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Zack Wheeler knows deadline uncertainty better than most: ‘an anxious time'
Zack Wheeler has been traded, nearly moved and left in deadline limbo. Those experiences shaped how he views this time of year.
NASA’s Curiosity rover finds a mysterious honeycomb landscape on Mars
NASA’s Curiosity rover has entered a Martian valley covered by an astonishing “sea” of tiny polygon-shaped fractures. The honeycomb patterns, each only a few inches wide, stretch across the landscape and even wrap around a nearby 20-foot-tall butte.
Ryan Gosling's family-first philosophy reshaped his Hollywood career: experts
From "Barbie" to "Ghost Rider," Ryan Gosling's pivot toward blockbuster franchises traces back to a deliberate family-first philosophy he embraced as a dad.
How Columbia Changed My Politics
A former liberal reflects on how Columbia University's reaction to the 2016 election and its culture of ideological conformity reshaped her politics.
How I Got My Career in Foreign Policy: Andrea R. Flores
Andrea Flores has spent more than fifteen years working on immigration policy, including at DHS, the White House, and the ACLU. She spoke with CFR about how her 360-degree perspective has shaped her understanding of the issue and the challenges of advancing immigration reform.
How drought shaped the Bronze Age world that inspired The Odyssey
A new climate study suggests centuries of drought added pressure to the Bronze Age societies that inspired Homer's The Odyssey, revealing how environmental stress, food insecurity and failing trade networks may have shaped a world of collapse and survival.
20 science facts that sound completely made up
Science facts that sound fake but are true, from cube-shaped wombat droppings to a pulsar spinning 716 times a second, all confirmed by research
National Youth Science Camp welcomes 2026 delegates to West Virginia
The 2026 National Youth Science Camp welcomes delegates from nearly 50 states and eight nations for three fully funded weeks of STEAM learning, diplomacy and outdoor adventure in West Virginia. The prestigious program has shaped young leaders for more than 60 years.
Whatcom Women in Business to Honor Four Local Leaders at 2026 Professional Women of the Year Awards
Whatcom Women in Business (WWiB) will celebrate its 2026 Professional Women of the Year (PWOTY) Awards on Friday, September 25, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Evergreen Gardens in Ferndale, honoring four women whose work has shaped businesses and community life across Whatcom County.
Scientists trace the shocking origin of human eyes to an ancient “cyclops”
Researchers say a tiny one-eyed ancestor that lived nearly 600 million years ago may have shaped the evolution of every vertebrate eye, including our own. They also found that its ancient median eye lives on today as the pineal gland, which helps synchronize our sleep with daylight.
The UK has its first Catholic PM – but don’t expect a US-style religious culture war to follow
Trump administration has clashed with Vatican on social issues but Burnham’s faith is shaped by different principles
Andy Burnham and the rise of ‘aura farming’ in politics
Is “aura farming” the new political superpower? There are some days in TV news when you find yourself standing in the middle of a farm, surrounded by baby goats, trying to explain internet slang. Subscribe This was one of those days. There I was, in wellies, trying to unpack aura farming - a Gen Z term for carefully cultivating your image online so that you look effortlessly cool, authentic and charismatic. The trick, apparently, is that it can’t look like you’re trying too hard. Which, I’ll admit, felt slightly ironic as we filmed an entire report on a farm purely because the word farming is in the title. ‘Shaped by algorithms’ Whether you like it or not, politics increasingly feels like it’s being shaped by algorithms as much as manifestos. Take Andy Burnham. Since arriving at Number 10, he’s been impossible to miss online. One minute he’s out for a casual jog with Mo Farah. Next he’s announcing policy alongside TikTok high priestess Bus Aunty. His social media paints a very deliberate picture: less polished Westminster operator, more bloke from the North who just happens to be running the country. It’s not accidental. Burnham’s “King of the North”, New Order-loving persona has become part of a carefully constructed political brand. Authenticity is now something politicians work incredibly hard to make look effortless. But Burnham isn’t inventing this playbook. Like so many of us doomscrolling on an evening, he’s been influenced online. The digital strategy of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, pictured above right, has become a case study in viral political communication, and some of the people behind that campaign have recently been advising the Labour Party in Britain. Their message is simple: if you want to reach younger voters, you need to show up where they already spend their time. Embracing content creators And increasingly, that doesn’t mean traditional news interviews (awkward). It means speaking to content creators like Max from The Career Ladder, whose channels reach around 20 million followers worldwide. His interview with Burnham, pictured below, was posted almost immediately after he became Prime Minister. What struck me wasn’t just the audience size, but something Max told me afterwards: many people in the comments said they’d discovered Britain had a new Prime Minister through his interview. Think about that for a moment. Not through rolling news. Not through newspapers. Through a creator they were already following while scrolling. Share That’s a profound shift in how political information reaches people, one that’s been gathering momentum for some time. It also explains why politicians are embracing content creators and spending millions on digital marketing. Of course, this isn’t unique to one party. ‘Personality before policy’ In many ways, the right were quicker off the mark in building their aura online. Donald Trump built much of his political identity on social media. Nigel Farage remains one of Britain’s strongest political performers on TikTok. Politicians across the spectrum now understand that personality often reaches people before policy does. During a six-week UK general election campaign alone, overall digital ad spending routinely tops £11m. Share Channel 4 News Former Number 10 social media adviser Andrew Wong put it well when he told me that “vibes” can help someone get noticed, but they only work if they’re rooted in a genuine personality. Force it, and audiences spot it instantly. The bigger question is whether internet charisma can backfire on you - especially when you’re Prime Minister. Because behind Burnham’s carefully curated videos is a veteran politician with decades of Westminster experience. The spontaneity is produced. While the authenticity may be genuine, it’s managed. That’s not necessarily a criticism. It’s simply the reality of modern political communication. Aura farming alone is not enough to harvest change. But in the age of algorithms, winning attention may be the first battle. Subscribe Share Channel 4 News Leave a comment
30-plus business closures this year have reshaped Fargo-Moorhead
More than 30 businesses have closed across Fargo-Moorhead through July 2026. Here's a recap of the closures and what has moved into some of those spaces.
'Rescheduling' cannabis would ease restrictions on science, opening the door to the largest investment in cannabis research we've seen to date
Rescheduling cannabis could mark a major shift in research, but it alone will not eliminate the scientific, regulatory and patient-access challenges that have shaped medical cannabis for decades.
