Chancellor’s Letter: Spring/Summer 2025
By Chancellor Rich Lyons“We will likely soon face threats to our independence and be presented with difficult choices.”
California Magazine Archive
Big Picture: Cal’s Stonehenge
By Emily WilsonPart sculpture, part solar calendar, Sunstones II is beloved by sky-watchers and kids.
First Person: You Can’t Tame Malibu
By James Rainey ’81“When the Old Topanga Fire blew through Malibu in 1993, our family home of a quarter-century looked like it didn’t stand a chance.”
10 Books to Read This Summer
Deep Cuts Holly Brickley ’02 This debut novel from Cal alum Holly Brickley opens at a Berkeley bar, just “blocks from campus” (Triple Rock? Kip’s? Larry Blake’s? It’s fun to guess) sometime in the early aughts. Protagonist Percy Marks and fellow student Joey Murrow bond over beers and banter about the fine points of whatever’s […]
My Old Guy Master’s Piece
By Robert Strauss“A lot of my people at home have had good retirements, but none of them got to spend it with 25-year-olds.”
Q&A: Saving Democracy
By Tom KertscherProfessor of Democracy Lucan Way says the U.S. has entered a period of competitive authoritarianism.
Berkeley’s Music Boom
By Emma SilversA curriculum overhaul and a post-pandemic need to reconnect have made music Cal’s fastest-growing major.
Books to Check Out This Month
By Editorial StaffThe punk photography of Murray Bowles, Joan Didion’s psychotherapy notes, and more.
5 Questions for Enrique Martínez Celaya, M.S. ’88
By Emily WilsonThe artist reflects on science, exile, and the messiness of life.
The Secretive Politics of Electing the Next Pope
By Leah WorthingtonHistorian Thomas Dandelet on how Pope Francis’s successor will shape the future of the Catholic Church.
Feeling the Dance
By Leah WorthingtonBlind patrons experience Alvin Ailey through sound and touch
Mixed Media: April 2025
By Editorial StaffBerkeley-grown works we recommend this month
