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Volume XXXVI, Issue VIII November 16, 2024
Dear FM, I’m in denial. I’m in denial that the semester is ending, that this is the last regular issue I will ever admin (???!?!?! :”””))))) ), that my dinoship is approaching. I will save my sappy note for my last closeout, which I am also in denial about having to write so soon! What is *un*deniable, however, is how good this issue is. Chief among the pieces we have is first-time (!!!) scrut writers XSC and WCM’s incredible deep-dive into campus dialogue efforts on Israel-Palestine. It’s the story we have all been waiting for, journalists and readers alike. Thoroughly reported, with openness and tact and a critical eye, XSC and WCM explore why talking about Israel-Palestine has been so difficult. As they note, Tarek E. Masoud, the HKS professor who leads the Middle East Dialogues, appears to have it down when it comes to fostering these conversations. Yet efforts to replicate his event have failed, and the campus environment remains fraught with tension. Why is this? What is the University getting wrong or overlooking? And what does the way forward look like? This phenomenal scrut may not hold all the answers, but it tackles the job The Crimson hadn’t yet done in elucidating the obstacles Harvard faces in building bridges (pun intended). Sometimes, though, dialogue just isn’t the goal. With impressive reporting chops, YAK and SEY capture the absurdity and the gravity of the National Men’s March to Abolish Abortion that was met with fierce(ly hilarious?) counterprotesting from the Clown March. KJK speaks to HLS instructor Alejandra Caraballo about LGBTQ rights and activism in the incoming Trump presidency. In a 15Q, carrier of FM JKW talks to Government professor Theda Skocpol about the election results, campus protest, and how Harvard’s campus may change in the next four years. Taking a step from the politics/election theme, SEY explores the goals of and ethics surrounding Future You AI, a chatbot that “impersonates” your future self, which you can talk to about decisions you want to make in your life. In a thoughtful and cogent inquiry, CS reflects on how interactions he has had since coming to college have revealed the ways in which queerness, even on a liberal campus, can be constrained by labels and heteronormativity. Finally, pulling the issue to a close, RZN reflects on the experience of viewing his admissions file and how that reminded him that what he has really been looking for has always existed outside of grades and medals and application essays. As always, many a thank must be expressed for all those who made this issue happen! Thank you XCZ, JND, OWZ, SET, and LJPE for rapid, high-quality graphics and another beautiful glossy. Thank you BHP, LLL, JJG, and AYL for being on top of it with amazing photos as always, even with pitches disappearing from the Notion! Thank you MJH, EJS, and CY for good judgment calls. Thank you FM execs for holding down the fort with editing, proofing, and 15 seniors-ing, and special shoutout to ESKS for scroofing even while abroad at a conference! Last but most certainly not least, thank you HD — for being on the same wavelength, for commiseration, for making chairing Fun! FMLove, HD + KT
Volume XXXVI, Issue VII November 9, 2024
Dear FM, It has been brought to my attention that I will face severe consequences for graduating this spring. No longer will I be able to rely on the Mojo Marinated or Miso Roasted or Red Spiced chicken that HUDS so generously provides me. Subsequently, I’m told, the quality of my nourishment will depend chiefly upon my ability to secure employment and my aptitude for cooking. As a hyper-coddled man-child, I find this pretty troubling. Luckily, for the moment I have sustenance far better than HUDS: a steady stream of thoughtful longform stories called FM. Here’s another issue — so delayed, but finally complete — bon appetit. In this week’s cover story, news-FM dream team CNS and MTB delve into the renowned yet oddly decentralized world of Harvard’s postgraduate fellowship advising. For the sixth year in a row, Harvard had more Rhodes Scholarship winners than any other American University. Yet Harvard’s winners are not evenly distributed across the 12 Houses — and not without some cause, some sources suggest. As the dust settles on the current crop of Rhodes Scholars, this scrut provides an essential look into the institutional machinery (and inequalities) that help some of Harvard’s brightest earn fellowships abroad. (You’ll even get to hear from 14p’s own TB3 before he won the big prize!) But there’s so much more to college life than scholarships. Just ask YAK and MH, who attend Sex Week events to learn about the organizers’ vision for sex education at Harvard. Or talk to AWA, who inquires into what belonging looks like in freshman friend groups. Or even take a look at MEL’s Venn Diagram, which compares two places I’d shudder to enter: the Chamber of Secrets, and the showers in Canaday Hall. Next up, ASM and CJ profile Nina Howe-Goldstein, a senior with a hilarious Substack, a budding Mather newsletter empire, and a novel in the works. DLJK asks what life looks like through the prism of “Deal or No Deal.” In a refreshing antidote to election coverage, SG imagines what cold emails to laboratory principal investigators would look like if they borrowed the language of campaign fundraising. Finally, in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton hitting her hometown of Tampa, AJM questions how to reconcile the storm’s catastrophic force — and sensational portrayals of it online — with her community’s relative sense of normalcy. Thanks to JND, OWZ, and XCZ, for late-night graphics on demand and to LLL, BHP, JJG, AYL, for capturing just what we needed. MJH, EJS, and CY are incredibly helpful, and this issue was no exception. IYG deserves a shout out for her scrut proofing (and accompanying me and AHL in our Gen Ed journey), and FM Execs always have my heart. Finally, to KT: you’ve done the most, and you deserve the most. FMLove, HD + KT