Pirates Trade for Veteran Reliever, DFA Dennis Santana
The Pirates reshaped their bullpen Thursday, acquiring Ron Marinaccio from the Padres and designating Dennis Santana for assignment.
The Mental Health Cost of Harsh Immigration Policy
Since January 2025, a wave of new policies has reshaped daily life for refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrant families across the country: the suspension of refugee resettlement, the possible return of "Remain in Mexico,” the end of humanitarian parole for thousands, temporary protected status at risk, and more. Each of these sounds like a policy headline, but in practice, these changes
Politics of Dignity: How Status Inequality shaped Redistributive Politics in India - WID
Politics of Dignity: How Status Inequality shaped Redistributive Politics in India Why do some marginalized groups prioritize representation over redistribution? Poulomi Chakrabarti explores how status inequality has shaped redistributive politics in India.
Dimitri de Vreeze helped build DSM’s materials business. Then he had to sell it
After more than three decades at science-based firm DSM, Dimitri de Vreeze faced what he calls the hardest decision of his career: selling the materials business where he had grown up professionally. In this episode of "Executive Decisions," the DSM-Firmenich CEO reflects on why the decision made strategic sense, even as it felt deeply personal, and how it shaped his view that success is not a finish line.
This Week: Muni 1 Bus Improvements, Car Free Happy Hour, SF Politics 101
Here is a list of events this week. Tuesday Park Presidio and California Evening Pop-Up. This SFMTA project aims to improve the Muni 1 California bus route from 33rd Avenue to Steiner Street. Come learn about it. Tuesday, July 21, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Corner of Park Presidio and California, S.F. Tuesday East Bay Car Free Happy Hour. Whether you’re car free, car light, car free curious, or just want to hang out with fun people and have nerdy urbanist conversations, everyone is welcome. Tuesday, July 21, 5:30-7 p.m., Drake’s Dealership, 2325 Broadway, Oakland. Wednesday SF Politics 101 with Joel Engardio. SF Politics 101 is an entertaining look at how local politics work and the history that shaped San Francisco — brought to life with visuals and narrative storytelling. Wednesday, July 22, 6-7:15 p.m., SPUR Urban Center, 654 Mission Street, S.F. Friday Woman and Non-Binary Morning Ride. Join the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition for a socially distanced bike ride for women and nonbinary cyclists. Friday, July 24, 7:15-8:45 a.m., McLaren Lodge, 501 Stanyan Street, S.F. Saturday Smart City Cycling 3 — Road Practice. In this class, you’ll go on a guided group ride to practice street-riding skills on increasingly high-volume streets. This class is the third in the Smart City Cycling sequence, and Smart City Cycling 2: Maneuvering is a prerequisite. Saturday, July 25, 10 a.m.-12 p.m., Arguello Extension, Arguello Blvd and Lincoln Way, S.F. Sunday Adult & Teen Learn-to-Ride Workshop. This three-hour workshop is for adults and teens who have not yet learned to ride a bike or would like a refresher on the basics of balancing, pedaling, and steering. Sunday, July 26, Alameda Waterfront Park, 2151 Ferry Point, Alameda. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.
Who is Andy Burnham, the U.K.'s new prime minister?
On Monday, former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham succeeds Keir Starmer as the United Kingdom's prime minister. Burnham's politics have been shaped by England's north-south class divide.
Star Trek: Why Do The USS Voyager's Nacelles Fold?
Nacelles, the tube-shaped engines on a Starfleet vessel, don't typically fold, but the USS Voyager is an exception. Here's why that ship is different.
Will Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ independent streak define his legacy?
Sometimes aligned with his party and at other times apart from it, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has spent much of his tenure charting his own course. That independent streak carried through fights over labor policy, rural anger over wolf reintroduction and ultimately his decision to commute Tina Peters’ sentence, a move that reshaped his standing […]
Philadelphia politics is shaped by low voter turnout.
Philadelphia’s low-turnout primaries and one-party rule let a small slice of voters shape who leads the city.
Virginie Bridoux - A life shaped by sports volunteering: "There's simply nothing else like it"
French volunteer Virginie Bridoux began her journey as a sports event volunteer 20 years ago, saying it made her "a better person". Discover her story and sign up to follow in her footsteps and become a volunteer for LA28.
60 years of hurt - England's World Cup wait in numbers
England’s wait for another World Cup triumph wait told through the football, people and moments that have shaped the world since 1966.
How the Milwaukee County pension scandal reshaped Wisconsin politics
The Milwaukee County pension scandal gave rise to the political career of Scott Walker and reshaped Wisconsin politics.
How Mickey Mouse reshaped American entertainment
Mickey Mouse helped transform animation, launch the Disney empire and become one of the most recognizable icons in American entertainment.
How the failed 2016 coup reshaped Turkiye’s civil-military relations
Takeover bid 10 years ago sped up efforts to expand civilian oversight, experts say, reducing chances of another coup.
Johns Hopkins APL’s Yee and Murchie Honored for Lasting Impact in Space Science | Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Scientists Sam Yee and Scott Murchie were jointly awarded APL’s Lifetime Publication Achievement Award for work that has documented discovery, driven space missions, shaped scientific priorities, and advanced the field.
Lindsey Graham’s improbable life from the back room of a bar to the center of American power
Before Lindsey Graham became a national political force, he was a boy growing up behind his parents’ bar in SC. These are the losses, loyalties and contradictions that shaped his improbable life.
The future of British politics
UK politics will be reshaped by identity, demographics, legal paralysis and fiscal strain, shifting voters into nationalist, cosmopolitan and liberal blocs.
Sen. Lindsey Graham's career marked by reversals, including on Trump
Sen. Lindsey Graham's career in Washington was shaped by his hardline foreign policy beliefs and shifting views of President Donald Trump.
Skip Pyrex: The Antique Dishware You Can Find At Thrift Stores That's A 'True Collector's Jewel'
The Le Creuset Dutch Oven Terrine is unique. Shaped like a duck and no longer in production, this piece is a rare and interesting twist on plain cookware.
Trump never won Minnesota, but political experts say his grip on state GOP politics keeps growing
Minnesota Republicans head into an August primary shaped by a president who has lost the state three times but still commands outsized loyalty from its conservative base.
Managing water with local wisdom and science
In Asakura, the river follows the past. Long before modern science, villagers reshaped the land. Researchers are now learning how those systems still work, collaborating with local communities to manage rivers and prevent disasters while preserving biodiversity.
