Columns

Columns

Love to Hate: Rivalries in the community

By Brian Becker | October 9

Mark Knopfler’s song “Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero” provides Newcastle United fans with a sense of local pride. While not as mainstream as Premier League football, Tufts host communities of the Medford/Somerville area — and beyond — provide plenty of intense rivalries from the professional stage down to the local community. All of which, in the eyes of some fans, define the true meaning of a ‘local hero.’ In the same spirit, I’ve compiled a guide of the greatest local sports games happening within the local area fit for Tufts students, as well as Medford, Somerville and Arlington residents alike, to attend.

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Columns

Munching with Max: Porter Square

By Max Druckman | October 9

Steph and Klay. Batman and Robin. Mario and Luigi. Every dynamic duo features a main character and a trusty sidekick. While these sidekicks often don’t get the attention they deserve, their contributions are equally important.

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Columns

High Fidelity: The 10 best album openers of all time

By Kasra Salehi | October 9

“High Fidelity” by Nick Hornby is a book about the music-obsessed — about the kinds of guys who spend their free time making desert-island mix tapes. The main character, Rob, spends hours reorganizing his record collection based on different themes and aesthetics. I’ve decided to start the column that Rob wishes he could have had. I’ll review new albums, write about some of my favorite albums with upcoming anniversaries and, most importantly, I’ll make lists.

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Science

Dissertation Diaries: Chantal Aaron

By William Nguyen | October 9

Welcome back to the fifth installment of “Dissertation Diaries.” This week, we will be highlighting Chantal Aaron, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in The Elizabeth Byrne Lab at the Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

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Columns

The Intangibles: Kyrie Irving, rightfully misunderstood

By Jonah Cowan | October 8

Who is Kyrie Irving? My intention here is not to absolve Irving of responsibility, but rather to understand what led him towards anti-vaxxing and conspiratorial ideologies, and how he has evolved since then. I would like understand him as a person first, then analyze him specifically as a person desiring influence.

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Column

Forgotten Fronts: USAID cuts will kill millions in Sudan and leave America destitute on the world stage

By Alexander Degterev | October 7

President Donald Trump’s dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development was never just a budgetary decision; It was a political declaration that welfare abroad be damned — ushering in a new era of direct and in-your-face U.S. intervention. 

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Columns

Road to the World Cup: FIFA’s unity problem

By Antonia Toro | October 6

FIFA revealed the new World Cup soccer ball on Thursday. Named TRIONDA, it features three colored waves: green for Mexico, red for Canada and blue for the United States. For much of the World Cup’s history, World Cup balls have symbolized host nations.

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Columns

The Full Court Press: Bowling alone, batting together

By Noah Goldstein | October 3

In his 2000 book “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community,” political scientist Robert Putnam writes that, “American history carefully examined is a story of ups and downs in civic engagement, not just downs — a story of collapse and of renewal.”

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Science

Dissertation Diaries: Udathari Kumarasinghe

By Addison Dion | October 2

This installment of “Dissertation Diaries” highlights Udathari Kumarasinghe, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Tufts University. Before Tufts, Kumarasinghe completed a Bachelor of Science in Physics at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka.

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Columns

Moments ‘til Madness: The pecking order of the Power 5

By Owen Short | October 2

Just like everything else in college basketball, the pecking order of the top conferences seems to shuffle from year to year. With the constant churn of the transfer portal and a fresh round of coaching changes, this feels like the right moment to take stock of the Power 5. The goal: to predict which leagues are poised for the most success, whether by racking up tournament bids, producing true championship contenders or simply standing out in overall competitiveness.

