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Jul | Aug 2025
Vol. 123, No. 6
Features
Chasing Every Cure
When David Fajgenbaum M’13 WG’15 unlocked his own treatment after being diagnosed with a rare disease, he saved his life. Now he has his sights on a higher purpose that’s bringing hope to millions.
By JoAnn Greco
Travels in Trashland
Journalist Alexander Clapp C’13 set out to follow our trash to the end of the trail. Two years and five continents later, his debut book illuminates the surreal second life of the things we throw away. Plus: an excerpt from Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash.
Interview by Trey Popp
The Producer as Problem Solver
Before the recent real-life election of a new pope, Michael Jackman C’85 helped bring a film version—Conclave—to movie screens and the awards circuit. It was a career highlight for a veteran film producer who often labored far from the Hollywood that lives in our collective imagination.
By Susan Karlin
Alumni Weekend 2025
Our annual photo gallery.
By Tommy Leonardi
Departments
From the Editor | Repurposed drugs, where waste goes, a producer’s path.
Letters | On “Despair,” “keeping it real,” and higher ed fights.
Views
Notes from the Undergrad | Repeat salvation seeker.
Alumni Voices | Collecting cans, finding community.
Salvo | Soap story.
Gazetteer
Commencement | Elizabeth Banks C’96 on choices, failure, and safety nets.
Veterinary Medicine | A dog’s successful brain surgery could advance human care.
Honors | 2025 President’s Prize winners announced.
Symposium | How the Scopes “Monkey Trial” still resonates after 100 years.
Prizes | History professor Ben Nathans awarded Pulitzer in General Nonfiction.
Archaeology | Unknown pharaoh’s tomb discovered in Abydos, Egypt.
Jewish History | At Penn Hillel, a Holocaust survivor shares his story.
Sports | Women’s lacrosse standout Anna Brandt.
Sports | Baseball marks 150 years.
Arts
Calendar
Visual Arts | Artist residency results in Super/Natural installation.
Food | Alumni panel digests writing, cooking, left-right brain thinking.
Briefly Noted
Books | Portraits of a city. Thomas Sully’s Philadelphians.
Exhibition | Penn and the pandemic in retrospect at the Mütter Museum.
Alumni
Stuart Gibbs C’91 is probably your middle schooler’s favorite author.
Beth Kaplan GrEd’21 has hard-won advice on belonging in the workplace.
Jonathan Levine C’84 makes headphones cool enough for The White Lotus.
Notes
Obituaries
Old Penn | Back to the garden.
