PHOEBE BRIDGERS, 3
FIELD HOCKEY, 4
COLUMNS, 5
Indie-rock singer isn’t in Kyoto — she performed in Boston on Monday.
BU Women’s Field Hockey is on a losing streak.
Keep nicotine out of fashion.
CE LE B RATIN G
OVE R
THURSDAY, SEPT. 30, 2021
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EDITORIAL, 6 Are true crime podcasts ethical? The FreeP newsroom discusses. J O U R NA LI S M
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
YEAR LI. VOLUME C. ISSUE VI
StuGov proposes Quarantine Learning Support Act, confirms BIG representatives Anna Vidergar Daily Free Press Staff Boston University’s Student Government confirmed Boston Intercollegiate Government Representatives and a Quarantine Learning Support Act, as well as heard cabinet updates in a meeting Monday night. BIG is a coalition of greater Boston area undergraduate students representing 14 different universities, each with two different representatives. The meeting began with the confirmation of BU’s BIG representatives: Alex Theon, a sophomore in College of Arts and Sciences, and Katherine Sabido, a CAS senior. Sabido previously served as BIG’s Vice Chair last year. With her confirmation by StuGov, she will continue to hold the position. “BIG is kind of a baby organization that started back up during quarantine … which is why I think it’s really important to keep the same people who are in there,” she said. Theon said one of his objectives was to bring BU’s City Affairs Department and BIG “closer together.” Theon and Sabido were confirmed as BIG representatives with 36 votes in the affirmative. The meeting continued with StuGov’s introduction of their Quarantine Learning Support Act. The bill would “grant faculty in all
BRIAN SONG/DFP FILE
The Boston University Student Government Office. The BU Student Government heard cabinet updates and confirmed Boston Intercollegiate Government Representatives and a Quarantine Learning Support Act Bill in a meeting Monday night.
colleges and departments the ability to record and post lectures for students unable to attend in-person lectures due to the following extenuating circumstances: a. COVID-19 infection b. Family emergencies c. Medical emergencies d. Sickness e. Missed COVID-19 test appointment (yellow badge.)” The introduction of the bill followed an Aug. 25 announcement from Provost Jean Morrison recommending students reach out to friends in classes for notes should they be placed in quarantine or isolation housing. Faculty were advised not to record classes or allow students to join remotely.
“Right now, the Administration is going out of their way to discourage faculty from recording, but what needs to be happening is they need to be supporting us as students and encourage faculty to do that,” said Dhruv Kapadia, vice president of the Advocacy Committee and a sophomore in CAS. The bill would also allow for faculty to restrict video recordings if students began to abuse this accommodation. To support the bill, Richard Segalman, chair of the Expect More Committee and a junior in the Questrom School of Business, conducted a survey from Sept. 22 to Sept. 26 through
the Instagram accounts of @cas_stugov and @bustudentgov and the Facebook groups for the Classes of 2022 to 2025. Of the 711 students surveyed, 97.6% said they found the current accommodations for students quarantining and isolating to be unfair. “Below 1% found that this was fair,” Segalman said. “In fact, more students actually had no opinion than [those who] deemed that it was fair.” Moreover, 99.58% of those surveyed said they believe the University should have enhanced learning accommodations for those in quarantine or isolation. Segalman said only
one student voted against this option. Kapadia said the plan is to survey faculty next, with similar results expected. “Their expectation simultaneously is to meet one on one, or in a private setting with their students virtually on their own free time, and then reteach the lecture that they just taught,” he noted. “So it’s either that, or they record it once.” The bill passed with 32 votes in the affirmative, bringing StuGov members one step closer to petitioning BU’s administration for the policy’s implementation. The meeting ended with cabinet updates. City Affairs Director Ana Obergfell and Communications Director Ting Wei Li are continuing their positions from the previous year. Li noted his celebration of the BU StuGov Instagram recently gaining over 3,000 followers. Obergfell said she was planning on continuing City Affairs’ work partnering with BU Votes, a group of students, faculty and staff who organize voter registration drives. Social Advocacy Director Vivian Dai promoted upcoming town halls throughout the semester, including one where transgender and nonbinary students can share their experiences with Student Health Services. Final updates included an October movie night, information on the continued progress on the Student Information System redesign and work on making compost more accessible to students living in residence halls.
