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People-Powered Journalism
With 20 years of hindsight, to many the U.S. war in Afghanistan looks tragically ill-conceived. But in the wake of 9/11, critics of the invasion, when they were heard at all, were regarded as naïve, even un-American. Amy Goodman ’84, host of the …
Issue: November-December 2021
Defying Limits
One spring day in Las Vegas, adventure-writer David Roberts ’65 set out for a round of golf with Alex Honnold, the world’s foremost free-soloist. More than a generation apart, the two men have shared a fanatical drive to ascend, and grew close while …
Issue: January-February 2021
In Flight
In the fall of 2015, Maciek Nabrdalik , a Warsaw-based documentary photographer, turned to a contemporary humanitarian crisis: the plight of refugees fleeing ceaseless wars. Nabrdalik, a Nieman Foundation fellow at Harvard this year, is studying …
Issue: January-February 2017
Sequestering Carbon Dioxide in Diamonds
As a child, Robert C. “Bob” Hagemann, M.B.A. ’11, would go out into his garage and break the Styrofoam in the trash into little pieces. “My mom would come out into the garage and ask, ‘What are you doing?’ And I looked at her and I said, ‘I’m starting the …
Francesca Dominici: How Does Air Pollution Affect COVID-19?
How does the air we breathe affect our body’s reaction to COVID-19? Early on in the pandemic Francesca Dominici, Gamble professor of biostatistics, population, and data science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, explored this question …
What Harvard’s Senior Executives Earned Last Year
The University today released its tax return for nonprofit organizations (Form 990) for 2014 (covering the tax year from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2015— Harvard’s fiscal year 2015 ). As is its practice, Harvard has simultaneously disseminated information …
New University Appointments
A new CEO at the Harvard Management Company; plus a new director at the Center for International Development. On the Harvard Management Company (which invests the endowment): See “ Stellar Swan Song ,” November-December 2005. University news release: New …
Popping the Harvard Bubble
I’m celebrating my virtual Commencement from Harvard while living on another college campus: Arizona State University. There’s a faint irony to driving around the Phoenix suburbs and seeing roadside maroon-and-gold banners congratulating the Sun Devil …
Commencement Address by John Lithgow ’67: “An Actor's Own Words”
by John Lithgow '67, Ar.D. '05 Mr. President, faculty, graduates, families, and friends, good afternoon and thank you for the honor of addressing you all today. This speech is a major event in my own personal history but an interesting little footnote …
Quality of Care
Several years ago, Lisa Iezzoni, S.M. ’78, M.D. ’84, one of the most prominent researchers in healthcare and disability, decided to ask doctors what they thought about patients with disabilities. Their answers were stunning. In interviews and focus …
Issue: May-June 2025
A Life in Harmonica
It was the night before a final exam and Scott Albert Johnson ’92 had some studying to do. Only he wasn’t studying. A suitemate who came to ask Johnson a question heard through the door an instructional cassette tape and a small, reedy instrument. “What …
Issue: May-June 2021
Striving for the Straus Cup
On a windy evening in Harvard Stadium, a dozen cleated undergraduates step onto the turf for a high-stakes football game. While they warm up, the crowd is silent. In fact, there is no crowd. This is not The Game; it’s a Tuesday night intramural battle …
Issue: July-August 2023
Harvesting Autumn at Ward’s Berry Farm
Maybe it’s the jolly rotundity, or that splash of orange and cozy look of a candlelit jack-o’-lantern as the autumn days shorten toward winter. Whatever the cause, pumpkin season seems to bring a jolt of joy to New Englanders. “Pick your own starts at the …
Issue: September-October 2022
“Go Guard the Galaxy”
Emmy Award-winning neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta was keynote speaker at today’s 2023 Class Day ceremony for the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. He shared with graduates what he believes being a doctor truly means. Gupta, the …
Protesters Surround Mass. Hall in “Heat Week” Action
Two dozen students from the activist group Divest Harvard blockaded the doors of Massachusetts Hall early on Sunday evening, kicking off a weeklong protest of the University endowment’s continued investment in fossil-fuel companies. Harvard Heat Week …