Volume XXXVI, Issue VI October 26, 2024
Dear FM, Some of my friends bought two costumes for the double halloweekend. Here at FM, I decided we could do better. That’s why this issue is dressing up the magazine with not three, not four, but nine stylish articles. In our cover story, SJ takes us on a voyage Herman Melville could hardly have dreamt up: a journey to understand the language of whales. Project CETI, a massive interdisciplinary initiative with roots at Harvard, has spent the last four years collecting, processing, and now uncovering hidden linguistic structure in sperm whale clicks. But what would having another species as communicative and intelligent as humans mean for us? SJ guides us through the project and its striking implications with clarity, elegance, and wit. The articles don’t get any less eclectic from there. AAK and ASM experience the “gleeful absurdity” of Harvard’s undergraduate whistling society, the completely unserious club that has also performed at Yardfest. The prolific KJK pens an irreverent ode to Panopto’s 2x speed function. In keeping with the season, MEL and NFLL look back on the “more refined” Halloweens of Harvard’s past. Out in Harvard Square, ASA and NSK chronicle the real-life rom-com that led Rachel Kanter to create Lovestruck Books, an upcoming local bookstore specializing in romance novels. RZN and KEH check in with the Square’s street performers and how they’re navigating the location’s changing character. Back indoors, MRD and CDT get an exclusive look into a day in the life of Harvard’s most paparazzi-shy microcelebrity — a Mouse in Kirkland Dining Hall. CS stops by History 10, a revamped introductory course taught by three department all-stars aiming to showcase how broad a discipline history can be — and reverse declines in humanities concentration numbers. Finally, CJK closes out the issue with a somber and exquisite endpaper on incarceration, the killing of Marcellus Williams, and choosing love. Special shoutout to FM Compers for absolutely killing it — you make our jobs easy. Thanks to SET, LPE, JND, OWZ, XCZ, for color and wonder, and to LLL, BHP, JJG, AYL, for grounding our words. MJH, EJS, and CY have been handling so much, and I’m thankful they shouldered us on top of it all. All FM Execs deserve some thanks too, especially SEW for excellent scroofing (and letting me sneak into Lev library). Finally, I am once again indescribably grateful for KT, whose presence by my side (in Lowell, for countless hours) made all the difference this week. FMLove, HD + KT
Volume XXXVI, Issue V October 19, 2024
Dear FM, Lately, I have been getting the Scaries. Sunday scaries, Turkey Shoot scaries, election scaries. This issue, too, is scary — scary late, yes, but also scary good. Are you afraid of the New Right? Are you afraid of conservatives? Should you be? In their scrut, RAD and SS investigate the world of conservatives at Harvard. Though operating often quietly and behind the scenes, couched in Western philosophical theories that appear to be removed from politics, these people and their organizations in fact espouse the very ideas that underlie the modern New Right movement. Through thorough, dogged reporting and research, RAD and SS reveal the implications of this and the effect these intellectual conservatives have on shaping politics. Following this scrut, we have a couple of scary features! MEL and CDT write about the Sea Monsters exhibit in the Museum of Natural History, which reveals the truly terrifying monster of the sea: humans and the environmental destruction they bring. MMH and AAK talk to AnhPhu D. Nguyen ’25-’26 and Caine A. Ardayfio ’25-’26 about the AI sunglasses they created that can recognize people’s faces and provide the wearer with information about complete strangers. (Weird! Creepy!) AWA and CS talk to a MCB professor about the third floor of the BioLabs and whether it is a “Nobel incubator” — or just a regular place in the building. NFLL takes us on her Geocaching journey to Cambridge Cemetery, which, while slightly scary, was also a wholesome autumn adventure around the city. On this transition from scary to wholesome, XSC talked to Michael T. Horvath ’88 and Mark S. Gainey ’90, the founders of Strava, on their decades-long friendship and how the popular fitness-social app came to be. Finally, wrapping up this issue, SG reflects on how her relationship with her hometown, New York, has changed since she came to college — how, in some ways, she had to leave in order to remember what she loves about it. Many thanks are in order for people who have made these times less scary. Thank you SET, LPE, JND, OWZ, and XCZ for a beautiful glossy and for last-minute graphics. Thank you LLL, BHP, JJG, and AYL for stunning portraits — the photos in this issue are chef’s kiss. Thank you MJH, EJS, and CY (extra special shoutout to EJS for thorough scrut help) despite the hell that is shoot. Thank you to FM Execs for keeping this big ol’ thing running! Thank you compers for absolutely eating with the pieces you’ve been writing! We are very impressed by their quality. Finally, thank you, thank you, to HD for enduring shoot and all of FM with me and for being my co-chair better half, even with the struggles of concussion recovery. FMLove, HD & KT