Massachusetts makes Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots available for selected populations Cici Yu Daily Free Press Staff Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots are now available for residents over 65 years old who previously received the Pfizer vaccine, according to the Baker-Polito administration. People over 18 years old who received the Pfizer vaccine and are at high risk for contracting the virus because of their institutional setting or underlying medical conditions can also receive the booster. In a press release issued Friday, the State said the announcement followed updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Eligible individuals should wait at least six months after getting their second dose of the vaccine before receiving the booster, according to the release. Vaccination locations can be found at vaxfinder.mass. gov. The closest location to campus administering booster shots is CVS Pharmacy at 900 Commonwealth Ave.. “The Baker-Polito Administration has been working with pharmacies,
local boards of health and other health care providers to ensure eligible residents will be able to access the Pfizer booster vaccines at hundreds of locations across the Commonwealth,” Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders was quoted saying in the release. Under the federal eligibility criteria, the Baker-Polito Administration estimated that approximately over half a million residents are eligible for Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots. They are also expected to administer over 300,000 shots per week by midOctober. An ID or health insurance is not needed to access a booster, the release stated, and it is not necessary to show a vaccine card when getting the shot. In August, the CDC said the Delta variant has been responsible for 98% of COVID-19 cases in the United States. Paul Beninger, an associate professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts University who previously worked at the Food and Drug Administration, said the Delta variant infects people over two times faster than previous variants. However, he added that the vaccine is “still very, very effective.” “Even as new variants come along, and they will, they may not be in big
numbers but they definitely will come along,” Beninger said. “The vaccine is going to continue to work.” Jarone Lee, an Emergency Medical Specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, said the Pfizer booster will likely help move Boston past the current surge of Delta cases. “Adding additional immunity, especially for folks who might have reduced immunity because it’s been a while since their second OF LISA FERDINANDO VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS shot of Pfizer, should reduce ACOURTESY Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine vial. The Baker-Polito administration announced the transmission within the in a state press release Friday that Massachusetts residents 65 years of age or older and community and help us get out those with vulnerabilities due to underlying medical conditions are eligible to receive a Pfizer booster shot. of this,” Lee said. In its emergency use first and second [shots].” “This is all about herd immunity,” authorization for the Pfizer No new side effects are emerging Beninger said. “It’s important to booster shot, the FDA wrote that current research shows that “the from the new Pfizer booster shots, realize that when you get to that kind of threshold level, and then the known and potential benefits of a Beninger said. “That’s actually very consistent numbers suddenly drop off really booster dose outweigh the known and potential risks that the FDA is with what we know about other fast.” boosters, with Hepatitis B boosters, Recipients of the Moderna or authorizing for use.” Lee said the dose of the booster with HPV, and rotavirus all those,” he Johnson and Johnson vaccines are not would be the same as the initial doses said. “When people subsequently get currently eligible for the booster. boosted, they don’t suddenly come up “Getting vaccinated remains the given. with new types of adverse events. ” most important thing individuals “It will be essentially getting a To mitigate the risk of infection, can do to protect themselves, their third shot of the same Pfizer vaccine,” he said. “If you got Pfizer, you would Beninger said masks, social distance families, and their community,” the release read. have gotten the same thing for the and handwashing are effective.
2 NEWS
Acting Mayor Kim Janey endorses Michelle Wu for Boston mayoral race Anna Vidergar Daily Free Press Staff Acting Mayor Kim Janey endorsed City Councilor Michelle Wu as her successor during a campaign event in Roxbury Saturday. Janey and Wu were amongst the eight candidates on the ballot for the nonpartisan preliminary election Sept. 14. Janey placed fourth in the preliminary behind Wu and Annissa Essaibi George, who will compete in the Nov. 2 general election. “I believe that Boston can be a place where everyone’s dreams can be realized,” Janey said at the event. “Furthermore, I believe Michelle Wu is the candidate to make that happen. That is why I am so proud to endorse Michelle Wu for mayor.” Janey said Wu’s record and values will allow her to create a “more equitable, just and resilient” Boston, while protecting the progress already made in the city, according to a Sept. 25 press release. In the release, the Wu campaign welcomed the endorsement and praised Janey’s work in advancing education, affordable housing and racial justice. “She has moved our city forward through overlapping crises, always through the lens of equity, justice and joy,” Wu said. “I know that we will continue to partner on the most pressing challenges facing Boston and fight for a future that includes all of our families.” Chair of the Boston Ward 4 Democratic Committee — who endorsed Wu in this year’s mayoral race — Jonathon Cohn said in an interview Wu was an early supporter of Janey’s bid for City Council President.
SOPHIE PARK/ DFP FILE
Boston City Councilor At-Large and Mayoral Candidate Michelle Wu. Acting Mayor Kim Janey endorsed Wu as the next mayor of Boston during a campaign event in Roxbury Sunday.
The pair also worked together on issues of transit justice, equity in city contracting and housing stability. “I hope that they’ll maintain that type of cooperative relationship that
they had had when they were both on the council,” Cohn said. The winner of the general mayoral election — whether Wu or Essaibi George — will be the first woman
and first person of color to be elected as mayor of Boston, although Janey was the first woman and first person of color appointed to the position. “We are excited to have Mayor
Janey’s support and look forward to featuring her in our campaign in every way possible,” a spokesperson for the Wu campaign wrote to The Daily Free Press.
Experts discuss Amazon’s role in the business world at WBUR CitySpace Event hind-the-scenes look at their series “The Prime Effect” at WBUR CitySpace on Monday. “The Prime Effect” was an eightpart series that dives into different aspects of Amazon’s business model, including episodes discussing Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s environmental impacts and more. Chakrabarti said that the event was a way to wrap up their thoughts following the series about Amazon. “We wanted to ask, how can we as a society who are living with this corporation … maximize the good while minimizing the bad,” Chakrabarti said at the event.
