Against a perception of normal modernity that is on some kind of track that we can try to get a handle on while we work around distractions like a pandemic, climate change, diverging and growing inequality, the centrifugal tendency of identities to be fragmenting, and policy incoherence.
Tag: video
What is life expectancy? (video)
A 6-minute explainer, using 3 graphs, to help people understand.
Pandemic Baby Bust situation update
Some of the new numbers are small, in a very big way
The pandemic and the family, demography edition (video)
In September 2020 versus September 2019, births were 6.1% lower in Florida and 9.6% lower in California. If this has nothing to do with the pandemic that's even more shocking.
5 minutes on the three-parent family
In the Atlantic article, "The Rise of the Three-Parent Family" I was quoted saying, "the increasing visibility and legalization of three-parent arrangements 'is one of the signs that our definition of family is opening up.'" That led to an interview with a different journalist. I recorded my end of the interview, and re-enact it here…
New COVID-19 and Health Disparities lecture
I recorded a new version of the lecture I created last spring: COVID-19 and Health Disparities. It defines health disparities, introduces the theory of fundamental causes, and then describes COVID-19 disparities by race/ethnicity and age with reference to education and occupational inequality. For intro sociology students. Using data from Bureau of Labor Statistics (inspired by…
Continue reading ➞ New COVID-19 and Health Disparities lecture
Race and racism in America (video)
In my Social Problems class we're spending the next few weeks on race, racial inequality, and racial politics. Step one is this lecture on race and racism. After a tangent on racial identity, idealism and its enemies, I address biology and race, describing the classic racist racial categories in relation to vast human diversity in…
The COVID-19 economic crisis is increasing every kind of inequality (video)
I recorded a 25-minute lecture on the COVID-19 economic crisis, with emphasis on increasing inequalities, for my Social Problems class. The slides are posted here, CC-BY. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BRAV6Wl3RI
Measuring inequality, and what the Gini index does (video)
I produced a short video on measuring inequality, focusing on the construction of the Gini index, the trend in US family inequality, and an example of using it to measure world inequality.
Pandemic Social Problems, with video and partial reading list
An introductory lecture and reading list for Social Problems, pandemic edition
Family Inequality 