC assistant professor of physical therapy. “If that’s the only method that some people have to release those chemicals, then you’ve just lost a large part of what makes you complete as a human or satisfied.”
Most community gardens in L.A. are “hobby gardens” for more affluent demographics, says USC Dornsife’s Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo. But this one, she says, is a “healing spot, homeland and economic generator” for a diverse group of immigrants — Indigenous, mestizo and Central American.
Tests for multiple viruses are “the way of the future” and would help more people get treatment, says Susan Butler-Wu of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. But the United States has historically fallen behind Europe in terms of authorizing new diagnostics, she says: “It takes time to go through the process and get approval.”
One challenge: the absence of uplifting hormones. “There are a lot of endorphins and chemical changes that happen in our body when we exercise,” says Jared Vagy, USC assistant professor of physical therapy. “If that’s the only method that some people have to release those chemicals, then you’ve just lost a large part of what makes you complete as a human or satisfied.” (The New York Times; may require subscription)
A USC study found participants felt happier and enjoyed physical activity more when they worked out alongside a friend or partner rather than solo.
Why it matters: “Criminals have become savvier about ways to avoid detection through the internet,” warns Mellissa Withers of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “It is much easier to exploit children today than even 20 years ago.”
A graduate of Occidental College, Heitman worked at Brown University and University of California, Irvine, before joining USC in 1982.
The problem: An analysis by the USC Equity Research Institute shows the state’s most prevalent languages after English and Spanish are Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese, which are spoken by roughly 600,000 workers who speak little or no English.
Factors including an emphasis on learning through memorization, helicopter parenting and social media are stifling teenagers, USC Rossier’s Mary Helen Immordino-Yang says.
Telling the history of underdocumented communities is at the heart of Natalia Molina’s work, which earned her a MacArthur Fellowship in 2020.
USC Dornsife’s Michael Messner notes that World War I and subsequent wars incubated generations of veterans committed to preventing such future horrors for their children.
One challenge: a national shortage of mental health professionals. They’re greatly undervalued compared with their colleagues in physical health, particularly when it comes to insurance reimbursement, says Steven Siegel of the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Watching the story of Till’s brutal 1955 killing can be difficult — but it’s important, says USC Dornsife’s Lanita Jacobs: “There’s also a responsibility on our part to bear witness. These people are no longer here. We need to honor them, say their names, create streets for them, create movies for them. We need to talk about these issues because in many ways they never really did get their due.”
The USC public administration major — a California political insider and power broker for more than a half century and only the second woman elected to the Los Angeles City Council — died late Wednesday at her home in Bel-Air.