{"id":16548,"date":"2026-01-02T14:12:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/?p=16548"},"modified":"2026-01-02T14:12:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:12:47","slug":"stories-and-lessons-to-inspire-you-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2026\/01\/02\/stories-and-lessons-to-inspire-you-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories and lessons to inspire you in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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Sign up for the Nieman Storyboard newsletter,<\/em><\/a> delivered every Friday in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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***<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Dear Storyboard community: <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Happy New Year! I hope you\u2019ve had a restful holiday season. Many of you shared your favorite stories of the past year with our inaugural Storyboard Best of 2025<\/a>, where I also asked you to share pieces that you were especially proud of creating, and what you learned from them. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Your responses are inspiring and motivating, and they might be especially helpful as you begin to think about where to dedicate your own effort in 2026.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Keep sharing your stories, <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Mark Armstrong
Editor<\/a>
Nieman Storyboard
Follow the Nieman Storyboard Podcast<\/a> 
On Bluesky:@niemanstoryboard.org<\/a>  <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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***<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Robert Sanchez on <\/strong>\u201cThe Coloradans Exercising Their Right To Die\u2014and a Doctor Who Helps Them Find Peace\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (5280 Magazine, October 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I spent a summer watching very sick people consider how to die with dignity. This story on medical aid in dying reinforced the idea that I need to capture the humanity of every character who shows up in my work. In this case, that\u2019s because few of them would be alive when this story ran. I interviewed more than a dozen MAID patients for this piece, over about three months, and I was physically with three MAID patients (in their homes) when they died. It was an honor to be with these people, and their loved ones, during this time. Maybe most of all, this story taught me about the power of simply asking a question and then taking time to really listen to the answer. The reporting on this story was an ego-stripping experience that changed my life.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Andrea Pitzer on <\/strong>\u201cThe \u2018Exciting Business Opportunity\u2019 That Ruined Our Lives\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (The Atlantic, January 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I had such a strange childhood, one both fairy tale and feral. I hoped to convey at least a little of our life as outsiders while also delivering up some surprise ties to political events rocking the country in recent years. It was a challenge to marry those things, and it took some minor acrobatics to pull off in a mid-length feature, but with a lot of revision, I think the story worked in the end. My editor Honor Jones did a wonderful job whittling and reshaping without damaging the rough magic I was aiming for.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Daniel Drepper on <\/strong>\u201cThe Forever Pollution Project: Journalists tracking PFAS across Europe\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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With a group of about 50 journalists from all over Europe, we investigated the spread of PFAS or \u201cforever chemicals\u201d as well as the manipulating lobbying tactics of the PFAS industry to avoid restriction on these dangerous chemicals. Over three years, we published two big investigations that broke news all over the continent.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Eva Holland on <\/strong>\u201cWhy Did National Geographic Disappear Its Own Documentary About A Queer Climate Scientist?\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (Defector, July 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I hadn\u2019t done this sort of properly investigative work before \u2014 mostly, I talk to people who want to tell me their stories, rather than spending months trying to extract information from more reluctant, frightened, or even hostile sources. But this one felt important, and personal to me, and I’m glad I put in the time to put it together. It was a demoralizing story to work on in some ways, but I finished with some new tools in my toolkit, and the satisfaction of knowing that I had put something into the public eye that wouldn’t likely have been there otherwise.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Mary Schmich on her podcast <\/strong>\u201cDivision Street Revisited\u201d<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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After 40 or so years as a newspaper writer, it was a thrill to report and write in a new (for me) genre, the podcast. I learned to listen differently, to think of the audience as listeners and not readers, and to collaborate in a way that column-writing doesn\u2019t involve. I\u2019ve always loved stretching the boundaries of what I know and do, and it was especially satisfying to take that stretch in this phase of life.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Theo Balcomb on the podcast episode <\/strong>\u201cCongruence is Effortless\u201d<\/strong><\/a>(Voices in the River, March 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Anna Sale of \u201cDeath Sex & Money\u201d fame came on the show I make with a witch named Rebecca. At the beginning of 2024, Rebecca read a \u201cyear ahead spread” for Anna. It’s a tarot reading where you get a card for each month, giving you a sense of what the year may feel like for you. Then in 2025, we talked to Anna about her year that was, playing her excerpts from her \u201cyear ahead spread,\u201d and reflecting on how her year transpired. I’ve never made anything like it…and I’m really proud of it. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Neel Dhanesha on <\/strong>\u201cHow tribal radio stations are preparing for a future without the Corporation for Public Broadcasting\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (Nieman Lab, August 2025) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I’m proud of this story because it drew attention to something incredibly important \u2014 the impact of federal funding cuts on tribal radio stations \u2014 and also, to an extent, served to show the unique place those stations had in their communities. I learned a lot about the role of tribal stations in native communities around the country, and the hard, unglamorous work that goes into keeping them going.  <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Chris Bannon on the podcast series <\/strong>\u201cTough Cookie: The Wally \u2018Famous\u2019 Amos Story\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (Vanity Fair, October 2025) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Revealed the remarkable, hidden story of one of America’s most famous Black entrepreneurs through a complex family lens. The lesson: it\u2019s hard to make a new narrative show with an all new team on a tight budget!