Boston College Magazine

06/04/2026

05/28/2026

For the first time since 2023, the Boston College Baseball team is heading to the NCAA tournament. The Eagles will be the No. 2 seed in the Athens Regional and will start by playing Liberty on Friday, May 29 at 2 p.m.

100 years ago, one of BC's most talented student athletes ever was also on the BC Baseball team. In honor of Throwback Thursday, learn more about him below.

Owen Murphy was part of BC's class of 1926, and was the first student athlete in University history to achieve varsity letters in four sports. A native of the tiny town of Bellows Falls, Vermont, Murphy received three letters in football, two letters in baseball, one letter in basketball, and one letter in track while at BC.

While on the BC Baseball team, he batted .400 while playing left field, and was recognized as the greatest athlete of the class of 1926. In 2019, Murphy was inducted into BC's Varsity Club Hall of Fame.

In the Winter of 2021, BC Magazine published a list of the 25 greatest BC athletes of all time, compiled by a panel of BC experts. We got so much feedback from readers that we then published a follow-up featuring letters to the editor about the additional athletes that should've made the list, and Owen Murphy was cited among them. To read that article and many more from BC Magazine, click here: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/sites/bc-magazine/winter-2021/features/BCs-greatest-athletes.html

And be sure to follow us on Instagram . Go Eagles! ⚾️🦅

05/28/2026

As a general rule, Lior Torenberg ’18 doesn’t spend a ton of time on social media. But during the isolating days of the pandemic in 2021, Torenberg recalled, she found herself logging on more often. That’s when she became curious about social media platforms such as Twitch, where users stream live videos of themselves doing mundane activities—from cooking lunch to folding laundry to playing video games—for an audience of anyone with an Internet connection and the interest to watch. Millions of people either create or tune in to these live streams, and Torenberg found herself fascinated by the phenomenon of ordinary people absorbed by the minutiae of a day in the life of a stranger. She wondered what motivated them to watch for hours on end. “It struck me as very lonely,” Torenberg said, “but also full of potential. Was it a form of connection? What was each side getting out of it?”

Those questions about the culture of live streaming inspired Torenberg’s debut novel, Just Watch Me, a tragicomic look at life in the era of the so-called attention economy. The book’s protagonist is Dell Danvers, a chaotic twentysomething New Yorker who can’t keep a job, is behind on rent, and has a sister, Daisy, who is in a coma and on life support. The hospital is just about ready to pull the plug, so Dell launches a 24-7 live stream about her own day-to-day existence to raise donations for private care to save Daisy’s life. The live stream takes off. Dell accumulates staggering numbers of viewers and monetary tips by accepting entertaining dares, such as challenges to eat progressively spicier chili peppers. As the week goes on, she is encouraged to perform increasingly dangerous stunts, and an anonymous online troll threatens to expose a secret from her past.

On one hand, Just Watch Me drips with dark humor. “It’s a book I wrote to make myself laugh during a heavy time,” Torenberg said. On the other, Torenberg also wanted to raise serious questions about the content people create and consume online nowadays, including about the performative nature of some live streaming and the ethics of commodifying personal tragedy for clicks and dollars. Read more here: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/sites/bc-magazine/winter-2026-issue/linden-lane/just-watch-me.html

05/21/2026

One of the most iconic symbols of Boston College is Linden Lane, the road that leads into BC’s middle campus and ends with the golden Eagle statue and Gasson Hall. But how much do you know about the history of BC’s Linden trees?

The first of Linden Lane’s 27 Littleleaf Linden trees was planted on May 12, 1920. That first tree was planted in honor of the Philomatheia Club, a crucial early fundraising club for the University that was founded by local Catholic women in 1915.

Today, the Linden trees of Linden Lane offset 338 pounds of carbon dioxide each year at BC, and are just one of 100 tree species found on campus.

Linden Lane is also the name of the introductory section of Boston College Magazine, BC’s alumni magazine. You can read the most recent stories published in Linden Lane, and plenty of others here: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/sites/bc-magazine/winter-2026-issue.html

Historical research: BC Burns Library blog
Video: BC Magazine Staff Writer Elizabeth Clemente MS '24

05/20/2026

It was a clear and starlit night in March of 1991 in the hillsides of northern Iraq. American journalist Frank Smyth ’82 and a colleague were crouched in a ditch, hiding from Iraqi Army tanks and machine guns. Smyth was one of a number of journalists who’d been embedded with Kurdish rebels to report on the uprisings against then–Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the wake of the Gulf War. Most of the journalists had recently returned home, but Smyth had remained, along with the photojournalists Gad Gross and Alain Buu.

Eventually, Smyth and Buu found themselves frozen in silence, alone in a dirt trench amid a volley of rockets and bullets from encroaching Iraqi forces. They had been there since midafternoon, bracing themselves to be shot on sight. While tanks rumbled and army boots squelched in the mud overhead, Smyth and Buu remained hidden for eighteen hours.

