Narcissists, psychopaths and Machiavellians, oh my. These antagonistic personality types can make life hard for the people around them. Here are five tips for how to deal with them at work. — By Cinthia Beccacece Satornino, University of New Hampshire Have you ever suffered through tales of greatness from a self-absorbed “friend” who reminds you of Michael Scott from “The Office” — and not in a good way? Have you been betrayed by a colleague out of the blue, undermined on a…

Gothic storytelling, with its sinister atmosphere of conspiracy and other hallmarks, offers a way to reframe the Kennedy family lore. — By Mary Burke, University of Connecticut John F. Kennedy, whose ancestors left Ireland during the potato famine of the mid-19th century, was famously the first United States president of Catholic Irish descent. When Americans narrowly elected Kennedy in 1960, anti-Catholic bias was still part of the mainstream culture.

Maybe you can’t have a designer kitchen. But you can still beautify your bulk food storage. — By Jenna Drenten, Loyola University Chicago Neatly aligned glass spice jars tagged with printed white labels. Wicker baskets filled with packages of pasta, crackers and snacks. Rows of flavored seltzer water stacked in double-decker plastic bins. In today’s consumer culture, “a place for everything and everything in its place” isn’t…

Their popularity can’t be explained by the nostalgia of baby boomers or superior sound quality. So what’s going on? — By Jay L. Zagorsky, Boston University Over the past decade, vinyl records have made a major comeback. People purchased US$1.2 billion of records in 2022, a 20% jump from the previous year. Not only did sales rise, but they also surpassed CD sales for the first time since 1988, according…

A negotiation expert offers practical tips for getting the salary or promotion you want. — By Alexandra Mislin, American University Equal Pay Day falls in 2023 on March 14 — a date determined by how long into the new year American women must work to catch up to American men’s earnings the previous year. In 2022, women earned 82% of what men earned. The wage…

Big-name awards can certainly be a boon for Black filmmakers and actors. But they don’t reflect the breakthroughs that have been made in the types of Black stories that are getting told. — By Timeka N. Tounsel, University of Washington When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for its 95th Oscars and three of the most celebrated films of the season — “ The Woman King,” “ Till” and “ Saint Omer” — received no nominations, a familiar…

A study of more than 200 social services and arts groups points to the severity of structural barriers. — By Mirae Kim, Associate Professor of Nonprofit Studies, George Mason University and Bo Li, Doctoral Candidate in Nonprofit Management, Georgia State University Nonprofits that serve people of color or are led by nonwhite executive directors have a harder time getting the funding they need than other organizations, increasing their financial…

Raw flour at the store still contains live microorganisms. And while cooking can kill the fungi, it doesn’t destroy any illness-causing mycotoxins that might be present. — By Sheryl Barringer, Professor of Food Science and Technology, The Ohio State University In the HBO series “ The Last of Us,” named after the popular video game of the same name, the flour supplies of the world are contaminated with a fungus called Cordyceps. …

The social media platform does a lot of what Twitter and Facebook do, but there are some key differences. — By Brian C. Keegan, Assistant Professor of Information Science, University of Colorado Boulder In the wake of Elon Musk’s noisy takeover of Twitter, people have been looking for alternatives to the increasingly toxic microblogging social media platform. …