The event explored how Amazon has revolutionized businesses across the United States and examined the large role that Amazon plays — and will continue to play — in our lives and communities. At the event, Chakrabarti said it’s “very difficult to really fathom” how Amazon impacts everyday life. “We tried to learn all about it, but of course we didn’t learn all about Amazon because that is just not possible,” Chakrabarti said. “It is too big, it is huge. Its tentacles or its reach is everywhere in the United States and around the world.” Scheimer spoke at the event about
her interactions with Amazon’s public relations department, which she charMolly Farrar acterized as “disciplined” and machine-like. When Scheimer would ask Lindsay Shachnow a question, Amazon would conduct Daily Free Press Staff conference calls with a dozen team members to answer simple questions, which Chakrabarti acknowledged Engaging a monthly average of was “night and day” compared to oth1.87 billion users and shipping over er media relations teams. 66,000 orders per hour, Amazon is “The consistency of their language the quintessence of online shopping in which they talked to me was re— but it’s more than just an average markable,” Scheimer said. retailer. Chakrabarti and Scheimer were WBUR’s “On Point” podcast host joined by KUOW reporter and host Meghna Chakrabarti and senior edof the “Primed” podcast Joshua itor Dorey Scheimer presented a beMcNichols, and Tim Bray, former vice president and engineer at Amazon Web Services. Amazon has faced longtime critiques over its impact in Seattle and across the United States. In an effort to “soften” its image, Amazon has worked on some community outreach campaigns, including gifts to fight climate change or reduce homelessness, McNichols said at the event. “When I go out and talk to people in the community and KAITO AU | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF ask them what From left to right: “On Point” podcast host Meghna Chakrabarti and senior editor Dorey Scheimer at WBUR CitySpace Monday night. they think about Chakrabarti and Scheimer gave audience members a look into their new series “The Prime Effect” which explores how Amazon has revolutionAmazon, I get ized various industries. a variety of re-
sponses,” McNichols said in an interview after the event. “Some people are enthusiastic Amazon supporters and love what it does with technology, and others are skeptical and don’t agree that the benefit is there. “ Amazon overcame “logistical obstacles” to complete deliveries and other essential services during the pandemic, McNichols said. McNichols said “oversimplifying the questions about the company to ‘Is it good or bad?’ leaves it vulnerable to being dismissed in that way.” Lachlann Kane, an attendee at the event, said that Amazon’s breadth is in many industries. “I personally don’t think that they are a monopoly in any one sector that they perform in, but they perform in a lot of different sectors and have power in each,” Kane said. Bray, on the other hand, said he holds a favorable view of Amazon’s corporate work culture, which the event dived into. At the event Bray said he quit his job when Amazon fired whistleblowers in May 2020 over concerns of COVID-19 safety protocols, but also said the culture works well for corporate culture. “Amazon is a terrific place to work,” Bray said at the event. “It’s the best-managed place I’ve ever worked, including the place where I was CEO.” The hosts also emphasized that Amazon’s impact on everyday life is higher than expected. Bray’s former department, Amazon Web Services, is a cloud platform for Netflix and Zoom, among other programs. “AWS is the biggest of the clouds,” Bray said. “There are very few hours in the day when anybody who’s using a computer isn’t interacting with AWS.”
FEATURES 3
ARTS Phoebe Bridgers captivates at Leader Bank Pavilion Ilana Keusch Daily Free Press Staff About 5,000 Phoebe Bridgers fans — many while screamsinging through tears — gathered in Boston Seaport to watch the artist’s Reunion Tour at Leader Bank Pavilion on Monday night, the second night of her stop in Boston. Bridgers’s most recent album, “Punisher,” was released during the initial COVID-19 lockdown last year on June 18. Now, she is finally taking her 11-track, deeply personal and emotional second studio album on the road. Before even scanning their tickets, fans were required to show proof of vaccination on their way into the venue. MUNA — an electronicpop Los Angele- based queer band that just recently signed to Bridgers’ record label, Saddest Factory Records — opened for Bridgers during the shows. The trio was the perfect opener to inject energy into the crowd. Many audience members seemed to be absorbing the music instead of singing along, but that didn’t mean they weren’t enjoying themselves. After playing a range of songs from their discography — from the heartbreakingly danceable “Crying on the Bathroom Floor” to the slower “Everything” — MUNA had a surprise for the audience.
mental health and parental struggles — and how far she’s come in her career. The set design for the show utilized colorful lighting and gobos to project designs on the white awning of the amphitheater without including many other pieces. Bridgers kept the instrumentation simple, even her more instrumental songs like “Kyoto” only needed a few musicians, and the set’s simplicity reflected that. Central to this set was a backdrop with COURTESY OF MAISIE BRADLEY rotating graphics that Fans watch Phoebe Bridgers perform at Leader Bank Pavilion Sunday night. Bridgers perdepicted “Punisher” as formed songs from her most recent album “Punisher” for about 5,000 fans in Seaport both Sunday and Monday. a storybook. Each song had a unique visual in Their penultimate track was for the applause to die down and their new hit “Silk Chiffon” — simply greeted the crowd with a the style of a pop-up book that unfolded and animated behind their Sept. 7 irresistibly catchy nonchalant “Yo.” track featuring Bridgers. In the Bridgers’ setlist consisted of the the band. From the graphic of saltines show, Bridgers herself popped album “Punisher” in its entirety. in to make a quick appearance She sang it in the original order of on a carpet mirroring the lyrics before her set to sing her verse the album, with some older songs of “Graceland Too” to the moon rising as Bridgers sang “Moon — and the crowd went crazy the sandwiched in between. second the first chord was struck. She began the show, however, Song,” the simple illustrations Before concluding their set, with her top-hit “Motion Sickness” enriched the already rich MUNA lead singer and co- from her first album “Stranger in storytelling of Bridgers’ lyrics and producer Katie Gavin gave a the Alps.” This more upbeat but added to her simple charm. During her final song of shout-out to Bridgers for giving still emotionally saturated song the band the opportunity to for Bridgers was a perfect opener the main set and the finale of “Punisher”— “I Know the perform with her — calling her to get everyone engaged. “our father, Phoebe Bridgers.” In between uproarious End” — the backdrop showed When Bridgers finally came out cheering and emotional ballads a “haunted house with a picket for her own set after a brief break, such as “Moon Song” and “Savior fence,” a reference from the song, the roar of the crowd’s excitement Complex,” Bridgers told quick slowly burning down behind the was deafening. Not one to be snap-shot anecdotes of the songs’ band. The song references an overly showy, Bridgers waited origins — many of them about apocalyptic feeling, Bridgers’ told
Genius, that she gets when driving up the Northern California coastline and the existential reflection of having repeated the drive through so many stages of life. At the end of this song, there are piercing and raw screams in the recording. The audience joined in to vent out all of its frustration and screamed right along with Bridgers — making for a beautiful, and incredibly loud, moment of release. Bridgers also performed a one-song encore of comedian Bo Burnham’s “That Funny Feeling” from his 2021 Netflix special “Inside.” There seemed to be significant overlap between the fan bases of the two artists that night, as the audience sang along to every word of the song. I was overall pleasantly surprised by the energy of this concert. Phoebe Bridgers is my go-to artist when I need to cry to music, so I worried that the large venue wouldn’t lend itself to the intimate feeling that “Punisher” has. I am so glad that expectation was wrong. A young and engaged audience rounded out what could have been a downer of a show and made it a lively and energetic appreciation of Bridgers’ music. Never underestimate the power of simplicity and emotion to deliver an unforgettable performance, which the Phoebe Bridgers Reunion tour did expertly. Bridgers deserves all the recent acclaim she has garnered for pulling this off.