Philadelphia’s politics were reshaped by the effort to win the 1936 Democratic Convention
Before 1936, Philadelphia was a rock-ribbed Republican city, but the effort led by businessman Albert Greenfield to lure the convention turned it into a Democratic bastion.
Scientists discover how astrocytes help memories last
Some memories remain with us for years, shaping how we learn from experience and adapt to the world around us. Others disappear quickly, even when they once seemed important. Although scientists have long studied how memories are formed in the brain, far less is known about what allows certain memories to persist over time. A research team led by Dr. KOH Wuhyun at the Center for Memory and Glioscience within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), together with researchers at the Korea Brain Research Institute (KBRI), has now discovered that astrocytes play a critical role in this process. Astrocytes are star-shaped cells in the brain that have traditionally been considered support cells for neurons. The study shows that these cells actively help determine whether memories can be maintained over long periods of time, revealing a previously unknown mechanism that supports long-term memory persistence.
Anthropic's new "J-lens" reveals a silent workspace inside Claude that mirrors a leading theory of consciousness
Anthropic’s new Claude research reveals a hidden internal “global workspace” that resembles human conscious processing, raising major questions about AI reasoning, interpretability, safety, and machine consciousness.
NASA Webb Uncovers Unusual Galaxy Shaped by Cosmic Collision
Webb uncovers unusual galaxy shaped by cosmic collision: Webb's unprecedented sensitivity across near- and mid-infrared wavelengths cuts through the thick lanes of dust that obscure Centaurus A’s center in visible light, showing a densely packed tapestry of individual stars and an active, everchanging galaxy. These images mark four years of better-than-anticipated performance and successful science operations for the most powerful space telescope in history. Centaurus A is 11 million light-years away from Earth, relatively close in cosmic terms. Yet, unlike most nearby galaxies, it is very active, making it a powerful laboratory for understanding how galaxies and black holes grow and evolve together.
AI Is Changing How Customers Choose Your Business
As AI increasingly mediates how customers research, evaluate, and choose suppliers, competitive advantage is shifting from direct customer understanding to managing AI-shaped interactions. Drawing on the experiences of three small-to-medium sized businesses they worked with, the authors show how firms can adapt. A manufacturer improved sales efficiency by screening AI-generated inquiries before investing engineering time in quotations. A boutique hotel learned to monitor how AI tools described its business and revised public content to improve accuracy and differentiation. A B2B software company replaced periodic customer reviews with continuous monitoring of customer feedback and AI-generated market perceptions. Across all three cases, the lesson is that firms must treat AI as a new intermediary in the customer relationship. Winning companies will not necessarily spend the most on technology; they will build systems for continuously listening, interpreting signals, and adapting strategy in markets where both customers and the information they rely on are increasingly AI-mediated.
After America’s 250th, Trump will test how far he can push NATO allies
As NATO leaders gather in Turkey, they are preparing for another summit shaped as much by managing President Donald Trump as by the alliance's security agenda.
The Political Recap: Exploring how politics shaped Virginia and the country’s history
Guest host MaryCatherine Price talks to political expert Rich Meagher about political movements, the Founding Fathers’ opinions on today’s political sphere and how the country was found…
Scientists discover giant fan-shaped structure beneath Antarctica's ice sheet: The hidden structure rewriting Earth's ancient history
For decades, Antarctica has been treated as a kind of frozen time capsule, a place where evidence of Earth's deep past sits preserved, undisturbed, beneath layers of ice that have built up over millions of years. As per the study published in Nature Geoscience, scientists have now uncovered something remarkable within that buried record: an enormous, fan-shaped geological structure stretching across a huge swath of East Antarctica, hidden entirely from view beneath the ice.
Celebrating America's 250th: How business innovations in Memphis shaped daily American life
Innovations created in Memphis and the Mid-South have forever changed American life and culture.
10 truly groundbreaking sports ‘firsts’ that shaped America
These 10 firsts laid the foundation for the sports that drive us to eat, sleep and breathe fandom.
Trump got the Senate candidates he wanted. How much will he spend to help them?
President Donald Trump has reshaped the U.S. Senate map by sidelining some Republican incumbents and promoting loyalists
Bigger fireworks, bigger politics: The fight over America's 250th
Presidents have always shaped Independence Day. Critics say this year’s celebration is different in scale, funding and politics.
Scientists have detected a giant fan-shaped structure buried beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, suggesting the frozen continent may be hiding the geological scars of the breakup that helped separate Antarctica from Australia
East Antarctica can look, from above, like the quiet half of the frozen continent: old, thick, cold and buried under kilometres of ice. But beneath that ice, new mapping suggests the bedrock may carry the shape of a much more violent past. In a Nature Geoscience study published in June 2026, researchers described a giant […]
Taylor Swift was a big part of their weddings. Now, fans are celebrating hers.
Swift's wedding inspires fans to reflect on how her music shaped their own weddings, proposals and love stories over the years.
Building connections across molecular life science
ASBMB President Ed Eisenstein reflects on how the society shaped his scientific career and outlines his vision for expanding connections across academia, industry and government to accelerate discovery, translation and community-building.
Protecting Science. Advancing HIV Prevention. Preparing for What's Next
Global health is being reshaped by rapid geopolitical shifts, scientific breakthroughs and the growing role of artificial intelligence — creating both new opportunities and new challenges. Translating scientific breakthroughs into impact requires protecting research, advancing equitable access and ensuring communities are at the center. Explore AVAC’s latest resources to help navigate and shape what comes […]
Professor, Mentor, Researcher, and Data Pioneer: Celebrating Lynn Blewett’s Retirement
I first met Lynn Blewett as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, where her courses on the U.S. health care system fundamentally shaped how I understand policy and evidence. What struck me most was her ability to translate complex health systems into their human dimensions and to remind us […]
America at 250: Innovations That Transformed Business
Wharton faculty explore the American business innovations that transformed industries, reshaped markets, and changed the way the world works.
Connie Cepko: A Life in Science Mapping the Retina — and Working to Save It
Over a five-decade career, HHMI Investigator Connie Cepko has reshaped our understanding of how the retina develops and forged new paths toward treating blindness and inherited retinal disease. This story is part of a series exploring the careers of HHMI scientists.
How fear of a market meltdown may have quietly shaped the Supreme Court’s ruling to protect Fed independence
How Sports Other Than Football Shaped Garrett Wilson’s Creativity
Growing Up, the WR Also Played Basketball and Did Gymnastics
Careers That Shaped Biology
Every great scientific career begins with a question no one has been able to answer — and a scientist stubborn enough to keep asking it. This series looks back at the careers of some of HHMI’s most distinguished scientists — people whose contributions have changed what we know about life itself, and whose stories reflect the best of what science, and scientists, can be.
