--- title: We Never Talk Anymore description: Have Americans forgotten how to talk? Also, caring for babies in withdrawal, getting science in the field and more. canonical: https://time.com/4524793/we-never-talk-anymore/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-10T16:00:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:26.196Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Americans Have Forgotten How to Talk og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4524793/we-never-talk-anymore/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Americans Have Forgotten How to Talk twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # We Never Talk Anymore by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Oct 10, 2016 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Oct 10, 2016 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Have Americans forgotten how to talk to each other?**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bad-debate-behavior-shows-we-have-lost-the-art-of-discourse/2016/10/09/915fdc14-8cbd-11e6-875e-2c1bfe943b66%5Fstory.html) By Steven Petrow in the Washington Post **2\.** [**This is a better way to care for infants born into drug withdrawal.**](http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2016/10/05/caring-for-the-opioid-epidemics-youngest-victims) By Christine Vestal in the Pew Charitable Trust’s StateLine **3\.** [**Get science education out of the classroom.**](https://orionmagazine.org/article/into-the-field/) By Amanda Giracca in Orion **4\.** [**Minority and low-income communities need cleaner air.**](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/air-pollution-minority-communities%5Fus%5F57fa6cd6e4b0b6a4303324c8?) By Georges C. Benjamin in the Huffington Post **5\.** [**This bike lane glows in the dark.**](https://www.nextnature.net/2016/10/luminous-bike-lane-opened-poland/) By Monika Kozub in Next Nature  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4524793/we-never-talk-anymore/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4524793/we-never-talk-anymore/"},"headline":"We Never Talk Anymore","datePublished":"2016-10-10T16:00:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:26.196Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4524793/we-never-talk-anymore/","keywords":["Innovation","climate","Education","Science topic","Heroin","Cycling"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4524793/we-never-talk-anymore/","name":"We Never Talk Anymore"}}]}] ```