Volume XXXVI, Issue IV October 12, 2024
Dear FM, I’ve heard whispers that it’s spooky season, and for me, spooky season is all about legends. The tale of sleepy hollow (my bedroom). The haunting of Emerson Hall (my upcoming Philosophy midterm). And this week, I’ve been thinking especially about two FM legends — our crown jewels, really — JKW and JL. For our cover story, this dynamic duo tackles Cambridge’s plans for reparations. In December, the American Freedmen Commission Ordinance — a first step toward reparations for slavery — seemed to pass through the Cambridge City Council quietly. But the radical ideas underpinning it have the potential to reshape reparations and racial justice initiatives around the country. You’ll be hard pressed to find scrutiny writers more incisive than JKW and JL, and for good reason — between them, this is their eighth scrut (!!). Elsewhere in the issue, SSL goes on a whirlwind of fifteen questions with Arthur Brooks, the professional French hornist turned conservative policy wonk turned professor of happiness. Did I mention he moved across the Atlantic to be with his now-wife after dating her for a week? In our first comper article of the semester, AWA spends a whole day staking out Annenberg to find out whether fellow freshmen are still open to eating with strangers. Drawing on MMFW’s legendary “Night Shift,” this saga is full of poignant observations, laugh-out-loud lines, and a surprising amount of cucumber. Just in time for midterm season, DRZ and IYG make a Venn Diagram comparing two unfortunate realities of Harvard: taking the T and getting a B. Finally, EMK closes out the issue with a typically-brilliant endpaper. Weaving in Zodiac legends and Bay Area landscapes, she reflects on learning to drive with her father and how her fears intertwine with his fearlessness. Her father, she writes, has big ideas: “the ones that soar and float.” It strikes me that this is not a bad description of EMK’s sentences, too. For every bit of spookiness this week, there is also gratitude: Thank you to SET, LPE, JND, OWZ, and especially XCZ for so many designs and a forthcoming glossy. To LLL, BHP, JJG, AYL, thank you for adding color, always. To MJH, EJS, and CY, thank you for humoring us. So many thanks are due to all FM Execs, especially CJK for checking so many CQs. Finally, an extra-special thanks to KT, for shoot solidarity, so many texts, and shouldering an entire magazine while I was concussed. FMLove, HD & KT
Volume XXXVI, Issue III October 5, 2024
Dear FM, The conceit of this closeout is YAK. YAK as in one of our beloved EALs. YAK as in yap. YAK as in vomit. YAK as in You Already Know. And you do. YAK WTF is up. Because YAK just dropped an incisive scrut about Hanna L. Stotland ’99 and her work in getting students who have been expelled for Title IX violations back into reputable colleges. It’s another classic YAK slay that challenges the work Stotland does and, with it, the networks of power and misogyny that underlie cultures of sexual violence and pervade even “feminist” spheres. Be warned: Some quotes in here will have you laughing or yakking. Or both. Continuing the YAK slay, YAK conducted a 15Q with the FM-beloved English professor and journalist Michael Pollan. (Do you see why this closeout is YAK-themed now?) It’s a fantastic conversation between two very intelligent people about Pollan’s work on plants, psychedelics, and consciousness — what more could you want? Next, SAL unpacked the mystery of the house aides who lurk among undergrads, who you see in dining halls and think, “Wait? Didn’t you already graduate?” What are these people doing? Read the feature to find out; maybe it’ll inspire some yakkety yak about ways to stay on campus (read: away from the Real Adult World) after graduation. Finally, in this issue’s endpaper, ever-prolific KJK (YAK this is an incredible piece) reflects on passion — what it means to have one, and what it means to be someone who embodies it. Enough yakking from me! Some gratitude is in order. Thank you XCZ, JND, OWZ, SET, LJPE for continued design slays, with special shoutout to JND for the last-minute scrut cover design. Thank you LLL, BHP, JGG, AYL for killing it with photos and getting creative with presenting them on the site. So chef’s kiss. MJH, EJS, and CY, thank you for timely proofing and keeping FM in check despite how we chafe at authority (yeah, some of our pitches are a little out there….) Thank you to all FM execs, especially YAK and JL, for holding down the fort despite miscommunications, mishaps, and mis(sed deadlines). Special shoutout to our compers!!! for comping, with an extra special shoutout to those of you who came to our last writer’s meeting and picked up pieces. We are so excited to have you! And last but not least, HD — nothing like absence to remind you of the value of someone’s presence! Just kidding. Sort of. Thank you for still going through four hours of meetings on Monday. Hope the brain has been rested, the concussion vanquished, and the head helmeted. (I wrote this before I learned the concussion has not been vanquished — wishing you a speedy recovery!) FMLove, HD & KT
