2020 Feature Archive - Boston Globe Magazine

2020 Feature Archive

December 27, 2020

Dave Barry’s year in review: 2020, what can we say . . .

Brothers Leo, 14, (left) and Mateo Goldman share a deep bond. This year, Mateo, 12, returned from the hospital just in time for Thanksgiving.

Diagnosed with cancer at age 8, Mateo Goldman needed something like a miracle. He got two

Perspective | Magazine

My COVID anxiety has evolved into a persistent funk. Now what?

Mary Evelyn Folsom Blair at age 33 in 1914, writing in one of her journals at a table near her camp, Arcady. Writer Phil Primack now has the journal.

Connections | Magazine

The writer who walked these woods before me

December 13, 2020 | Bostonians of the Year

2020 Bostonians of the Year: The Front Line

From left: Segun Idowu of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, Queen-Cheyenne Wade of For the People - Boston, Monica Cannon-Grant of Violence in Boston, and Sofia Meadows of For the People - Boston.

The Social Justice Advocates

The movement against racism is broad and deep. Here are some of the people making change happen.

Jaylen Brown, a Celtics player who stands out on and off the parquet.

The Celtics’ Jaylen Brown is a leader in the NBA and outside it

Erin McAleer has been relentless in her efforts to keep people fed as president of Project Bread.

The Hunger Fighters

Erin McAleer and Project Bread: Relentless in the battle against food insecurity

Ashish Jha is the former director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. In September he started as dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

The COVID Scientists

Ashish Jha: Speaking out for science and for public health in the pandemic

Lindsey Baden is a top infectious disease expert at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The COVID Scientists

Lindsey Baden: Taking action on multiple fronts against COVID-19

Galit Alter is a professor at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The COVID Scientists

Galit Alter: Connecting scientists to speed up the COVID-19 fight

Gladys Vega, executive director of La Colaborativa.

The Community Leaders

Gladys Vega and La Colaborativa: Working in the eye of the storm in Chelsea

Stacey Gabriel, senior director of the Broad Institute's Genomics Platform.

The COVID Scientists

In just two weeks, Stacey Gabriel helped set a new COVID-19 testing standard

Connections | Magazine

A school nurse finds the pandemic has her missing her sweet ‘frequent fliers’

November 29, 2020

Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce were being called the Big Three even before playing their first game together.

The origin story of the 2008 Boston Celtics’ Big Three

Although Oktoberfest had been canceled, life in Munich felt startlingly ordinary, including in front of City Hall on September 19, 2020.

Germany has lessons about containing the damage of COVID-19. It’s not too late for us to start listening

Perspective | Magazine

The Americans with Disabilities Act is 30. Why do we still have so much work to do to improve access?

Photo illustration of a woman's hand holding an old-fashioned phone receiver with a cord.

Connections | Magazine

After I served my prison sentence, I tried to stay in touch with my former cellmates

November 22, 2020 | Top Places to Work

The 2020 Top Places to Work in Massachusetts

HubSpot: No. 1 on list of largest companies in Massachusetts in 2020

Enterprise Bank: No 1 on the list of large employers in Massachusetts for 2020

Aqueduct Technologies: No. 1 on the list of medium-size companies in Massachusetts

P.J. Spillane Co.: No. 1 on the list of small companies in Massachusetts for 2020

How these companies are digging deep to address racial inequity at work — and beyond

When forced to furlough employees, these companies had one goal: Bring everyone back

A funny thing happened while I was working from home

The Phia Group’s human resources manager, Linda Pestana (right), has been bringing her 17-year-old son to the office to log on to school.

Getting creative to help workers whose kids are stuck at home

From left: David Cancel, CEO of chatbot software firm Drift; Jim Heppelmann, president and CEO of PTC; and Stefania Mallett, CEO of business catering marketplace ezCater.

Has the pandemic changed the workplace forever? CEOs look to the future

10 employees share why they love their jobs

How companies are working to keep morale high when everything else is falling apart

November 15, 2020 | Holiday Style

Light-up, winter lawn ornaments.

20 ideas to rescue the holiday spirit with family and friends in 2020

Salted caramel nut tartlets.

Recipes: 5 home-baked treats designed to travel

Counterclockwise, from top left: Mariana earrings, Wicked Good boot moc slippers, locomotive and fish figure kit, Kazi bread basket, 5 Rhodium RI Red vodka, 6 Skin balancing set, "We Are the Change: Words of Inspiration from Civil Rights Leaders" by Harry Belafonte, ski hat, and waxed canvas bag.

28 gift ideas from New England stores and makers

Perspective | Magazine

I haven’t bought a Chinese-made product in 30 years. Here’s how

Strangers sent the author their bracelets engraved with her uncle's name.

Connections | Magazine

How strangers honored my uncle, who went M.I.A. in Vietnam, for years

November 8, 2020 | Women & Power

The 2020 Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts

Top row, from left: Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Geeta Aiyer, of Boston Common Asset Management; and Dr. Paula A. Johnson, of Wellesley College. Bottom row, from left: Linda Markham, of Cape Air; Jackie Fouse, of Agios Pharmaceuticals, and Sam King, of Veracode.

What 2020 taught female leaders about managing through a crisis

How these female business leaders successfully pivoted when the pandemic hit

Five ways the pandemic can ultimately make the workplace better for women

How 5 of the Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts are engineering pivots

For her Babson project, Janie Carroll, a 16-year-old in Needham, planned a summer camp, including activities such as playing on a trampoline with water balloons.

What could young women accomplish if they got leadership training sooner?

Perspective | Magazine

How Black women are undermined at work — and what to do about it

Connections | Magazine

‘If I were a boy, I would sail the seven seas,’ my daughter sang at 7. Had I already failed her?

October 4, 2020 | The Education Issue

A METCO school bus outside Bedford High School on the first day of school in September.

METCO schools are at the intersection of the pandemic and racism

Five ways you can help kids learn better in online school right now

Will my kid learn anything this school year? Experts take on the most worrisome questions

Why learning pods could be worse for public schools than the pandemic

A beheaded statue of Christopher
Columbus in Boston's North End on June 10.

Let the Columbus statue go. We should be celebrating Sacco and Vanzetti

September 27, 2020 | Mr. 80 Percent

Mark Shanahan

I knew getting prostate cancer at 48 would change me. I had no idea how much.

Perspective | Magazine

A tidal wave of evictions is forming. It’s not too late to stop it

September 20, 2020

Blush velvet chairs from Room & Board add a feminine touch to the moody tone-on-tone living room. Gus Modern sofas from Lekker Home are different styles, but upholstered in the same fabric for consistency.

Your Home | Relaxing Retreats

Stay-at-home design: Bright gathering spaces and moody nooks for study and work

A retractable glass door disappears into the wall, making the kitchen and three-season sunroom into a single, continuous space. The stone fireplace surround informed the gray cabinetry in the kitchen, where interior designer Kim Macumber added a runner from Dover Rug for warmth.

Your Home | Relaxing Retreats

Optimizing a home for serenity doesn’t mean it has to be boring

The living room furniture layout makes the area feel self-contained even though it is open to the dining space and kitchen. The cabinetry was retrofitted with wood tops for warmth and the framed textile from St. Frank adds drama.

Your Home | Relaxing Retreats

Interior design tricks that brought calm to a chaotic open floor plan

How the pandemic is changing what Boston-area home buyers want

Wabanaki paddlers during an annual ceremony on the Penobscot River in 2018.

Perspective | Magazine

The myth of Native American extinction harms everyone

Voting in the family garage.

Connections | Magazine

‘My best civic education was watching people come to our garage to vote’

September 13, 2020 | Fall Travel

The view from the top of Cathedral Ledge.

Fall Travel | Magazine

A socially distanced father-daughter adventure in New Hampshire’s White Mountains

Fall Travel | Magazine

Seven easy New England bicycle trails that the whole family will love

Visitors on the grounds of the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.

Fall Travel | Magazine

Ten (mostly) outdoor museums to take in some art and history this fall

Connections | Magazine

A bumbling birder wings it with his sons

August 30, 2020 | Your Financial Future

One thing is clear about the COVID-19 financial storm: Survival will require more than just cutting back on lattes.

Six smart ways to manage your money through the pandemic economy

How do you find a financial coach who fits into your budget?

How to find the right kind of financial coach for you (even if you’re on a budget)

Can anyone afford to retire in Massachusetts?

Coronavirus is threatening the financial health of retirees and workers approaching retirement age.

The looming economic crisis for America’s seniors

Five tips for managing a 401(k) during the pandemic’s turbulence

August 23, 2020

Mathematician Lisa Piccirillo at MIT, where she is now an assistant professor.

A math problem stumped experts for 50 years. This grad student from Maine solved it in days

Survivor Sarah Cooper won't be silenced. She's leading a charge alongside her mother to stop sexual predators from exploiting children online.

As an underage teen, she was exploited by a sexual predator online. Then he came after her in the real world

Suffragist Nannie Helen Burroughs leads fellow activists in the early 1900s.

Perspective | Magazine

Suffragists fought bias and a pandemic to vote. A century later, we owe it to them to do the same

The writer’s daughter Caitlin Driscoll Beatty photographed her daughters, (from left) Alila, Taria, and Neasa, to re-create Entre Nous by Willabel Cole Mitchell.

Connections | Magazine

Though my sisters have been gone for years, I always say, ‘I have two sisters’

August 9, 2020

Thomas Atkins, president of the Boston NAACP, speaks with police officers.

Photo essay: The 1975 battle for civil rights on Carson Beach

Racing the clock to stop drug-resistant superbugs

Perspective | Magazine

History tells us creativity gets unleashed in desperate times. No wonder DIY is back.

The writer (kneeling on the right) and her siblings on Salisbury Beach in 1980.

Connections | Magazine

‘For a few weeks every summer, we were beach neighbors’

July 26, 2020

The family stores their vinyl record collection under the bench of the new bump-out bay in the living room.

Your Home | Design Refreshers

Transforming an old Berkshires barn into a contemporary home

Rather than sticking with white windows like those used in the front of the house, Kelly McGuill specified black frames for the doors and windows at the back. “They’re separate enough to work and provide great contrast to the white, brass, and wood,” the designer says.

Your Home | Design Refreshers

Dressing down a stuffy formal home to be bright, light, and easy

Landscape designer Soren deNiord created multiple outdoor “rooms” in the backyard of this home in a dense neighborhood in Provincetown.

Your Home | Design Refreshers

‘I can’t believe this came out of it’: A Provincetown guesthouse gets reinvented as a single-family

A woman protests a proposed Tulsa, Oklahoma, mask ordinance on July 15.

Perspective | Magazine

The political battle over masks is making us lose the war on COVID-19

A goth tie-dye project at this year’s virtual Odyssey Teen Camp.

Connections | Magazine

‘I spend summers at a camp teaching “weird” teens that they’re cool'

July 19, 2020

Growing up Black in all the wrong places

‘Daddy, I’m bored.’ If you’re a parent, you’re hearing that a lot these days. It’s a good thing

Kip Tiernan, founder of Rosie’s Place, photographed in 2008 at the shelter’s current home on Harrison Avenue.

How a suspicious fire saved America’s first homeless shelter for women

Perspective | Magazine

Young people believe activism can help. But voting? That’s a different story

The writer and her grandfather, Pasquale Fronduto.

Connections | Magazine

A barber for decades, my grandfather loves other people’s stories. I love his

June 21, 2020 | The Gratitude Project

Gladys Vega oversees a Chelsea Collaborative food drive.

I’m inspired by nonprofits helping people, especially in communities of color

Pine Street Inn kitchen staffers at work during the pandemic.

At the Pine Street Inn and beyond, our dedication to helping homeless people endures

Screen grabs from the Boston Pops’ performance of "Summon The Heroes" on May 5. Each performer played separately and their recordings were edited together.

Keith Lockhart: Now, as ever, I marvel at musicians’ ability to unite us

Some child-care centers remained open throughout the quarantine to provide support for essential workers.

COVID-19 showed the resilience of young people, teachers, and caregivers

A worker decontaminates an MBTA Blue Line train during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michael Dukakis: Thank you to the people keeping public transportation running

Staff in the special pathogen unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

All across the country, health care workers save lives and show deep compassion

Activists participate in a “die-in,” co-organized by Violence in Boston, on June 2 on Blue Hill Avenue.

Monica Cannon-Grant: Activists are essential workers fighting for a more just America

A grocery store employee wears a mask to interact with customers.

Grocery store workers, know that you are making a difference

A research technician at the Ragon Institute in Cambridge, where COVID-19 research is being conducted.

A Nobel Prize winner on how to thank medical researchers and health care workers: Wear a mask

Staff at work at Porto, a restaurant in Boston.

To Obi. And Yonny. And all the people at the heart of restaurants

Ayanna Pressley speaks from home during the UMass Amherst 2020 online commencement ceremony.

Ayanna Pressley: ‘Our communities are facing a crisis within a crisis, trauma layered upon trauma’

Social justice advocates hold a press conference outside Boston City Hall on June 9.

Grateful for our community organizations, coming together for change

June 14, 2020 | What About Summer?

Five ice cream shops in Greater Boston that deliver

How to plan a perfect picnic

Seven tips for planting a flourishing container garden

From left: Daiquiri Ave Moi, El Cantante, and the Sweet Peach.

Boston area bartenders share cocktail recipes you can make at home

Summer vacation plans fall through? Don’t forget camping or renting an RV

Chinatown’s Uncle Frank & Auntie Kay Chin Park.

Explore these less-traveled spaces at 8 Boston area parks and open spaces

Demonstrators at a June 2 rally in Boston face off with a police vehicle.

Perspective | Magazine

What too many white people still don’t understand about racism

Licorice at the beach.

Connections | Magazine

When our gentle dog died, our source of comfort during the pandemic was gone too

June 7, 2020 | Healthy Living

Welcome to Burnout Nation, where stress makes everything not OK

How to recognize the signs of burnout from stress

I could really use a robot companion right about now

The Japanese art of tidying up is nice. But what we need in a pandemic is the Japanese way of finding balance

Perspective | Magazine

As telemedicine takes hold, what are doctors like me missing?

The author’s daughter with Babe the Zucchini.

Connections | Magazine

Babe: The zucchini that stole our hearts

May 31, 2020 | Summer Travel

Here’s how New England hotels and resorts are getting ready for summer travelers

Eight free apps for modern-day naturalists

Cutoff Mountain, in the Northern Absaroka Range, towers over the historic Slough Creek Meadows of northeast Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone is doing just fine without us, thank you very much

Escape to these hidden lakes of New England

A few ways New Englanders have tried to ward off pests throughout history

Perspective | Magazine

What if the lockdown is worse than the disease?

Illustration by Ally Rzesa

Connections | Magazine

My COVID-19 infection gave me an unexpected gift

May 10, 2020

Caroline Brinkert with her daughter in April, not long after giving birth.

The ‘fourth trimester’ and plight of new mothers during a pandemic

celebrating the class of 2020

12 ideas to honor a special 2020 graduate in your life

Scott Harney in the early 1980s.

He long dreamed of publishing a poetry book. A year after his death, he is.

Connections | Magazine

Driving with Daisy: My turn to teach the rules of the road ahead

May 3, 2020

Over the past nine months, Globe reporters followed sixth-graders Ryah St. Brice (left), Izzi Connelly-Dow, and Luis Ramos Soto as they vied for seats at one of Boston's three elite exam schools.

The Great Divide

Boston Latin and the biggest test of their young lives

Impossible coronavirus decisions and the price tag on human life

Perspective | Magazine

How to get your teenager to open up to you, especially now

Connections | Magazine

‘At the very end, there is no one else’: Saying goodbye to patients, over and over

April 19, 2020 | Top Spots to Live

Top spots to live in Greater Boston in 2020

Yes, people are still buying and selling homes during coronavirus. Here’s how.

At left: Ezekiel Wheeler (front row, far right) and some of the crew from Intelligent Labor and Moving, before the need for social distancing. At right: Linda O’Koniewski of Leading Edge Real Estate (top); Sofia Travayiakis of Mortgage Network (middle); and Doron Bracha of Accent Home Inspection.

Real estate professionals on how coronavirus has changed what they do

Top spots to live 2020: Boston neighborhoods

Top spots to live 2020: North of Boston

Top Spots to Live 2020: West of Boston

Top spots to live 2020: South of Boston

April 5, 2020

75+ things to do while coronavirus has you stuck at home

R65NJH Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History rotunda elephant

Five of the world’s best museums you can visit from your phone or computer

Can’t leave home? These 10 VR adventures take you around the world

Six ways to get kids involved with cooking, while stuck at home

Activities for kids: Tell a silly story, play some games, and learn some jokes

Rachel Barney, genomic technologist at DHMC’s laboratory for Clinical Genomics and Advanced Technology, preparing patient samples for SarS-CoV-2 testing.

The race to develop a coronavirus test in a New Hampshire hospital

Health care workers at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing facility in South Korea in early March.

Perspective | Magazine

What the US will be like after we conquer the coronavirus

Coronavirus has brought my neighbors closer together

March 29, 2020

A magnet wall and bookshelves create a nook for the kitchen pantry. The bookshelves, which ease the transition from the living space to the bedrooms, appear to float. The unit doesn’t quite reach the ceiling and a white baseboard underneath holds it off the floor. The island’s walnut niches tie to a bench in the living room.

Your Home | Smart Solutions

Ideas to reinvigorate a ranch house, with inspiration from Framingham

The relocated decorative mantel provides a subtle separation and focal point. Serendipitously, it fit in the new space within a quarter inch. New sconces by Barbara Barry for Visual Comfort flank the Western Mass. landscape painted by the husband’s mother. Baskets on the Pottery Barn shelves offer hidden storage.

Your Home | Smart Solutions

Check out how they live large in a 520-square-foot condo

Walnut warms up a white scheme (as does family dog Truckee), while Ikea pendant lights tie to the black windows.

Your Home | Smart Solutions

Bringing a modern sensibility to a vintage Portsmouth house

Curing hospitals’ addiction to the fossil fuels that make people sick

A stack of recyclables awaits sorting at E.L. Harvey and Sons in Westborough.

Perspective | Magazine

Hey you! Your bad recycling is costing all of us money!

Dispatches From the Edge

A man wears a plastic bubble for protection from the coronavirus as he walks down William J. Day Boulevard in Boston.

Apocalypse preppers, survivalists, and homesteaders aren’t that worried by coronavirus

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11 — A man crosses a deserted Congress Street in downtown Boston.

A week that coronavirus changed everything, too fast and too slow

Clockwise from top left: Dani Ruelas-Jones, Emily Taylor, S. Jason Katz, Tony Davis, and Joe Phillips.

12 small business owners on how coronavirus has affected them

Thursday, March 12 — A quiet gallery in the Museum of Fine Arts, the day it would close.

Why we closed: The MFA, ICA, and Gardner Museum directors on their difficult coronavirus decision

From left to right: The Rev. Thomas Conway, Shaykh Yasir Fahmy, and Rabbi Keith Stern.

How religious leaders are keeping faith during coronavirus, even from a social distance

I have clinical anxiety. If the coronavirus scares you, this might help

My 46-hour hunt for toilet paper

Mee-ok has been worried about the coronavirus since January.

At risk populations: ‘What helps is feeling like you’re not going it alone’

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18 — BU student Joel Lau walks down a hallway of his nearly-empty dorm before the university ordered dormitories closed.

6 voices from college: Alone in a dorm, what a coronavirus diagnosis feels like, and more

‘I have literally lost 11 pounds in the last week’: Trying to keep restaurants afloat during coronavirus

Kuldeep Singh Rajput, the founder and CEO of Boston startup Biofourmis.

Can AI predict a coronavirus infection before doctors even do a test?

8 songs to wash your hands by (that aren’t Happy Birthday)

March 15, 2020 | Spring Travel

Hikers along the Urubamba River in Peru’s Sacred Valley.

Globe Magazine | Travel

A women-only adventure tour through the Andes of Peru

Saguaro cactus with mountain range in the background,cacti set against the Santa Catalina Mountains in Tucson, Arizona.

Globe Magazine | Travel

A Tucson local’s guide to Arizona’s hippest city

Woodstock Inn & Resort in Woodstock, Vermont.