BU orchestras perform for the first time in front of an audience since COVID-19 Emily Pauls Daily Free Press Staff After over a year of not being able to perform for an in-person audience, the Boston University Symphony and Chamber Orchestras are back. The musicians for both orchestras are all music degree students in the College of Fine Arts. The BU Chamber Orchestra performed Monday and the BU Symphony Orchestra is performing
Friday, both at the Tsai Performance Center. This is the first time they have had a full orchestra on stage since the start of the pandemic, James Burton, the director of Orchestral Activities at BU’s CFA, said. This is Burton’s first public concert at BU, he said, adding that he is excited but not sure “what to expect.” “The idea of performing with an audience in the hall is incredibly exciting because performances with no audience lack an absolutely vital part of what music is about,” Burton, who is conducting the BUSO on
Friday, said. Last year, only 25 people were allowed on stage, which makes it impossible to study symphonic repertoire, Burton said. Now, BUSO has a complete ensemble and is performing Dmitri Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, Johannes Brahms’s Haydn Variations and Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 on Friday. “The Shostakovich is a rip-roaring joyous outpouring of festive spirit, and was written for the opening night of a season and has all of that excitement to it, and I figured that’s
COURTESY OF ROBIN ZEBROWSKI VIA FLICKR
A violin. This week is the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that the Boston University Symphony and Chamber Orchestras have performed with a full ensemble on stage.
what we needed right now,” Burton said. Burton programmed Brahms’s Haydn Variations because he said it is Brahms’ first “real masterpiece” and is amazing at “marrying artistry with emotion.” “If you’re listening to it for the first time, you don’t need to know all about that, because it’s very clear how it speaks to you, and you go on a musical journey through these eight beautiful variations of a theme attributed to Haydn,” he said. Monday’s BUCO performance is conducted by guest conductor Mischa Santora, a music director at the Boston Ballet, Burton said. The orchestra performed Beethoven, Wagner and Gabriela Lena Frank. Bryan Ping, a junior cello performance major in CFA, said he is excited about classes and rehearsals moving back to in-person. “It’s the feeling that everyone as a whole in the full orchestra, I think just allows us to really play out with more dynamic and more competence knowing that we’re all here,” Ping said, “that there is a sense of absolute power amongst all our sections.” Last year, he said, they were each assigned their own stand and were spread out far apart. Now, students have their stand partners back, which is traditional in an orchestra. Being able to “make noise with people again” is what Bradley Geneser, a tuba player and secondyear masters student in CFA, said they are most looking forward to, though the transition back into regular performing has been more
difficult than expected. “The performance nerves that I haven’t felt in years are coming back for the first time,” Geneser said. “The level of preparation that I forgot that goes into a concert like this one that’s coming up, it’s just a lot more than I remember.” To prepare for the concert on Friday, the BUSO has been rehearsing three times a week along with practicing outside of rehearsal, they said. “Even when we’re away from our instruments, we’re still thinking about the music,” Gesner said. Elizabeth Meyers, a violin performance major in CFA, said she had to readjust her listening skills to get used to orchestral playing again. “The main thing is communication, listening, communicating with your fellow musicians and the conductor,” she said. “So I feel like I needed to retune my ears a little bit. The students played through the pieces last year in groups of 24 people, but now with 80 to 100 musicians, it is much louder and “feels right,” said Jacqueline Bartling-John, one of the orchestra managers. Burton said he has seen his students transition “brilliantly” from a COVID-19 school year to being all together. “I’m hoping people will come, I’m hoping people want to hear music again,” Burton said. “Listen to something together at the same time as each other, and experience the music in the same moment, and that’s what a concept is, and can’t be replicated, any other way.”
4 SPORTS
SPORTS Field hockey drops seventh straight game Jean Paul Azzopardi Daily Free Press Staff A longstanding Beantown field hockey rivalry ended with Boston University succumbing in a 2-1 loss against Northeastern University Sunday, with the Huskies (3-6) outper-
forming the Terriers (2-8, 0-2 Patriot League) for the better part of 60 minutes of play. With the previous day’s 2-1 overtime loss to Bucknell University, BU has now lost seven straight games and hasn’t won since Sept. 3. The Huskies came out guns blazing from the blow of the very first whistle, mounting aggressive attack after attack that tested the limits and
capabilities of Terrier junior goalkeeper Caroline Kelly, who fended off a total of seven first-quarter shots. Meanwhile, the Terriers appeared to struggle in all other aspects of the game, with the team haunted by the woes of an overwhelmed defense at Dedham Field, and failing to make a single shot on goal for the entire first quarter. “It’s all about getting better every
day, working hard and staying together as a team, and not giving up on each other,” BU head coach Sally Starr said. It was the valiant efforts of Kelly, who remained poised and collected amidst the barrage of Northeastern shots, who kept the game locked in at 0-0 heading into the second period of play. Yet, the experienced goalkeeper could only do so much before soph-
JEFF TEDI | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Junior midfielder Mikayla Crowley clashes sticks with a Bucknell University field hockey player at Nickerson Field Saturday. The Terriers fell 1-2 against both Bucknell and Northeastern University this weekend, making seven losses since Sept. 3.
omore forward and midfielder Mak Graves fired a shot into the back of the net to give the Huskies a well-deserved 1-0 lead. It took the Terriers until the late minutes in the second quarter to conjure up some more shots, with their third of the game being all they needed as standout freshman forward Payton Anderson wound up and scored to bring the game to a tie. Anderson has now scored or assisted with every BU goal since Aug. 29, with a total tally of five goals and one assist in that span. The third quarter saw the best stretch of possession for BU, but the momentum was nowhere near enough to topple a determined Northeastern side set on breaking a fivegame losing skid against the Terriers. With one player sitting out with a yellow card, the Huskies still managed to dominate and score from a set piece with just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter. Junior midfielder Lauren Rowe executed a drag flick on the short side to break the tie. The Huskies ended the game outshooting the Terriers, 17-6. Were it not for Kelly’s strong performance, the deficit would have been much larger. Starr said Kelly, who shared time in goal earlier in the season, is “absolutely, 100 percent” the starting goalkeeper at the moment. The Terriers hope to snap their seven-game losing streak as they prepare for a home showing against the University of Maine at 4 p.m. on Oct. 3.
