I’m coming pretty down to the wire with this one this year. I’ve got a 6:30 dinner reservation and it’s 4:30 pm New Years Eve. But I’m admittedly a sap for traditions and I’ve been doing this every year for nine years! It’s good for me to look back on work that I’ve done and think about the new year ahead. I think every journalist in the industry is trying to figure out how we do our work in this increasingly fractured media environment and in a new Trump presidency. A lot has changed and seems likely to keep changing.

While I Figure That Out, I took a look at the 52 stories I published this year. I’m really proud of this years’ journalism, and know many of the issues I’ve been long focused on — reproductive rights, housing, homelessness, and child care — were particularly prominent in politics and culture. The rights of homeless people were considered by the US Supreme Court. Housing and abortion rights were among the most salient issues in the presidential election. I looked for new ideas and creative solutions, and tried to clarify debates and highlight new threats coming down the pike.

Here are a dozen pieces I’m particularly proud of from 2024. These weren’t necessarily the most read or popular!

(Past roundups can be found here: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015)

1. What a big new Supreme Court decision could mean for homeless Americans (6/28)
I wrote several articles about the Grants Pass v. Johnson case this year, and was fortunate to get to sit in oral arguments in April. This one looks at where things go next.

2. A prescription for housing? (2/13)
On states preparing to use Medicaid for rental assistance for the first time, and the debates associated with that step.

3. Why I changed my mind about volunteering (8/24)
A personal essay on individual action with a really terrific companion Today Explained podcast episode.

4. Why IVF looks different in the US than the rest of the world (3/26)
My intervention into the oft-repeated claim that the US is a “wild wild west” for the fertility industry.

5. What if public housing were for everyone? (2/10)
After we published this story, some folks in the Biden White House took notice and reached out to one of our main sources for a meeting. About a month later, a proposal supporting this idea was included in Biden’s 2024 budget, and Kamala Harris also backed it on the campaign trail. Just this month San Francisco published a report affirming the model’s feasibility for their city.

6. What happens when you promise child care for every kid? (10/30)
Traveled to Germany to report this complicated story, with some stunning original photography.

7. The movement desperately trying to get people to have more babies (7/30)
This story on “pronatalism” ended up being more topical than I had anticipated?

8. Why abortion politics might not carry Democrats again in 2024 (3/15)
Some people were not happy when I published this at the time, even called for my employer to fire me!

9. The federal government’s new plan to (maybe) give renters straight cash (6/13)
Builds on reporting I’ve been doing around this story since 2021.

10. If Democrats could compromise with Republicans on abortion, should they? (11/26)
Gets at some big underlying strategic questions I will stay focused on next year.

11. Biden’s push for child care failed. What lessons are there for Kamala Harris?
The “care economy” agenda collapsed despite a Democratic trifecta. I wanted to see how advocates were thinking about next steps, and GOP control.

12. Yes in God’s Backyard? This housing solution may be the answer to your prayers (6/18) Looking at how churches, mosques, and temples could change the game on affordable housing. If you like this kind of thing, I also rounded up 6 standout housing ideas I covered this year earlier this week at Vox.

I hope you all have really fun or restful nights and I’ll see you next year! Tomorrow!