Keep your Russian vodka, but embrace vodka’s many cultures. People do not normally hate one another with sufficient fervor to prosecute a war to its fullest extent. Leaders frame the enemy as “bad” in an all-encompassing way to spur enthusiasm — trampling ancient cultures so thoroughly that they don’t recover…

Slow down, see what's in front of you, and let someone invest in you. Anyone who's spent quality time with yours truly has no doubt heard tales of my interactions with one of the greatest scientists of his generation. Bryan D. Jones continues to be a mentor to me even…

Lessons from Appalachia’s best politician and the Democratic agenda — In the wake of the Senate runoff races in Georgia on January 5th, attention is quickly turning to the legislative branch’s new politics and what it means for public policy. The election saw Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff replace Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively. …

Guidelines for contributors What We Cover 3Streams is a publication for anyone interested in the convergence of politics, policy, and ideas. We are particularly interested in elevating the work of scholars, practitioners, and citizens with novel perspectives, who want to reach a broader audience on timely topics. …

Why assertions of incompetence are hazardous to public debate Allegations of incompetence are dangerous. The pandemic, economic fragility, and racism beset us from all sides. A natural response is to assert that our leadership at multiple levels is incompetent. Of course, this poses a problem for federal, state, and local…

Simplify and streamline analysis by doing less to the data — I’ve spent an academic lifetime compiling original data sets, both in my work and as part of broader research teams. In doing so, I have become quite opinionated about the role of data in science, its collection, and its organization. In this post, I detail four principles of data collection…

Nesting scrapes to avoid button-clicking — The word “confluence” means the juncture or merging of things, usually rivers. I grew up in West Virginia near the confluence of Gauley River (world-class whitewater for you rafters) and Meadow River (a Smallmouth bass fishing haven). The word confluence is also an apt description of how the intellectual currents…

I’ve titled this post “The County.” Back home in West Virginia, people often refer to entities of government by their jurisdiction or where they draw authority. We refer to the police as “The Law” and the various functions, whether for public health or taxes, as “The County”. Today, I’m drawing…