Skip to Main Content
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

Meg Richards

Meg Richards, Beacon Correspondent

Meg Richards is a third-year student from Richmond, Virginia. She has a double major in journalism and political communications. She mainly writes for the Opinion section, though she dabbles in News and Living Arts.

Latest from Meg Richards
Illustration Rachel Choi

The poppy that never dies: a tribute to the journalists lost in Gaza

By Meg Richards, Beacon Correspondent / October 16, 2024
Freedom of the press is an essential, fundamental, and constitutional right in the United States.
MacKenzie Galloway. (Courtesy)

MacKenzie Galloway, MFA ‘23, spotlights Afrofuturism in Washington, D.C.

By Meg Richards, Beacon Staff / October 16, 2024
MacKenzie Galloway ‘23 has many titles—filmmaker, writer, fashion designer, Howard University doctorate student, and congressional staffer for Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Can we meme our way to the presidency?

Can we meme our way to the presidency?

By Meg Richards, Beacon Correspondent / July 25, 2024

I found out Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race from a meme. I was at the movie theater with my best friend, Camille, watching “Maxxxine”...

Graphic Meg Richards

Why ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ by Taylor Swift is actually a queer anthem

By Meg Richards, Staff Writer / April 24, 2024

Opinion editors are not responsible for agreeing or disagreeing with their writers but rather elevate each individual’s specific voice.  If you ignore...

Courtesy Ashlyn Richards

The resonating echoes of 9/11 in country music

By Meg Richards, Opinion writer / April 17, 2024

A year after the attack on the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, country music goliath Alan Jackson released the emotive and poignant anthem “Where Were...

Courtesy Meg Richards

We owe Amber Heard an apology

By Meg Richards, Staff Writer / February 14, 2024

Opinion editors are not responsible for agreeing or disagreeing with their writers but rather elevate each individual’s specific voice.   Imagine...

Illustration by Meg Richards.

What the hell does “The South” even mean?

By Meg Richards, Opinion Editor / December 13, 2023

There are some Northeastern liberals, particularly of the wealthy and white disposition, who think their Northern-ness absolves them of any accountability,...

Illustration: Meg Richards

Why can’t I wish upon a star in Boston?

By Meg Richards / November 8, 2023

  This past summer, my boyfriend hosted bonfires on his parents’ farm for all our friends and coworkers to hang out at. During the final bonfire...

Illustration by Rachel Choi

Living in college with POTS (not the kind you smoke)

By Meg Richards, Opinion Editor / October 18, 2023

I’m always fighting to stay awake. I try to get a full night’s sleep. I used to preach “8-12 hours” to people but honestly, it makes no difference...

Illustration by Rachel Choi.

Before the Eras Tour, there was the Fame Monster Ball

By Meg Richards, Opinon Editor / October 4, 2023

I have vivid memories of my nine-year-old self sneaking downstairs every Saturday morning, before anyone else was awake, to watch my VCR taped performance...

Illustration by Rachel Choi

The grind don’t stop…until the body is destroyed 

By Meg Richards and Ty Gavin / April 26, 2023

Meg I have been dancing since I was two years old. Ballet, tap, jazz, modern, contemporary—pretty much all of it. My feet have only stopped moving...

Highest achieving students recognized at 12th annual ERA Awards

Highest achieving students recognized at 12th annual ERA Awards

By Meg Richards / April 26, 2023

The Emerson Recognition Achievement Awards, or ERA Awards, took place in the Robert J. Orchard Theater last Friday, where students across all majors were...

‘They’re logical things, but they're not human beings’: What is ChatGPT, and what should we be concerned about?

‘They’re logical things, but they’re not human beings’: What is ChatGPT, and what should we be concerned about?

By Meg Richards / April 26, 2023

ChatGPT, a new artificial intelligence program that has the capability to write basically anything can write your essays for you. Emerson community members,...

Illustration by Ryan Yau

Let’s put it bluntly: all drugs should be legal

By Meg Richards / April 19, 2023

It’s 4/20, a day for the predominately white students of Emerson College to ditch class and smoke in the Boston Common, without a care in the world and...

