12 Stories That Defined 2023

This summer, we witnessed the triumphant return of blockbuster films to the big screen thanks to the brilliantly named (and memed) Barbenheimer. Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan crafted immersive opportunities with their respective creations—Nolan’s 180-minute, 9-second epic, Oppenheimer, and Gerwig’s subversively pink-washed marketing juggernaut, Barbie. Fans seized on the brilliance of their identical release date and created the kind of pre-release buzz streaming candidates have yet to replicate. Of course, initial phases of the historic SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes cut the official press runs short, depriving fans of a few more moments of Ryan Gosling in full Ken personality cosplay on red carpets, a loss worth it in the long run.

ChatGPT went viral in late 2022, but 2023 saw it quickly swerve from novelty to hot button issue. We witnessed an accelerated implementation of AI in ways reminiscent of the rapid adoption of the internet, with each wave of innovation accompanied by fears of potential consequences. The tech giants clamored to introduce AI tools in an arms race that led the godfather of AI to worry aloud that the technology could pose an “existential threat” to the human species. Also, a Bing chatbot told a New York Times reporter, “You’re married, but you love me,” but that seems tame in the grander scheme.

How many tabs do you need open to keep track of former President Donald Trump’s legal issues? The New York Times breaks down the four major criminal cases underway. Still, you’ll need to pull up another article to get into the details of the $250 million civil fraud trial he’s trying to delay or the $5 million jury verdict from the sex abuse and defamation trial earlier this year. 

But how much of it will matter when he’s on the ballot in 2024? Some Republican voters are on board with his “I’m being indicted for you” spin; others see his criminal activity as serious—but still plan to vote for him. And all of America will be forced to watch the theater of Trump dominate the news cycle far into 2024.

The morality of billionaires is a conversation as old as time, but this year, the sanity of billionaires was called into question like never before. Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, was on trial for much of the year and convicted of fraud. Elon Musk continued his overhaul of Twitter by rebranding the company as X, alienating advertisers with expletive-laced rants, and allowing and inciting hate speech on the platform. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerburg had enough time on his hands after launching Threads, Meta’s answer to X, to accept a challenge for a cage fight from Musk. And what is a story about billionaire bros if Jeff Bezos isn't mentioned? The Amazon giant has spent the greater part of 2023 yachting around the Mediterranean, planning a move to Miami, and revving up the PR machine around his fiance, Lauren Sanchez, which is pretty tame when compared to cage fights.

The story of OceanGate had all the makings of a good headline: The Titanic! $250,000 admission tickets! A game controller used for navigation! But instead, tracking the fatal voyage became a global event: When the carbon fiber submersible went missing during its deep-sea voyage, search efforts were launched as quickly as they were criticized, sparking debates on how we decide who “earns” rescue missions and the morality of extreme tourism.

October 7th changed the conversation around the Israel and Palestine conflict forever. The generations-long conflict reached a fever pitch when Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, launched an attack in southern Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 people and taking 200 hostages. Benjamin Netanyahu quickly declared war, and to date, more than 16,000 Palestinian lives have been lost. Journalists and creators on the ground are reporting live from the ruins of Gaza), bringing the horrors of war into our phone screens, homes, and social interactions. At home, ripple effects from the war fuel hate crimes and attacks, with conversations splintering friends and families and launching a nuanced discourse on language, virtue signaling, and who needs to talk about what online.

The conversation around weight and bodies has shifted dramatically since the introduction of Ozempic into the mainstream vernacular. The injectable medication, initially sanctioned to treat type 2 diabetes, became a lightning rod, fueling complex discussions of weight bias and inequality. Some viewed it as a means for stripping morality from the concept of thinness; others were concerned about how it might further marginalize people in larger bodies. And that’s not even touching on the side effects or the fact that a Hollywood-fueled shortage left many diabetic patients unable to fill their prescriptions. Still, much remains unknown about the drug’s potential—newer studies suggest that Semaglutide, the main ingredient in Ozempic and similar medications, might be an effective tool against substance abuse and dementia. 

It’s a space worth watching—if for no other reason than for the commentary it has inspired from some of today’s most thoughtful cultural critics.

Meanwhile, cities across the nation experienced the hottest summer on record, and our Earth’s temperature is on track to be, on average, 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times.

While we are readying to enter 2024, the Supreme Court has been stuck in a loop that resembles the 1960s. This year, the U.S. Supreme Court doubled down on conservative shifts. Key decisions, such as overturning Roe v Wade and impacting federal restrictions on greenhouse gasses and gun ownership, have contributed to a decline in public opinion of the US’s highest court. The effects of the 2016 election, namely the conservative majority of the court that took place during Trump’s presidency, have begun to erode the trust American people once had in the courts. Supreme Court aside, I would be remiss if it didn’t find an opportunity to mention George Santos’ lie-laden fall from Congress to Cameo star. Is everyone okay?

It turns out abortion support may be less of a binary issue than everyone on X (formerly known as Twitter) would make you believe it is. When the Supreme Court undid half a century of progress by overturning Roe V. Wade and putting abortion access in the hands of voters, things got scary. Very scary. Women drove across state lines, underground networks for abortion pills popped up, and the whisper networks supported care where needed. But in the 17 months since the overturning of the ruling, the polls imply that support for abortion cuts across party lines. According to an analysis by POLITICO, support for abortion has not only held its ground but has, in fact, in certain areas, outpaced the electoral success of President Biden and other Democrats. This revelation highlights a growing trend of voters being willing to deviate from a party platform to express their personal stance on an issue. The implications of this shift hint toward a new way of engaging with political parties—and how that affiliation weighs at the voting booth. As we enter an election year, spidey senses point to this being a trend worth watching.