Movies, books, art and music to explore as America turns 250
As America celebrates 250 years, we size up how it’s been portrayed in, and has shaped, what we watch, listen to and read.
Cassidy, fresh off a blowup with Trump, blasts RFK Jr.’s policies
The GOP senator said a “foundation of lies” had shaped Kennedy's health stances. He also accused Trump of treating Congress as an "appendage."
Japan's workplace culture reshaped my expectations of work
Moving to Japan presented challenges in practices like gift-giving and limited sick leave, and reshaped what I expected from work.
How Trump’s Political Agenda Is Shaped by His Own Obsessions
President Trump’s priorities seem increasingly detached from the concerns of voters and his party.
UCLA comparative literature department to offer health humanities minor in fall
UCLA will offer a minor in health humanities starting this fall. The minor, housed under the comparative literature department, is an interdisciplinary program that examines how health and medicine are shaped by literature, culture, history and social experience, according to the department’s website.
From the Beginning, Politics Triggered Broadcasting
Media scholars argued that politics, not technology, shaped American broadcasting from 1927 on, repeatedly shielding incumbents from competition.
The Painting That Is Still on Trial in South Korea: How the unending Korean War became a permanent excuse to criminalise expression
By Boram Jang, East Asia Researcher at Amnesty International In a Seoul courtroom in March this year, a prosecutor read out charges against Jeon Seung-il, a former art student, from an indictment first written in 1989. The language had not changed, nor had the charges. Thirty-seven years later, only the young defendant had grown old. In 1989, he was 23 years old in a South Korea still shaped by decades […]
Google’s New $100 Speaker Makes a Weak Case for Gemini in the Home
The Google Home Speaker is the first new device of its kind to come from Alphabet Inc. in six years. In that time, Google has reshaped itself as an industry leader in artificial intelligence, with its Gemini platform now ubiquitous across consumer hardware like smartphones and web services like Search, Workspace and YouTube.
Opinion | The I Ching, Leibniz and AI: how old China-West links shaped modern science
The connection between Chinese civilisation and Western scientific thinking is far deeper and more intricate than commonly understood.
Google invests in A24 to build AI movie tools
“This ensures the tools of the future are shaped by the creators who use them.”
Chipotle and Cava are thriving as consumers prioritize value
Chipotle and Cava are thriving as consumers shift spending to perceived restaurant winners, focusing on quality over cost amid a "K-shaped" economy.
Scientists Discover Strange Horn-Shaped 'Hyperparasite', a World First
It preys on 'zombie fungus'.
Here and Now: Jackie Robinson's granddaughter on how he reshaped sports, broke barriers
On this episode of Here and Now, Sandra Bookman talks Black men's heart health, Black athletes redefining sports, and basketball-based documentaries.
The line 'A diamond is forever' was written in 1947 by a copywriter named Frances Gerety, who worked late one night, scribbled it down — and never married in her entire life
Frances Gerety scribbled 'A Diamond Is Forever' late one night in 1947 at a Philadelphia ad agency. The four-word line reshaped marriage across 40 countries. She never married.
From $500 to $1tn: How Elon Musk built his fortune
From a video game sold for $500 (€430) as a teenager to a business empire spanning rockets, electric vehicles, AI and brain implants, Elon Musk has spent decades building companies that have reshaped multiple industries. Here's a look at the businesses behind the world's richest man.
Analysing the Trionda: The science behind the 2026 World Cup ball
How the history of soccer has been shaped by panels, grooves and a desire to avoid wobbliness
What is the Nex Playground console, how much is it and when is it out in the UK?
The cube-shaped console will cost £269 (€319) when it is released on 22 June in the UK and Ireland.
K-shaped economy impacts summer travel plans for many
Higher-earners are likely to keep spending on luxury vacations, but that doesn't mean you just have to sit by in jealousy.
NASA’s Lucy Reveals Wobbling, Peanut-Shaped Asteroid
Even small asteroids lead complex lives. During its flyby of the asteroid Donaldjohanson last year, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft revealed the asteroid to be a
SC Lowcountry student enjoys summer shaped by science
St. Baldrick's fellowship gives College of Charleston student time and support to take on pediatric cancer research
Mikayla Matthews Shares How She Snacks to Satisfy ‘Cravings’ Amid Her ‘Long Health Journey’ With Chronic Illness (Exclusive)
Mikayla Matthews shares how chronic health issues have shaped her snacking habits, work and family life while discussing her Snackish partnership.
Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management: Science, Stewardship, and Shared Successes
One of the most innovative aspects of the Magnuson-Stevens Act was the establishment of eight regional councils to manage fisheries. Across the country, regional councils are tackling their own unique challenges, each shaped by their local coastal communities and united under a shared framework.
UNM Professor Champions Community Voices in Health Research
The special April 2026 themed issue of the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science explores a defining question in modern health research: “How do academic health centers build trust, break down barriers and advance research shaped by the...
This strange material can become strong or fall apart in seconds
Scientists have found that staple-shaped particles can tangle together to create a material that is both strong and flexible. Unlike conventional materials, these particles can be locked into a sturdy structure or rapidly unraveled using vibrations. The unusual behavior could open the door to recyclable buildings, reconfigurable structures, and even futuristic robotic technologies.
A new generation of public health students
Public health is often associated with hospitals, disease outbreaks and government agencies. But health also is shaped by architecture — by sidewalks, green space, accessible design and the environments people move through every day. Teddy Basa, a rising junior at Washington University in St. Louis, is seeking to better understand those connections. Basa arrived at […]
STUDENT VOICES: We were STEM-obsessed siblings as children. It shaped our pathway to Princeton and careers
Summer STEM programs opened doors and opportunities for us that all students should have
New poll reveals how politics reshaped trust in U.S. public health
A Harvard Chan/de Beaumont national poll of 2,205 U.S. adults found CDC trust dropped to 50% one year into new federal public health leadership, while state and local health agencies remained more trusted.
New poll reveals how politics reshaped trust in U.S. public health
A Harvard Chan/de Beaumont national poll of 2,205 U.S. adults found CDC trust dropped to 50% one year into new federal public health leadership, while state and local health agencies remained more trusted.
