Abby’s Coffeehouse

How Should We Live?

Guided by the central question “How Should We Live?”, Abby’s Coffeehouse is a weekly gathering of students and young professionals seeking to investigate the enduring questions of human life.

Each Coffeehouse is focused on a brief essay, excerpt, or work of art meant to stimulate vibrant discussion led by a student or guest speaker. No prior familiarity with the author or subject is expected. We welcome students with different backgrounds and levels of experience, and aim for a conversation in which everyone can take part. Coffeehouse is not a lecture or a debate, but an opportunity to read a good text closely and consider, together, what it has to say about how we should live.

Fall 2026 Conversation Theme:

Modernity: Progress and its Discontents

What have we lost, and what have we gained?

Coffee, tea, and sweets available.

Open only to Harvard and Boston-area university students and young professionals.

“When I made the trip to Harvard Square for my first Abby's Coffeehouse, I wasn't sure what to expect. Little did I know that what awaited me was a warm welcome, rigorous conversation, and a community of people with similar principles, dedicated to the pursuit of truth and the cultivation of mind and soul.”

- Trent Bunker, Tufts ‘25