Column

Scary movies have more to offer than cheap thrills Out of all the films nominated for best picture in Oscars history, only six have belonged to the horror genre. And although not every moviegoer takes pleasure in being scared, horror films are often more complex than jump scares and splattered blood. Many tell stories that […]

Transportation is significant for more than just movement I am not a fan of cars or driving. With very few and notable exceptions, long drives are in no way a means of catharsis for me –– however, long train rides are. I enjoy sitting in an Amtrak cart and making my way back home from […]

Some things should be left on stage When a bad movie is released during the year, I always feel the urge to tell my friends about it so we can immediately buy our tickets. So naturally, when the trailer for “Cats” appeared on TV, I knew I would find the greatest joy in sitting at […]

Following “green holiday tips” won’t save the planet In the 2018 movie “Leave No Trace,” an Iraq War veteran with PTSD lives with his daughter in the sprawling wilderness of the massive Forest Park in Portland, Ore. They live in isolation in the dense and murky forest, but as skilled survivalists, they live in balance […]

The NFL will never be safe enough We’re a century into the NFL, and I’m not entirely sure if the league is the best or the worst it has ever been. Ratings are spiking in a year when it seems like the amount of injuries are the same, and bad officiating is at its most […]

Art should invite response, both positive and negative I’m not an avid reader of young adult literature anymore, but reading YA was a rite of passage for my friends and me, especially the YA books of Sarah Dessen. By the time we left high school, we read just about every book that Dessen had written […]

Who qualifies as a hall of famer is becoming increasingly complex in a rapidly changing NFL The NFL Hall of Fame is a tricky business. At its core, it’s a museum full of creepy busts and preserved memorabilia. But the players whose faces those busts resemble, and who get the golden jackets, are a representation […]

And how should we define it? One of my environmental policy professors concluded a recent lecture about environmental justice (EJ) by asking the class whether or not we think achieving EJ is actually possible. One student eagerly raised their hand as if they had some very strong opinions about this and said, “I have some […]

Telling the stories of women means telling stories about a variety of women In anticipation of season three of “The Crown,” which was released on Nov. 17, there was one thought circling in my head: I was finally going to be watching a show in which the lead is a middle-aged woman.  “The Crown” isn’t […]

Jay-Z is no sell-out This August, Jay-Z’s entertainment company, Roc Nation, entered into a multi-year deal with the NFL to “enhance the NFL’s live game experiences and to amplify the league’s social justice platforms.” It’s a step in the right direction for a league that has struggled with racial inequality and player freedom for the […]

A case study in the confounding contradictions of corporate environmental stewardship A few weeks ago, in one of my environmental policy classes, we had a guest speaker from the Pacific Institute, an Oakland-based environmental NGO that works primarily on water issues. She spoke mainly about the importance of the Pacific Institute’s role in facilitating corporate […]

YA novels are unique and important for the way they allow readers to connect to stories  For better or worse, I credit the development of my formative teenage years to young adult literature. Over time, I have slowly moved away from YA, but I still think there’s a lot of value in these books, even […]