Passion for Ideas

2007 Issue 1January 20, 2007May 2, 2014

Passion for Ideas

AT 3:45 P.M., MICHAEL ROTH ’78 WAS HURRYING TO FINISH HIS LUNCH, an orange-colored soup in a plastic take-out container. Finding any time at all to eat had been difficult that day because he had flown from Los Angeles back home to Oakland, where appointments awaited him in his office at the Californ…

2007 Issue 1January 20, 2007May 2, 2014

Peapod Ripens

BANANAS ARE THE NUMBER-ONE SELLING ITEM AT PEAPOD, the Internet’s leading grocery service. You might imagine that consumers would want to choose their own bananas to avoid bruised fruit. That they trust Peapod to avoid…

2007 Issue 1January 20, 2007May 2, 2014

The Bennet Style

Students present at Doug Bennet’s inauguration remember the event not for the speeches but for the party that followed. Hours after the formalities had ended, a drenching rain turned the Center for the Arts courtyard, si…

2006 Issue 4December 20, 2006May 2, 2014

Justice at Guantanamo

WHEN STEVE OLESKEY ’64 FIRST WENT TO GUANTANAMO BAY PRISON IN DECEMBER 2004 to interview six clients he had never seen, one of his new clients put a piece of paper on the table and asked him to sign it. The man then turn…

2006 Issue 3September 20, 2006May 2, 2014

Crime After Katrina

A MINIVAN TOUR OF NEIGHBORHOODS IN ST. BERNARD PARISH, immediately east of New Orleans, reveals the cruel mirage of recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Neighborhoods once occupied by middle-class homeowners are now the sit…

2006 Issue 3September 20, 2006May 2, 2014

A Fix For Insurance Maladies

IF ONE BUSINESS MODEL DOESN’T SUCCEED, throw it out and try another. That’s how Jonathan Bush ’93 and a fellow healthcare consultant, Todd Park, handled their first foray into healthcare. They intended to use their mana…

2006 Issue 3September 20, 2006May 2, 2014

How To Succeed in Business By Napping

WHEN THE FOUNDERS OF METRONAPS SET UP SHOP IN THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, they were hoping to be noticed. They succeeded beyond any reasonable expectation. MetroNaps has been featured on NBC Nightly News, CNN, in major n…

2006 Issue 2June 20, 2006May 2, 2014

Voice From Liberty

IN LATE JANUARY WE CAUGHT UP WITH DAVID BRANCACCIO '82 while he was in Liberty, Maine, shooting the opening segment of Now, the PBS show he hosts. Liberty is just off Route 3 as the two-lane highway heads east out of Aug…

2006 Issue 2June 20, 2006May 2, 2014

Patient Investor

IN THE WINTER OF 1997, with the stock market booming, Wesleyan's Board of Trustees adopted a new investment policy that recognized the need for a full-time investment professional on staff if the institution's portfolio …

2006 Issue 1January 20, 2006May 2, 2014

Museum on College Row

THE BONANG, KOTO, AXATSE, AND TABLA--musical instruments that may be unknown to many people--are crammed along with hundreds of other equally intriguing items from the World Music collection in a locked storeroom small…