Last year, thousands of McGill community members dove into our stories. Now we’re looking back at the top articles that defined the past year. Consider this your personal McGill reading list as we bring you the most popular McGill News stories of 2025.
1. Getting things ready for your stay at The White Lotus
Our readers jumped at the chance to get up close and personal with David Bernad, BA’04, the Emmy Award-winning executive producer of The White Lotus. Bernad shared how he went from organizing Frosh Week parties at McGill to producing one of the most acclaimed shows on television. Find out about the pressures and work ethic on set, and how never letting go of the dream of a movie career led him to Hollywood mailrooms and beyond. “We travel the world for this show, which is amazing, but it can be challenging too…. there is always a learning curve attached to that.”
2. A double dosage: Meet McGill’s med school twins
It’s hard to resist the mystery of twins. Readers loved this profile of not one, but two sets of twins, Shreya and Megha Udupa, and Mathew and Michael Petros, who are currently studying medicine at McGill. Learn more about what it’s like to share a medical education with the person you once shared a womb with. “A lot of the time, if I’m stressed, I don’t even have to tell her, she would automatically know, and vice versa.”
3. A little bookstore that’s had a big impact
For generations of McGill students, The Word Bookstore on Milton Street has been a beloved landmark. As The Word marked half a century, Adrian King-Edwards, BA’71, the bookshop’s co-founder and owner, shared some memories, the store’s origin story, and the recipe for building and maintaining an independent bookstore that’s as vibrant as ever. “I find that very rewarding emotionally,” says King-Edwards about helping a customer find a difficult-to-come-by philosophy or a poetry book that they’ve been searching for.
4. ‘Head over heels in love with economics’
Canadian economist Peter Howitt, BA’68, made us proud when he became the 11th member of the McGill community to win a Nobel Prize. The co-recipient of the 2025 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Howitt shared how he came to love economics at McGill and why he believes that disruptive new technologies like artificial intelligence provide more gain than pain in the long run. “Some skills are made more productive by these new technologies.”
5. An eclectic approach to Canada’s history
McGillians cheered when Matthew Rankin’s movie Universal Language was shortlisted in the 2025 Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film category. It also won an award at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to win several more at the Canadian Screen Awards and the Gala Québec Cinéma. Originally from Winnipeg, and today a Montrealer, Rankin, BA’01, often weaves history into his filmmaking – in a decidedly unorthodox fashion. “I think Canada is a place that can be perpetually redefined, and it should be. When we redefine it, we can make it something new.”
Rounding out the year’s top 10:
6. An ecosystem for AI collaboration
The McGill Collaborative for AI and Society is on a mission to ensure AI has a positive impact.
McGillians authored some of the best books of 2025, but don’t just take our word for it – The Globe & Mail, The Economist, and The Washington Post agree.
8. Fastball? Curveball? Let’s see what the data says
Assistant pitching coach Sam Greene, BCom’20, MMgmt’21, put his analytics education to work in the Toronto Blue Jays’ historic run for the World Series title.
Calgary-born jazz vocalist, composer and lyricist Caity Gyorgy, MMus’22, has won three Juno Awards in the last four years.
10. ‘Our unofficial Architect Laureate’
A century after his birth, one of Canada’s most influential architects – Arthur Erickson, BArch’50, LLD’75 – was the subject of a new documentary film and an exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
