Had Novy’s worker’s comp payment kept pace with inflation, which rose 34%, he would have received nearly $21,000 more over the past nine years, according to calculations by University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Menzie Chinn.
Seasonal citizen involvement in bird and other wildlife counts provide critical data for state conservation efforts. UW-Extension wildlife specialists David Drake and Jamie Nack return to encourage more public involvement.
University of Wisconsin-Madison psychologist Markus Brauer studies how social groups interact, and he told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that the state’s political divisiveness helps explain some of the trust issues.
“If there are people who belong to other political parties, then there is the possibility that they may not share the same common values, which then undermines trust,” Brauer said. “So generally, partisan strength and perceived political polarization actually undermine social trust in others.”
Allison Daminger was in graduate school when she learned that men and women use their time differently: On average, men spend more time on paid work, and women spend more time on unpaid work.
“I remember wondering whether the time-use numbers were telling the full story,” says Daminger, who is now an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “What about differences in how men and women use their mind on their family’s behalf?”
The new building for the School of Computer, Data, and Information Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has opened its doors.
This facility, called Morgridge Hall, brings various departments together under one roof for the first time. It inspires collaboration, as students and colleagues can simply bump into each other in the hall and get ideas for projects they are working on.
If your pet is loose in the car, they might do something unpredictable or extra adorable — and that can be a big problem. When “you see someone in the driver’s seat with a small dog on their lap, that is obviously such a big distraction and such a big risk factor for causing a crash,” said Molly Racette, a veterinarian and professor of emergency and critical care at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Average wages in Wisconsin reached a record high in 2024, according to a new jobs report. But job growth in the state fell behind the overall national average. We talk with Laura Dresser, the report’s co-author.
Written by rofessor of human development & family studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Honeybees are like livestock,” Hannah Gaines Day, a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who studies how pollinators interact with the environment and agricultural operations, told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “They’re like little, tiny livestock that the beekeeper is taking care of, and so they have someone looking out for them and feeding them and giving them medicine if they need it if they’re sick. But the wild pollinators don’t have that.”
Labor Day offers a critical juncture at which to access the condition of workers in Wisconsin. For two decades, the High Road Strategy Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has produced comprehensive “State of Working Wisconsin” reports, which have set the standard for assessing where we are at.
The 2025 assessment features some concerning news.
Can filmmakers make a good pandemic film five years after the globe-changing year of 2020? The recently released “Eddington” makes an attempt, but focuses on a hyper local experience with a fictional small town in New Mexico. On the Buzz to talk about the movie is Jeff Smith, a professor specializing in cinema studies in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Laura Dresser, a co-author of the report and High Road Strategy Center associate director, said in a statement that the 2025 data shows “some real strengths for working Wisconsin owing to the strong recovery from pandemic shutdowns.”
“Long-standing inequalities are still with us, and federal policy puts substantial clouds on the horizon,” Dresser said. “I’m especially concerned about the administration’s attacks on the integrity of federal economic data.”
Professor Patrick Iber from the University of Wisconsin-Madison takes us through the description of the main political actors in Brazil, current Brazilian politics and economy and how and why Brazil managed to get on the wrong side of the Trump administration.
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health professor and dean Jon Audhya considers how deep cuts to federal research funding are affecting scientific work and training of students.
“I think it is always hard to come down on the side of ‘no, this technology should not be used in this space,’” said Jeremy Morris, a professor of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I think the more interesting question is ‘how do we use it and how does that come to define the things we listen to?’”
John Lucey, director of the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said there’s no convincing evidence that raw milk offers tangible nutritional or health benefits when compared with the pasteurized product. But even with the best dairy practices and sampling of milk, the risk of illness is far greater, he said.
“A high percentage of the people who get sick are children,” he said. “That’s the thing that really disappoints me. And scares me.”
Johanna Oosterwyk, manager of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s instructional D.C. Smith Greenhouse, says that in general, fall is a great time for planting divided perennials, since the weather is cooler and there is usually plenty of rain to help plants establish. “This applies to digging up and dividing existing plants as well as planting new ones,” she adds.
Gloria Ladson-Billings, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has studied how best to teach African American students. She told us an encouraging teacher can change a life.
“Many of our young people have their ceilings lowered, that somewhere around fourth or fifth grade, their thoughts are, ‘I’m not going to be anything special.’ What I think is probably happening at St. Mary’s is young women come in as, perhaps, ninth graders and are told, ‘Here’s what we expect to happen. And here’s how we’re going to help you get there.'”
“I don’t think that the math adds up, because the tax reductions are very modest for people with low incomes,” said Andrew Reschovsky, professor emeritus of public affairs and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs.
Paul Lambert is an oncology professor and director of the McArdle Lab for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Lambert, who studies human papillomavirus, said the Shope virus was the first tumor virus ever discovered. American physician and animal pathologist Richard E. Shope first identified the virus in the 1930s.
“This is not a bloodborne pathogen,” Lambert said. “This virus, papillomaviruses, is transmitted by exposure on the skin.”
Wisconsin has a record-high number of jobs and median wage, but there are signs that the economy is softening and changes in federal policy could negatively affect workers in the coming years.
