Jan. 10: Rick Pildes ’79 Explains the Fight Over Speaker of the House

NYU law professor Rick Pildes ’79 broke down the reasons why House Republicans stumbled over choosing a speaker, including revolutions in communications and technology and political fragmentation. — The New York Times
 
Epidemiologist Céline Gounder ’97 said that after the death of her husband, Grant Wahl ’96, she heard rumors falsely linking his death to the COVID vaccine and decided to speak out. — The New York Times

Psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey ’59 is gaining traction with his long-held stance that the government needs to create systems to compel people with serious mental illness to get treatment. — The New York Times
 
New America think tank CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 and retired Gen. David Petraeus *85 *87 both contributed articles to Foreign Policy’s cover story about the future of war. — Foreign Policy

Rep. Terri Sewell ’86 sponsored a bill to make Alabama’s Black Belt region into a National Heritage Area. — AL.com
 
The new documentary Turn Every Page documents the five-decade working relationship between biographer Robert Caro ’57 and his editor, Robert Gottlieb. — The New York Times

“There’s also this longstanding question of why does the universe exist at all? That’s something I’m hoping someone will tell me soon.”

— Journalist Kenneth Chang ’87, discussing his path from physics major to becoming a New York Times science reporter and what sense of wonder remains after years on the job. — The New York Times

Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis ’96 was busing migrants to Chicago and New York until recently, showing the migrant influx isn’t a complaint made solely by Republican officials, said opinion writer Jim Geraghty. — The Washington Post
 
Opinion writer George Will *68 examined the beliefs and actions of John Witherspoon regarding slavery — including owning two slaves — as Princeton considers whether to remove the Witherspoon statue that stands near East Pyne Hall. — The Washington Post

Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ’06 helped explain why it took four decades for the novel Kindred to be turned into a television series. — The Washington Post

Northern Public Radio shared a poem that Carol Obertubbesing ’73 wrote for New Year’s Eve called “Between a Prayer and a Toast”: “We have made it through the darkest night and the shortest day/It’s now time to grow into the light.” — Northern Public Radio