Care touches every life. At some point, we will all give care or depend on it. Yet our care policies and federal investments lag behind this undeniable reality. It’s time for change. The Better Life Lab has been instrumental in shifting the national conversation to focus on care innovations at the state, local and community levels. With the publication of the New America Care Report, we’ve been consistently calling national attention to the deepening care crisis across the life cycle and have taken a leading role in highlighting care solutions, investments and innovations across the country. Our research and storytelling have helped make the case for state and national paid family and medical leave policies, for more investment in care infrastructure, and have contributed to efforts to pass new legislation, and better implement existing policies at the state and local levels.

We are also broadening the gender equity and care conversation to include men: The Better Life Lab’s ongoing Men and Care project explores men’s attitudes and actions around care, the barriers and incentives they encounter and how that shapes family life. The open source quantitative and qualitative data continues to drive the national conversation for more inclusive policies.

The Lab is also at the forefront of developing and supporting a diverse cadre of care storytellers through our reporting grants initiatives, writing workshops, and story fellows program. Since 2021, we’ve supported more than 30 independent journalists and storytellers, who, along with the team, have produced more than 90 stories on child care innovations or the experience of having or not having access to paid family and medical leave that appeared in more than 40 different publications, helping to keep the spotlight on and pressure growing for inclusive care investments and family-supportive policies.

Since 2018, Uncovering the Wagner Group has been investigating Russia’s shadowy private military network. Using journalistic reporting, open-source investigation techniques, and large-scale data analysis, we expose the complex web of special forces veterans, military intelligence officers, separatist operatives, and business interests that enabled Wagner’s rise.

Our work illuminates the geostrategic calculations and covert operations the group was designed to obscure—providing insight into its role in conflicts around the world. By combining rigorous research with public accountability, the initiative helps policymakers, journalists, and the broader public understand the evolving nature of hybrid warfare and private military power.