Media Mentions
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Time
The Truth About ‘Addictive Personalities’
September 28, 2026
Psychologist and substance-use researcher Ryan Carpenter explains why the idea of an “addictive personality” is misleading: there is no single personality type that reliably predicts whether someone will develop an addiction. Instead, he says, addiction risk reflects a complex combination of individual and environmental factors—including mental health, trauma, personality traits, and social circumstances—and those risk factors can change over time.
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The New York Times
Could Homeownership Reverse the Decline in Birthrates?
September 28, 2026
Economist Melissa Kearney and her coauthor found an unexpected connection between homeownership and the baby boom: government-backed mortgages issued after World War II appear to have increased birth rates. Their research suggests that owning a home may influence decisions about having children not simply by making housing more affordable, but by giving young families a greater sense of financial security and confidence in the future.
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Why Student Migration Is Popular—Until It Isn’t
September 14, 2026
Alexander Kustov explains why international student migration has historically enjoyed broad public support, even as attitudes toward immigration have soured. He argues that this support depends less on persuasion or messaging than on whether immigration policies produce visible benefits for the public: when international students bring educational, economic, and labor-market benefits, they are broadly welcomed, but when universities become a backdoor immigration channel, that support can quickly erode.
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Psychologist and substance-use researcher Ryan Carpenter explains why the idea of an “addictive personality” is misleading: there is no single personality type that reliably predicts whether someone will develop an addiction. Instead, he says, addiction risk reflects a complex combination of individual and environmental factors—including mental health, trauma, personality traits, and social circumstances—and those risk factors can change over time.
July 10, 2026
Anthropologist Lee Gettler’s research on testosterone and fatherhood challenges the idea that more testosterone is always better for men. His studies show that men’s testosterone levels tend to decrease as they become fathers, particularly when they are more involved in hands-on caregiving—a shift he sees as an adaptive response to the demands of parenting. Research across different cultures suggests that the relationship between testosterone and fatherhood depends on what a society expects from its fathers: “high-T” may benefit men whose role centers on competition and providing resources, while “low-T” is associated with nurturing, hands-on caregiving.
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The New Yorker
Are Dads Getting Better?
July 07, 2026
The anthropologist Lee Gettler speculates that “low-T” fatherhood is basically an adaptation to circumstances: when new dads are immersed in the work of parenting—bathing infants and changing their diapers, or helping older kids navigate the emotional complexities of middle school—it simply doesn’t make sense for them to be “hormonally focused on competition and aggression.”
Mentions
Anthropology
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The Wall Street Journal
Air Conditioning, Scourge of the French Left
June 29, 2026
Alex Kustov argues that expanding access to air conditioning is a practical, evidence-based response to deadly heat waves, contending that ideological opposition to cooling in parts of Europe risks undermining public health.
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Financial Times
Why birth rates are falling everywhere all at once
June 23, 2026
Melissa Kearney weighs in on the factors behind falling birth rates around the world, pointing to the potential role of digital technology in changing how people form relationships and families.
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Los Angeles Times
Why new dads shouldn’t panic about low testosterone
June 10, 2026
According to a 2011 paper from University of Notre Dame professor Lee Gettler, part of the largest study on fatherhood and testosterone ever conducted, men averaged around a 25% drop in testosterone after becoming fathers.
Mentions
Anthropology
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Prescription for Disaster: Drug Deaths in America
June 10, 2026
Host Steven Davis speaks with William Evans and Ethan Lieber about the heartbreaking rise of deaths due to drug misuse in the United States.
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Financial Times
How will falling fertility rates hurt the economy? With Melissa Kearney
May 15, 2026
Soumaya Keynes speaks to Melissa Kearney, a professor at the University of Notre Dame and the director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, which recently put out a series on the topic: Demographic Headwinds: The Economic Consequences of Lower Birth Rates and Longer Lives. They discuss why the fertility rate won’t reverse course any time soon — and what happens when the rest of the baby boomers retire.
Mentions
Department of Economics
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NPR
U.S. fertility rate hits historic low as women delay pregnancy and have fewer children
April 30, 2026
The fertility rate in the United States has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded...I spoke with Melissa Kearney, an economist at the University of Notre Dame. She says these two trends combined - fewer U.S. babies and fewer migrants - these are game-changers.
Mentions
Department of Economics
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BBC News
Dad brains: How fatherhood rewires the male mind
April 20, 2026
When the American anthropologist Lee Gettler, then an undergrad student, heard about these findings in the early 2000s, he was hooked. "I asked [my lecturer] whether anyone was studying these questions in human fathers, and the answer at that point was largely no", says Gettler, now the director of the Hormones, Health, and Human Behavior Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Mentions
Anthropology
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WSBT TV
Supreme Court weighs on birthright citizenship; Notre Dame professor discusses impact
April 02, 2026
Legal analysts who monitored oral arguments on the issue on Wednesday pointed to the skeptical questions about the directive that removes automatic citizenship for children born here to undocumented migrants. Professor Amy Hsin at Notre Dame joined over 100 academics providing research to the Supreme Court in the case centering the 14th Amendment.
Mentions
Keough School of Global Affairs
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A new homelessness strategy is sweeping California
March 26, 2026
“The risk is you give out a lot of precious resources to people who otherwise would be able to prevent homelessness on their own, and that takes away from things like emergency shelters or transitional shelters or permanent supportive housing,” said Jim Sullivan, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Lab for Economic Opportunities.
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The New York Times
The Birthrate Is Plunging. Why Some Say That’s a Good Thing.
March 02, 2026
Drops among Hispanic, white and Black teenagers accounted for 37 percent of the national birthrate decline between 2007, when the rate started to go down, and 2019, according to calculations by Melissa Kearney, an economist at the University of Notre Dame, and her colleagues.
Researchers have pointed to several possible explanations. The decline coincided with the introduction of the smartphone, which rapidly became a tool for both social connection and isolation, even a substitute for sex, said Kasey Buckles, an economist at Notre Dame.
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How the opioid crisis turned places Republican
February 03, 2026
Economists Carolina Arteaga and Victoria Barone just published a new paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics showing that the opioid epidemic pushed the electorate right (It made a splash even in white paper form last year, so you may have already heard about it).
Mentions
Department of Economics
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Local leaders oppose this housing affordability bill. But do experts think it will work?
January 29, 2026
"Most of these reforms are pretty fresh in other states,” Evan Mast, an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Notre Dame, told IndyStar. "There aren't good, long term studies of how they impact affordability yet, but this type of legislation is getting more and more popular.”
Mentions
Department of Economics
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Catholic Charities expands program to national scale
January 28, 2026
“Padua shows what’s possible when evidence, dignity, and partnership come together,” said Jim Sullivan, Co-Founder and Director of LEO. “We have evidence this program works, and replicating it through trusted partners like Goodwill Michiana is how that evidence can improve lives far beyond where it began.”
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NPR
Heritage Foundation says declining marriage rates pose a threat to society
January 23, 2026
The authors do cite some work, particularly work from economist Melissa Kearney, that children who grow up in stable two-parent families, especially married biological parents, do show better average outcomes. But what Kearney's work also emphasizes is that what she calls a two-parent advantage is strongly tied to resources and stability.
Mentions
Department of Economics
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WVPE
Notre Dame expert says immigrant children need access to education
January 21, 2026
For more than 40 years, a Supreme Court ruling has guaranteed access to public education regardless of immigration status. Notre Dame migration scholar Amy Hsin warns that reversing it would harm the U.S. workforce and child welfare.
Mentions
Keough School of Global Affairs