Volume XXXVI, Issue II September 28, 2024
Dear FM, In fifth grade, there was only one thing I really wanted: YouTube stardom. I made dozens upon dozens of Minecraft videos with hopes of online fame and fortune — but my artistic masterpieces rarely cracked 15 views. Little did I know that my dreams would come true, in a way, over a decade later. So get in loser FMLover. This week we’re going viral. In our cover story, KJK and AML take a deep dive into the booming college influencer economy. Leveraging the Harvard brand, a growing crop of students have gained massive platforms on TikTok and Instagram. Yet along with celebrity status and tens of thousands of dollars in brand deals, these students must navigate an unprecedented and sometimes harsh spotlight. This article is just the type of thoughtful-funny-fascinating that makes me grateful to be part of this magazine. Whether, like me, you’ve always wondered what’s going on behind the curtain of virality — or you can’t imagine putting your life on display like that — this is the scrutiny for you. Elsewhere in the issue, VRW visits the Eliot house darkroom, where newly-minted Faculty Dean David Elmer is bringing film photography — and House seminars — back to life. DCB talks to Lauren Scruggs, a senior whose celebrity extends all the way to Paris, where she won gold and silver medals in fencing this past summer. For this week’s 15 Questions, CS Professor Finale Doshi-Velez tells JL all about her work on explainable AI, her forthcoming novel, and how purple unicorns unwittingly became her lab’s mascot. Finally, SAL closes the issue with a meditation on her time stripping — climbing holds, not clothes — at Central Rock Gym in the Square. As usual, there’s lots of gratitude to go around: to my scrut writers, for the brilliance, joy, and care they brought to (many, many hours in) 14p. KJK & AML, you might not have gone viral (yet!), but I’m certain you both have that dog in you. To AEP, thanks for seemingly seamless scroofing — in my book, that’s a triumph. Thanks to JND, OWZ, and especially XCZ for conjuring a last minute John Harvard selfie. Thanks to LLL, BHP, and the rest of Multi for anchoring the scrut with fantastic portraits and superb adminning. Thanks to MJH, EJS, and CY for putting up with suggestion mode, and, as always, thanks to KT for holding FM together and appreciating my memes. FMLove, HD + KT
Volume XXXVI, Issue I September 21, 2024
Dear FM, This issue is late. It is worth the wait. I know that’s a cliche. But it’s true; this is no bait. Yes, there is no scrut. But we have an endpaper and a scoop. And, most excitingly, three levities to boot. Writing about a new law school class, CJK takes the time to ask: What does it mean for a plant to be a person? Could this prevent environmental destruction? Next, with the year in full swing once again, we turn to Josh, our dear old friend. He needs to print! Did it work? It didn’t. But never fear, Josh, KJK, EMK, CL, AEP, NHS, and JKW will give you a hint. In a Justice Venn diagram, AEP compares an iconic tween brand to a course in high demand. Donning her Grouchy Funeral Beat alter ego, CES recounts the Cabot fish funeral. It’s funny, slightly harrowing, and just what you need, if you’re craving a really good levity. Finally, pulling this issue to a tender close, AJP reflects on love through her touching prose. With that out the way, it is time for some thanks. XCZ, JND, OWZ, SET, LJPE, without your graphics, this issue would be catastrophic! LLL, BHP, JGG, AYL, the photos you get at a moment’s notice never fail to keep afloat us. MJH, EJS, and CY, with all your advice on this chaotic issue, we owe you one, for sticking it through. All FM execs, especially YAK and JL, the lifeblood of the magazine, you work is appreciated, evergreen. Last but not least, my intrepid co-chair HD, thank you for weathering this issue with me. FMLove, KT + HD
Volume XXXV, Issue X April 30, 2024
Dear FM, In a blur of a few months, we have arrived at our last issue for this semester. Yet ironically, our pieces this time aren’t centered on closing doors. Instead, they’re focused on our theme for this special issue: revival. What does it mean for something to be revived? What weight might a revival itself carry? How do we start anew while carrying the vestiges of the past? Our pieces this week poke at some of those questions and more. In a funny yet profound introspection, AXN opens the issue with reflections on how shaving her head in high school taught her what attempts at starting anew are — and aren’t — about. Coming out of FM retirement — a revival in itself! — BWF examines how Disney’s rendition of the “Percy Jackson” series does and doesn’t respond to the ways the original books are more about America and its mythology than Ancient Greece. It is incisive, critical, and will absolutely make your brain gain more wrinkles just from reading it. Classic BWF! Speaking of wrinkly brains, OGP speaks to Zoë K. Hitzig ’15, an economist and prolific poet, about her interests in algorithms, privacy, poetry, and their intersections. Over the course of their conversation, Hitzig explains the “encryption” of academia and poetry, shares her worries about algorithmic control, and reveals her “classically Gen