Download a PDF of this issue March | April 2024 Vol. 122, No. 4 Features We Should Be Friends For the past 20 years, Aaron Karo W’01 and Matt Ritter L’05 have been part of a unique friendship tradition called “Man of the Year” with their childhood buddies. Now, the fellow comedians and writers have launched a podcast of the same name to encourage other men to create, maintain, and grow their own friendships. By Dave Zeitlin Admissions in Transition From test-optional applications, to questions about ChatGPT, to the Supreme Court’s new limitations on considering race and ethnicity, college adm ..read more

Reading through senior editor Trey Popp’s interview with Admissions Dean Whitney Soule, “Admissions in Transition,” this quote stuck with me: “The applicant pool is the future. Those are the students who are pursuing dreams for themselves—and their dreams are big.” Their discussion took place while Soule and her team were in the process of decisionmaking for next year’s incoming Class of 2028. It touched on the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on affirmative action; the lingering impacts and useful lessons of the pandemic; new technological issues such as ChatGPT; and why, with 65,000 application ..read more

For the past 20 years, Aaron Karo W’01 and Matt Ritter L’05 have been part of a unique friendship tradition called “Man of the Year” with their childhood buddies. Now, the fellow comedians and writers have launched a podcast of the same name to encourage other men to create, maintain, and grow their own friendships. By Dave Zeitlin | Photography by Ethan Pines C’92 Download a PDF of this article “I just think with a lot of guys, they haven’t had falling outs … they’ve had falling offs.” Matt Ritter L’05 is sitting in a Manhattan hotel lobby with Aaron Karo W’01, his lifelong friend with whom ..read more

From test-optional applications, to questions about ChatGPT, to the Supreme Court’s new limitations on considering race and ethnicity, college admissions are in flux. Admissions Dean Whitney Soule dissects the current state of play and how prospective applicants can navigate it.   By Trey Popp | Illustration by Laura Liedo Download a PDF of this article “I hope everybody loves their job at Penn, but I think I have truly one of the best.” So says Vice Provost and Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule, who started in the post in July 2021 after three decades of experience in the field, latterly ..read more

His acclaimed starring turn in Harmony was cut short by the harsh economics of Broadway musicals, but the theater, film, and TV stalwart is still looking ahead after seven decades in the spotlight. By Jonathan Takiff | Photography by Nathan Bajar Download a PDF of this article Chip Zien C’69 has been having senior moments. The very best kind. Repeatedly. At the tender age of 76, he’s gotten to bask in the biggest, juiciest role in his near-lifelong career as a theater, film, and television actor and singer, top-billed in Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s ultra-tuneful Broadway musical Harmony ..read more

Illustration by Hadley Hooper Emily Wilson’s new translation of the Iliad brings the strange and brutal beauty of Homer’s world into the English-speaking now. By Stephanie McCarter | Illustration by Hadley Hooper Download a PDF of this article No poetry is as famous as the Homeric epics. To translate them is an act of creative daring that Emily Wilson, professor of classical studies in the School of Arts and Sciences, has now performed not once, but twice. Wilson is a translator of long standing who came to particular prominence in 2017 upon the publication of her celebrated English translatio ..read more

Resignation reactions, privilege checked, Sun Ra celebrated. Beyond “Both Sides” I am sure that at this difficult time for our University of Pennsylvania community [“From College Hall,” Jan|Feb 2024], many alumni will be submitting letters expressing strong opinions from both wings of our current intractable polarization. I would call out “both sides” for creating this situation. As a proud Jewish person and child of a Holocaust survivor, I am disgusted that right-wing interests are exploiting a tragic and catastrophic situation in order to score political points. As one who generally finds m ..read more

Illustration by Chris Gash On knowing when to persist, and when to resist. By Nick Lyons Recently I watched a runner in a steeplechase event fall to the track halfway through the race, which seemed clearly to be over for him. But he picked himself up far behind the others, and against all odds willed himself to win, which he did. I have long admired such willpower. It’s the engine that provides the power for so much in our lives—the will to learn, to train one’s body to excel in a chosen sport, to do two more push-ups when your body says “no more,” to invent, to conquer in war or sport, to wal ..read more

Illustration by Jeff Koegel “The Homestead simply wasn’t ready to be demolished.” By Kathryn Levy Feldman For years, I got a pit in my stomach every time I crossed the bridge onto the island where my in-laws lived and my parents once owned a summer home. It should have been a joyful crossing. This was the island where my husband and I met, on the very beach that separated our respective parents’ homes. But it had become complicated turf. Once we married and had three children in rapid succession, the question over where we would stay and how we would divide our time permeated every visit. When ..read more

Illustration by Hadley Hooper The rise (and fall) of woke branding. By Michael Serazio Last April, the rap metal and country rock singer Kid Rock posted a half-minute clip to the platform then known as Twitter. In it, Rock, sporting a backwards MAGA ballcap, announced, with a coiled smile, that he was feeling “a little frisky” but would be as “clear and concise as possible.” Twisting away from the camera, Rock cocked his assault rifle and unloaded a torrent of bullets, annihilating a stack of Bud Light cases in the distance. Strutting offscreen, he flung a middle-finger and pair of f-bombs tow ..read more