Your Patagonia fleece. That theme park where you swam with dolphins. The razor in your medicine cabinet. The YouTube app on your phone. Your coworker who said they’ve dabbled in ayahuasca.

A year ago, these things might have seemed ordinary. Not worth a second thought. But if you spent time with our slate of investigative stories, deep dives and other long reads, you’ll never be able to see these things the same way again. I certainly can’t.

If you missed any of these stories, I encourage you to take some time now to revisit them. Follow Kinga Philipps to Costa Rica where she drank a hallucinogenic brew that’s outlawed in the U.S. Go behind the most secretive branch of the military with John Scott Lewinski. Sail to the Arctic Ocean in my own reporting to understand why Patagonia may not be the environmental heroes you think they are. I’m particularly proud of that last story (and even went on a podcast to talk about it).

I’m also including some of my favorite features that were compiled by the entire IH team: like our exhaustive online etiquette guide (which includes insight from experts in fields ranging from cybersecurity to mobile telematics), and our meticulously curated list of the 100 best American-made products (with 10 separate deep dives into gear with fascinating backstories). My chair is draped in a Faribault blanket as I type this.

None of these stories were easy to produce. And in the age of TikTok and bullet-point journalism, they’re likely longer than most of the articles you’ve read this year. But I was sincerely proud to hit publish on every single one of them, and I know when you’re done reading, you’ll be glad you took the time.

Alex Lauer
Features Editor