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Apr 21, 2026

The 11 most challenged books of 2025, according to the American Library Association

Apr 21, 2026

The American Library Association has released its annual list of the most commonly challenged books at libraries across the United States. According to the ALA, the 11 most frequently targeted books include several tied titles. (Tsioulcas, NPR)

Apr 21, 2026

Largest U.S. Study Finds Teen Cannabis Use Linked to Slower Cognitive Development

Apr 21, 2026

Researchers from University of California San Diego School of Medicine have found that teenagers who begin using cannabis show slower gains in thinking and memory skills as they grow. The study, published on April 20, 2026 in Neuropsychopharmacology, analyzed data from more than 11,000 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, the largest long-term study of brain development in U.S. youth. (UC San Diego Today)

Apr 21, 2026

Supreme Court will hear from religious preschools challenging exclusion from taxpayer-funded program

Apr 21, 2026

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear from Catholic preschools that say it’s unconstitutional to exclude them from a state-funded program because they won’t admit kids from LGBTQ+ families. (Whitehurst, AP News)

Apr 21, 2026

This teaching method, backed by conservatives, is on the rise

Apr 21, 2026

Classical education’s newfound popularity comes as the Trump administration seeks to promote patriotism and frames criticism of the darker chapters of U.S. history as un-American. The president is also attempting to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from schools, governments and workplaces. (Lumpkin, The Washington Post)

Apr 21, 2026

News Archive:

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The 11 most challenged books of 2025, according to the American Library Association

Around the country, at Catholic churches where Mr. Vance and the pope have roots, reporters for The New York Times asked worshipers what they thought of the dispute. (Knight et al., The New York Times)

[There is] a recent drive by some in AI safety to convince the masses that superintelligent AI could spell the end of human civilization, a drive that includes sponsoring social media posts and partnering with influencers such as author and YouTube star Hank Green. (Tiku, The Washington Post)

Bluey’s success is one of the great case studies of the streaming era—a show that reveals what people actually want from television and the fundamental shortcomings of the platform that hosts it. That an Australian children’s cartoon became Disney+’s biggest hit is, paradoxically, a testament to everything the century-old conglomerate gets wrong. (Parris, Stat Significant)

Roughly a third of Americans who have tied the knot said their first marriage ended in divorce, according to a Pew Research Center report that uses 2023 data. Divorce lawyers say that what’s known as financial secrecy or infidelity is at the center of many splits. (Banerji, The Wall Street Journal)

Pope Leo XIV urged Cameroon’s young people on Friday to resist the temptation of corruption and instead work to serve the common good as he celebrated a Mass before thousands of people in one of the largest expected turnouts of his 11-day, four-nation Africa journey. (Winfield, AP News)

Overall, 70% of U.S. adults now say Trump is not too or not at all religious, while 24% say he is somewhat religious and 5% say he is very religious. The survey was conducted April 6-12, 2026, just before Trump criticized Pope Leo XIV and posted an image on social media depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure. Trump later deleted the image and said he intended to show himself as a doctor. (Rotolo, Pew Research Center)

President Trump’s feud with Pope Leo XIV and the president’s AI-generated image of himself as a Christ-like figure have become a global story about the clash of the two most powerful Americans—and one that is testing the loyalties of the roughly 53 million U.S. Roman Catholics. (Maher, Bernstein & Levitz, The Wall Street Journal)

A poll of Americans’ opinions about more than 20 international luminaries established as much, with the 11-time Grammy winner and philanthropist leaving her two closest competitors – Barack Obama and Volodymyr Zelenskyy – in the dust by more than 50 percentage points. (Vargas, The Guardian)

A new report released Wednesday (April 15) from Washington, D.C.-based Public Religion Research Institute found that 43% of adult women under 30 identify as “none” — those who claim no religious identity. That’s up from 29% in 2013. PRRI found that unaffiliated young women outnumber unaffiliated men (35%). Overall, PRRI found that 39% of Americans under 30 identify as “none.” (Smietana, Religion News Service)

More young men report that they attend churches or other houses of worship at least monthly, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday, one of several indicators that group of Americans may be bucking broader trends as religiosity among most people in the United States remains at historic lows. (Wu, The Washington Post)

Teens largely turn to TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat for fun and connection. But experiences around messaging, screen time and cyberbullying vary. And what teens say about how these sites impact their mental health. (Faverio, Park & Gottfried, Pew Research Center)

As the war in Sudan enters its fourth year Wednesday (April 15), the bombed Episcopal Church of Our Savior in Khartoum’s Omdurman constantly reminds Christians of the brutal conflict. The church that stood for 81 years is now in ashes after it was bombed in 2023. (Nzwili, Religion News Service)

Wonder. It’s a hard experience to translate. And Commander Wiseman wasn’t shy about admitting that everything they’d seen had worn out his supply of adjectives. “Houston,” he radioed down, “if you could give me about 20 new superlatives in the mission summary for tomorrow, that will help my vocabulary out a bit.” (Sherr, The Atlantic)

An increase in personal Bible use in the U.S. in 2025 was short-lived, the American Bible Society said in its latest State of the Bible release, with newest engagement numbers receding to 2024 levels. But ABS isn’t ready to call it a loss. Instead, “it’s complicated,” ABS researchers said in summarizing the data from Chapter 1 of the 2026 report. (Chandler, Baptist Press)

For us to trust it on certain subjects, researchers in the growing field of interpretability might need to learn how to open the black box of its brain. (Whang, The New York Times)

Patriarch Kirill, 79, confused his congregation as he preached a Christmas message at Easter. But other Russians are being punished mercilessly in the name of religion. (Bennetts, The Times)