Losing my mom after the birth of my son reshaped motherhood for me
There is something deeply disorienting about grieving while postpartum because motherhood continues regardless of heartbreak.
Yellowstone wolves may not have reshaped the national park after all
One of the most celebrated claims about Yellowstone’s wolves is facing a major challenge. Scientists say the study behind the famous trophic cascade story relied on flawed methods that overstated the ecological impact of wolf recovery. Their reanalysis found no evidence for a dramatic, park-wide surge in willow growth. Instead, the effects appear smaller and vary from place to place.
In Retrospect: Poland, Russia, Europe
In April I spent a few days with Zryw, a Polish non-profit organization that recruits young people to enter politics and public life. Their aim is to build a new generation of civic leaders in Poland. I’ve followed their evolution from the beginning; my son is one of the founders. (“Zryw” means “impulse” or “burst of speed” in Polish). Julie Chmielewska, one of Zryw’s leaders, interviewed me at the event. Here is the conversation, lightly edited for grammar and context: Julia Chmielewska: Assuming that culture shapes institutions, could we conclude that some cultures are more prone to authoritarianism? Anne Applebaum: I don’t think so. Every culture, every nation, and every country has the potential for change. When we look at history, we can see that nations do change. Poland has changed, for example, from the 1980s to today. There’s a completely different mentality here than the one I encountered when I first visited, in 1988. The current generation sees the world through a different frame. So no, I don’t believe that certain nations are doomed to authoritarianism, or to anything. Of course, there are political and cultural traditions, but they can always be challenged. JC: So do you think there’s something intrinsic in human nature that pushes people to democracy, freedom? AA: I think there is something in human nature, a deep instinct, that pushes people towards freedom, yes. People who live in authoritarian countries – and I’ve heard this from them over and over again – sooner or later find themselves angered by a feeling of helplessness. They can see the unfairness of crooked courts, irrational political decisions. They naturally dislike the fact that somebody has all the power while they have none. In those circumstances, people who have no political background at all sometimes are politicized just by that frustration. I’m thinking of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, for example, who was a Belarusian housewife, until the circumstances of her husband’s arrest forced her to become a politician. I met a woman who is a Uyghur from China, and who had come to live in Turkey. After several of her family members were arrested, she too was propelled into a political role. These kinds of experiences make people interested in democracy or political reform, even if they thought they didn’t care. I also think that the opposite is true: some people instinctively prefer homogeneity, order, hierarchy. They don’t like the confrontation of opinions or the noise of debate, and they lean towards a single leader or a unified regime. I think that most of modern history is shaped by the clash between those two different sides of human nature. JC: Which force do you find more powerful today? AA: I think they both have a lot of power and there’s no way of predicting who wins. Even in countries that seem very shut off or stuck in an authoritarian system can change. We’ve seen that happen. And vice versa, I think democracies can also begin to fail and slide into authoritarianism. So it’s very important not to be complacent in either direction. JC: I want to go into your history and your experiences. You’ve lived in Russia during a time of incredible change in the late 80s, and then you came back to do research in post-Soviet Russia. AA: I was a student in Russia just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. I then traveled and worked there extensively in the 1990s, and I met people who really were full of hope. They hoped that Russia could become a democracy, or at least a place that guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of the press. These weren’t ideas that came from Washington. Although now the narrative in the Kremlin is different, I met many people who were working towards exactly that kind of transformation. A friend of mine ran a series of seminars – once a year, and then later several times a year, in cities all over Russia – designed to get people to discuss politics in new ways. She invited young politicians and journalists, as well as foreigners. I went to many of them, in Moscow as well as Volgograd and Novosibirsk. Over two decades, hundreds of people came to these seminars, and all of them wanted Russia to be different. I remain convinced that many Russians still want Russia to be different. It’s just that the old system, in the form of Putin, a representative of that system, returned. The KGB reimposed their power. And this wasn’t because of something to do with culture, this was to do with money and politics, and who was in charge. JC: You’ve partially answered my question... I wanted to ask whether that excitement of the 1990s was an exception from the Russian historical norm which has been rather authoritarian? AA: Of course, if you look at the history of Russia since the 18th century, there have always been liberal groups, reformers and revolutionaries. There were the Decembrists, in the early 19th century, and the rural populists later on, who tried to organize the peasantry. A significant group of liberal Russians appeared at the turn of the 20th century, people like the father of the writer Vladimir Nabokov, who was a Russian politician before the revolution. These groups were small in number, but sometimes had a broader significance. The Russian dissident movement in the 1950s and 1960s actually invented the modern human rights movement. It was their idea to hold the leaders of the Soviet Union accountable for the language they used, to remind them of the treaties they had signed and the promised they had made. They created the Helsinki group, for example, that held Soviet leadership to the language of the Helsinki Treaty, which formally ended the Second World War and which contained guarantees of human rights, at least on paper. That idea spread to Eastern Europe, and similar tactics were used here in Poland. (Benjamin Nathans recently wrote a great book about the Soviet dissidents, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause) JC: But seemingly, even if they do ever get power, they could never hold on to it. AA: We don’t know, because they have never really had power. But in any case, we also don’t know what will happen in the future. There is no reason to assume that Russia will forever be condemned to totalitarianism. Even during the first fifteen years of Putin’s regime there was some form of democratic politics. Only when the full-scale war began did he bring everything to an end: he shut down all remaining independent organizations and killed his most important opponent, Alexi Navalny. But does that mean he is popular, that he enjoys legitimacy? Even now, we don’t really know what Russians think about him, or about the war. There is no way of doing real polling in Russia because nobody will answer an independent pollster over the phone. JC: Do you think that the flock of young people, especially young men, who fled Russia after the start of the war represent a continuation of liberal movements that refuse to partake in the authoritarian state, or do you think they are moving for the sake of self-preservation – “I don’t want to go to the army, so I leave”? AA: I’m sure it’s both. I actually know many people who left Russia for political reasons either in the very last years before the war, or else just after the war began. JC: And do you see a change in the young generation versus the old one that have fled? AA: It’s hard for me to say because the people who I know were mostly already politicized. I do know some younger people who left, but most of them were already either active in the opposition, or working as journalists. Many of them very self-consciously think of themselves as maintaining