Indigenous women are murdered at 10 times the rate of all other ethnicities in the US

In 2023, Native Americans had the lowest life expectancy at birth among all racial and ethnic groups

Native Americans and Alaska Natives face significant health disparities linked to chronic underinvestment in reservation health infrastructure, poverty, and multigenerational psychological harm—often called historical or inherited trauma.

Murder rates spiked in the US after COVID-19, and then declined in 2023

Criminologist and former investigator Jillian Peterson says whether a murder is solved in the US is nearly up to the flip of a coin, with the clearance rate for murder cases being about 50%. The US, which has more guns than citizens, has about roughly five gun homicides per 100,000 residents, resulting in the 28th-highest rate of deaths from gun violence compared to the rest of the world.

European diseases killed a massive share of the Native American population

After Western contact, epidemic diseases devastated Indigenous communities. By 1920, the Native American population of the US had fallen to roughly 270,000, compared with an estimated 1.2 to 18 million at the time of European arrival.

Autoimmune disorders are one of the top 10 killers of young and middle-aged women

Studies in the US and the UK, though conducted decades ago, have underscored that autoimmune diseases, when grouped together, are a top killer of women.

Investigating 'the city that kills women'

For nearly three decades, thousands of women have disappeared near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Some were mutilated in ways that led authorities to suggest it the work of a serial killer, some were trafficked into slavery, and others have never been found. Opening with a hail of bullets, this 10-part podcast series hopes to uncover those responsible for the femicides.

Studies show immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans

Research examining incarceration records and crime data generally finds that immigrants—including undocumented individuals—have lower crime and incarceration rates than US-born citizens, though measurement is limited by gaps in national data on immigration status.

Black women offer a solution to racial health disparities

Black women in the US face higher rates of obesity, heart disease and more diseases. This article explores the historical and systemic racism underpinning the disparity, and the solutions Black women are creating.

Europeans' arrival to America brought disease to Indigenous populations

Indigenous people lived in the Americas for centuries before the arrival of the first Europeans in the 15th century. Their arrival was disastrous for Native tribes; in addition to being enslaved and losing their land, they had no natural immunity to the diseases brought by colonists. Eventually, up to 95% of the Native American population was killed by illnesses including typhus, chickenpox, and cholera, an event now known as the Great Dying.

'All My Relations' is a podcast by 2 Native women exploring what it means to be Indigenous today

Hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) and Temryss Lane (Lummi Nation), the show explores topics ranging from sovereignty and identity to food, fashion, and climate justice from a personal Indigenous lens.

The US Army massacred close to 300 Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee in 1890

Fearing the Ghost Dance—a spiritual movement spreading across starving reservations—the Army surrounded a Lakota encampment at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota. When a shot was fired during an attempted disarmament, it sparked chaos, and soldiers killed nearly 300 people.

The Red Power movement pushed back against poverty and broken treaty rights in the 1960s and 1970s

Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, Indigenous activists founded the American Indian Movement, a national advocacy organization, to protest excessive police violence and federal violations of treaty rights, drawing national attention to conditions on reservations.

Traumatic brain injury is a leading cause of brain death—and TBIs are trending up

Traumatic brain injury-related deaths have generally increased between 2000 and 2023, growing from roughly 49,000 to more than 68,000 in 2023. Firearm-related suicide is the most common cause of TBI-related deaths in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People also experience TBIs from falls, motor vehicle crashes, or assaults.

Explore the gap in what Americans die from versus news coverage on death causes

Top killers like heart disease, stroke, and liver disease, though they represent a significant burden nationally, are not often extensively covered in the media.

See the data comparing healthcare worker violence with other industries pre-pandemic

Nonfatal workplace violence against healthcare workers steadily climbed each year even before the pandemic. Healthcare workers comprised 73% of all nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses due to violence in 2018. The violence was highest among psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals.

Matrilineal societies—where women led households—were common among Northeastern natives

Such societies also viewed women as leaders in spiritual matters. Both men and women held political roles as clan leaders and worked in tandem with an advisory council.

Tribal courts handle justice on reservations, but face strict limits on whom they can prosecute

Reservation-based courts handle civil and criminal cases, but federal law sharply limits their authority over non-tribal members. As a result, non-Native individuals who commit crimes on reservations often fall outside tribal jurisdiction, creating potential gaps in accountability.

America's top causes of death are heart disease, cancer, accidents, and stroke

Heart disease killed more than 680,000 people in 2023 and cancer killed around 613,000 people that year. Both causes of death are far above the next leading cause of death—accidents, which numbered around 223,000. Provisional data for 2024 indicates the leading causes of death remained the same.

