While rising inflation and economic uncertainty are worrying people across the country, the social crisis that engulfs large swaths of the American population continues unabated. Drug overdose deaths climbed 15 percent in 2021, topping 100,000 for the first time. After a modest decline during COVID, suicide deaths once again continued their two-decade long trajectory upward, with girls 10 to 14 and young men 15 to 24 seeing the biggest spikes.
Dr. Kaplan is a professorial lecturer at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), senior adviser for the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), and a visiting fellow with the Mercatus Center’s Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange. He’s the author of Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time.