The Red Corner: UFC 266 recap Charles Moore Daily Free Press Staff On Saturday, UFC 266 reintroduced fight fans to pay-per-views, sold-out arenas and title fights. An entertaining card from top to bottom, this card featured powerful knockouts, crafty submissions and an instant classic for a main event. Saturday’s main, in addition to being a great scrap, presents an interesting crossroads for the UFC featherweight division. Featherweight battle for the belt Of course, we have to start with Saturday’s blistering main event. Featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski (23-1) and No. 2 contender Brian Ortega (15-2, 1 NC) produced an absolute brawl for us to behold. Volk put his belt on the line against Ortega after defeating and subsequently defending against Max Holloway (22-6) in December 2019 and July 2020, respectively. Even if you missed the fight, you know that Volk battled his way to a unanimous decision victory, retaining his belt. What you missed in not watching this scrap is the sheer entertainment it provided. Saturday’s main event was a war. A masterclass in striking and octagon durability over five five-minute rounds. Volk managed to more than double Ortega’s striking output, landing 229 total strikes (214 significant) to T-City’s 101 (88). Despite the disparity in striking output, both featherweights landed significantly at remarkable clips — 87% of Ortega’s strikes were significant, to match 93% of Volk’s. In fact, in rounds one, two and five, the two 145ers managed to land exclusively significant strikes. Ortega’s real contribution to the fight came with his five takedown
attempts, two of which he landed. Ortega also latched in three submission attempts, one of which, a thirdround guillotine choke, nearly tapped a mixed martial artist as grizzled as Volk. Volk admitted after the fact that Ortega’s grip was “I’m-aboutto-lose-the-belt’ deep” in Saturday’s post-fight press conference. Ortega’s ground game presented an aspect of MMA that we had not yet seen in Volk’s recent ascension to the top. Volkanovski’s previous four fights were against Holloway (twice), Jose Aldo (30-7) and Chad Mendes (18-5). Those three fighters are some of the greatest featherweights that have ever lived. They’re also all striking machines and stand-up warriors who live to brawl. All of Volk’s fight camps since 2018 have had to accommodate for the heavy use of fisticuffs, and thus Ortega’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu represented a sudden change to what Volk has had to deal with in the cage. All the same, Volk stuffed three of Ortega’s takedown attempts and managed to survive a barrage of chokes. This fight, therefore, represents a solidification of “The Great’s” skills as champion. He’s not just a striker with wrestling, but someone who can roll with a black belt and keep his neck. What’s next The future of the 145-pound division is a little hazy. Holloway will always be a title contender that the UFC can throw at Volk. Max is a former champ, and his claim to the title is elevated by the result of their last fight in July 2020. Back on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi, Max and Volk did battle for the second time. Many felt Max handily won the rematch, yet Volkanovski was the one whose hand was raised after the judges’ scorecards were read. Even UFC President Dana White remarked on the sheer
ILLUSTRATION BY PETER MOORE
robbery after UFC 251. Regardless, Holloway will be fighting Yair Rodriguez (13-2) to headline a Fight Night card in November. That fight is going to be awesome, but it opens up the discussion over who the UFC should put forward to share the cage with “The Great.” Below Holloway and Rodriguez in the rankings, there is no real 145er who has a legitimate claim to the title. Outside of the rankings, however, there is one extremely intriguing name for the UFC to call on: Henry Cejudo (16-2) took to Twitter this past weekend to disavow Volk’s vic-
tory, while teasing his return from retirement. The former U.S. Olympic wrestling gold medalist and UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion teased a return multiple times, most recently last March when Cejudo made clear his intention to return to the UFC bantamweight division. All the same, I think there is at least a chance Cejudo’s claims and real intentions are aligned here. He doubled down with an Instagram post of himself with three UFC belts and his Olympic gold medal Tuesday. Not only is there at least a chance Cejudo returns to fight Volk, I am ac-
tively praying to the MMA gods that he does. Cejudo has one of the strongest legacies in UFC history, and a fight for the featherweight belt would put him in a position to be the first fighter to win the belt in three different weight classes. Further, Cejudo would be one of the few fighters to have an advantage in the wrestling department over Volkanovski, and thus this fight would be a must-watch. If Cejudo comes back for Volkanovski, I think White and the UFC brass will give him the instant title shot. Be sure to keep up with @RedCornerDFP for picks, predictions and MMA news.