That’s according to a new report from the High Road Strategy Center, a labor-focused economic think tank at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. On Friday, the organization released its annual State of Working Wisconsin report, which aims to provide insight into how workers are faring in the economy.
Catalina Toma is a communication professor at UW-Madison and says that preventative measures like this are beneficial.
“By some accounts, amongst American teenagers, about a third have suffered some sort of cyberbullying victimization online. And about 15%, according to the latest reports, have engaged in cyberbullying. So these incidents do happen, and there’s a lot of evidence about how damaging cyberbullying can be,” said Toma.
Written by ssistant professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“So far, Wisconsin’s summer has been warmer than average and also wetter than average,” said Amanda Schwabe, a climate outreach specialist with the Wisconsin State Climatology Office at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Across the state, we’ve been about two degrees warmer than the average and the state has also been about 25% wetter than average.”
Although you might not know exactly what some of Gen Z’s words mean, chances are they aren’t using them to make fun of you, Kelly Wright, an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Business Insider.
“Just look up ‘cringe’ and try not to be that,” Wright said.
UW-Madison students and researchers find automation apps ripe for hacking and abuse. Then, we talk about the drop off in drinking by Americans. Then, we talk about the recent flooding in Milwaukee with the Weather Guys.
As more companies realize that they can’t keep absorbing the cost of import taxes, the impact on inflation could eventually start to snowball, said Menzie Chinn, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“If everybody’s facing the same game, they know they all can’t keep prices low forever and take a hit to their profit margins, they’re going to start raising them more rapidly,” Chinn said.
“It’s an absolutely gorgeous church (with) great historic distinction,” said Barbara Copeland Buenger, a member of the church’s roof committee and a professor of art history emerita at UW-Madison. “To have something of such beauty and historical value is really magnificent given the modern character of the city.”
“The reason why it resonated with students … is because it felt like an opportunity for them to be met on their own ground and to have a kind of shared ground with which to meet instructors or meet ideas,” says Nate Marshall, award-winning poet and assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Ultimately, like, the role of an educator is to connect the students in order to serve the students. So, if that’s not your way to connect with them, that’s cool. You find other ways.”
UW-Madison School of Education professor Nick Hillman explains how provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act set lower borrowing limits for medical and law students while changing other loan rules.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently discovered a flaw in how NASA and other space agencies design and test rovers for exploring the moon and beyond.
UW-Madison professor at the School of Pharmacy Mary Hayney praised the vaccine and said it is very safe.
“We have a long history of using it,” said Hayney. “It will be great to have that convenience to be able to administer the vaccine to yourself in the comfort of your own home
An invasive mushroom is spreading across southern Wisconsin and North America, severely reducing the biodiversity of other fungi, according to a new study led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher.
Aishwarya Veerabahu and a team of mycologists from UW-Madison and USDA Forest Service studied the edible golden oyster mushroom, which was brought from East Asia to the United States by mushroom cultivators in recent decades and has spread in the wild.
With a 7% budget cut, UW-Madison Libraries is closing the Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics Library at 4 p.m. Friday. The campus Social Work Library will shutter also at the end of the coming school year, and others will have reduced hours.
Christelle Guédot, a fruit crop entomologist and extension specialist in the Department of Entomology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, says that Japanese beetles were once the bane of gardeners and farmers in the southern half of the state, but their range has since spread northwards.
“Over the past 10 years, they have been detected by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection up in Bayfield. We also trap many hundreds in Spooner and we see them now in Door County,” Guédot said. The beetles have also been wreaking havoc in the northeastern counties, including Oneida and Vilas.
The University of Wisconsin pulled in more than $3 million from alcohol sales at Camp Randall Stadium.
This marked the first year alcohol was sold during a full Badger football season, as well as three sold-out concerts. Patrick Herb, UW’s assistant athletic director for strategic communication, described the first year as a success both financially and operationally.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that automation apps, like iPhone’s ‘shortcuts’, can be a vehicle potential abusers use to control their partner’s activities on their mobile device.
Rahul Chatterjee, an assistant professor of computer science at UW and founder of the Madison Tech Clinic, said Madison Tech Clinic helps individuals who have been virtually stalked or harassed by their partners.
“A lot of the participants in our trials have tried one or more different types of either behavioral treatments or pharmacological treatments,” Christopher Nicholas said. “They’re looking for another option.”
He’s optimistic psychedelics paired with therapy will give patients a new tool. He worked on a 2023 study that found participants’ depression scores improved about six weeks after a single dose of psilocybin.
Entomologist Phil Pellitteri returns to help us deal with insect pests. Then, we talk about citizen-scientist wildlife monitoring. Then, we meet the new director of The Arb.
Interview with John Hawks, subject matter expert and the Vilas-Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Our hope is that some of them will choose to remain here in Madison and work in Madison schools, where they have had a shortage of school psychologists,” said Katie Eklund, a professor in UW-Madison’s School Psychology program who led the project.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that automation apps, like iPhone’s ‘shortcuts’, can be a vehicle potential abusers use to control their partner’s activities on their mobile device.