Russian culture abroad, just as in the 20th century the Soviet dissidents or the anti-communist White Russians once thought of themselves as people who maintained the true Russian culture, outside of Bolshevik Russia. JC: Let’s move on to Poland. One of your first experiences with Poland was reporting on Margaret Thatcher’s first state visit, in the autumn of 1988. You followed her around the farmers’ market. AA: She was making a symbolic gesture. She wanted to welcome free markets, but the only one she could really visit was the farmers’ market at Hala Mirowska. JC: And I want to talk about this area because today you can look out of any window in that district, Mirów, and see rows and rows of skyscrapers. How does it feel to see a country built from the ground in such a short time, both politically and economically? AA: You know, when you’re living in a period of dramatic change, it’s always hard to know whether the change is positive or negative. The transformation in Poland created winners and losers, as well as new classes of people, new political movements of different kinds. At the time, it sometimes just felt like turbulence. Now, we can look back at the 1990s and early 2000s in Poland and see in retrospect that the country was headed in towards prosperity and European integration. In around 2009 or 2010, I remember speaking to a woman who worked cleaning government offices, and who asked me if her daughter should study in Amsterdam or in London. This seemed to me to be a real transformation, and it happened very fast: within a few years, Poles stopped feeling like second-class Europeans, and a generation of younger Poles appeared who had no qualms about crossing borders. JC: We again live in turbulent times. Do you think we’re heading towards positive outcomes? AA: I can’t make predictions, because everything that happens tomorrow depends on what people do today. Also, history doesn’t have a trajectory. It doesn’t move in a particular direction. You only think it does afterwards. As I said, you can look afterwards at Poland in the 1990s and you could say this was a period of great progress. But not everybody at the time saw that. Sometimes people are very wrong about a given country’s trajectory. I remember people writing about Ukraine in the 1990s, about how dangerous it was that Ukraine was independent, that this was going to be an anti-semitic state, that Ukrainian nationalism was going to come back... and although you can say many bad things about Ukraine, the country made many bad choices, actually it became a pretty tolerant state which now has a Jewish president and until recently a Muslim defense minister. JC: In the 1990s Poland’s and Ukraine’s GDP were roughly similar. Ukraine was even a bit richer. So the starting point was similar for both of these countries, but they’ve turned out very, very differently. Even if we stop in 2014. Why do you think Ukraine “chose East”? Was it external influence? AA: No, I think Ukraine was in a different position. First of all, central and eastern Ukraine had been part of the Soviet Union since the 1920s, and had therefore experienced a longer period of occupation, repression, Sovietization and even Russification. Ukraine did not have, as Poland did, an alternative elite: a large cadre of economists and politicians, who already had some experience in opposition politics and in independent thinking. In Poland, the transformative finance minister, Leszek Balcerowicz, had already thought about how an economy might be decentralized before he took office. We can argue about how successful he was, but at least he was prepared to try something new. In Ukraine, people weren’t prepared. For one, there hadn’t been much space even for an illegal opposition in the previous couple of decades. Ukraine was also in many ways still emerging from colonial occupation. For the previous couple of centuries, many of the most capable Ukrainians had moved to Russia, and the first generation of leaders in independent Ukraine tended to be former Soviet apparatchiks. They didn’t immediately seek to become closer to western Europe. Instead, they looked for some kind of economic and political “third way” and an accomodation with Russia. Ukraine became stuck in this position, half-in, half-out and became pretty profoundly corrupt. JC: The Polish alternative elite had a vision of where they wanted the country to go. I think the general perception now is that this vision ends with the next election, right? Is this a natural process of gaining power? AA: Their vision, and it was shared by the time by politicians who now call themselves both left and right, was that Poland should join the EU and NATO, as fast as possible. My husband (Radek Sikorski) was in the very first government that said it wanted to join NATO. At the time this was taken very badly in Washington: the demand for NATO membership absolutely came from Poland, not from the US. But even then, in the early 1990s, many Poles already understood that the Russian sphere of influence would grow once again, that it was important to become part of the transatlantic alliance and an integrated Europe as fast as possible: NATO, the EU, the Council of Europe, all of the trading and security alliances. That consensus lasted through several different governments and over many years, even governments containing former communists. For twenty years, right, left and center disagreed about many things, but they all agreed on the direction that the country should go. In retrospect, that consensus created the basis for prosperity in Poland. JC: And regarding the Polish-Ukrainian relations. We know that antagonisms, e.g. the myth of Wołyń [a massacre of Poles that took place in what is now Western Ukraine, in 1943] are increasingly used in Polish political discourse today. In Ukraine, nationalist historians make heroes out of UPA, the Ukrainian revolutionary army, which is held responsible for this tragedy. Where do you see a start for burying the hatchet? Is the reconciliation of our nations possible? AA: So here’s a strange thing: For more than a decade after they both gained independence, Poland and Ukraine participated in a number of projects that were designed to solve exactly these kinds of Polish-Ukrainian differences. Books were published that were jointly written by Polish and Ukrainian historians, monuments were built. These projects were successful: If you’d asked me this question in 2010, I would have said that there are no real historical issues between Poland and Ukraine, that the two countries had mostly reconciled. For a number of reasons, this began to shift. In Poland, children and grandchildren of victims of the Wołyń massacre felt their tragedy hadn’t been fully recognized. In Ukraine, nationalist groups wanted the UPA partisans who had fought against the Soviet Union recognized for their heroism, despite the fact that some in this broad and not well-defined group were also linked to Wołyń. In both eastern Poland and western Ukraine, the memory of the ethnic cleansing that took place there in the late 1940s - Poles were moved West, Ukrainians East - to accomodate new borders has left feelings of displacement and bitterness. The wave of Ukrainian immigration, which started before the war, may have provoked some of this. But don’t underestimate the role played by Russia, which has always wanted to create discord between Poland and Ukraine, and pumps out propaganda to that effect in both countries. Vandalism on both sides of the border, damage done to cemeteries and monuments, is sometimes carried out by provacateurs working for Russia, just to create bad feelings. The Polish-Ukrainian conflict also hides a different reality: although there are real grievances and bad memories, the truth is that the biggest tragedies both nations experienced in the twentieth century were inflicted by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. That should unite these two countries, not divide them. JC: This week (19.04.2026 – Ed.) in Hungary we saw that using historical narratives to create grievance has no longer worked. Are you optimistic about the direction after Orban’s loss? AA: The Hungarian election was really important because it shows that people can actually resist powerful, dominant propaganda. The ruling party Fidesz controlled all of the TV, 90% of