Z” niche microinterest. Writing from Rome but soon to return to FM — yet another revival! — MG blesses us with yet another yearly installment of her reflections on the past year. This time: Dear Junior Year. It is tender and genuine, a story of what it means not to grow from, but around, grief and its cold haze. (Oh, how we’ve missed you, MG, and how we love to hear how amazing your year has been.) Wrapping up our issue is one of our beloved resident creative writers EMK and her beautiful prose. This time, she reflects on translation, what is lost in it, and what a name — and thus a being and a heritage — carry. Profound and poetic, this piece invites you to think about what it means to express the untranslatable — to revive it, perhaps — through one’s life. Some big thank yous are in order for this beautiful issue! THANK YOU SET, LJPE, XCZ, JND, AND OWZ FOR ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL GLOSSY AND BEAUTIFUL DESIGNS! You carry us again and again with this, and it never fails to amaze me. Thank you all especially for your patience with delays and all the little hiccups along the way. Thank you LLL and BHP for the portraits you brought us way before we ended up needing them :’). Thank you MJH, CY, and EJS for proofing despite the boatload of news on your plate. Thank you IYG for taking in stride a piece we assigned to you last minute and for being the diligent and steadfast editor you are. Thank you AEP for so quickly churning out an awesome crossword. Thank you JL and YAK for the editing and emailing and planning help. What would we do without you? Thank you HD for problem-solving and crisis-managing with me this issue (and every issue). Last but certainly not least, THANK YOU ALL FM EXECS IYG, SSL, DRZ, AEP, GRW, STB, AEP, CK, JKW, EKS, JL (the EAL), JL (the inquiry editor), YAK, and SEW for such an amazing first semester! See you all in the fall. FMLove, HD + KT
Volume XXXV, Issue IX April 20, 2024
Dear FM, In keeping with the housing flexing from last week sans being public enemy #1, I am happy to announce that I will have a Fairfax studio for myself next year. (Next to our beloved MJH as well.) This means I will be doing a lot of cooking. But you know who has been doing the most cooking? That’s right, *the* iconic scrut duo KSG and GRW. Over the course of four months, for our last scrut this semester (!!!), they set out to uncover the whys and hows behind Harvard’s continuously inadequate responses to student mental health issues. Weaving together in-depth historic research, conversations with legal experts, and current events unfolding with the Luke Tang case, they highlight how stigma, the legal system, and questions about responsibility interact to impede efforts at reform. They cooked. They ate. And now you, too, will feast your eyes upon their masterpiece of a scrut. The rest of this issue also ate. We have the slayest of them all, JKW, back again with another killer piece, this time about the Law School library’s most recent exhibit, “Challenging Our Right to Read.” Part-inquiry and part-scoop, she visits the exhibit and speaks to the curators to explore questions about censorship and the politicization of literature. HWD visits the Divinity School’s Death Cafe, a space for open conversation about death and dying, and through the group, reflects on her own journey in navigating secular meaning-making. JL talks to Vera Mironova, a fellow at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, who has embedded in various warzones to understand conflict and violence through the lens of the individual. In the spirit of ~questioning~, XSC and CL explore the conversations about CS 124, the notoriously difficult required course for CS concentrators, and the questions it raises about theory-based vs. application-based classes. RAD writes a retrospection on the circular desk in the Law School library, which belonged to Nathan Roscoe Pound, a former dean of the Law School who was criticized for his association with the Nazis during World War II. In her reporting and research, RAD lays out questions about what it means to still have this piece of furniture and to portray history accurately. On a lighter (pun intended) note, SSL and AJM do a deep dive into the blue light system to see how often they’re used, how much they cost, and how students actually feel about them. Red light or green light the blue lights? The jury’s still out. Finally, closing our issue, KJK writes an honest and heartfelt endpaper about the pressure she felt after coming to college to be the “perfect” older sister to her four younger siblings — only to realize that being open about her imperfect life is perhaps what makes her the best role model she can be. Kudos are in order! Thank you as always, XCZ, OWZ, JND, SET, and LJPE, for slaying with designs and helping with glossy distribution. You guys never let us down. Thank you LLL, BHP, JJG, and AYL for always answering my last-minute requests and questions and for always going out of your way to make sure we get our photos. Thank you MJH, CY, and EJS for speedy responses, speedy proofing, and speedy advice. Thank you YAK and JL for, once again, holding down the fort!! Special shoutout to IYG for incredibly dedicated and concise proofing despite the scrut dragging on way past what you agreed to — I’m sorry! We love you! And of course, thank you HD for dealing with hiccups and blips every week with much more composure and distress tolerance than I do. Y’all stay cooking. And eating. FMLove, KT + HD
