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Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Emerson College’s only independent, student-run newspaper since 1947

The Berkeley Beacon

Opinion

Graphic Rina Laby

Is woke really back?

By Rina Laby, Dept. City Editor / November 12, 2025

Is woke really back? It sure seems like it, as Zohran Mamdani begins his transition period in New York City and Democrats elsewhere won their races decisively.  Those...

Graphic Charlie Desjardins

Helicopter parents have entered the chat

By Josie Arteaga and Tess Gleason / November 12, 2025

Distance makes the heart grow fonder, or at least that’s what everyone says. But what happens when distance actually makes the heart grow worried sick...

Illustration Mia McDermott

Loneliness is your best friend

By Olivia Hintlian, Beacon Contributor / November 12, 2025

I’ll never forget crying in my bedroom after a boy in high school told me nobody wanted to be my friend, that everyone found me annoying, and that it...

Illustration Mia McDermott

Am I attractive?

By Bella Nordman, Senior Opinion Columnist / November 12, 2025

Would you think I am attractive based on the way I write? Maybe based on the language I use, or my niches? Not to break the fourth wall, but I wonder this...

Illustration Mia McDermott

Lost on the Highway: Springsteen’s journey through ‘Nebraska’

By Addison Brewer-Hay, Beacon Contributor / November 6, 2025

The new biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere was released on Oct. 24, and its approach emphasizes so much more than music.  I’ve been a Bruce...

Illustration Mia McDermott

Just post your boyfriend, it’s ok

By Josie Arteaga, Opinion Editor / November 5, 2025

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine posted a suspicious picture of what was undoubtedly the back of a man's head to her Instagram story. At the bottom...

Photo Arthur Mansavage

College students deserve access to teletherapy

By Jake Semmel, Beacon Contributor / November 5, 2025

For the past two years, as an Emerson student living in Boston, I’ve relied on teletherapy once a week instead of traveling over 200 miles back to my...

Graphic Charlie Desjardins

The Pats might be back. Just check the receipts.

By Charlie Desjardins, Dept. Opinion Editor / November 5, 2025

If you haven’t flipped on your televisions, accidentally switched your car stereo to FM radio, or walked past a construction site lately, here’s a...

Graphic Charlie Desjardins & Josie Arteaga

Tips for tipping culture: When you should and shouldn’t tip

By Ava Velez, Beacon Contributor / October 29, 2025

Around a year ago, my friends decided to go to Red Robin after one of their birthday parties. I had prior engagements and was unable to attend, but was...

Illustration Mia McDermott

Promoter culture isn’t hot, it’s harmful

By Josie Arteaga, Opinion Editor / October 29, 2025

It’s officially Halloweekend eve. Soon, as throngs of college students finalize their costumes and prepare official plans for the festivities ahead,...

Graphic Charlie Desjardins

Posthumous albums, the ‘vault,’ and vampiric opportunism

By Charlie Desjardins, Dept. Opinion Editor / October 29, 2025

I’ve had posthumous albums on my mind lately. Not just because I hate them and everything they stand for, but because I’ve been listening to a whole...

Illustration Takara Bayley-Gale

Homesickness isn’t terminal

By Josie Arteaga, Opinion Editor / October 22, 2025

Over the weekend, major presidential elections took place in Bolivia, my home country. For the first time in almost 20 years, the long-reigning political...

Illustration Mia McDermott

Shaking off ‘The Life of a Showgirl’

By Pranati Kotamraju, Beacon Contributor / October 22, 2025

I have a confession to make. As a Swiftie, I did not love Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl.” These words seem blasphemous on...

Graphic Josefina Arteaga

From sexy nurses to funny Lorax costumes, women just cannot get it ‘right’

By Tess Gleason and Bella Nordman / October 22, 2025

Our TikTok feeds have been inundated with girls dressed as the Lorax—wearing neon orange nylon bodysuits stuffed with pillows for bellies, big fluffy...

Graphic Mia McDermott

My English isn’t your English

By Soham Gupta, Beacon Contributor / October 22, 2025

I have just moved to the United States. The English here is not what I learnt at home. As an international student from India attending a liberal arts...

Officers form a blockade preventing protesters from crossing Tremont Street while others are arrested after a Pro-Palestine protest on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Bryan Hecht / Beacon Staff)

Letter to the Editor: Why you should care about the arrests of our students

By John Gianvito, Guest Author / October 15, 2025

As has been widely reported across both local and national news fronts, last Tuesday, Oct. 7, amid a “Flood Downtown for Palestine” rally, the Boston...

Graphic Charlie Desjardins

The hidden violence of ‘gotcha’ street interviews

By Brooke Lelia, Staff Writer / October 15, 2025

“Hey, do you have time for a quick interview?” It was a question I had heard before, many times, on the streets of Boston. The people who asked...

Illustration Mia McDermott

You don’t need another tote bag

By Bella Nordman, Senior Opinion Columnist / October 15, 2025

Trying to be sustainable as a college student is like doing yoga on a moving treadmill: noble, but not practical.  The idea and thought to be sustainably...

Graphic Josie Arteaga

Blaming the pandemic is so 2020

By Tess Gleason, Senior Opinion Columnist / October 15, 2025

In my sociology class last semester, one of my classmates attributed the increased aggression and fighting among middle school and high school students...

(Illustration Lila Reimels)

‘Canceled’: A political cartoon

By Lila Reimels, Beacon Contributor / October 8, 2025