COLUMNS 5
Wear Me This:
OPINION
The death of the cigarette doesn’t mean nicotine and fashion have called it quits ILLUSTRATION BY SOPHIA FLISSLER
Sujena Soumyanath Columnist Every girl at some point or another dreams of being Carrie Bradshaw: Life in the United States’s most happening city, a man at every corner, endless shopping trips somehow financed by an inconsequential weekly column that never seems to require any writing. Through it all, Carrie’s image is constantly punctuated by cinematic cigarette drags, which — like those of countless other media figures ranging from “Grease”’s Danny Zuko to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” Holly Golightly — was meant to add to her charm and mystique. From the very beginning of its dominion, the cigarette has been used as a fashion accessory and weapon of allure, and this romanticization has been vital to its grasp on people. Yet, in America today, the cigarette seems to be a dying trend, a dusty artifact of the 20th century that lives on in shady street corners and public ashtrays. This decline is due to the direct governmental and independent efforts to dissuade cigarette use through taxation and advertising bans and mitigate the plague of health problems they have caused. Though the endless anti-smoking campaigns preceding Bollywood movies and YouTube vid-
eos have made this generation view cigarettes as thinly-veiled cancer tubes rather than sexy status symbols, nicotine continues to have an important place in American culture and fashion. No matter which location saturated with under-30-year-olds you go to — I recommend the entrance to Questrom — it’s more than obvious from the intermittent clouds of fruity smoke that the e-cigarette has joined claw clips and baguette bags as a standard fashion accessory. In a way, this trend makes sense. All the varieties of vapes come in enticing flavors, they’re inconspicuously easy to use, and puff bars — probably the most common ones I’ve seen — come in a bunch of cute colors that are disposable too. They’re easy to pull out indoors as they smell less pungent.
Needless to say, vapes have become as normalized as cigarettes once were, and though they might not hold as much weight in pop culture as cigarettes did, they have become status symbols and aesthetic devices all the same. And why wouldn’t they? With the number of smoke shops around, customizing your next nicotine hit is as easy as choosing a string bikini off of Shein. Between the sleek, colorful designs and constant advertising as a safer option to smoking cigarettes, the realities of vapes have been downplayed. And I know people do worse things that are just as normalized as taking a few hits of nicotine. But drinking or taking drugs haven’t assumed as important of a role in fashion and aesthetics as puff bars and JUULS have.
These devices aren’t as innocent as their branding and packaging make them seem, either. After all, they still contain nicotine, which, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, is classified as “a highly addictive substance.” And beyond nicotine, e-cigarettes contain diacetyl — a toxic chemical associated with lung disease, benzene, a compound commonly found in car exhaust and heavy metals including tin, lead and nickel. The most surprising fact in all this is that most e-cig users are largely unaware of these harmful ingredients. In the case of JUUL, 63% of its users did not know the device always contains nicotine. I don’t intend to preach about what to put into your body — I, for one, am certainly not made up of 100% Whole Foods and healthy habits. It just seems that much hasn’t changed between the romanticization of cigarettes and the popularity of vapes. Even though the former is regarded as dirty and dangerous and the latter is regarded as healthier, both cause harmful effects. What is different now is we have a lot more information. Not to mention a pantheon of celebrities who died from smoking, the George Harrisons and Babe Ruths, that are stark reminders of the dangers of smoking. So please, let’s look past deliberate branding and attractive advertising to consider whether the cigarette’s new spawn really should continue nicotine’s reign over what’s fashionable.
Seen on TV:
Bad reporting on the ‘Justice for J6’ rally is just bad reporting, not a conspiracy
Brian Foisy Columnist In my view, media criticism shouldn’t solely be about politics. Yet, oftentimes it’s the only aspect in which we see the media being critiqued. Republican voters criticize what they see as the liberal mainstream media, particularly cable outlets like CNN or MSNBC, while Democratic voters usually criticize more conservative outlets like Fox News. These partisan critiques usually miss the actual point. I think many of the real problems within journalism today have almost nothing to do with political biases. But every so often, things happen within the media that are so tied to politics that not addressing it would be neglecting a major piece of the story. I intended to write about the ‘Justice for J6’ rally that took place on Sept. 18 in Washington D.C — but it turned out to be a pretty unremarkable event that was overhyped by the media to such an extent that a certain subset of conservative media overhyped the media’s overhyping of the unremarkable event. The ‘Justice for J6’ was a rally to support those who had been charged following the Capitol riots that occurred earlier this year on Jan.
6. The rally was organized by a former 2016 Trump minor campaign official, Matt Braynard. According to Media Matters — a media watchdog that monitors misinformation in U.S. media — CNN and MSNBC aired a combined 104 segments mentioning the rally. It was one of the major stories of the week on both networks. Much of the coverage centered around how the Capitol Police were preparing for the rally after the major embarrassment that was their response to the Jan. 6 events. When the day of the actual rally came, the turnout was far less than expected. Photos on social media showed a crowd that looked to be more press and security than protestors. The explanation for the less-than-expected attendance is likely a rational one. You could easily argue that would-be attendees were scared away by the reporting on increased security measures. Yet, many right-wing media personalities openly theorized that the whole event was created by the ‘liberal media’ to make the former President and his supporters look bad. One Twitter user, Drew Holden — who is, according to his Twitter bio, a “freelance commentary writer” — went so far as to accuse the event of being a false flag perpetrated by the FBI, tweeting “I hope the dozens of attendees from today’s Justice for J6 rally make it safely back to their desks at the FBI.” Even former President Trump weighed in, calling the rally a “setup” in an interview with The Federalist. “If people don’t show up they’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s a lack of spirit.’ And if people do show up they’ll be harassed,” he continued. These comments turned this media story into something that it clearly wasn’t: a setup by the media or federal officials to create an event to make Trump and his supporters look bad.
