Our 43 Favorite Stories of the Year

Our 43 Favorite Stories of the Year 

Each year, we invite our staff to reflect on and share their favorite stories supported by the Pulitzer Center. The request is simple: Tell us about a story that resonated with you, surprised you, or is important in some way. 

Some stories may come to mind immediately, such as those that achieved impact or were groundbreaking in uncovering an injustice; while others may surface as you take the time to hit pause: the “slow journalism” that really sits with you and you keep revisiting months afterward, causing you to look at something from an entirely new perspective. 

This is one of my favorite projects of the year, as it is a chance to celebrate the incredible work of our Pulitzer Center community, and I always learn something new. It is our chance to pause and reflect. 

As our global staff has grown, now representing 13 countries, and we embrace our new mission, it is exciting to see how this yearly reflection has evolved. This is an opportunity for our community to hear directly from our team, who amplified these stories and brought them to new audiences, in collaboration with journalists, educators, academics, scientists, and civil society. 

We invite you to explore this compilation of 43 stories selected out of over 1,000 published so far this year. These stories help us connect the dots between the Sahara desert and weather patterns in the coastal U.S., and learn more about illegal rosewood trafficking in Senegal, Indigenous rights and language preservation in Peru, eroding water rights and infrastructure in Mississippi, and daily life in Afghanistan after the Taliban’s return. We see many stories of hope, resilience, resistance, and community-based solutions that give us optimism for the future. 

The stories represented here underscore the power of journalism to drive positive change. We look forward to sharing more crucial and underreported journalism with you in the year ahead. 

Best, 

IMPACT

Pulitzer Center Senior Editor and AI Accountability Network Manager Boyoung Lim was interviewed by the Global Investigative Journalism Network. The interview features Lim’s unique career path from police officer to investigative journalist to the Pulitzer Center, and the challenges she has identified in reporting on artificial intelligence. For more information about the Pulitzer Center AI Accountability Network, click here, and check out the full interview with Lim here.

This message first appeared in the December 8, 2023, edition of the Pulitzer Center's weekly newsletter. Subscribe today. 

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