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We all carry self-fulfilling stories, tapestries of what we’ve been told, where we’ve triumphed and where we’ve gone wrong. The stories can boost us, but just as easily they can halt us mid-step. They shut us up. They keep us on the tame side of creativity, of daring.

Anndee Hochman

Jan 06, 2015 Essays 5 minute read

On the sending of Christmas cards

Reflecting on the exchange of season's greetings — for more than 40 years in some cases.

Bob Levin

Jan 04, 2015 Essays 3 minute read

Tatiana Maslany and Tatiana Maslany in "Orphan Black."

2014 highlights: An idiosyncratic list

Editor's choice

As editor of Broad Street Review, I'm often too busy to share my own cultural experiences and meditations about them. Here are some of the essays I didn’t write in 2014, presented as a "best of" list of recommendations, not actual analyses.

Judy Weightman

Jan 03, 2015 Essays 5 minute read

The latest accomplishment by small leaders: the Schuylkill Banks boardwalk. (photo via schuylkillbanks.org)

In praise of small leaders

A thought before the storm

A thought from the late Pete Seeger offers a useful guide for Americans as we approach the beginning of our presidential marathon.

Tom Purdom

Dec 30, 2014 Essays 3 minute read

“The confluence and conflict of everyone’s self-interest”: Usman Ally and Justin Kirk in "The Invisible Hand" (Photo by Joan Marcus)

'Homeland' and 'The Invisible Hand'

Anguish in a faraway country

Two fictional looks at modern Pakistan — and a documentary — show different facets of a land that is foreign to American understanding.

Carol Rocamora

Dec 30, 2014 Essays 5 minute read

Not a premise worthy of applause. (Photo of Kim Jong-un by petersnoopy via Creative Commons/Flickr)

'The Interview' and the Sony hack (three)

Assassination for fun and profit

The brouhaha over The Interview misses the essential point: that portraying the assassination of actual political leaders, by name, is no laughing matter.

Robert Zaller

Dec 30, 2014 Essays 4 minute read

Soren Kierkegaard and Stephen Colbert

A parting shot at Stephen Colbert's irony

Who knew Kierkegaard had the insight to not only nail Colbert’s act but to also be savvy enough to capture the two aspects of the contemporary mindset that Colbert most exploits with his pretzel logic?

AJ Sabatini

Dec 30, 2014 Essays 4 minute read

Not the usual Fairy Godmother: Lewis and Faure. (Photo by Carol Rosegg)

Cinderella and Wonder Woman

Role models for modern women?

What do Cinderella and Wonder Woman have in common? They’re both women who succeed in getting what they want in life by very different means.

Naomi Orwin

Dec 28, 2014 Essays 5 minute read

The charred corpse of Will Brown after being killed, mutilated, and burned in a 1919 Omaha lynching.

When power becomes violence

The essential American dilemma

Like many other societies past and present, and despite its emphasis on freedom and democracy, American society has, for good or ill, grown and developed through the use of aggression as a means for enhancing self-interest and power.