Rahul Chatterjee, an assistant professor of computer science at UW and founder of the Madison Tech Clinic, said Madison Tech Clinic helps individuals who have been virtually stalked or harassed by their partners.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is proposing a bill to require UW-Madison and state private animal researchers who use cats and dogs to make an active effort over a three-week period to rehome or transfer them to an area humane society.
University of Wisconsin-Madison students will soon move into their dorms and apartments. Classes will begin early next month. And as a new school year gets underway, a variety of pressing challenges on campus will linger.
“The labor market has cooled and so companies now are starting to feel they have more leeway, more leverage with their employees,” said Barry Gerhart, a professor of management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Shane Hubbard is a research scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Space Science & Engineering Center. He says Wisconsin is a leader in helping communities mitigate against flooding disasters.
“We have some communities here that have really experienced what it means to mitigate and help us not have as many damages as a state when we have flood events,” he said.
Dietram Scheufele is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in misinformation, social media and AI. He told WPR the rise of artificial intelligence models has opened numerous legal and ethical questions that courts are left to grapple with.
On the technical side, Sheufele said, the question is how AI models are able to create lifelike images of child pornography. Another question is whether people or businesses that create the algorithm to assist the AI models that ultimately create the images would be liable.
“The same logic that applies to child pornography will apply to a whole bunch of other things — not in the sense of obscenity, but in the sense of responsibility and copyright, and all the other things that come that come along with that,” Scheufele said.
Jack pine and black spruce trees fall into this category, according to David Mladenoff, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Both species reproduce by using cones that are sealed up with resin, and open to spread seeds only under the intense heat of a fire.
“The nature of the (jack pine and black spruce) trees — their foliage, their bark, they have a lot of resin — they burn easily. They kind of encourage fire because they need fire,” said Mladenoff.
“Pregnancy is an extremely complex process, with each step being extremely delicate and critical,” said Yi Fuxian, an obstetrician at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who conducts demographic research,
He told Newsweek the robot is “likely just a gimmick” and warned of “many health and ethical risks” even if it could ultimately bring a child to term.
Snapshot Wisconsin is led by two DNR staffers, both with doctorates from the University of Wisconsin-Madison: Christine Anhalt-Depies, research scientist; and Jennifer Stenglein, wildlife research scientist.
Both have been with the program since its beginning, have helped guide its path and now have valuable perspective on one of the state’s largest citizen science projects.
Embracing an attitude of lifelong learning can help seniors combat the effects of aging and find meaning in every day. In a study by Scientific American, seniors who regularly engaged in learning over three months performed similarly to adults 30 years younger on cognitive tests.
Whether it’s online learning, art classes or stargazing in Wisconsin state parks, educational opportunities can help make your golden years shine.
A new report published by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers in the journal Current Biology may hold clues to an unfolding mushroom mystery: the origins and possible consequences of the invasive golden oyster mushroom.
Menzie Chinn, a renowned economics professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has chronicled a wide array of Antoni’s basic misunderstandings, misrepresentations, and mistakes. In other words, Antoni would probably not get hired as a junior economist at the agency he’s now slated to run.
“This whole idea of unconventional habitability, especially afforded by … radiation, I think is really underexplored,” says astrobiologist Zach Adam of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who was not involved in the study.
“This plant is quite harmful to our forests,” said Mark Renz, a professor and Extension weed specialist at UW. “It makes wildfires more frequent and severe, alters nutrient cycling and soil microbes, and reduces wildlife habitat, all of which decreases biodiversity.”
New research from UW-Madison reveals how golden oyster mushrooms — first imported from Asia more than 20 years ago and increasingly popular among growers and foodies — are spreading rapidly and encroaching on native mushroom species in the Midwest. We talk to the lead author of the study.
Oceanography has much to tell us about the health of planet Earth – as well as far-flung exoplanets. Then, we learn why space rovers get stuck on Mars and the moon. Then, an up-to-date report on another summer of blue-green algal booms on Wisconsin waterways.
An invasive plant has been spotted in southcentral Wisconsin, and scientists are asking the public for help to prevent it from spreading across the region.
Japanese stiltgrass was spotted in Rock County last month.
Mark Renz, a University of Wisconsin–Madison Extension weed specialist and professor in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences, said the grass is bad for a number of reasons.
Japanese stiltgrass is an annual grass, like crabgrass, that can grow in the woods.
“What it does is it produces a lot of fuel, and when that annual grass dies in the winter, that fuel persists, so it can increase the timeframe when fires naturally can occur in the forests,” said Mark Renz, a University of Wisconsin–Madison Extension weed specialist and professor in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences.
John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the work, said the find is exciting because it opens a window into a critical and mysterious period of human evolution between 2.5 million and 3 million years ago. He said he’s eager to see the work published but noted that such finds raise as many questions as they answer.
A political scientist explains why Wisconsin and other states are fighting over redistricting. Then, we look at why seven of the 10 places with the worst air quality in the country last week were in Wisconsin. Then, we discuss the downfall of the Schlitz beer empire.
