Yale University

Yale University psychology professor Laurie Santos says happiness is about having joy in your life and with your life.

“If we’re maximizing you being happy in your life -- that’s lots of positive emotions,” Santos told NEXT.

She says you’re happy with your life when you’re satisfied at a meta level.

Since its inception six years ago, the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program has become a focal point nationally for up-and-coming Native American playwrights, storytellers and actors.

Every year the program, also known as YIPAP, presents the Young Native Playwright’s Contest, the Young Native Storytelling Contest, and for the first time this year, the Young Native Actor’s Contest.

Images of the mob that attacked the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6 show a dizzying array of political and religious symbols among the crowd. There were flags, logos, sweatshirts and tattoos. Philip Gorski is a professor of sociology and religious studies at Yale University and author of American Babylon: Christianity and Democracy Before and After Trump. He spoke recently with Connecticut Public Radio’s Diane Orson.

Since Joe Biden became the president-elect, we’ve heard a lot about the series of losses the Trump campaign has suffered in court as it scuffles to find a way to keep President Donald Trump in the White House. Less talked about, but perhaps more important, is the Trump White House’s string of losses in court regarding its efforts to neuter the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

The Center on Climate Change and Health at the Yale School of Public Health has just released a report on climate change and health in Connecticut. It comes to some troubling conclusions and makes urgent calls to action. One of the authors of that report is Laura Bozzi, Ph.D. She outlined the report’s findings on Connecticut Public Radio’s All Things Considered.

The U.S. Justice Department is suing Yale University, claiming it discriminated against Asian and white students in its college admissions process. The lawsuit, filed Oct. 8, accuses Yale of violating federal civil rights laws by making admissions decisions based on a candidate’s race. 

This story has been updated.

Rev. Elvin Clayton has been the pastor at Walter’s Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Bridgeport for the past six years.

And in the COVID-19 era, Sunday mornings look a little different -- Clayton speaks at the pulpit from behind glass partitions, keeps services to an hour and broadcasts it all live on Facebook. 

“We’ve had great success thus far with it,” he said. 

Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader with ties to Yale University, was poisoned, according to the German hospital where he is being treated. Navalny remains in a medically induced coma. The 44-year-old is known for his anti-corruption investigations against Russian state corporations and senior officials, and he participated in Russia’s 2018 presidential election.

The pandemic is raising questions about what’s best for children as they head into a new school year, as many schools continue to finalize plans for this fall and parents make individual decisions for their families.

Megan Goslin, a clinical psychologist and research scientist at Yale’s Child Study Center, said it’s a difficult time for everyone. 

The U.S. Department of Justice has ruled that Yale University illegally discriminates against Asian American and white applicants, in violation of federal civil rights law. For its part, Yale calls the allegation “meritless” and “hasty.” The case is similar to one brought against Harvard last year. That case was rejected by a federal judge. 

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division says Black and Latinx students with similar academic qualifications are being admitted to Yale at higher rates than white and Asian American students, pointing to discrimination and a violation of the Civil Rights Act. 

Lawyer David Hinojosa said the evidence leading to that conclusion is -- in his words -- “almost laughable.”

Yale historian David Blight says when he first saw a collection of family scrapbooks of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, he was astonished.

Blight had been fascinated by Frederick Douglass all of his life. He’d written a book and edited autobiographies about the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day. But the scrapbooks offered new insights into Douglass’ life and eventually inspired Blight’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.  

Thousands of DACA recipients in Connecticut are breathing a sigh of relief after learning the U.S. Supreme Court blocked efforts by the Trump administration to end the program that protects them from deportation and allows them to work and study in the U.S. 

Every Thursday, a researcher from Yale University picks up a cooler from the East Shore Water Pollution Abatement Facility in New Haven.

In that cooler is a week’s worth of samples from the sewer system that experts call “sludge,” or the solid waste that is left over after treating wastewater. It can contain a mixture of chemicals, metals and remnants of human waste that is flushed down the toilet. 

On the same day the state partially reopened, Gov. Ned Lamont disbanded the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group, the task force that had been charged with coming up with a plan to guide the state into a safe, methodical reopening. One of the co-chairs of that group was Dr. Albert Ko of the Yale School of Public Health.

Virtual commencement celebrations began over the weekend for the Yale University class of 2020. Among those graduating is Henry Shapard. The 21-year-old was recently appointed principal cellist of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Canada. That makes him one of the youngest principal cellists of a major orchestra in North America. 

The coronavirus has swiftly led to dramatic changes in our daily lives. And that, in turn, has meant new levels of stress for many people.

Unlike other singular traumatic events, the pandemic is ongoing. And as Connecticut begins to reopen its economy, people will have to find ways to continually adapt to unpredictable and changing conditions.