the newspapers, the constitutional court, the bureaucracy... and yet people had the nerve to vote against it and resist it. It’s also an important election because Hungary created a huge network of well-funded think tanks and foundations that were funding other far right groups and projects. So that loss is going to have a knock-on effect in other places too, maybe even in Poland. JC: What you’ve said about resisting propaganda reminds me of one of the interviews you did about talking to Russians in the post-Soviet era who claimed that people knew that the system was lying. Why do people choose to believe in these regimes anyway? AA: Because it’s useful. Stephen Kotkin, an American historian, once described how people would learn how to “speak Bolshevik”: It was just a language that you needed to use in order to get by in society. If you didn’t talk the way the regime wanted you to talk, then you might have problems, or lose your job, or your kids would not get into university. It was a way of getting along. Communist Poland was similar, at least in the early years. When I was writing a book about the Sovietization of Eastern Europe after World War II, I met a lot of people who wanted to talk a lot about the war, when many of them had done really heroic things. But almost nobody wanted to talk about the decade afterwards, between 1945 and 1956. This was when you had the short period of terror, violence and Polish Stalinism. To stay safe, people felt the need to just go along with what others were saying, or stay out of politics, or use communist jargon without necessarily believing it. I don’t judge them for it, and I wouldn’t describe all of those people as collaborators. It’s easy to feel moral certainty in retrospect, because we know that communism ended. But if you were living in 1949, it might not have been clear to you that communism was going to end. In very repressive societies, maybe about 10% of people who are really evil – collaborators, torturers. Maybe 10% of people are really brave and who find ways to resist. And then around 80% of people have kids, they have parents, they have to have jobs and they’ve had to get through it somehow. Strange though it may sound, I’ve found that the work I did on that book is now very useful in explaining some of what’s going on in the United States today. There are plenty of members of the Republican Party in Congress who know perfectly well that Donald Trump says many things that aren’t true. But they avoid criticizing him because it’s inconvenient, because they would get in trouble, because someone would attack them on the internet. So actually you don’t even need mass terror to get people to conform. JC: Is Gen Z reinventing agency? AA: We’ll see. In any generation you can find groups of people who want agency. If you live in a society that’s unfair, for example where a tiny number of people have captured most of the wealth, then at a certain point people rebel. This is always easier for younger people, who have you have less to lose. The question now is how the internet will affect the relationships between citizens and the state, and how it will change organizations. The “Twitter revolutions” people spoke about as early as 2008-9, mass protests organized online, have often proved to be very superficial. Although you can easily join something just by clicking, the work of creating a real movement requires physical participation. Successful mass movements of the past, for example the Civil Rights movement in the United States, were built by people who had spent many years together. They had participated in non-violent workshops together. They practiced and prepared. Just using the you can get everybody to show up at a certain moment, but then when the protest is broken up, nothing happens. It’s also true that the repressive regimes have more recently learned how to use the internet to undermine leaders and movements. Most of all, they now understand how to make people cynical. The form of propaganda that most modern authoritarians use - and I think the Russians really pioneered this - deploys sneering cynicism. Instead of praising the rulers, the regime propagandists mock the opposition movement leadership for being supposedly corrupt or sexually degenerate, with the goal of undermining any kind of idealism. JC: MAGA grew on the internet? AA: MAGA is a real grassroots movement. They had symbols, red hats, they showed up at rallies. But you’re right that the cynicism, the sarcasm and the distrust that the movement embodies came originally from the internet, and this is different. Fifty years ago, most European political parties had a social base in real organizations, in trade unions for Social Democrats, in church groups for Christian Democrats. As people stopped going to church and as the trade unions became smaller, the social base of these parties disappeared. Now people who wouldn’t have known one another in the past meet on the internet and create new movements, many of which don’t last. JC: Is history ending? Going in stale circles? AA: History never ends. In truth, human beings want contradictory things at the same time: order and freedom, stability and change. These things are never resolved, and when a society swings too far in one direction, people always push it the other way. But each time that happens, the result is different. Certainly it is true that we are now in a period when old philosophers and ideas from the 1930s are undergoing a revival. Carl Schmitt, who was a philosopher who was very influential on the Nazis, is back as an influence on both the far left and the far right, once again inspiring people to think that all politics has to be existential, that all politics is about defining and defeating enemies. In the US, some are also bringing back dominionism, the idea that we need a Christian and not a secular state. It’s also true that we are living through a more fundamental shift. The old left-right divide, which was mostly about the size of the state, is much less important now. Instead, we are arguing about more fundamental things: what are our rights, what protects our freedom. Or how much power do we want to give small elites, versus how much power to give ordinary people. In America a small group of very wealthy people now control information, because they control the social media platforms and AI, which means they determine what people will read and learn. Finding a way to preserve preserve zones of autonomy and independent thinking, this is going to be the main task for the next generation. JC: What is the one book that a person interested in Central Europe should read? AA: You could read my book “Iron Curtain: the Crushing of Eastern Europe” which tells the story of how the Soviet Union imposed its culture on the region. Or read Tim Snyder’s history of the region, “The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999.” And everyone should read “The Captive Mind” by Czesław Miłosz, which describes exactly the phenomenon we were talking about: why do people collaborate? I joined Scott Galloway and the brilliant Fiona Hill in a discussion about the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the future of global power, and what these conflicts reveal about America's role in the world. Scott told us that this was the 400th edition of his podcast, which is quite a number: My friend Francesco Chiamulera runs a brilliant series of literary events, Una Colline di Libri, A Hill of Books, in the Prosecco Hills, a region of vineyards and elegant hill towns in the Veneto, north of Venice. We did an event in Vittorio Veneto and also drove and biked around the countryside. Buy Autocracy Inc Buy Iron Curtain Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
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From Classroom to Racetrack: How Charlie Baur is Building a Motorsports Career in a Business Discipline
