The Week in Philly from KYW Newsradio

The cost of college is no joke, and for more than half a century, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has served as a tool to ease the financial burden of tuition. This year, despite efforts to improve the system, changes to FAFSA have triggered a stressful chain reaction. Families are limbo, schools are lost, and there doesn’t seem to be a clear sense of how to move forward. How...

If you’re looking to get hooked up with a job these days, LinkedIn is one of the first places to go, right? Well...what if you're just looking for a hook up in general? According to a recent article in Business Insider, some people are taking to LinkedIn for romance. What factors are fueling this trend? Could LinkedIn really become an effective platform for dating? Dr. Dustin Kidd is an associate...

In recent years, loneliness has been called an epidemic. The U.S. Surgeon General even said loneliness poses as much of a health threat as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. And it can be especially hard on seniors, who might have a harder time going out or might not have as many friends or family around. So what can we do to combat loneliness as we get older? Marypat Tracy is the Executive Director of...

Introducing a new project from another KYW Newsradio Original Podcast - "Ricochet" is a mini-series from Gone Cold: Philadelphia Unsolved Murders that examines the gun violence crisis in our country through stories of unsolved shootings in Philadelphia. In the first episode, we talk with Joan Ortiz, whose 2-year-old daughter Nikolette was shot and killed in her arms. It was at the hands of a man n...

Mickey Mouse in a slasher film? A horror flick with Winnie the Pooh? This is what happens when iconic characters previously protected by copyright laws enter the public domain. The countdown is on for famed comic book stars Batman and Superman, too. But just because copyright protections have their limits doesn’t mean creators can do whatever they please. There’s still nuance to the process. Drexe...

Craig Green thinks the Supreme Court, specifically its conservative justices, has been waiting to pounce, eager to topple a decades-old doctrine that essentially gives federal agencies the authority to independently interpret statutes surrounding how they operate. Now, thanks to two cases on the docket, this contingent might finally get its chance to wipe out the precedent that’s become known as C...

Earlier this year, Google began removing third-party cookies from its signature Internet browser, Chrome. But there’s a catch. First-party cookies - the cookies Google has direct access to and ownership of when people use Chrome - aren’t going anywhere. So what’s really happening here? Is Google trying to do you, the consumer, a solid? Or, is the tech giant simply implementing a change that will u...

Reading fluency helps students unlock the world, whether they’re in kindergarten or a senior in high school. But for far too long, children from specific demographics have struggled to keep pace after moving on from elementary school. To get a handle on how to better address this systemic issue, NWEA conducted a study targeting middle schoolers from historically marginalized or impoverished popula...

Were you strong in math? How about English? Were there subjects in school you dreaded, and others you loved? According to Fenesha Hubbard, the way we view ourselves as learners shapes our academic identity, a concept the former teacher considers critical to getting all cogs in the educational ecosystem moving in the same direction to maximize performance for students and educators alike. Hubbard i...

Eat well? Of course we should! But actually following through on doing it is a completely different story. Guilty pleasures, genetics, and access to quality food are just some of the factors that make maintaining a healthful diet so challenging. Two nutrition experts - Rebecca Shenkman and Tracy Oliver, both from Villanova University’s M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing - share insights on h...

January 11th marked the 60th anniversary of the first Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, a national announcement that revealed the dangers of smoking. In 2024, far fewer people are smoking regular cigarettes, but menthol cigarettes and vaping pose concerns, especially for Black communities and youth, and the Biden administration just put off a proposed FDA rule to ban menthol cigarett...

If you don’t get health insurance through your employer, signing up on your own can be a complicated and frustrating process. With the open enrollment deadline approaching, we wanted to explain how you can register and what to look for when choosing a plan. Kathy Hempstead is a senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, an organization dedicated to health care access and equity t...

The Schuylkill River is more than just a tranquil aesthetic along one of the most brutal highways into and out of Philadelphia. It’s a vital tributary within the Mid-Atlantic corridor of the United States, serving other key waterways as well. With ever-changing environmental factors acting as a backdrop, Drexel University Associate Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Dr...

