Q&A: Interview with Phoebe Judge, Host of “Criminal”

If you’re a podcast fiend, chances are you’ve heard the name Phoebe Judge. She and co-creator Lauren Spohrer launched their podcast “Criminal” in 2014, and it’s since become one of the more popular out there, recently reaching five million downloads per month. Each episode tells a true crime story, but to call them simply “entertainment” would be a misnomer. Rather, “Criminal” feels like what would happen if you asked an anthropologist, a journalist and a radio producer to investigate a crime. T

The Unique Experience of Watching Movies on Planes

I spent a collective 36 hours of my winter break caged in a metal tube hurtling through the sky at 500 mph. For a person who’s 6’4” and generally hates flying, I’m lucky the trauma was minimal. However, since seatback entertainment screens have made personal movie-watching a possibility, the experience of flying has fundamentally changed for me; planes are still a grueling hell, but with those tiny, bacteria-infested screens, the hours pass faster. On the other hand, the screens are also chang

A Response to Opposition on Affordable Housing

As letters flowed in opposing a town proposal to allocate $500,000 toward the development of a single-room occupancy (SRO) affordable housing development at 132 Northampton Road, Amherst finally got its chance to take part in a time-honored national tradition: good ol’ American NIMBY-ism (which stands for “Not In My Backyard” for those unacquainted with the acronym). Luckily, Amherst is really making up for lost time, as the breadth of complaints so well demonstrates. In a few, we’ve seen the

The Avett Brothers Confuses with Sociopolitical Agenda

If you’ve ever met a white guy who recently read Ta Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me” for the first time and really wants to tell you that (gasp) racism isn’t just about the KKK and the n-word, then you’ve essentially already listened to the Avett Brothers’ new album “Closer Than Together.” In other words, the band’s heart is in the right place, but listening to some of the tracks, you’ll find yourself skeptically interjecting, “Yes, and…” The band, known for its stadium-filling folk-r

An Interview with Jennifer Egan on Academia in Fiction

“The truth is, I’m not really qualified to teach literature,” remarked author Jennifer Egan in an interview following her appearance at LitFest, where she shared some stories of her process in writing her most recent novel “Manhattan Beach.” Egan’s fiction and journalism, including Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection “A Visit From the Goon Squad,” has earned her wide acclaim in popular and academic circles alike. Despite her immense success, Egan decided to trade in her pen for a las

From Crags to Couloirs: Climbing’s Legacy in Massachusetts

In the critically-acclaimed 2018 documentary “Free Solo,” rock climber Alex Honnold scales the 3,000-foot face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in four hours, alone, unaided … and of course, without a rope. The limits of climbing are being pushed every year with ventures like Honnold’s, but as new ascents get harder, taller and more dangerous, our attention drifts further and further from the sport’s humble origins right here in the small cliffs and craglets of Massachusetts. First, t