Volume XXXV, Issue VIII April 13, 2024
Dear FM, We finally did it — we won the lottery. And by we, I mean myself and my blockmates. After Cabot House announced it would be gutting its selection of prized n+1 suites next year, leaving many seniors to live out their final semesters sharing a double bedroom like first years, my blockmates and I were terrified. So we ruminated. We strategized. We pored over the rule book searching for plausible schemes. And in no way due to any of that labor, our suite was randomly assigned the second-highest lottery number today. But whether you’re rejoicing after getting a furnished apartment in the Prescotts or struggling to figure out how to divide your 82 sq. ft hallway double in Dunster, you can all take comfort in another stroke of luck: the arrival of another issue of FM. In this week’s scrutiny, OGP and JKW uncover Harvard’s connections to the destabilization of Latin American countries during the Cold War. Under the guise of academic freedom, professors shook hands with (and sometimes became) military and intelligence officials, covert operatives recruited students, and the CIA discreetly channeled funding into research projects. Ultimately, professors and institutions like Henry Kissinger and his Defense Studies Program engaged in covert planning that enabled the destabilization of a region and the loss of tens of thousands of lives. The legacy of these men and their actions reverberate to this day not only across the region but within the University as well. On a less somber note, YAK asks fifteen sharp questions and gets fifteen fascinating answers from HLS Professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed, covering everything from her take on the philosophy of originalism in constitutional law to her thoughts on the musical “Hamilton.” Speaking of biographical musicals, it wouldn’t surprise me to see one written eventually about the subject of KJK’s latest must-read profile. Dr. Michael Ferguson is a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Divinity School who studies the neuroscience of spirituality. Did I mention he’s a former Mormon, a practicing Catholic, and the first recipient of a gay marriage license in Utah? What a remarkable guy — and what a remarkable story. Lastly, sports writer TH joins FM for an endpaper about how YouTube shaped his childhood and the strangeness of recently seeing some of his favorite creators retire. As a former Minecraft YouTube fan myself (yes, I was very cool in fifth grade), this one brought all the nostalgia. Of course, it took a lot more than just luck to make this issue happen. Thanks to CJK for a multi-day madness of scrut proofing and OGP + JKW for “G overloaded.” Thanks to XCZ, JND, OWZ, for excellent graphics. Thanks to LLL and BHP for being way more on top of it than we are. Thanks to MJH, CY, and EJS for reigning us in while letting us flourish. Thanks to our social chairs for bringing us to the moon with fringe prom. Thanks to JL and YAK for $65 million worth of EAL expertise. As always, thanks to KT for perpetually pulling through for me. And to all those still awaiting their housing assignments for next year, thank you for sticking with FM during this stressful time — I wish you all single bedrooms, spacious common rooms, and a cozy nook to curl up and read our latest issue. FMLove, HD + KT
Volume XXXV, Issue VII April 6, 2024
Dear FM, Not to say the world is ending, but the world is ending. There was an earthquake in New York; there’ll be a solar eclipse on Monday; it was raining, hailing, and snowing (??!?!?!) these past few days here; and I am writing this closeout on (gasp) a Sunday while The Crimson’s admin site is down. Is the apocalypse upon us? I’ll let the evidence speak for itself. With trying times often comes ~comedy~, and that is the subject of this week’s scrut by AC and TNR. Witty and incisive, it is an exploration of how students on campus engage in comedy and navigate the broader social forces that impact what they deem appropriate to joke about. As they write, “The audience has their dispositions, but the buck is then passed to the comic: what should you do with the tastes of this audience? And then there’s the more interesting question. What do you do?” As you read their scrut, think about those questions. It’ll be extremely illuminating of the various social tensions underlying what it means to engage with and do comedy. Going along with the apocalyptic theme, XSC strikes a double-whammy with an inquiry and a retrospection. In the former, she questions the extent to which privacy has, in some ways, become at odds with friendship through the common use of Find My to track others’ locations. In the latter, she explores the history of the Social Museum Collection, which was criticized for its categorizing of human beings. Still, not everything is doom and gloom. In fact, some things are even on the come-up, like my.harvard, whose makeover EDDPT outlines through her conversations with some students working with HUIT to revamp the website. If you want even more wins, IYG offers us advice for writing a strong grant application by writing one herself — for very posh, definitely not exorbitantly-priced research on the Royal Family. And keeping up our streak of strong profiles, YAK talks to Eva Shang ’17 on dropping out, being a hedge fund CEO, and storytelling. SSL sits down with Jazz Jennings ’25 to learn about how she navigates life at Harvard after being a public figure for so long. From abroad, SJ talks to Adam V. Aleksic ’23 about etymology, being an influencer, and Internet slang. Finally, wrapping our issue to a close, DH reflects on her Kurdish-Syrian identity through an endpaper on her relationship with her mother’s language and culture. It is as honest as it is tender, a nuanced and genuine exploration of heritage and family history. And with that, happy apocalypse-era reading! FMLove, HD + KT
