From Iggy to Jello: Stanford’s newest photo archive is an epic punk rock time capsule

Lynn Beldner’s DIY visual chronicle captured concerts in a pre-Instagram era. Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!: The Ramones at the Warfield in San Francisco, 1982. (Image courtesy of the Lynn Beldner Punk Music Photograph Collection/Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound) For Lynn Beldner, shooting photos in the dark was a way of transcending the awkwardness of life in Silicon Valley. An East Coast native who transplanted to Santa Clara during the late 1970s at the ...

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1,107 and counting: Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer reflects on her record of most wins in women’s hoops

Talking success, pandemic play and social justice activism with basketball’s winningest female coach. Story by Julia Brown Stanford University women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer speaks to her team after the Stanford Cardinal defeats the Tennessee Lady Vols 78–51 at Maples Pavilion on the Stanford campus, on December 18, 2019. (2019 Don Feria/ISI Photos) On Sunday, January 24, Stanford University women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer did something she’s done over 1,100 times in her ...

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Every brick, every tree: How the Stanford campus is being meticulously rebuilt in Minecraft

Take a virtual tour of campus…or grab a pickaxe and just start building. Stanford’s Memorial Church and Main Quad built at a one-to-one scale in Minecraft by Michael Byun. (Photo courtesy of Michael Byun) When Stanford junior Michael Byun started building Memorial Church in Minecraft on a whim in December 2019, he had no idea how relevant his project would become in 2020 — or how big it would be. “That initial build ...

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Inside The Queen’s Gambit: Exploring the unknown Bay Area origins of the Netflix hit

Addiction, obscurity and how Walter Tevis’ childhood experience at Stanford shaped Beth Harmon’s backstory. (Original 650 illustration by Kaz Palladino / Awkward Affections) If you’re having a hard time purchasing a chess set for Christmas this year—blame Walter Tevis. Yes, the surge of interest in the age-old game (and the ensuing retail run on chess sets) has been squarely attributed to the recent success of the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, which is based ...

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Particulates matter: 10 questions for a Stanford researcher on the health hazards of wildfire smoke

Discussing health, wildfires and how unprecedented smoke is affecting us long term A view from Twin Peaks in San Francisco—at 8a.m. on September 9, 2020—the day the skies turned orange over the Bay Area. (Photo by Charles Russo) For the past four years, autumn in California has become synonymous with wildfire season. Each year has brought new fires, traumas and complications to the state with far-reaching consequences. This has culminated with 2020 ...

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Watch RBG’s 2017 speech at Stanford University on the topic of “Living a Meaningful Life”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg made three notable visits to Stanford over the years, culminating with a talk that looked beyond the courts and politics. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks before a small audience at the Taube Hillel House, on the Stanford campus, February 7, 2017. (Photo by Charles Russo) A native daughter of Brooklyn. A scholar of Cornell and Harvard, professor at Rutgers and Columbia. An iconic figure of Washington. Supreme Court ...

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George Floyd and ‘the moral arc of the universe’: insight from MLK’s official historian

Beaten by police during the Watts Riots in 1965, Stanford’s Clayborne Carson says things are improving, but not fast enough Clayborne Carson, director of the The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, speaking on the Stanford campus in 2018. (Photo by Charles Russo) The killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers continues to incite mass demonstrations around the nation. As these turbulent protests surface in a multitude of ...

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