SPHERES
In the winter season, it's time to contemplate the vastness of the universe, how we relate to one another, and how music, physics, and human minds all converge.

ARTWORKIndia Abbot, Christopher Spencer, Joanna Nowak

OPENING SALVO
“Werner Herzog's Mad Penguin” // If we're all going crazy, at least we can go there together.

STREETVIEW
Recommendation // Winter comfort food from Vegan Commissary // Your present to the biosphere and your palate.

Destination // Enjoy the music of the spheres at Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts 

Constellations // “Spheres of Cultural Influence” // Religion, food, family, and community on one West Philly corner

ART & IDEAS
“Life as Improvisation: The Radical Philadelphia roots of pianist and composer Sumi Tonooka” // Profile by Shaun Brady

"Earth, Heaven, and Daily Bread: Lunch with physicist Freeman Dyson" // Essay by Clarissa F. Griebel

Mini-Excerpts from: The Jazz of Physics by Stephon Alexander / Hilma af Klint, Paintings from the Future by Tracey Bashkoff / Collected Quotes of Virginia Woolf from Fractals, The Patterns of Chaos by John Briggs

“Welcome to Our World” // Review of '30 Americans' at the Barnes Foundation

"The Celestial Spheres of Emily Dickinson" // A close read by Joshua Mehigan of 'Safe in their Alabaster Chambers' 

"Down by the Riverside" // Fiction by Jeannine A. Cook

"Wash Over Me" // A meditation of losing multiple pregnancies // Essay by Amanda Jacobs

SWITCHBACKS
“An Atmosphere of One's Own” // Nancy Volpe Beringer is launching a late-in-life career, and embellishing her world // Profile by Jared Michael Lowe