Volume XXXV, Issue VI March 30, 2024
Dear FM, On Thursday in my Gen Ed, three other students and I went in front of the class “Shark Tank” style and gave five minute pitches for a hypothetical intervention to combat fake news, misinformation, or polarization. At the end of class, we all voted on which two proposals we would fund, and, by a wide margin, my presentation came dead last. Luckily, I have a different intervention in mind now — a completely free, non-hypothetical way to address the worrisome deficiency of top-tier campus magazine writing in your life — the latest issue of FM. Who needs Shark Tank: Gen Ed edition anyway? In this week’s scrutiny, CPRJ and MTB take questions about Harvard’s influence abroad back to a major flashpoint from decades past — and uncover the history behind it. In 1992, a group of experts affiliated with Harvard’s Institute for International Development arrived in Russia aiming to transform its economy into that of a Western capitalist country. Instead, they left in scandal, eventually leading Harvard (along with some of the experts) to pay a $31 million settlement to the U.S. government. As Harvard faces criticism today over its wide-ranging influence and lack of institutional neutrality, the story of HIID and its Russia project provides a fresh lens into the risks of Harvard’s global power. This was a massive reporting and research effort (and, to my knowledge, the first Crimson article written in at least four different countries) by first-time scrut writers, and I am so proud of them. To CPRJ and MTB, your perseverance and dedication fills me with hope about what this magazine is capable of. Elsewhere in the issue, SSL peppers computer science professor Elena Glassman with fifteen questions, covering everything from her takes on CS education to the time she walked on to the MIT men’s wrestling team. In a fitting twist for our first issue post-spring break, DRZ brings back a time-tested classic FM medium — the Venn Diagram — to compare the four shops in the Square that sell boba and a spring break trip to Cordoba. Back again for another conversation, SSL sits down with Hist & Lit concentrator and distance running star Maia Ramsden to talk about her thesis, fashion, and her impending transition from full time academics and part time athletics to full time athletics. Finally, comp director extraordinaire JKW delivers a stunning endpaper on her relationship with her grandmother and how to grieve in a way that measures up to the complexity of a person. I struggle to describe how beautiful, vivid, and life-giving this piece is — you really have to read it. Many thanks are in order. To AEP, thanks for a thorough and crucial scrut proofing job. To XCZ, JND, OWZ, and all the rest of design, thanks for seeing our vision even when we don’t have one. To LLL and BHP, thanks for grounding our words in the material world. To MJH, CY, and EJS, thanks for having our backs. To our FM execs (FMdashes? FMdashes.), thanks for great banter and sharp sentences — y’all are superstars. To JL (and YAK in absentia), thanks for excellent EALing and hanging in there. Finally, a special thanks goes to CY, for bringing the soap and the wand into the FMoffice, and to KT for joining me as we unleashed our inner kindergarteners and blew some bubbles. FMLove, HD + KT
Volume XXXV, Issue V March 9, 2024
Dear FM, Vast, malignant forces were conspiring against this issue. Midterms. Sleep deprivation. Housing Day condemning many FM first-years to the river. But in the end, nothing — not even this week’s scrut writer suffering a concussion the weekend before publication — could stop us. In this week’s scrutiny, TCW goes searching for what happened to the arts in Cambridge. Artists used to define the city, but over the past years, rising rents and a changing city landscape have forced many artists to relocate and many art spaces — galleries, studios, and venues — to shut down. Though the city government is trying its best to preserve the culture, the few spaces still open are rarely paying market price. With vivid detail and colorful on-the-ground reporting, the article asks what would a sustainable arts culture look like in Cambridge, and who is going to pay for it? TCW persevered through so much to get this piece out into the world — from biotech sludge to editing by hand after her concussion — but her talent and dedication (along with a boatload of excellent editing from YAK) made the piece turn out brilliantly. In this week’s 15 Questions, AEP hears from Classics chair and incoming Eliot House dean David Elmer about oral traditions, The Iliad, and why he still hasn’t seen or read “Percy Jackson.” AGF gets the scoop on Eng-Sci 24, a class on food fermentation whose experimental student projects at one point led Berklee students to make yogurt-inspired music compositions. CJK and SIR visit a course on oral history, where