Time Stretcher
From swinging standards to avant garde nonconformism, Penn music professor, jazz drummer, and shapeshifting composer Tyshawn Sorey has won acclaim for “awesomely confounding” music whose “vulnerable virtuosity” can “open different portals in your depth of feeling and imagination.”
Mann in the Middle
Michael E. Mann has been a central figure in the battle for the environment since the “hockey stick” graph made him a target for climate change deniers 25 years ago. Now on Penn’s faculty and heading the Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media, he’s fending off a new generation of “inactivists” comprised of climate change deflectors on the right and doomists on the left to get out the message that it’s still within our power to save the planet.
An Archaeologist Walks into a Bar …
Unearthing the world’s oldest tavern while reconstructing daily life in ancient southern Mesopotamia.
Fool Me Once
Fools rush in (and that’s OK!).
The French Connection
An old painting and a new book unlock a family’s origins.
The Olden Bough
Humans have revered ancient trees for about as long as we’ve chopped down forests. What does that fraught relationship reveal about our past? And can it illuminate a path toward a more hopeful future?
Franklin’s World
Zeke Emanuel finds more to say on Benjamin Franklin in online course.
“No Place for Unruly Women”
Drew Faust Gr’75 on the Penn women who “led the charge and led the change.”
The Texas Tax
The Lone Star State fired a shot at banks pursuing ESG policies. Local taxpayers are taking the hit.
Night Fever
DJ “Michael the Lion” (also a researcher and lecturer in the Weitzman School of Design) is a big believer in the nighttime economy.
Getting it Right(er)
PIK Professors Philip Tetlock and Barbara Mellers have figured out a better way to predict the future. Open minds welcome. Experts, not so much.
Flipping the Script
A new model for teaching mathematics.
Fresh Faces
Across campus, the portraits on the walls of Penn’s buildings are becoming more diverse.
Old Penn
Pennsylmania No. 1 (again).
Dear Uncle Nick
An appreciation of one professor’s kindness, guidance, and wit.
The Law, The Gospel, and David Skeel
How Penn’s foremost expert on bankruptcy law became one of the most surprising voices in contemporary evangelical Christianity.
Thinking About Ukraine
Penn faculty examine the conflict from multiple perspectives—sometimes clashing, sometimes meshing, and often thought-provoking. Plus: Mike Logsdon C’03’s photographs from Ukraine.
Tim Beck’s Final Brainstorms
Recalling their near-weekly conversations over the two-and-a-half years before mental health pioneer Aaron T. Beck’s death at age 100, the author—possible biographer, irritating interviewer, admiring friend—bears witness to the founder of cognitive therapy’s ceaseless quest to live a “rich full life.”
Shattered and Torn
In a new book, Dorothy Roberts extends her landmark critique of the US child welfare system.
Reconstructing America’s Story
Kermit Roosevelt launches a provocative interpretation of the Declaration of Independence.
Course Connections
Four students in a Holocaust class last semester were children of alums who had taken the same class.
A First-Rate Version of Himself
Loren Eiseley G’35 Gr’37 was associated with no great discoveries in his field of anthropology, “awkwardly shy” and “not very comfortable with students” in the classroom, a disaster as Penn’s provost—and a writer of unmatched brilliance on the natural world and the human condition.
Choice and Change
We know what we should do when it comes to leading healthier and happier lives. But too often we default to easier, more pleasurable wants. Behavioral scientist and Wharton professor Katy Milkman is determined to help us change for the better—and for good.
Doing What’s Right—and Being Smart About It
G. Richard Shell’s The Conscience Code.