This year, I reported on how Biden’s foreign-policy team got rich and how Trump’s appointees were already being welcomed back into the fold. I told the stories of Arab artists paying a huge price in 2020 for poking fun at autocrats. I also explored how culture has helped us endure this time—all while editing some of the best writers out there. Here’s a listicle to fill out our website during the union-mandated week off.
Don’t Let the Revolving Door Hit You on the Way Out
In July, I reported that most of Biden’s key advisers were cashing in on their connections at a firm called WestExec Advisors. No one else had dug into these conflicts of interest, and in response to my reporting WestExec co-founder Tony Blinken, now set to be the next secretary of state, took leave from the firm.
The same thing happened with Jake Sullivan, Biden’s pick for national-security adviser. He departed the multimillion-dollar firm Macro Advisory Partners after I started asking questions.
It’s not just the Biden team benefiting from the influence game. In another report, I traced how H.R. McMaster enabled Trump’s worst tendencies for 13 months as national-security adviser, and then landed plum gigs at Stanford and Zoom.
Laughing at the Powerful Till It Hurts
As I was documenting political dysfunction at home, I was tracking free-speech crackdowns abroad. I reconstructed the last days of 24-year-old Egyptian filmmaker Shady Habash, who was imprisoned for producing a music video mocking the Egyptian president and died behind bars in May.
Emad Hajjaj
I also revealed the dire consequences for one Jordanian cartoonist of making fun of the Israel-Emirati peace accord: Emad Hajjaj was sent to jail at the height of the pandemic for expressing outrage at the unpopular deal.
Cultural Interventions
I’m fascinated by the ways the pandemic is affecting arts and culture. I asked Washington Post satirist Alexandra Petri how she makes jokes amid this hellscape year.
Elsewhere, I explored the interplay between the Lebanese civil war and the defining comic artist of a generation, George Khoury JAD, for a book published by American University of Beirut Press.
As 2020 wrapped up, I reflected on how slow-cooking mahshi, my favorite Egyptian dish, has brought me solace during these comfortless times.
… And the Editor’s Picks
It’s been a privilege to edit the Prospect this year, and here are some of the stories I’ve worked on that stuck with me:
The most disturbing: Alex Dziadosz introduced readers to a neo-Nazi commercial empire that’s thriving on Germany’s margins.
The best one-liner: “A hate plan, not a peace plan,” is what Daniel Levy called Trump’s Mideast diplomacy. Le Monde diplomatique re-used it as a headline.
The toughest one to fact-check: Maureen Tkacik’s deep dive on the nursing home mafia.
The most personal: Keyvan Shafiei on how U.S. sanctions made it impossible for his late father in Iran to get the medicines he needed.
The one that changes how you listen: Laura Garbes on why NPR sounds so white.
The most grotesque: Eli Valley’s caricature of Ben Shapiro.
The most radiant: A Pantone palette of the apocalypse, which one New Yorker writer wove into the lede of a story.
The one that broke the internet: David Dayen’s stimulus check scoop that we turned around in an hour.
