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.
Voice Control
Joseph Turow on what your voice tells marketers.
New Grit City
Faculty in PMA new galleries debut New Grit: Art & Philly Now.
Fighting Poverty With Cash
Several decades since the last big income experiment was conducted in the US, School of Social Policy & Practice assistant professor Amy Castro Baker has helped deliver promising data out of Stockton, California, about the effects of giving people no-strings-attached money every month. Now boosted by a new research center at Penn that she’ll colead, more cities are jumping on board to see if guaranteed income can lift their residents out of poverty. Will it work? And will policymakers listen?
The Vaccine Trenches
Key breakthroughs leading to the powerful mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 were forged at Penn. That triumph was almost 50 years in the making, longer on obstacles than celebration, and the COVID-19 vaccines may only be the beginning of its impact on 21st-century medicine.
Framing First Ladies
Smithsonian exhibit “remember[s] the ladies.”