Welcome to Despair
Through his unorthodox courses, religious studies professor Justin McDaniel is training Penn students how to immerse themselves in literature, disconnect from their phones, build lifelong bonds with classmates … and prepare for the inevitable emotional pain life will bring.
Architectural Afterlives
Fleeting witnesses to a vanished past.
Department of Plunder
Wartime tale of parallel lives.
The Gilded-Age Medievalist
A new life of Henry Charles Lea.
Briefly Noted
May|Jun 2025
Back to Beauty
Wendy Steiner on The Beauty of Choice at Kelly Writers House.
Amateur Hour
Zahav Home is coffee-table ready and kitchen friendly.
West Wing Forever
What’s Next recalls The West Wing and its legacy.
And Yet, They Persisted
Ben Nathans on the “many lives” of the Soviet dissident movement.
Briefly Noted
Jan|Feb 2025
The Art of Mothering
In her debut book, The Mother Artist, Catherine Ricketts C’09 explores the limitations and creative benefits for mothers who make art. A mother herself, she faced many of the same hurdles as she wrote the book—and she’s not the only alumna (or alumnus) finding both challenge and success navigating the balance between art and caregiving.
Boulevard of Steel
Time traveling with David Alff Gr’12 along The Northeast Corridor.
Briefly Noted
Nov|Dec 2024
The Instrument Is Yourself
Harvey Finkle SW’61 and the photography of social justice.
Life Hacks
How to beat burnout, get your way, and become a “Perennial.”
The Toothpick
The rich history and surprising beauty of … toothpicks.
In Kahn’s Hand
A loving reproduction of Louis Kahn’s final notebook.
Briefly Noted
Sep|Oct 2024
The Newcomer Dividend
Wharton’s Zeke Hernandez hopes to bend the immigration debate toward a question rooted in his own research on capital investment and business formation: What do natives stand to gain?
Persistent Demons
Erik Larson C’76 on the Civil War’s start. The Demon of Unrest.
Briefly Noted
Jul|Aug 2024
Good Grief
Five years after his two teenage children were killed by a drunk driver, Colin Campbell C’91 is finding new ways to grieve—while helping others deal with bereavement through his new book, support groups, and a one-man show he calls the “feel-bad story of the year.”
For My Oldest Friend
Rabbit Hole | What book inscriptions reveal.
Into the Dark
In Fighting the Night, Paul Hendrickson tells his father’s story.