This conspiratorial faux media criticism con- this story more would stoke fears or right-wing ceals legitimate criticism of media malpractice, violence with their demographic? Yes. where so-called “liberal” cable networks and But the same idea could be used to explain cable news hosts, knowingly or unknowingly, why Fox News spent far less time on the story created an incorrect sense of fear among their than the other cable networks, according to Meaudience that something bad was going to hap- dia Matters. pen in Washington. It’s possible and even likely that the extent to Under other circumstances, this would be a which certain networks covered the event depretty cut and dry story. pended upon how they believed their audience Imagine if the media had reported there was would react. This is the real issue — a bias togoing to be a major environmental demon- wards sensationalism and conflict instead of a stration in New York City. But the attendance bias towards left-wing ideas. of the event was more limited than audiences I think it’s possible to make that logical conhad been led to expect. We could look at that clusion without having to concede to the media and say, ‘That was inaccurate reporting,’ and the having a liberal bias or being a piece within a story would be over. But because of the political major governmental conspiracy. associations this story has, the resolution can’t In a world where so many issues are hybe simple. per-politicized, divorcing politics from situaThe politicization of media reporting has tions that allow you to make some grand politcreated an environment in which the truth of ical statement is difficult. But it’s the necessary the event no longer matters. It has to be an- thing to do. other ‘You’re either with us, or you’re against us’ situation. If you say the media got it wrong, you’re on the side of the right-wingers calling it a conspiracy. But if you don’t want to be associated with that side of the aisle, you can’t call it out. Is it possible that MSNBC, a network with more of a liberal audience, believed that reporting on ILLUSTRATION BY YVONNE TANG
6 EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL Popularity of True Crime shows how the public is desensitized, not enough empathy for victims There was an enormous amount of news coverage surrounding the Gaby Petito case — the horrific murder of a young white woman after a road trip with her fiancé this past August. This excess of coverage correlates with the public’s obsession with true crime, which has reached new heights in recent years. Crime reporting in American culture can be traced back to execution sermons of the 1600s. Some scholars have hypothesized that the societal function of this kind of crime reporting — more than a mere objective retelling of the incident — was to provide comfort to the community in which the crime occurred by having a figure of authority, such as a journalist, straightforwardly recount the narrative. Emily Dworkin, a trauma researcher at the University of Washington School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, posits that true crime today — which spans news, podcasts and documentaries — offers a kind of catharsis for consumers of the genre. True crime offers a way for consumers to experience difficult emotions at a distance. But how do these theories figure into the most recent iterations of true crime? In recent years, a new genre, “comedy true crime” podcasts, mainly hosted by women, has emerged. A recent article detailing the best true crime podcasts out there summarized one podcast from the genre as “Smart, funny women getting drunk and talking true crime.”
Many attribute the prominence of female fans of true crime to the fact that women are often the target of brutal crimes and thus share a morbid fascination with these crimes as they fear these incidents may happen to them. In each of these interpretations, consuming true crime functions as a form of comfort — either in dispelling negative emotions or reaffirming notions of safety and authority. This leads to a vital question: is any of this ethical? The answer, in short, is no. For one, true crime often reinforces antiquated ideas about crime that ultimately enforce a racist and patriarchal criminal justice system. First, true crime reporting often centers white women victims — this disproportionate type of coverage eventually earned the moniker: “Missing White woman syndrome.” It reinforces the old white supremacist myth that white women are under attack, while simultaneously contributing to the erasure of people of color who are the victims of crimes. For instance, many news outlets have referred to Gaby Petito in their reporting of the case as “America’s daughter.” While this case is horrific, why does it deserve so much more coverage and awareness than the thousands of missing indigenous women? What about Mary Johnson, a member of the Tulalip tribe
who went missing 10 months ago? It is vital to question who the American media deems is deserving of the public’s attention? This is not to say that white women who are the victims of crimes should be ignored. But rather, that attention must also be paid to the missing person reports and deaths of women of color. For another, true crime coverage often — intentionally or not — bolsters the authority and credibility of police officers and criminal prosecutors. According to a 2020 report from the FBI, the most common kind of crime in the United States is nonviolent property crime. Violent crime has been on a constant decline — a fact one would not be able to infer from the content covered on true crime podcasts. Constant attention coverage on violent crime keeps the public fearful and reliant on authoritative institutions like the police. True crime podcasts often place more emphasis on stricter policing measures and increased vigilance. This kind of emphasis ignores how police often mishandle domestic abuse cases — and thus fail to prevent potential harm and even murders. Moreover, the racist nature of the criminal justice system cannot be overstated. Time and time again, continued and systemic forms of racism in the criminal justice system
and police brutality are more than enough proof that these institutions cannot serve any kind of real justice. Even if one were to ignore how these podcasts reinforce racist paradigms, these podcasts often do not take care to respect the victims and gravity of the tragedies they recount. Comedians bantering over murder is hardly a respectful way to inquire about a tragedy and leads to a deeply desensitized understanding of violent crimes. Some podcasts have tried to combat this by prioritizing the victim and interviewing figures of authority. But even if these podcasts were to do everything right, could they still be ethical, given their business model requires profiting off of murder? How can people seek horrific tragedies that occurred to other people for comfort and respect for the victim of the crime or the victim’s family? In short, though true crime podcasts may offer an easy form of entertainment, they often do more harm than good. If they do not help bring justice to the victim, or the victim’s family, and enforce old racist paradigms of justice, then we have to ask — what is the real function of these podcasts? Our comfort, or sense of safety, in a corrupt criminal justice system is not a sufficient answer. ILLUSTRATION BY YVONNE TANG
EDITORIAL BOARD Lily Kepner, Editor-in-Chief Madhri Yehiya, Campus Editor
Emma Sánchez, Managing Editor Sabine Ollivier-Yamin, Opinion Editor Isabella Abraham City Editor
Sonja Chen, Sports Editor
Yvonne Tang, Layout & Graphics Editor
Conor Kelley, Photo Editor
Katrina Liu, Lifestyle Editor
Veronica Thompson, Podcast Editor Molly Farrar, Features Editor GRAPHIC BY ALEXIA NIZHNY KK Feuerman, Multimedia Editor
LIFESTYLE 7
LIFESTYLE
A bridge between two mindsets Sam Thomas Daily Free Press Staff
Coming back to college is such a strange experience. But you don’t need me to tell you that. I’m sure there are a million articles out there about adjusting
to college and strategies to reduce homesickness. But I noticed there is a lack of people examining the actual feeling of returning to school. It is such a unique and personal experience for each student, but it gets lumped into one general feeling called “adjustment.” Sure, we’re adjusting, but everyone goes through it differently. Many articles try to “fix” this feeling, to give us ways to feel more comfortable at school. These tips are so helpful and I have used many of them myself, but what also brings
me comfort is reading about people’s experiences without the implication that there’s a problem to be solved. It’s nice to just escape into someone else’s perspective and feel less alone. For me, I feel like I’m living almost a split life. I’m from a town outside of Philadelphia, and I am the only student from my high school — which has more than 2,000 students total — to attend Boston University. Needless to say, home and school are two completely different worlds. As a sophomore, I have now gone through the transition
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A road sign indicating two different directions. Sam writes about feeling like there’s a distinct split between his home and University lives.