<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Franklin Leonard <\/strong>on starting a newsletter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I’m forcing myself to do more longform writing, something I find incredibly uncomfortable, but it\u2019s happening, and it\u2019s far less terrible than I expected it to be.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Carly Stern on <\/strong>\u201cLooking For Closure At Carlos Watson\u2019s Sentencing Hearing\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (Defector, March 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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This first-person essay was a difficult piece for me to write and departed from the journalistic work I usually do, where I\u2019m centering other people\u2019s voices rather than my own. Turning the lens inward to my own perspective was an uncomfortable but helpful way to re-process the chaos of my earliest journalism job \u2014 and a reminder that reporters can also give ourselves permission to mine our own lives and experiences.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Kevin Nguyen on <\/strong>\u201cAmerican War\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (The Verge, April 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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An attempt to center Vietnamese people, rather than Americans, for the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon; it was a great exercise in diversity of approaches and voice, and in trying to squeeze this into the purview of The Verge, historically a tech website, I realized that the thing we really do more than talk about gadgets is explain systems.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Drew Harwell on <\/strong>\u201cInside the life of a 24\/7 streamer: \u2018What more do you want?\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (The Washington Post, May 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I really enjoyed getting to tell the story of Emilycc, the streamer in Texas who’s been broadcasting herself live on Twitch for three years and counting. My hope was to take what could\u2019ve been this strange sideshow of the new internet and use it to explore \u2014 with respect, and without judgment \u2014 why so many of us now feel we have to perform so much of our lives online: the loneliness, the anxiety, the yearning to belong. On a lighter note, I learned that interviewing a marathon streamer requires becoming a streamer yourself.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Deesha Philyaw on the podcast episode <\/strong>\u201cDestiny O. Birdsong on Navigating Censorship in Storytelling\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (Ursa Short Fiction, January 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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My Ursa podcast<\/a> co-host Dawnie Walton and I had the privilege of speaking with poet and prose writer Destiny O. Birdsong about navigating censorship and what happens when writers and editors don\u2019t see eye-to-eye. Destiny also discussed the intersections of religion and queerness, the representation of queer sex and sex work in literature, and more.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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[Editor’s note: I’m also a co-founder at Ursa.] <\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Julie Shapiro on the <\/strong>Audio Flux podcast<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Two years into the Audio Flux adventure, we\u2019ve finally launched our podcast! We’re excited to share the dozens of incredible audio gems, produced by independent producers from all over, even further and wider through the podcast. What have we learned? To stick to our values as the podcast industry swirls around us, and to trust in the collaborative spirit at the heart of Audio Flux. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Minda Honey on <\/strong>\u201cI was a teenage weight loss counselor\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (Writing for Fakers, September 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Inspired by the discourse around Ozempic, I wrote about my experience as a teenage weight loss counselor.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Andrew Deck on <\/strong>\u201cInside a network of AI-generated newsletters targeting \u2018small town America\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (Nieman Lab, January 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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My story from January uncovered a network of more than 350 AI-generated local newsletters across the U.S. My reporting confirmed they were all operated by one engineer in NYC who was posing as a local resident in each town. The story inspired follow-up coverage by local and regional outlets in almost a dozen states and kicked off fascinating debates in the news industry about where the line is in journalism between automated aggregation and AI-based theft.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Benjamin Hochman on <\/strong>\u201cAfter suicide attempt, Cardinals fan now helps others \u2014 through baseball cards\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I was just so moved by the story of this man. He tried to kill himself. Now, he’s living his life to help others in his small town.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Raul Gallego Abellan on <\/strong>\u201cPoint of No Return\u201d<\/strong><\/a> (YouTube)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cPoint of No Return\u201d is an independently produced documentary series funded by TV3\u20133Cat, a regional public broadcaster. Despite its modest scale, the English version on YouTube has reached high viewership and earned major international recognition \u2014 including an International Emmy Award, a Webby Award, and two Pictures of the Year awards, among others. It proves that powerful storytelling and exclusive access can break through borders, and that even from small media ecosystems it is possible to reach global audiences and achieve worldwide acclaim.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Laura Coffey on the return of the <\/strong>Society for Features Journalism national conference<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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I was so excited and gratified to help bring back the first in-person Society for Features Journalism national conference since the pandemic. We met at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix from Nov. 6-8, 2025, and it was epic. The focus was on craft, camaraderie, education and inspiration with speakers like Pulitzer Prize winners Eli Saslow, Lane DeGregory, Mark Warren and many more. We’re already planning our next SFJ conference at the same location in October 2026. Please join us if you can.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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***<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Photo: New Year’s Eve in Feilitzsch, Germany. Photo by PantheraLeo1359531 via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Subscribe to Storyboard<\/h2>\n \n
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Get insights into the craft of journalism and storytelling in your inbox, delivered on Fridays.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n \n

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Follow the Nieman Storyboard Podcast<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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