Women typically have more robust immune responses than men

This difference helps women better combat infectious diseases, but this more turbo-charged response may also make women more vulnerable to autoimmune diseases by potentially priming their immune systems to overreact to their own cells and tissues and label them as invaders that must be destroyed. Roughly 80% of American women have autoimmune conditions.

Women's health research continues to be underfunded

Health conditions that affect women more than men get less research funding. This interactive collection of graphs details the gendered gap in health research funding. Of the conditions that affect one sex more than another, those that create the...

Indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest

Indigenous people have unrivalled knowledge of plants and animals and play a crucial role in conserving biodiversity. Protecting their rights preserves this unique knowledge.

Women are four times as likely to be diagnosed with seasonal depression

This prevalence trend mirrors the broader incidence of depression among women and is well-documented. Researchers suggest the disparity stems from differences in hormones, social role expectations, coping mechanisms, and more. Men may also present with depression differently, and seek help less.

Native American tribes still are waiting for museums to return the remains of their ancestors

The remains of more than 100,000 Native Americans are held by prestigious US institutions, despite a 1990 law meant to return them to tribal nations. Here’s how their ancestors were stolen—and how tribes are working to get them back.

The US government ran boarding schools designed to erase Native American identity

From the late 19th century into the 20th century, the federal government sent Native children to boarding schools under the philosophy of "kill the Indian, save the man." Children were forbidden from speaking their languages or practicing their cultures, and many endured abuse.

Searching for a hate crime's unknown victim

In 2004, two federal agents heard a rumor: two white men, one under investigation for an unrelated crime, had gotten away with killing a Black man 15 years earlier as a requirement to join a white supremacist group. One of the men confessed to the crime, though he didn't know who was killed. This series dives into the search for the slain man and the justice he deserved.

Motocross is the deadliest organized sport for US kids

At least 158 participants under the age of 20 have been killed on dirt bikes since 2000, roughly six on average per year (seven times the death rate of tackle football). Observers note risks come from mixing ages and lacking warning systems during crashes.

Heat-related deaths may have climbed by more than 50% over 20 years

Between 2000 and 2009 one study suggests annual heat deaths averaged around 2,670, but between 2010 and 2020 that figure was likely more than 4,000. Researchers studied 54 million death records from the contiguous US and created mathematical models to arrive at these figures, noting that a combination of aging populations and climate change drove that increase.

Visualizing cause of death over time in America

As people age, their life expectancy decreases, but the timing and speed of this decline have evolved over the years. Check out this chart which shows the shift in various causes of death of Americans over the last few decades. Data from the...

When America's deadliest serial killer went undetected

Samuel Little, who, for years, washed in and out of the justice system on violent charges eroded into lesser offenses, ultimately admitted to killing 93 people, mostly women, over more than 30 years. He tended to target those on the fringes of society—runaways, drug users, sex workers—people whose deaths were more likely to go unnoticed, he remarked, referring to them as fruits to be plucked at will.

US troops committed widespread atrocities during the Mexican-American War

American volunteer regiments frequently looted towns, raped civilians, and executed prisoners—especially in occupied northern Mexico. Historians have documented how racial hatred and impunity fueled war crimes that were rarely punished by military leadership.

The US trails behind other developed countries in reducing its stillbirth rates and may learn from Australia

Australia is in the vanguard of efforts to bring down stillbirth numbers with a national stillbirth plan integrated into its healthcare system, supported by clinicians, nurses, midwives, and politicians. Its work also includes a public awareness campaign, more regular fetal monitoring and follow-up for potential interventions, and more maternal advice about care and safety during pregnancy.

Hospitals have been adding weapon detection systems to emergency rooms in response to violence

Healthcare workers are five times more likely to experience violence at work than employees in other industries, according to pre-pandemic federal data. Yet, despite growing awareness of these threats, fewer than one in three hospitals have installed metal detectors.

How a rural Indiana tragedy became true crime

In February 2017, two teens were dropped off at a local hangout spot near the northern edge of Delphi, Indiana, a city of less than 3,000 people. One of the girls was filming and briefly caught footage of a man coming toward them before they were apparently cornered and "marched to their deaths." The suspect remains unknown despite audio and grainy video evidence, giving rise to rumor and speculation.

Inflammaging appears to differ across global populations

Chronic, low-grade inflammation linked to aging is a byproduct of our industrialized lifestyles, according to recent research. The work compared two industrialized populations with two Indigenous, non-industrialized populations in Bolivia and Malaysia, and found that inflammation levels in the Indigenous groups—unlike the industrialized ones—did not seem to differ by age.