Illustration by Kellyn Taylor.

Donald Trump was just indicted. Now what?

By Meg Richards / April 5, 2023

Former Pres. Donald Trump has been indicted by a New York grand jury for using campaign funds to pay off adult film star Stormy Daniels and two other women...

Courtesy Jesse Barnett

Emerson’s historic “Jelly’s Last Jam” comes alive after four-year roadblock

By Meg Richards and Maddie Barron / April 5, 2023

Though the cast of “Jelly’s Last Jam” wasn’t mic'd, their powerful voices resonated throughout the Semel, echoing Emerson’s first all-Black musical’s...

Illustration by Rachel Choi

I’m ready to talk about my feelings

By Meg Richards, Assistant Opinion Editor / April 5, 2023

Throughout my life, I’ve let some questionable shit happen solely because I was afraid that I was feeling my feelings too intensely, even though all...

Protester holding signs at the D.C. rally.

‘Does the promise of this country include children being gunned down?’: Gun violence protesters march in D.C.

By Meg Richards / March 29, 2023

Activists against gun violence gathered on the National Mall, just yards in front of Capitol Hill on Friday, a day after the parents of a Parkland shooting...

Illustration by Rachel Choi

I put the ‘virgin’ in Virginian: my first time was more than a social construct

By Meg Richards / March 22, 2023

The first thing I said to the man I forever trusted with my “V-Card” was, “I think I just lost my virginity.” And even though he already knew that,...

Megan Mitchell as a Good Morning Emerson host in 2013

Emerson Alum, journalist, and viral TikToker: Megan Mitchell does it all

By Emma Bowen and Meg Richards / March 9, 2023

Emerson alum Megan Mitchell has built a wildly successful journalism career off of her TikTok success, bridging the gap between old and new media. She...

Illustration by Kellyn Taylor

Outer Banks depicts the devastating reality of the troubled teen industry

By Meg Richards, Assistant Opinion Editor / March 8, 2023

The third season of the hit Netflix original series “Outer Banks,” featuring the usual hunt for lost treasure and steamy romance scenes, highlights...

Creative Commons

“Pamela, A Love Story”: In with the documentary, out with the biopic

By Meg Richards, Staff Writer, Opinion / February 15, 2023

Pamela Anderson, a media personality who took the ‘90s by storm, is finally telling her own story. Last year, Hulu released a biopic series called “Pam...

Bless your heart: a love letter to the true South

Bless your heart: a love letter to the true South

By Meg Richards, Staff Writer, Opinion / February 1, 2023

When I came to Boston this past September, I learned something about how relative the idea of “the South” vs. “the North” is. In Virginia, where...

The madness over McCarthy could help the Democrats in 2024

The madness over McCarthy could help the Democrats in 2024

By Meg Richards, Staff Writer, Opinion / January 25, 2023

After a week of humiliating deliberations, phone calls to “DT”, and a near-miss physical altercation on the House floor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)...

Rachel Choi

Republican candidates appear soft on abortion in a Post-Roe election season. Don’t trust them.

By Meg Richards, Staff Writer / November 9, 2022

The morning Roe V. Wade was overturned, a thick silence hung in the air. Everything felt surprisingly small at the moment, but bigger than the human brain...

Illustration by Meg Richards

America’s biggest haunted house: the echo chamber

By Meg Richards, Beacon Correspondent / October 26, 2022

Alt-right fringe conservatives are repackaging the same witch-hunt rhetoric that got the likes of Disney’s Sanderson Sisters hanged 400 years ago. The...

Illustration by Madison Barron

Ned Fulmer, Rex Orange County, and separating the violence from the artist

By Meg Richards, Beacon Correspondent / October 13, 2022

“There’s sexual harassment over here and you shouldn’t conflate it with rape,” said Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement. “Which is true;...

Monica Lewinsky TEDTalk/Creative Commons

A Starr is born: how the media made a name for Monica Lewinsky

By Meg Richards / September 21, 2022

He wrote her like the main character in a fan fiction—something to be consumed but not respected.  “She told him that she had a crush on him. He...