between home and college a couple of times. I’ve noticed a feeling that I don’t see many people talk about, yet it appears to be common among students. It’s an experience I’d call lacking. It’s more than missing something. Of course, I miss my childhood home, family, friends and the streets on which I learned to ride a bike and later learned to drive. But this feeling cuts deeper than just missing them. It feels like a part of myself is missing. These things that were so integral to my life and my identity for so long are now so far away, with almost nothing here to connect me to them. Sure, I can call my parents and FaceTime my best friends, but it will never be the same as living in the same town, going to the same school and doing the things I always used to do. It quite literally feels like I have acquired a new life on top of my old one. I have new places to explore, new friends and new experiences, far away from my suburban upbringing. And the same goes for my friends at home. Every time I mention the George Sherman Union, Commonwealth Avenue, Warren Towers or any other BU-related thing and get blank, confused stares back, it just reminds me how vastly different our lives have become. We still connect in the same way we always have, but now there are new barriers between us that childhood never forced on us. These two worlds are complicated because I love them
both so much. Boston is exactly where I want to be and where I feel I belong. But there’s that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I am living two separate lives. It goes beyond just the external world. I just feel different in both places. I feel like I can be more of myself in Boston since here I am free from fitting the mold of who I had always been. However, there is a profound comfort in falling into patterns of the past, sitting with the people who have seen me through the good, the bad and the ugly of growing up. The duality of this experience creates the constant feeling of “lacking.” When I go home, I crave the freedom of college. Yet, in college, I crave the routine and comfort of home. It’s like the saying about the grass being greener. I romanticize one or the other, depending on where I am. I don’t know if this will go away, or if growing up and maturing is realizing and accepting that this feeling lingers and is just something to get acquainted with. Maybe I will always miss where I came from, even while I love where I’m going. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. Sure, it is not the greatest feeling in the world. But to take a more positive view, it means I have a love for so many people and so many places. It hurts to feel detached from a part of me. But I feel lucky to live a life where I have this love for the past and present. To love both where you came from and where you are now is a blessing. Even though it can be painful.
A note to birthday haters: Keep champagne in the fridge Bailey Clark Daily Free Press Staff I will simply never understand how someone can confidently say they ‘aren’t really into birthdays.’ The words do not compute in my mind. To me, hearing them directly correlates to ‘I despise making myself and others feel joy.’ My being itches for a birthday. Someone else’s? Do you mean I get to embody a professional baker and blow up as many balloons as my lungs will allow? My own? As in, I get a whole day of feeling special and reconnecting with old friends who were kind enough to send messages — plus the possibility of wearing a crown? My mom’s? Weeks of preparation and informing my brothers and my dad of their duties in a military-like sergeant style? To all of the above: yes, please. A need for celebration transcends beyond birthdays. Its reach includes Valentine’s Day, The Fourth of July, Groundhog’s Day — I’m from Pennsylvania, home of the famous Punxsutawney Phil, so this one particularly deserves more appreciation. Whether the holiday is Hallmark-created, federally-sponsored or of a religious basis, the chance for an accessory you can only wear for one day is just too tempting. This mindset only manifests itself stronger as the air turns
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A cupcake with a candle. Bailey writes about how she applies her love of celebration – small and large – to commemorating personal victories.
crisp, signaling that my world is on the cusp of my holy trinity of holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. A three-month marathon of themed baked goods and a revolving door of appropriately festive wreaths dawning the front door. How is this not someone’s dream world? I understand this love for celebration may have embedded
itself in me due to the town I grew up in. Doylestown sits about an hour north of Philadelphia and is about the closest one can get to actually being in a Hallmark movie. I’m talking about a Fall festival, Santa on a firetruck lighting the Christmas tree at the center of town and utter outrage when the Borough tried to cancel the annual Memorial Day Parade — the oldest one in the country,
thank you very much — due to COVID-19. So sue me. I get excited when Trader Joe’s stocks their pumpkin-flavored products. I start playing Christmas music in early November — holidays deserve more than their singular day. Moreover, I deserve to feel that nostalgic joy that you can only get from annual festivities for as long as I please.
As you may have picked up, I adore a fully organized, preconceived holiday. However, the best celebrations occur spontaneously. On my parents’ wedding day, they were told to always keep champagne in the fridge. To me, this embodies a double meaning. Primarily, you never know when you will have something to celebrate. Things can come out of the blue: a job promotion, a house sale, a pregnancy. All events that, by nature, deserve a pop of a bottle. Secondarily, there is always something you can celebrate. The dog got a bath. Someone made dinner. A good sale on a new coat. Finding something to commemorate, no matter how trivial, only adds excitement to one’s everyday life. By constantly looking for something to give a toast about, you are conditioned to appreciate life in its most mundane form. There is no reason to wait to recognize how grateful you are for certain moments in life, nor is it written in stone that you can only do so on certain occasions. Any day can hold the potential of wonderfulness. Waiting around all year for specific days where you are assigned to feel joyous and reflective is, frankly, pointless. Make your birthday last all month. Christmas from November until January. And that random Tuesday in March? You made your bed. Congratulations! And so to all my birthdayhating, holiday-squashing persons, I propose: find a bottle of champagne to stash in your fridge and — more importantly — find a reason to pop it.