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April 22, 2025

Research

‘It’s nice to see democracy in action,’ says Wisconsin media expert of recent protests against Trump administration

Wisconsin Public Radio

“It’s nice to see democracy in action,” said Douglas McLeod, a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I’m always inspired by peaceful demonstrations that show citizen engagement.”

McLeod’s research shows that how news outlets cover protests has a big impact on how the public views the demonstrations and whether they are ultimately effective. He says traditional media coverage tends to focus on what happened at the protest rather than the issues protestors are raising — something he calls the “protest paradigm.”

Wisconsin professor joins team of art experts to authenticate a possible long-lost Van Gogh

Wisconsin Public Radio

Susan Brantly is a professor in the German, Nordic and Slavic department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A few years ago, she got a call from art research firm LMI Group asking her to lend her expertise in reading and analyzing 19th-century Scandinavian literature to help authenticate an artwork.

“I didn’t know initially what the call was about — that there was some painter or another,” Brantly told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “And then came the reveal [that it was Van Gogh], and I just was grinning from ear to ear. I couldn’t have been happier. I thought, ‘Oh, this is too cool for words.’”

Federal funding cuts threaten life-saving severe weather forecasting at UW-Madison

Channel 3000

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is known for its innovations in forecasting technology, but its work could be in jeopardy if the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration loses funding.

“Weather is woven into the fabric of everyone’s life,” atmospheric and oceanic sciences professor Michael Morgan said.

Poison control calls are rising as more people use psilocybin, study finds

CNN

About 1 in 20 people report ongoing difficulties after their psychedelic experience, Dr. Charles Raison, a professor of psychiatry and human ecology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, told CNN in a prior interview. He was not involved in the new research.

“A year later, they say, ‘I had an experience that was so distressing to me that it messed up my ability to function, or alienated me from my family, or gave me post-traumatic stress disorder,’” Raison said.

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