Charlie Baur can trace his racing story back to a Christmas morning in Michigan — the kind that starts with snow on the ground and ends with a throttle in a kid’s hands. “I remember being 3 years old and then for Christmas that year, my parents had gotten me a 120 cc snowmobile,” Baur said. Long before sprint cars, he was a Michigan kid on snowmobiles, dirt bikes, four-wheelers and jet skis — and a regular at car shows and races with his family. Photo courtesy of Charlie Baur That early exposure became a calling. At 12, he sat in a sprint car for the first time and knew he’d found the next chapter. He started in quarter midgets, moved to go-karts, and the day before he turned 16 — one day shy of the minimum age required by track insurance — he made his first sprint car start after convincing officials to let him race. Five years later, Baur is still pushing forward, now racing sprint cars on both pavement and dirt while pursuing an automotive business education at Northwood University — with a clear-eyed understanding that motorsports encompasses more than what happens under the lights on Saturday night. “It’s a business,” said Charlie, a 20-year-old who calls Fenton, Michigan, home when he’s not at a racetrack or at Northwood’s residential campus in Midland, Michigan. Photo courtesy of Charlie Baur Racing is the product — but preparation is the job To the average fan, race day begins around dinner time. For a team, race day can be a 12-hour shift — plus the work that came before it. And Baur’s racing operation is a family affair. “The team is my parents and myself,” he said, explaining they own the cars, maintain equipment and manage the business side — from sponsor relations to budgeting. On race weekends, the core group includes Baur and his parents (Eric and Stefanie), plus a couple of additional hands (Alex Photiou and Robert Flannigan) who help with the intensity and pace of trackside work. That structure has shaped how he thinks about efficiency and professionalism. “We’ve always kind of had the mentality of we’re never working on the car for maintenance at the track,” he said. “Our goal is to do as little work as possible to the car because it should be ready when that car rolls out of the trailer to go racing.” That mindset shows up in routines: bolt checks, tire procedures, safety equipment and a repeatable process designed to limit errors. “Once I fire the car up and put my helmet on, that’s when it’s go time,” he said. “You can plan as much as possible for how the race is going to play out, but until you take the green flag … you don’t know how it’s going to go.” Photo courtesy of Charlie Baur First-generation driver, student of the game In racing, “first-generation” matters — and Baur wears that label with pride. “A lot of the drivers are third or fourth generation,” he said. “My family has never been in motorsports. So for me, we’ve always looked at it as we’re new to it and we want to be as different as possible. From a marketing standpoint, it helps us stand out.” It also pushes him to seek out mentors — especially veteran drivers who have seen every scenario, solved every problem and won in multiple eras. Baur credits accomplished driver Jason Blonde, a 10-time champion, for becoming his driver coach and helping him develop as a competitor. “To me, learning from Jason helps me because he has had lots of success and knows what to do,” Baur said. “You have to humble yourself and say, ‘I don’t know what to do; can you help me out?’” That willingness to learn extends off the track, too. Baur says one of his biggest challenges is not a mechanical limitation, but credibility. “It’s my age,” he said. “Some people won’t take me seriously because I’m so young. Even though … I do know what we’re talking about and have a general idea.” His answer has been to out-prepare, out-communicate and treat the operation like a real enterprise — because it is. Photo courtesy of Charlie Baur Northwood’s role: Turning passion into a plan Baur is majoring in automotive aftermarket management and pursuing an accelerated path that pairs undergraduate study with graduate work. He’s also exploring how to align his studies with motorsports-focused coursework as Northwood advances related programs and pathways. He sees the value clearly: motorsports needs business-literate professionals who understand budgets, sponsorship, marketing, operations and long-term strategy — and who can translate between the language of the shop and the language of the boardroom. That’s why his Northwood experience isn’t limited to the classroom. He has been involved with the Northwood University International Auto Show and serves as motorsports chair — a leadership role that demands outreach, contracts, coordination and a steady professional demeanor. “There’s so much outside work that makes the auto show successful that people don’t realize,” he said. “And it is truly student led.” He’s also participated in industry experiences through Northwood at major events such as AAPEX, SEMA and PRI, along with other automotive networking events — opportunities he describes as a fast track to understanding how business really gets done. “You learn a lot in the classroom,” he said. “But if you learn it and you can’t apply it to the real world, it loses its value. Or if you learn it and can apply it, but you don’t know anyone, it is still of no value.” In his words, Northwood helps him win because it “gives me the tools to succeed” — including flexibility and faculty support as he balances travel and racing commitments with academics. Photo courtesy of Charlie Baur Racing as an ecosystem — and a talent gap waiting to be filled Baur is blunt about what he sees across the motorsports world: a deep bench of experienced professionals, and not enough young talent entering the pipeline. “I go to car shows, I go to these different events, and typically … the average age is between 45 to 55,” he said. “There’s not a lot of young people going into the motorsports world.” That reality reinforces Northwood’s communications focus: positioning motorsports not as a narrow lane, but as a wide ecosystem of business careers — sponsorship, logistics, data, media, leadership, hospitality and innovation — with real demand for prepared graduates. It also shapes how Baur talks to younger students who love racing but aren’t sure what their future looks like. “If you have a passion for motorsports, there’s gonna be a spot for you somewhere,” he said, emphasizing that driving is only one of many career paths — and that local tracks and hands-on experience are often the best first step. But if someone is interested in driving as a career path, it will take a team to make that happen. Baur’s team includes Stahl’s Motors and Music Experience, Rhino Racing, Randy Wise Buick GMC Chevrolet, Western Michigan Fleet Parts, Mother’s Polish, Schaeffer’s Oil, Hepfner Racing Products, Ameriguard Storage Centers, Justice Brothers, Race 1 Wraps, TBM Brakes, Behind Your Design, CharlieBaur.com and Northwood University. “There are so many people who invest not only in myself but in my race team and who believe in us to succeed,” he added. Pictured: Charlie Bauer’s sprint race car. Looking ahead: A headline worth chasing Ask Baur to imagine 2035, and he’ll give you two answers — one dream, one blueprint. “In a perfect world,” he said, “winning the Indy 500.” Realistically, he wants to build a life where business ownership and racing reinforce each other and where he can pay forward the help he has received by mentoring younger drivers, especially those trying to break into motorsports without a family legacy. “When I retire from full-time racing, I want to be able to provide the same opportunities that were presented to myself to the next generation of drivers,” Baur said. “I know how difficult it is to get your foot in the door.” For now, the focus is simple: keep building the operation, keep learning the business, and keep showing up prepared — because in sprint car racing, as in life, process matters. And once the helmet goes on? “It’s go time,” Baur said. Photo courtesy of Charlie Baur Learn more Students interested in motorsports careers — whether in competition, team operations, marketing, finance, sponsorship, data, or management — can explore opportunities through Northwood University’s Center for Automotive and Mobility Studies. For Charlie Baur’s latest motorsports adventures, follow Charlie_Baur and Charlie Baur Racing on social media. To learn more about Northwood’s Bachelor of Business Administration in Automotive and Mobility Studies and motorsports management concentration, visit www.northwood.edu/programs/automotive-mobility-studies/. Photo courtesy of Charlie Baur Pictured: Charlie Baur at Butler Motor Speedway on May 31, 2026. Share this page