Expert Requests

1. NRA mismanagement: We're looking for pitches regarding the NRA related to details about the gun group that are emerging during its bankruptcy trial. For example, it sought bankruptcy protection without getting its board to sign off first and it provides top officials with lavish benefits. Articles will explain how common these practices are for nonprofits and how they compare to corporate norms.

Contact: Emily Schwartz Greco, emily.schwartz.greco@theconversation.com 
Timing: Contact editor by Thursday, April 15

In case you missed it, we are still chasing:

2. How do you count pollen? We’d like to publish a short and sweet article that will explain for readers where those pollen count numbers come from in their weather apps. Do you have a scholar who checks the rotarod daily and would be up for revealing a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the process?

Contact: Maggie Villiger, maggie.villiger@theconversation.com
Timeline: Contact with author by April 26

3. Coronavirus in Chile and Uruguay: For most of last year Uruguay was a South American pandemic success story, keeping COVID-19 cases low and reopening schools after just a short closure. Now cases are reaching record levels. Chile, meanwhile, vaccinated faster than any country other than the U.S. and is also now seeing a record surge. The Conversation seeks a public health expert with expertise in the Southern Cone to explain what went wrong and how vaccinations are going, and put these countries in global context.

Contact: Catesby Holmes, catesby.holmes@theconversation.com
Timeline: Contact editor by COB today, Monday, April 12

4. Voting rights: Hundreds of bills sponsored by GOP legislators are being considered in state legislatures to restrict certain aspects of voting, particularly in the South. We're chasing two angles of this story. (A) We'd like a scholar to explore an important hypothetical: If the Voting Rights Act had not been gutted in Shelby County v. Holder, what would that mean for these bills? (B) We want to put Georgia's new voting restrictions in national context. In particular, how do voting rights in the South compare to those in the
North? Do any other states have voting restrictions as strict as those recently passed by Georgia?

Contact: Naomi Schalit, naomi.schalit@theconversation.com
Deadline: Contact editor by COB today, Monday, April 12 Please specify which story the scholar is interested in writing in your email.

5. Wizard of Oz scholars: We’re partnering with PBS to run a couple of articles tied to its forthcoming documentary “American Oz.” The articles will simultaneously be run on the PBS website and our own. We’re looking for someone who can write on the evolution of "The Wizard of Oz" in popular imagination as seen through "The Wiz" and "Wicked." We’re interested in how Oz becomes a vehicle for exploring race and gender in these two re-inventions of the story.

Contact: Nick Lehr, nick.lehr@theconversation.com 
Timeline: 900-word draft submitted by COB today, Monday, April 12

6. Cleaning up old mines: The leaking pond at an old phosphate plant site in Florida is just the latest example of environmental hazards from mining sites, including coal, hardrock and uranium mining. President Biden’s infrastructure plan includes $16 billion to clean up abandoned mines and orphaned oil and gas wells. We would like to publish an overview of environmental and health risks of abandoned mining sites across the U.S. that describes what types of threats they pose and what’s involved in cleaning them up.

Contact: Jennifer Weeks, jennifer.weeks@theconversation.com
Deadline: Contact editor by today, Monday, April 12

7. World’s worst pandemic president: The Conversation is putting together an “Ask 5 scholars” panel to provide a round-up on world leaders who’ve handled the pandemic badly (plus why/how, and what the consequences are). Each scholar who wishes to respond to the question should submit their top 3 choices for “world’s worst pandemic president” with a very brief explanation of rationale, for each, via email. Editors will review all submissions and assign one 150-200-word submissions on a single country to five different scholars.

Contact: Catesby Holmes, catesby.holmes@theconversation.com
Deadline: Contact editor by tomorrow, Tuesday, April 13

8. History of U.S. rail travel: Improving rail infrastructure in the U.S. is one focus of the new infrastructure bill, and Amtrak has released an aspirational map of its rail network by 2035 should it receive sufficient congressional funding. The Conversation seeks an expert in passenger-rail travel to put Amtrak’s current state and future ambitions in a historic context. Author and editor can discuss the specific angle together, based on the scholar’s
expertise.

Contact: Catesby Holmes, catesby.holmes@theconversation.com
Timeline: Have a qualified scholar contact editor by today, Monday, April 12

9. Confederate currency: For our Curious Kids series, we are looking for a historian of currency or of the Confederate States of America to explain what happened to Confederate money after the Civil War ended. Contact: Jeff Inglis, jeff.inglis@theconversation.com Timeline: Have a qualified scholar contact editor by COB today, Monday, April 12; article timeline can be very flexible
10. Student-debt cancellation: What are some viable ways to cancel student loan debt? We're looking for a scholar to write a quick-turnaround, research-based, extremely brief answer to this question.

Contact: Alvin Buyinza, alvin.buyinza@theconversation.com
Timeline: Contact editor by COB today, Monday, April 12

11. House and Senate parliamentarians: As the lead interpreter of the House and Senate rules and precedents, the people in these roles have the power to say what legislation may be introduced and what may not. We’d like a brief story on this position, how much power the person in it really has (we are aware that a parliamentarian can be fired if they don’t give the right answer), when/why it was established in each legislative body, and some notable decisions its occupants have made.

Contact: Naomi Schalit, naomi.schalit@theconversation.com
Deadline: Contact by Monday, April 19

12. Easing marijuana laws and incarceration: As more states legalize recreational marijuana, we’d like to do a data-driven story about the people still serving time on marijuana possession charges. How does it vary by state? Are there stories about notable experiments with amnesty that we could tell? Please send a five-sentence summary, explaining the scholar’s expertise and approach to the story.

Contact: Emily Costello, emily.costello@theconversation.com
Deadline: Submit pitches via email by COB today, Monday, April 12