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Columns

Elephant Yoga? A Jumbo Guide to Boston’s Yoga Spots: Down Under School of Yoga

By Fiona Hinrichsen | October 2

Founded by Justine Wiltshire Cohen in 2004 in a church basement in Newton Highlands, the Down Under School of Yoga stands as one of Boston’s most esteemed yoga studios. Cohen’s yoga journey began at a very young age. Her parents, both journalists, worked with the Dalai Lama’s community in India, teaching English to Tibetan monks. Cohen’s own teaching career has now spanned over two decades. Notably, while working in Washington, D.C., as an international human rights lawyer, she combined her passion for law and classical yoga to become the yoga teacher to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

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Columns

An Everyday Art Tour: Monument to progress

By Sophie Herron | October 1

Joseph Strauss, chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, said: “Bridges are a monument to progress.” Such is the case of the recently completed William Fenton ‘Bill’ Russell Bridge, named after the Celtics player and civil rights activist, which honors Boston’s past changemakers while innovating for its future. The bridge was designed by Miguel Rosales, a Boston-based architect and president of the architecture firm Rosales+ Partners. Rosales has designed some of the most well-known bridges in the country, including the Zakim and Charlestown Bridges in Boston, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in DC and the Puente Centenario Bridge across the Panama Canal. Born to a middle-class family in Guatemala, Rosales earned an architecture degree from University Francisco Marroquín before continuing his studies at MIT, earning a Masters of Science in Architecture Studies. Rosales credits his education in architecture, urban planning and engineering for his unique designs saying, “I think I combined all of those disciplines into one person, and I think that makes me special and be able to do the work I do.”

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Column

The Bigger Picture: How I see the world through the camera

By Linda Huang | September 30

Most people who have read my viewpoints probably know by now that I am an enthusiastic opinion-haver on political and socioeconomic issues (check out my previous column “Coffee Table Socioeconomics!”). What they might not know, however, is that I’m also an avid movie-watcher and amateur reviewer. Combine these interests, and this column is born. 

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Columns

A Jumbo’s Journey: An ode to the slow walkers

By Ben Rachel | September 30

Tufts is pretty unique — in all facets of the school. Ranging from the distinct and quirky clubs and organizations Tufts offers, such as Tufts Dance Collective and Alpha Tau Omega, to the eclectic style choices students rock in the Tisch Library basement, Tufts stands out as a university.

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Columns

Almaty: The city of postcards

By Max Turnacioglu | September 26

The dusty record player, struggling through a faded song, was almost entirely drowned out by the sounds of the marketplace outside. Bins of pins, coins and assorted Soviet paraphernalia dotted the floor, and the shelves along the walls were crowded with ceramic figures: a village boy dancing with a girl, a stout bear, an old woman with a scarlet headscarf. In the center of the second room stood a metal stand — designed to rotate, but rusted stiff — stuffed with postcards.

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Columns

The Intangibles: Jonathan Kuminga is unaware, uncoachable and unwilling to look in the mirror

By Jonah Cowan | September 26

There are certainly times when a sapling tree with great potential is snuffed out by a vast canopy, where bigger trees prohibit growth. In these situations, the sapling can righteously throw up its little branches and blame the forest. 

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Columns

Road to the World Cup: Ticket prices, trade battles

By Antonia Toro | September 25

The World Cup is less than a year away. In this column, I will review the most pressing challenges the tournament faces across all its venues in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

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Column

Through Indigenous Eyes: A great (Native) American road trip

By Sorsha Khitikian | September 25

Hello! Welcome back to another semester of “Through Indigenous Eyes.” I realized that I never introduced myself last semester: My name is Sorsha Khitikian, and I am a junior at Tufts. I am Yurok, a tribe on the Klamath River in Northern California, but I grew up away from my tribe’s reservation, making me an ‘urban Indian.’

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Columns

Moments ‘til Madness: What’s Shaping the Season Ahead

By Owen Short | September 24

The first tip-off of the 2025–26 college basketball season comes on Nov. 3. With just under six weeks left, the excitement leading up to opening day is starting to build up. Still, we don’t have official preseason rankings, schedules are being finalized and, apparently, the coaching carousel is still taking its course. While we wait for the actual basketball to start, these are the offseason storylines I found to be interesting and also important for this year of college hoops.

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Science

Dissertation Diaries: Bradley Pedro

By William Nguyen | September 24

Welcome to the third installment of “Dissertation Diaries.” This week, we will focus on Bradley Pedro, a fifth-year biology doctoral candidate in the Romero Lab at Tufts!

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