they learn how to listen to silences in the archive and hear how students use the class’s methodology to document the stories of their communities. Who said history wasn’t practical? A trio of phenomenal profiles rounds out the issue — all with larger-than-life subjects. Sungjoo Yoon ’27, better known as the datamatch leaker, tells JBT, KJK, and AEP about his day of infamy on Sidechat, the book he’s writing, and his non-presidential political aspirations. Professor Gary King, who has founded six companies, written 9 books, and published over 170 scholarly articles, lets NHS in on the secret of how he simultaneously succeeds in industry and the academy — and leaves him with an idea for a startup. Finally, FM^2 (Fifteen Minutes x Folk & Myth) legend SWF falls into the orbit of Caroline Calloway, a former Instagram influencer who got even more famous for repeatedly scamming those around her. “The coin of her realm is attention,” and with a story this well-written, how could you not give her yours? We could not have made it to publication this week without so many wonderful people. Thanks to our AMEs CY and EJS for quick proofing, and especially to MJH for helping us handle the opps. Thank you LLL, BHP, XCZ, JND, OWZ, and all the rest of the multi and design folks for bringing our content to life. Thank you to YAK, whose quick wit, sharp words, and superb editing are undoubtedly aspirin for FM’s body politic. To JL, for being EAL-tastic. To KT, for inexplicably slaying when there’s no slaying involved. And to all the FM Execs, you are my favorites — I wish you the best spring break. FMLove, HD + KT
Volume XXXV, Issue IV March 2, 2024
Dear FM, Spring is in the air. The air today may have been rainy and still a bit chilly, but it’s there. We are crawling out of the 30º weather, crawling out of dark-at-4pm-days, crawling out of the trenches, and facing the light — of our biggest FM issue yet. Opening this issue is another incredible scrut by iconic duo JL and ESKS on Harvard’s efforts — or lack thereof — in fulfilling the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Progress on this front has been slow, spanning over three decades now, and time after time, we have covered this. But what’s missing has been the emotional toll that such slow work takes on Indigenous tribes who are waiting to be reunited with the remains of their ancestors and burial items. With a balance of human-centered reporting and retrospective research, this scrut brings out exactly that, set on the foreground of questions surrounding colonialism and what it means to repair relations. This theme of bringing out the faces in our reporting runs through the rest of our issue. DRZ strikes with yet another extremely well-reported 15Q with psychiatrist and medical anthropologist Arthur M. Kleinman that touches on not just his academic work, but also his experiences caring for his late wife until her death. It is profound and touching and made both HD and me cry — and got raving reviews from MJH, who said, "Good 15Q." Next, DRZ and SSL embark on a journey to Vilna Shul in Boston, where they make pickles while talking to people about finding Jewish community in the city. KJK writes an incredibly colorful profile of Wesley Wang ’26, whose short film “nothing, except everything.” won him national attention, and who is now on a path to creating a full-length feature film. Language, too, is a theme in this issue as TMR writes about the complex history of the Eliot Bible, which was originally written in 1663 in Wôpanâak to Christianize local Indigenous tribes but is now being used in language preservation efforts. MTB talks to Ava E. Silva ’27 about a project she is spearheading to preserve the endangered Alabama language. In a retrospection that reads almost like historical fiction, AI brings to life the philosophers’ camp that would happen in the Adirondacks in the 19th century — except it was really “far more ‘philosopher’ than ‘camp.’” In the spirit of spring, FM staff gives Josh advice again, this time, on when winter ends. Finally, wrapping up our issue is an poignant endpaper by XSC exploring what it means to be Asian non-American; an international student living in the U.S., trying to figure out who and how to be. Now, a huge list of kudos are in order! Super duper special shoutout to SET, LJPE, XCZ, JND, OWZ, and all the other design execs for not just churning out fire graphics as usual, but for making our VERY FIRST GLOSSY possible!! (Extra love to SET and LJPE for answering all of HD’s and my glossy questions.) Special shoutout to AHL and IYG for all the how-to videos and guides that literally carried me through glossy production, and also for the emotional support slug plush. Thank you to LLL and BHP for coordinating multi things for us, and to JJG and AYL for amazing Quad Bikes photos + glossy spread. Thank you to MJH, EJS, and CY for diligent proofing, editorial wisdom, and, of course, vibes. Thank you to YAK, SSL, and DRZ for planning a very flower very power mixer. Thank you JL and YAK for helping us handle our ever-growing! content and for the best pitch email conceits. Thank you all FM execs for pulling through for our biggest issue yet and staying on top of shit even though it’s been midterm hell for a lot of you. And finally, thank you to HD for being my partner-in-chaos and for becoming an InDesign master overnight so our next glossy will go by even more smoothly. FMLove, HD + KT