Why women are underrepresented in VC

Only about 11% of investing partners at venture capital firms are women, according to Harvard Kennedy School research. What’s more, only about 13% of VC dollars go to startups with a woman on the founding team. To learn more about why women are so often sidelined on both sides of the venture capital equation, click here.

Explore a map of global native lands

This interactive map visualizes Indigenous territories across the world. Users can search by location, language, or tribe to explore the histories, cultures, and present-day communities connected to specific lands.

The Trail of Tears killed thousands of Native Americans forced from their homelands

After the Indian Removal Act passed, the US Army marched the Cherokee and other nations hundreds of miles to the designated "Indian Territory" in present-day Oklahoma. Thousands died from starvation and disease along the way.

Almost 80% of people diagnosed with autoimmune diseases are women

Yet it's still unanswered what may account for that difference. To better understand this disparity researchers are exploring factors including hormonal changes that occur around puberty, pregnancy, and menopause, as well as gut microbe differences, and aspects of X-chromosome protein-coding genes. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

More than 300 distinct Native American languages existed at the time of European contact

Indigenous North America exhibited vast linguistic diversity, with over 300 languages spanning dozens of unrelated language families. This variety reflected centuries of distinct cultural development across the continent's many nations and regions.

One person dies from opioids every 7 to 8 minutes

This collection of infographics by the National Institute for Health Care Management helps put the crisis into perspective. The opioid epidemic has had three waves. Opioid-related deaths increasingly involve synthetic versions of the drug class, contributing to 83 percent of all opioid-related deaths in 2020. Use these infographics to learn more about the crisis.

Native, wild bees are at much greater risk of extinction than honey bees

It is estimated that there are more honey bees, which often compete with native bees for resources, on the planet than at any point in human history. Meanwhile, 40% of invertebrate pollinator species, including wild bees and butterflies, face extinction in the coming decades.

Women experience heightened bone loss after menopause

Both women and men begin to lose some bone density after age 35, on average. But, for the first decade after menopause, women lose bone more rapidly due to the significantly decreased levels of estrogen, putting women at heightened risk of osteoporosis and related bone fractures.

Why are women more likely to suffer autoimmune diseases than men?

A majority of Americans with autoimmune diseases have more than one X chromosome, a typical marker of the female biological sex, according to a study published in February of 2024. During fetal development, cells side with one X chromosome over the other, preventing the overproduction of X-chromosome-specific proteins and shutting down the twin chromosome. This article explores how this X-chromosome inactivation can lead to autoimmune disorders by generating antibodies to the body's own tissues.

More than 2,000 Black Americans were victims of racial terror lynchings from 1865 to 1876

The Equal Justice Initiative documented over 2,000 lynchings of Black people during Reconstruction—violence that attempted to restore white supremacy, suppress Black political power, and terrorize communities in the aftermath of emancipation.

Tracking the Isdal Woman

In 1970, a burnt body encircled by an odd assortment of items was found in a remote Norwegian valley. For nearly 50 years, the true identity of the woman escaped authorities who found she had traveled the country under many names. This podcast episode is the first in a 12-part series seeking to uncover the woman's identity and what happened in her final moments.

The Wampanoag Nation inhabited the northeastern coast of North America for 12,000 years before European contact killed an estimated two-thirds of their population in a single generation.

Tribal lenders have charged up to 600% APR on short-term loans

Some Native American tribes use their exemption from state legislation to bypass regulations on usury laws. Similar to payday lending, some tribal lenders have charged up to 600% APR on short-term loans.

Dozens of US women in labor turned away from hospital between 2022 and 2024

An Associated Press analysis of federal hospital investigation data concluded that more than 100 pregnant women in medical distress were turned away from emergency rooms or treated negligently since 2022.

Most Americans are now dying at home, reversing 20th century trends

For most of the 21st and 20th centuries most Americans died in hospital settings. But in 2016, home-based deaths overtook hospitals; most Americans are now dying at home, likely fueled by individual preferences to die at home or to receive at-home palliative care.

By 2030, roughly 6% of the world's population will be in menopause

An estimated 25 million women pass through menopause annually, with a projected increase in the number of women in menopause in both lower-resource and higher-income populations in the years ahead, highlighting the social and economic value of focusing on menopause care.

Women tend to tip more often than men

For instance, among people who visit hair salons or barber shops, 62% of female respondents said they always tipped. Only 45% of men said the same. This article includes more takeaways and stats about how Americans tip, and who receives them.