Cog's best stories of 2023

Also: ‘The Muppets Christmas Carol’ will always have my heart [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  December 24, 2023 Dear Cog reader, ‘Tis the season of best-of lists, and today Cog is delighted to share our own [best-of-2023 roundup]( with you. As in years’ past, we’ve divided our list into two sections: the first includes 10 of the most-read pieces, and the second shares editors’ picks, including brief notes about what went into editing each essay, and why we love them. (We would’ve liked to include 50 pieces in this compilation, but thought better of it.) Of course, the list reflects big themes that happened in the news this year. We covered climate change and the Trump indictments, Taylor Swift-mania and the conflict in Israel and Gaza, as well as the 10th anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings. But we also published plenty of personal pieces most easily categorized as “reflections on the human condition,” too. This was the first year, in three years, that the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t dominate Cog’s coverage. Without the gravity of a global health crisis to dictate our publishing priorities, we got to explore other ideas. And as you’ll read, so many of our authors were thinking hard about issues of identity: about who we are now and how we grapple with big questions, about meaning, and [loss]( and [purpose]( in a world where time keeps marching on. I just finished “Tom Lake,” a novel by Ann Patchett that has topped many a bookseller’s best-of list this year. I listened to the audio book, performed by Meryl Streep. And I think my dog, Fern, must love it too, because Ann and Meryl kept me walking long after I should’ve turned for home. After finishing the book, I gobbled up all the interviews with Patchett that I could find (there are many). But I liked this [one]( with the New York Times Book Review in particular. Without revealing too much of the novel, most of “Tom Lake” takes place on a cherry farm in northern Michigan during the first (claustrophobic) summer of the pandemic. “Our Town,” Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer-winning play, is a touchstone throughout the book – literally and emotionally. For me, both play and novel elucidate the themes I always seem to be wrestling with this time of year: the struggle to be present, wondering if I’ve done enough. In Patchett’s words: “The things that are important in life are the things that are also easy to overlook. Family and kindness and homework and lunch and conversation and the moon. … Do we remember to keep our eyes open and appreciate what we’ve had? Or were we always straining to look in the direction of something else.” Patchett, whose work is sometimes criticized for being too cheerful, too positive, told her New York Times interviewer: “But I think that’s where life is. Life is in those small moments of kindness and human connection and storytelling.” I think that idea resonates, deeply, with your Cog editors (or at least with this Cog editor). Stories about relationships and grief and love and the many things that buoy us are ones worth telling. I don’t know what 2024 will bring, but I can promise that we will remain open to what comes. We’ll continue to listen and, as best we can, ensure that the work we publish deepens your understanding of the issues and offers a sense of connection. We’ll be back in your inboxes on Jan. 7. Take good care. P.S.— Thirty of the essays we published on Cognoscenti in 2023 featured music. So, we made a [playlist]( We hope you enjoy this eclectic soundtrack to our stories. Cloe Axelson Senior Editor, Cognoscenti [Follow]( Support the news  Must Reads [Cognoscenti's best stories of 2023]( We published hundreds of essays and commentaries in 2023. These are the pieces that attracted the most readers, and took up the most space in our hearts and brains. [Read more.]( [Cognoscenti's best stories of 2023]( We published hundreds of essays and commentaries in 2023. These are the pieces that attracted the most readers, and took up the most space in our hearts and brains. [Read more.]( [Best-of lists are great, ‘but have you heard about this?’]( Part of what can make a book seem so good is a feeling of discovery, of surprise, writes Hannah Harlow, an independent bookseller. ‘Tis the season of “best-of” lists, and she has some can’t-miss gems to recommend. [Read more.]( [Best-of lists are great, ‘but have you heard about this?’]( Part of what can make a book seem so good is a feeling of discovery, of surprise, writes Hannah Harlow, an independent bookseller. ‘Tis the season of “best-of” lists, and she has some can’t-miss gems to recommend. [Read more.]( [Life lessons from Josh Groban, 365 days a year]( While Josh Groban makes an appearance on radio waves and playlists every holiday season, Thuy Phan has been a fan year-round since she was 12. Josh’s insistence on being versatile, playful and unrestricted by the conventional boundaries of genre gave me an example of how to grow into myself, she writes. [Read more.]( [Life lessons from Josh Groban, 365 days a year]( While Josh Groban makes an appearance on radio waves and playlists every holiday season, Thuy Phan has been a fan year-round since she was 12. Josh’s insistence on being versatile, playful and unrestricted by the conventional boundaries of genre gave me an example of how to grow into myself, she writes. [Read more.]( [Joe Biden’s drama-free White House is America’s most under-appreciated Christmas gift]( I can’t help but think of Joe Biden and his economic team, toiling away without much fanfare, like Santa and his elves, writes Steve Almond. Whether or not you support him, it’s worth acknowledging a few of the presents the president has tucked under our tree this year. [Read more.]( [Joe Biden’s drama-free White House is America’s most under-appreciated Christmas gift]( I can’t help but think of Joe Biden and his economic team, toiling away without much fanfare, like Santa and his elves, writes Steve Almond. Whether or not you support him, it’s worth acknowledging a few of the presents the president has tucked under our tree this year. [Read more.]( [Amid the climate doom, a bright spot in Mass.]( Massachusetts' Department of Public Utilities just took an important step towards ending the state's reliance on natural gas forever, writes Kyle Murray. [Read more.]( [Amid the climate doom, a bright spot in Mass.]( Massachusetts' Department of Public Utilities just took an important step towards ending the state's reliance on natural gas forever, writes Kyle Murray. [Read more.]( 🎁 Give the gift of getting to know you! We have a [super short end-of-year survey]( that will help us better personalize our newsletters to your interests. Please help us out — it will only take 60 seconds or less. What We're Reading "What is happening now with the weather makes us, up here in Maine, feel as if we were shaped for a time that has passed. There are no jumper cables or chains we can throw in the backs of our trucks for what is happening with climate change and how fast it is accelerating." "[In Vacationland, wading through a climate catastrophe]( The Boston Globe. "What can we do as the creaking elevators of age slowly descend? The main solution is not to Google new symptoms late at night. But I also try to get outside every day, ideally with friends. Old friends — even thoughts of them — are my ballast; all that love and loyalty, those delicious memories, the gossip." "[The dressing-room encounter that made me get real about aging]( The Washington Post. "In August 1915, three-year-old Maud Smith made what appears to be the last journey of a child by U.S. post, when her grandparents mailed her 40 miles through Kentucky to visit her sick mother." "[When People Used the Postal Service to ‘Mail’ Their Children]( History. "At the end of the year, it is the smart and the strange, the weird and the wonderful, that stick with me, that keep me hunting for the next discovery." — Hannah Harlow, "[Best-of lists are great, 'but have you heard about this?']( ICYMI [‘The Muppets Christmas Carol’ will always have my heart]( It’s because the film doesn’t shy away from the dark places life inevitably takes us that it remains resoundingly joyful, writes Sara Shukla. [Read more.]( [‘The Muppets Christmas Carol’ will always have my heart]( It’s because the film doesn’t shy away from the dark places life inevitably takes us that it remains resoundingly joyful, writes Sara Shukla. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 🔎 Explore [WBUR's Field Guide]( stories, events and more. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences.](  I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. Unsubscribe from all WBUR editorial newsletters [here.](  Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2023 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved.