Fall Issue 2019

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth”.

This famous quote from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden has inspired many of his readers. In a time where news can be fake, politicians lie, and journalism seems to lose its credibility, the truth is uncertain. This edition of The Issue wants to emphasize that the truth is never black or white. However, over the summer break, the United States starts to prepare for the 2020 Presidential race, the President kept on twittering, and even our own faculty has changed. Truth is, it is too much to cover, but this is what we got:

At summer camp, we dove into the world of streaming services, like Netflix. This is a must-read, considering most of you will have one or multiple subscriptions to a streaming service. Summer is an opportunity to have a moment for yourself and be quiet, but that is not what you want to do at a hearing. That is right, we are talking about ‘pleading the Fifth’. This is something that you will come across quite often, but what it exactly means, we will tell you in America Explained. While you were reading the new Thomas Oldeheuvelt book this summer, Prof. dr. Jaap Verheul read up on our great faculty and North-American Studies master’s program. He is our newest staff member and we interviewed him to find out the truth about his time as a student. New this year is An American Portrait, where we discuss interesting yet not too famous Americans. We share our love for Lizzo in our first edition and explain how she fights for the truth when it comes to body positivity. Back from summer is F(r)amed for all you pop culture geeks with a movie that still leaves us thinking: Ex Machina (2015).

Three people wrote from the subtropical summers of North Carolina this Issue. One about a topic she ‘encountered’ at her local university: magic mushrooms and the other two share their study-abroad experience. Climate change has made this one of the hottest summers on record but how far does that truth reach? The upcoming Democratic primaries will also be explained this year in The Issue in layman’s terms to impress your teachers and friends when this topic comes up. In the heat of those debates, we will help you eat your heart out and explain the debate around the Flat Earth conspiracy theory. Summer food can be enjoyed on last time before fall with the famous Sloppy Joe’s and finally, we will quiz your knowledge on newspaper headlines. Do not quit us yet, because new on the back cover is an article explaining what brought us to the theme. This edition, that is Trump’s Sharpie-Gate. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, start reading and you will find out.

Denise Roodbeen, Editor-in-chief