Column

Learning pop culture as a Third Culture Kid By ABHINAYA KASAGANI — akasagani@ucdavis.edu For as long as I can remember, the joke always went over my head. Growing up as a second-generation child automatically disqualified me from getting most references, and my parents had differing beliefs that there were bigger priorities than catching the season […]

A new wave of feminism   By NEVAEH KARRAKER — nakarraker@ucdavis.edu   A night full of aesthetically pleasing snacks, photoshoots and the most ridiculous conversations about men — the bad dates and the new crushes and plenty of giggles — is quintessential girlhood. Who doesn’t love girl talk?  And yet, one thing in common with […]

Advice from an idealist    By MOLLY THOMPSON – mmtthompson@ucdavis.edu    I tend to think about romance a lot. I don’t know if it’s a product or a cause of my habits, but I’ve always had a not-insignificant portion of my maladaptive brainspace dedicated to fantasies of grandeur and melodrama. Maybe I can blame it […]

Latinos join ICE for job security, but they should rethink their positions By SABRINA FIGUEROA — sfigueroaavila@ucdavis.edu With the recent murder of Renee Good in Minnesota, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is currently under a microscope — and deservingly so. As attention grows, so does the question of who makes up ICE and why they […]

The core struggle with maintaining friendships through adulthood is less logistical and more emotional By GEETIKA MAHAJAN — giamahajan@ucdavis.edu My mom has beef with the popular American sitcom “Parks and Recreation;” she rolls her eyes whenever I turn it on because, as she says, “Nobody actually has friends like that.” For those unfamiliar, “Parks and […]

The buffer between adolescence and adulthood By NEVAEH KARRAKER — nakarraker@ucdavis.edu Time is both our greatest ally and our biggest constraint. There’s never enough of it, and we’ll never be satisfied. We desperately try to grasp at time, as we watch it slip between our fingertips like water. If only we could have more time […]

Unless we abolish ICE, Good won’t be the last to die in vain By SAGE KAMOCSAY— skamocsay@ucdavis.edu On Jan. 7, 2026, Renee Good was shot and murdered by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent near her home in Minneapolis.  Video footage shows several agents stepping out from an unmarked car in ski masks and […]

The case for having a pet in college By ANJALI IYER — amiyer@ucdavis.edu Last spring, my roommate informed me that we would be gaining temporary custody of her sister’s pet hamster, Daddy. He was to come live with us during the upcoming school year, as her sister wouldn’t be able to house him in her […]

The war over controlling language is deeply rooted in historical and legal implications  By VIOLET ZANZOT— vmzanzot@ucdavis.edu Hell will be “raised” when a woman is waiting to be made a “girlfriend,” “wife” or “mother” (if she wants it). Hell can “knock on your door” to hand you “drugs” (prescription) when it used to hand you […]

Ingest gossip cautiously By ABHINAYA KASAGANI — akasagani@ucdavis.edu For years, I have shirked participating in gossip, believing it to be the product of idleness. Gossip has always felt invasive, but its modern vilification led me to reconsider why exactly I react so poorly to the spread of information, despite it remaining one of the few […]

While the order invokes competition with China, Trump’s chip export policy tells a different story   By MILES BARRY —mabarry@ucdavis.edu   On Dec. 11, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Ensuring a national policy framework for artificial intelligence,” claiming that the United States is in a “race with adversaries” for artificial intelligence […]

Social media’s attention economy thrives on relationship insecurity   By ANJALI IYER — amiyer@ucdavis.edu   Most of us are entirely uncritical of the content we consume on social media — at least I certainly am. After a long day, it’s undeniably cathartic to turn off your brain and embark on a never-ending scroll through Tiktok […]