Globe Magazine | Travel

Big deals at 8 of New England’s best inns and resorts

Perspective | Magazine

When will we admit that college isn’t the only path to success?

Connections | Magazine

Giving up our landline, but not the memories we owe to it

March 8, 2020 | Spring Arts Preview

Muralist and mentor Rob “Problak” Gibbs is transforming how Boston sees itself, one can of spray paint at a time.

Problak paints the Boston we often don’t see

Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group's acclaimed "POWER" is among the performances scheduled for the Bates Dance Festival.

Spring Arts Preview

40+ arts events around New England (some free!) you won’t want to miss

Spring Arts Preview

Greta Gerwig’s ‘Little Women’ is turning Concord into a must-see destination

Perspective | Magazine

An Equal Rights Amendment for women is our best hope to safeguard legal protections

February 23, 2020 | The Parenting Issue

Parenting | Magazine

To raise healthy eaters, break those rules you learned as a kid

Six reasons to send kids to overnight summer camp (that are good for parents)

Parenting | Magazine

How much can parents really control how their kids turn out?

Perspective | Magazine

Parents’ obsession with raising happy kids is a big problem

Connections | Magazine

Sign language connects my children to their grandmother

February 9, 2020

A political cartoon depicts American relief arriving for people suffering from the Irish famine of 1879-1880, several decades after the Jamestown embarked on its humanitarian voyage.

Amid Irish potato famine, a ship from Boston embarked on history’s first humanitarian mission

Miss Conduct's first column, 15 years ago.

What I’ve learned about how we treat each other from 15 years as Miss Conduct

A painting by Fort Point-based artist Jennifer K. Moses hangs above the fireplace in the living room. The abstract work between the windows is by Richard Roblin from Galerie d’Orsay on Newbury Street. The drapery fabric is by Zak+Fox.

Your Home | Makeovers

Putting off a move to the suburbs, a young family remakes a Back Bay condo

For the dining room walls, designer Nina Seed used Sherwin-Williams Big Chill at 130 percent to deepen the color; the adjacent entry is painted in the color’s original strength. “The percentage change of the same paint color makes for an uninterrupted flow that still defines the rooms,” she says. The table, chairs, and chandelier are all from RH.

Your Home | Makeovers

Renovating a Westwood home, guided by simplicity

Homeowner Ann Ackil and two of her grandsons, ages 2 and 4, in the entry of the Canton home where she and her husband, Albert, raised their four sons.

Your Home | Makeovers

Best grandparents ever? This couple remade their home to welcome their adult children and grandkids

Floor-to-ceiling kitchen cabinets are easily accessible from the dining and living rooms. “Slab-front doors with vertical joints help the ceiling appear higher and the space less cluttered,” says architect Jason LaGorga. The multifaceted metal pendant over the island is from Vermont Modern by Hubbardton Forge. The oak countertop calls for oiling every six months.

Your Home | Makeovers

A Somerville gut rehab transforms an unremarkable home into a picture perfect neighbor

Why burned-out doctors despise electronic health records

January 19, 2020

Evan Wile has been trying to build on his waterfront land (sandy lot in foreground), while Jeffrey Horvitz, his neighbor on the property next door (background) has been trying to stop him.

After 17 lawsuits, 27 years in court, a judge rules in Beverly neighbors’ feud

To learn to care for real babies, earlier generations of high school students were given eggs or sacks of flour. This generation gets a frighteningly realistic upgrade: the RealCare Baby 3 infant simulator.

My teenager brought an ‘infant simulator’ home from school, and I think I’m a grandma now

The Worcester Art Museum.

Eight historic Massachusetts wedding venues for your big day

10 questions to ask a wedding venue before you commit

Perspective | Magazine

Politicians not listening? Flexing your consumer muscle can get results.

Connections | Magazine

I love her. Her husband? Not so much.

January 12, 2020

Tom Keane and Laurie Farrell in 1984, not long before they married.

How could my wife have Alzheimer’s? She was only 56.

Signs of early-onset Alzheimer’s: When not to worry, and when to see a doctor

Perspective | Magazine

#MeToo is necessary. It’s also freaking men out

In my soccer league, the women are here to play

Resolutions You Can Keep