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March 4, 2025

Research

Psychedelic drug studies face a potent source of bias: the ‘trip’

Posted on
Science

Charles Raison, a psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has been experimenting with having people sleep through their trips, as a way to understand how much a conscious psychedelic experience matters. Two volunteers received psilocybin while in a deep sleep with a sedative, and 1 week later both “swore they got placebo,” Raison says. He is now developing a larger study in which people with self-reported reduced emotional well-being will be randomized to get psilocybin or placebo while either awake or asleep, to tease out how the trip influences longer term effects on emotional state.

Higher Education/System

DOGE, the Wisconsin version: Here’s what it could look like

Posted on
The Capital Times

In announcing the committee, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, told the Cap Times he wanted to better tailor the work of government to a 21st century context.

“We need to deliver services in a different way than we have,” Vos said. “You know, how many (Universities of Wisconsin) campuses do we need? How many school districts do we need? How many townships do we need? All the things that we’ve never really thought about.”

Campus life

UW responds to U.S. Department of Education letter demanding educational institutions remove DEI programming

Posted on
Badger Herald

Amid this uncertainty, UW spokesperson John Lucas said the university remains dedicated to its commitment to DEI in an email statement to The Badger Herald. “UW-Madison is committed to a campus environment that values diversity in both background and viewpoint, and fosters inclusion and belonging for all students, faculty and staff,” Lucas said in the email.

State news

As measles outbreaks spread, Wisconsin could be vulnerable

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

“We need really, really high vaccine coverage in order to protect a community from a measles outbreak,” said Malia Jones, a public health researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It is the most infectious disease on Earth. Nearly everyone who is exposed to measles and has not been vaccinated will get it.”

When will hummingbirds migrate back to Wisconsin this year?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A few birds have already started to arrive in the state for the spring, such as robins and red-winged blackbirds, according to Anna Pidgeon, a professor of avian ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Though hummingbirds are a little further behind, there are a few steps you can take in the coming weeks to encourage them to your yard later in the spring.

Arts & Humanities

The Chimamanda effect: Nigerians’ delight at first novel in a decade from their beloved daughter

Posted on
The Guardian

The publishing industry was also influenced by Adichie’s style, says Ainehi Edoro, founder of literary blog Brittle Paper and associate professor of English at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Before her, African fiction often came packaged with a kind of ethnographic weight – expected to ‘explain’ Africa to a western audience,” she says. “But Adichie’s work wasn’t performing ‘Africanness’ for an outsider’s gaze; it was literary, intimate, contemporary. She helped shift expectations – both in publishing and among readers – so that the next wave of African writers didn’t have to over-explain, dilute or justify their stories.”

Health

Bad psychedelic trips linked to early death for some, study finds

Posted on
CNN

Some people fail to find a psychedelic experience beneficial, said Dr. Charles Raison, a professor of psychiatry and human ecology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.

“Maybe one in 20 people report having ongoing difficulties they ascribe to the psychedelic technique,” said Raison, who was not involved in the new research.

Athletics

UW Experts in the News

Trump’s speech to Congress has the ingredients for an explosive event

Posted on
The Washington Post

“You begin to see, especially under Obama’s second term, members of Congress thinking they can reply audibly, yelling ‘You lie’ and making it less about unifying the country and more about fracture and division within Congress itself,” said Allison Prasch, an expert on presidential rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “It becomes this theater and stage for the opposition.”