Dr. Kathryn Bender wanted to give something a try. Knowing the subject matter she teaches at the University of Delaware can, at times, be a bit dense and complex, she decided to tap into the craze surrounding the world’s biggest pop star in hopes of reaching more students, especially women. Guess what? Her hunch was right. In the eight-part workshop “Data Enchanted: Transforming Numbers Into Knowl...

People who serve in the military often go through traumatic experiences, or just have trouble adjusting to life back at home. The mental health issues they face are unique, and it can be hard to find someone who really understands what they’ve experienced - but we all can do more to help. The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania offers mental health services for...

Every year, at least one dictionary picks a new slang term as its word of the year, and every year, older generations are baffled by it. For 2023, Oxford has chosen “rizz” , a term that’s gained popularity among Gen Z online. How did they land on that, and what does “rizz” even mean? Dr. Grant Berry is an assistant professor of Spanish and cognitive science at Villanova University, where he teache...

It’s the most wonderful...err, stressful time of year? Gifts, trips, relatives. The holiday season has it all, for better or worse. But if you’re trying to stay sane and keep your house in order, life can get overwhelming. Dr. Maria Rodriguez is the founder and CEO of Care Counseling Center. From the perils of too much screen time and social media to the necessity of self-care, she offers pointers...

Another case regarding abortion has made its way to the nation’s highest court. This one has to do with a common abortion pill called mifepristone and whether or not to reinstate restrictions on the medication that the FDA removed. The decision could impact abortion access in all states, regardless of their individual laws. Rachel Rebouché, Dean of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, helps...

Life is not easy. It is full of ups and downs. Most of us do our best to focus on the ups and push through the downs as quickly as possible - but Krista K. Thomason, an associate professor of philosophy at Swarthmore College, says in her new book, "Dancing with the Devil: Why Bad Feelings Make Life Good" , that maybe we should re-examine that mindset. We talk with Thomason about the book and why b...

It seems like every superhero or sci-fi movie franchise lately is diving into the multiverse. How much is that concept based on real science? Paul Halpern is a professor of physics at Saint Joseph's University, and he has a book coming out in January called “The Allure of the Multiverse” , where he takes a scientific approach to the concept of parallel universes. He says some scientists believe it...

From Fortune 500 companies to elite universities and professional sports franchises, big-name brands seem to be weighing in more frequently on big, hot-button societal issues. Why are they doing it and what are the costs of taking a stance? Villanova University Associate Dean of Diversity Equity and Inclusion and Associate Professor of Marketing Dr. Aronte Bennett takes a look at this social media...

For nearly two months, the world has turned its attention to Israel and Hamas. The early winner of the war? You could make the case it's Vladimir Putin. That’s because ever since the October 7th terror attacks, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seems to have fallen from the public eye. Which country has momentum? What subplots should we be following as winter nears? And why could Russian President Vlad...

In a matter of four days , OpenAI - the company behind ChatGPT - fired its CEO, Sam Altman, went through two interim CEOs, re-hired Altmanm, and replaced most of its board. How did all this happen, seemingly so out of the blue, to one of the most influential tech companies out there? And why? Dr. Daniel Albert, Assistant Professor at LeBow College of Business at Drexel University, joins us to disc...

The Supreme Court recently heard a case that challenges whether someone who is under a domestic violence restraining order should have access to a gun. Dr. Susan Liebell, professor of political science at Saint Joseph's University, joins us to talk about the case, United States vs. Rahimi. We discuss the impact it could have and how this shines a spotlight on the court's decision last year in the...

“The Boys” on Amazon Prime is not your typical superhero show - it’s gory, dark at times, and the “supes”, as they’re called, aren’t always the good guys. But with the real world pressures put on them - toxic masculinity, corporate greed and manipulation, racism - you start to understand how they got to be that way. Clinical psychologist Dr. Lynn Zubernis and counseling psychologist Dr. Matthew Sn...