Editors' Choice
An Inhabitable Archive
What stays behind isn’t paint or plaster; it’s the way we’ve marked each other when the walls themselves were the only witnesses.
Luxor Cafe, After Dark
People are crowded around tables, playing cards, Connect 4, Othello, and other games taken from a nearby communal shelf. One wall is decorated with Egyptian hieroglyphics, another with a span of Polaroids.
Critique of Pure Criticism
From rhapsode to New Yorker critic, why are we so bad at defending the humanities?
The 16,000 Generation Yeast
Michael M. Desai, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and of Physics, hopes to leverage the common fungus to answer an age-old question: How did we come to be?
Planting a Seed
It seems unfair to say I love someone who I never knew completely. It’s hard to understand how it could even be possible. I have no evidence, no explicit reason why I should love him aside from the blood we share and his undeniable part in giving me life. Yet, I do love my dad and I miss the chance I had at being his daughter, blooming in his image.
Contingency
Most predictions are contingents: over a hundred species will go extinct tomorrow; Mexico City will run out of water in the next decade; I will witness climate collapse within my lifetime. All statements about the future, neither inevitable nor impossible.
What If?
In the New York Times’ building in Times Square, there is a front-page story that will never see the light of day. All that was left was the headline: “Madam President: Clinton Defeats Trump In Historic Victory.”
What I Didn’t Learn From Quitting Coffee For a Week
I sincerely believed this week would lead me to some incredible Reason Why You Need to Quit Coffee Now — you know, one of those things that makes a good headline. At the very least, I figured it would give me something to brag about while the semester took its toll.
For Sara Jane Ho, Etiquette is Everywhere
An etiquette expert, Ho is best known as the host of the Netflix series “Mind Your Manners” and for founding Institute Sarita, China’s first finishing school.
Are We Doing Friendship Wrong?
Alex Chueh wants to turn to anyone anywhere and strike up a conversation. Which is exactly what he’s done — over 1,000 times since 2022.
Rainbow Suits and Riot Gear at the Boston Men’s March
The participants of Boston’s Men’s March to Abolish Abortion and Rally for Personhood had only made it a few steps down Commonwealth Avenue when nearly 100 clowns arrived.
For Alejandra Caraballo, the Next 4 Years Are About Survival
Caraballo anticipates dark days ahead for the trans community. “We are going to lose a lot of people,” she says. “I don’t want to sugarcoat it, these next four years are going to be about survival.”
“So, Are You Gay?”
That evening, we neglected our future concentrations and dorm situations. That evening, we talked about my gayness.
On My Admissions File
When I learned that I could request to view my admissions file, I seized that opportunity. Amid the whirlwind of settling into life at a new college in a new country, I hoped that the comments on my file would help me make sense of my place here.
Seeing Your Future Self with Future You AI
How much can an AI chatbot tell you about your future based on the choices you make?
What Is Harvard Sex Week Trying to Teach Us?
It’s difficult to generalize Sex Week’s programming from its promotional materials alone: On its Instagram, a Canva graphic publicizing a discussion on religion and sexuality sits near a photo of a beaming student holding an Ass Stroker from PeepShow Toys.
A Hurricane From Here
When the news announced that Hurricane Milton’s landfall would be “catastrophic,” I was far from the storm. I’ve never worried much about incoming hurricanes, and I’m still not sure that I do.
Meet Nina Howe-Goldstein, the Real Hater of Cambridge, Mass.
When Howe-Goldstein transferred to Harvard, she expected to find a rigid academic environment. Then she heard about the $30,000 HUFPI scandal. “I thought to myself, ‘Wait, this place is a complete freak show, but I’m gonna have so much fun here,’” she says.
Parsing the Past of Our Present in History 10
The new gateway course, which aims to expose students to different ways of doing, practicing, and talking about history, was advertised on Canvas under the headline: “Not your high school history class!”
‘In Deep Aeolic Infinitude’: Catching Wind of the Harvard Whistler’s Society
“For too long, whistling has been sort of a maligned art form, underappreciated in comparison to other forms of music-making,” Tyler Heaton says. “We figured it was high time to put our foot in the door.”
Lovestruck in Cambridge: A Romance Bookstore Comes to Harvard Square
Rachel Kanter is taking her relationship with romance to the next level – opening Lovestruck Books, a bookstore in Harvard Square specializing in romance novels.