May | Jun 2019
Volume 117, No. 5
FEATURES
How Jonathan Rand C’02 became “the most successful living American playwright that nobody’s ever heard of.”
By Trey Popp
The alumna and personal-finance guru learned from her mother’s example “that women can be active and extremely competent managers of money.” Now she’s sharing that lesson—and more gained over her 25 years as a business journalist and experience as a small-business owner—in a new book.
By Caren Lissner
Despite all evidence to the contrary, “the world is getting better,” argues physician and sociologist Nicholas Christakis G’92 Gr’95 GM’95. It’s in our genes.
By Julia M. Klein
DEPARTMENTS
From the Editor | Writing plays, reading blueprints, managing money.
From College Hall | Experiencing Penn is a voyage all its own.
Letters | Cancellations, kudos, corrections.
Views
Notes from the Undergrad | “Basho would like this.”
Alumni Voices | What Dick Van Dyke taught me.
Elsewhere | Fate and longing in Portugal.
Expert Opinion | Canaries in coal mines, lands in-between.
Gazetteer
Honor | Oscar-winning producer—and student—Claire Sliney C’21.
Politics | Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer W’93 on hopes for peace.
Gift | $50 million from Vageloses for energy sciences center sets SAS record.
Religion | Justin McDaniel on studying Buddhism at the water park.
By the Numbers | 2019-20 costs up 3.9 percent; aid to rise 4.5 percent.
History | How human rights lost in the Iranian Revolution.
Commencement | Criminal-justice advocate Bryan Stevenson to speak.
Gift | $10 million to Wharton for Harris Alternative Investments Program.
Landscape Architecture | Journal LA+ takes on big themes, multiple disciplines.
Gift | School of Design named for Stuart Weitzman W’63.
Road Trip | Penn’s football team spent spring break in China.
Sports | Basketball: women share Ivy title; men’s up-and-down season.
Arts
Interview | Charles Bernstein on his Bollingen Prize and retiring from Penn.
Books | All together now. Help!
Poetry | Emily Jungmin Yoon C’13’s A Cruelty Special to Our Species.
Outreach | Penn Museum program links local residents to Gordion site.
Alumni
Jennifer Toth Nu’15 GNu’19 is helping kids with cancer—just like her.
Alan “Bo” Leibowitz C’67 spent 40 years celebrating jazz on the radio.
Marc Kushner C’99 believes in the power of architecture.
Robert Dunham C’80 has fought the death penalty for decades.
Old Penn | Ezra Pound’s Bollingen, and before.