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Thomas Brodey '22

Seeing Double: The Danger of a Single History

Why do we teach history? History isn’t like chemistry or calculus — it doesn’t teach just one particular body of knowledge. Instead, history is inherently abstract and interdisciplinary. As a discipline, it must prepare future generations for the vast and unpredictable political, social and economic questions they will eventually

Seeing Double: Bridging Amherst's Athletic Divide

Any student who has lived at the college pre-Covid has experienced the immense divide between athletes and non-athletes. Every evening, varsity teams would fill the back room of Valentine Dining Hall, while non-athletes would instinctively avoid that back room. It isn’t often that the dividing line between two groups

The Influencers With Too Much Influence

In 2016, director Joss Whedon pulled together perhaps the most star-studded cast of all time to act in his latest film project. Was it a blockbuster movie? No. Whedon’s great brainchild was a political ad [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRp1CK_X_Yw&feature=emb_title] intended to

Is "All Star" The Greatest Song Ever?

Is "All Star" The Greatest Song Ever?

I have a friend with whom I often argue about music. This friend of mine knows everything there is to know about music theory and is quick to judge the merits of different pop songs using this knowledge. He describes music in terms of how it sounds. In this way,

Seeing Double: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bot

These days, social media bots are everywhere. They ask deep, pseudo-intellectual questions [https://twitter.com/deepquestionbot?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor] like a blazed Michel Foucault. They write half-nonsensical jokes [https://twitter.com/HEADLINERTRON?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E997144752326922240%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_

Breaking the Ice with Breaking Bad

Breaking the Ice with Breaking Bad

For the past three months, we have studied remotely from the hamlet of Gill, Mass., population 1,500. You’d think that since we can’t go anywhere, we would see a lot of each other, perhaps hanging out in common areas and bumping into each other in the kitchen.

Seeing Double: The Great Spin War

Last Saturday, Nov. 7, media outlets declared former Vice President Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election, all but ending the race. Yet, even before the presidential race was called, another, equally significant one had begun: the race to write the history of the election. In many ways,