Soon after sunrise, they heard screaming and gunshots from a small cinderblock house nearby. They realized that Gross and Bakhtiar Abdel-al-Rahman, their guide, had been killed. Buu believed that he and Smyth had also been spotted, so they emerged from the trench with their hands up to surrender. Smyth and Buu were held in a prison cell for more than two weeks and repeatedly interrogated as suspected spies.

Smyth said he and Buu were ultimately released from prison at the order of Saddam Hussein. Thirty-five years later, Smyth turned emotional while reflecting on the ordeal. “It was terrifying,” he said. “It left scars and trauma. I feel very grateful that we made it.”

The riskiness of his work, and the gratitude he feels for getting through it all alive, motivated him to embark on a second career. In addition to being a journalist, Smyth is also CEO of GJS, formerly known as Global Journalist Security, a firm he founded in 2011 to train journalists in how to survive in dangerous environments. Read his full story here: https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/sites/bc-magazine/winter-2026-issue/linden-lane/keeping-journalism--and-journalists--alive.html
📸: Astrid Rockne

05/14/2026

Boston College’s 150th commencement will take place on Monday, May 18! Fifty two years ago, in May 1974, the University’s first fully co-ed class graduated. In honor of Throwback Thursday, learn a little about the history behind BC’s journey to a becoming fully coeducational institution below.

In the fall of 1970, 247 women arrived at The Heights as part of the first-ever coed College of Arts and Sciences class, and 17 came to attend the School of Management. Women had been admitted to the Education and Nursing schools for decades before that, but it wasn’t until the 1970-71 school year that BC became fully coeducational.

The women of the class of 1974 reshaped life at BC in more ways than one. For instance, the Eagles dribbled basketballs across campus to the former Roberts Center arena in protest of the lack of athletic facilities for women. They also demanded that the University health center, which early on was unused to treating such a large number of women, provide better care, and pushed for the University to provide childcare.

In the summer of 2021, Boston College Magazine interviewed several of these trailblazing women about their experiences during those years. Read that cover story here: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/sites/bc-magazine/summer-2021/features/celebrating-coeducation.html

05/13/2026

As far as award-winning science journalist Peter Brannen is concerned, every aspect of life on Earth ultimately hinges on the fate of a single molecule: carbon dioxide. It’s a hugely consequential premise that Brannen unpacks in his new book, The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World. “I wanted to give readers context about something that is fundamental to how our planet operates,” Brannen said.

Brannen recognized that his readers would likely be familiar with the essential role that a suitable level of atmospheric carbon dioxide plays in sustaining all animal life on the globe. The gas, of course, absorbs planetary heat and reradiates some of it back to the Earth’s surface. Too little CO2 would cause an ice age, while too much would overheat us. But Brannen wanted to tell a much fuller story of how CO2 originates, and how it affects the existence of every organism as it cycles through Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and crust. “Everything about planet Earth is basically mediated through CO2 somehow,” he said. Read more at the link in our bio. ⚗️🔬
📸: Ray Ewing

05/06/2026

Everywhere she goes, the celebrated actor, comedian, podcaster, and BC alum Amy Poehler attracts attention. Somehow, though, Poehler escaped nearly unnoticed while visiting the BC campus on March 26. Nearly.

When current students Ella Lowe ‘26, Saige Joseph ‘28, and Mary Gormly ‘29 heard rumblings on social media that the former and star had returned to The Heights with her high school-aged sons for a campus tour, they went on a mission to find her. Like Poehler before them, Lowe, Joseph, and Gormly are all members of the BC improv comedy group . “We were a little bit on the hunt,” Lowe recalled; “there’s so many tours going on at once, but we thought, maybe we’ll find her.”

And find Amy they did! Read what happened next here: https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/sites/bc-magazine/winter-2026-issue/linden-lane/amy-poehler--93-tours-bc-campus-with-sons.html

05/04/2026

Many companies claim to celebrate diversity and difference in the workplace, but according to the author and professional speaker Jodi-Ann Burey, they too often fall short of living up to those ideals. Burey has experienced this issue firsthand.

In 2018, after doctors removed a cancerous tumor from her spinal cord, Burey became disabled overnight. When she returned to work, she was lauded with platitudes about her strength, yet she found that she had to repeatedly disclose her condition and request accommodations—none of which ultimately made her workplace more accessible. In her new book, “Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work,” Burey critiques employers for paying lip service to inclusion while failing to meaningfully address institutional barriers such as ableism, racism, and sexism that she says hinder wellness, opportunity, and advancement.

In “Authentic,” Burey makes her case using interviews with Black, LGBTQ, and other historically marginalized professionals, and with deeply researched data, including about the impact of workplace racism on physical health. She argues that when employers offer workers only shallow encouragements to “come as you are,” they impose emotional labor by requiring employees to educate their colleagues about themselves and their experiences. Read more at the link in our bio. 📖
📸: Sylvie Rosokoff

05/01/2026

If you were a BC Hockey fan in the 1970s, you might have memories of a king, a lion, or even Santa Claus whizzing around the ice at the former McHugh Forum. That was Fred Ricci, a former vaudeville trumpet player turned Zamboni driver who was beloved by fans for his many fun costumes. Read more about him here: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/sites/bc-magazine/winter-2026-issue/bob/icon-of-the-ice.html