12 Stories That Defined 2022

Alex Dalenberg, