Column

The FDA approves new nasal spray for depression, despite failing efficacy standards The FDA recently approved a new drug called Esketamine, a nasal spray for severe, treatment-resistant depression. My gut reaction to Esketamine was disturbed. Two of three of the drug’s trials did not meet the FDA’s normal efficacy standards, which means the results of […]

Rediscovering a sense of control, stability while abroad Less than an hour after I got to London, I hid in a stall in the airport bathroom and had a panic attack. Being out of the U.S. for the first time and feeling tired and grimy and homesick was, of course, emotionally draining. But what I […]

Why young people from across the political spectrum are turning to an innovative Democrat I first heard about Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur turned political dark horse, in late 2017 when researching possible 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Yang had already filed his campaign with the Federal Election Commission and was thus one of the few declared […]

Google’s Stadia represents a large leap forward for gaming Netflix. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t have access to it by way of a subscription or a friend’s password. The behemoth streaming platform has revolutionized the way we experience and consume movies and TV. Google wants to change that with video games. […]

More people are going outdoors — and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing Ask anyone who’s been outdoorsy in the West since the ‘70s and they can tell you they’ve been witness to the changing culture and experience of natural places over the last 50 years. Old timers — be they climbers, hikers, surfers, bikers, […]

With increased accessibility to extremist ideologies, millennials lack the critical thinking skills to discern fake news According to extensive polling and surveys, millennials possess great confidence in their ability to think critically. Recent research, however, undermines this millennial way of thinking, and recent events have exemplified the underlying danger of this deluded sense of confidence. […]

Current cinematic trends reveal our own desires Providing a true definition of art, particularly in the realm of cinema, is an impossible task. By the subjectivity inherent to the craft, forming strict standards for what constitutes legitimate artistic construction is best left to individual taste. However, that does not mean there is no room for […]

A hostile public and a wounded university go head to head When my editors at The California Aggie gave the green light to publish my op-ed “A UC Davis professor thinks cops ‘need to be killed’” on Feb. 25 — after weeks of hard deliberating that both delayed and strengthened the final result — we […]

California’s rural voters are feeling increasingly left out of the state’s political processes Take a drive from California’s north to its south, and you’ll realize just how diverse the state really is — geographically, culturally and, yes, even politically. While extensive population growth and wide scale demographic change have solidified California’s political homogeneity, the state’s […]

Why pursuing Trump’s Russia connection is a crucial and pragmatic step in pursuing a progressive America Anyone who cannot stand the fact that Donald Trump is president probably agrees that his greatest accomplishment has been catalyzing a powerful new counterwave of civic engagement among younger people. This younger generation of progressive millennials is strongly motivated […]

Why we can’t afford to give water privileges to big agriculture If you’ve taken the I-5 south from Sacramento and pulled over to get some Doritos or gas, odds are you’ve ended up in the backroads of one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions — the San Joaquin Valley — and stood in front […]

The environmental impacts of dams Once called the Ninth Wonder of the World, the Oroville Dam is the tallest dam in the United States. Standing at 770 feet — 40 feet taller than the Hoover Dam — the Oroville Dam was built in 1967 in response to major floodings of the Sacramento Valley in the […]