The longtime writer at Denver’s 5280 magazine talks about City Reads, the stellar work published by fellow journalists, and the intimate experience of reading thousands of solidarity letters mailed from across the country, demanding justice for Elijah McClain.

The writer of the Immigrant Strong newsletter wants to diversify your bookshelf. 

The writer describes her process of reporting and shaping her recent essay, “The State of Waiting,” which explores love in the shadow of war and immigration policy.

The full story behind the scoop to interview Princess Diana has remained hidden for a quarter of a century — until now.

“The UN gave up trying to count the war’s death toll in 2016, when it had already reached nearly half a million. More than 10m Syrians are refugees.”

Jodie Foster and Sir Anthony Hopkins talk about “The Silence of the Lambs” for the movie’s 30th anniversary.

In an interview at GQ, Patricia Lockwood talks about the perils of being extremely online.

“When two people are on the same page, and they love each other, and they’re working towards something better, you can do a lot of good things.”

“Tyrian purple was a difficult color to manufacture. Thousands of snails were required to create a single ounce of dye.”

Here’s a selection of profiles that resonated with us this year.

Meet Eric Feigl-Ding, the town crier of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Joey is going to be President someday. He was made to be in the White House. There is no one else who can lead the country. Just you wait and see.”

“I didn’t know at first what I was doing. I was just trying to represent the inside of the feeling.”

“The structural conditions shaping care work are highly exploitative—and are profoundly linked to the high degree of COVID-19’s spread within both long-term care facilities and the communities that supply their labor force.”

“Do you know what it means to have a wound that never heals?”

“Having spent thousands of hours preparing thousands upon thousands of specimens, Laybourne had accumulated a library’s worth of knowledge about birds.”

When things get hard, we look to our most fundamental relationships. This is the story of a son, a father, a camper van, a pandemic, and the ties that bind.

Generations of musicians got their start busking the streets of the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. After a decade of ‘hobo-ing’ around cities like New Orleans, Paris, and New York, Charley Crockett discovered it was his turn.

“In general, I try to expect nothing and hope that everything is possible. I want the courage to need very little and demand a lot.”

“You may start off with Professor X but Magneto got a fucking point.”

When “Who gets to go jogging without getting shot?” is an actual question a society has to ask, that society is fundamentally flawed.

“We are going to turn America around.”

“I grow green with hope. I’d like to end there.”

“In a country where nobody can agree on much, we seem to agree on Brené Brown.”

There are miracles everywhere if you know where to look. And know how to listen: A wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-lop-bam-boom!

“I’m grateful that I was a drunk. I’m grateful that I know what all those things are like, what those feelings are like, how bad it can hurt, how great it can feel.”

“It has become a disconcerting pattern for Thunberg appearances: Greta tells the adults they are fools and their plans are lame and shortsighted. They still give her a standing ovation.”

“She can be shy and insecure. And yet she didn’t hesitate to stare down the cameras on American television to call out one of the most powerful men in the world.”

“My dad every now and then will toe that line and be like, You could try women!” says Bowen, laughing. “And I’m like…Don’t. It’s almost an endearing kind of homophobia, if such a thing exists.”

“I’m going to say a blasphemous thing, which is we are so fucking done with the hero’s journey. It has been to our peril.”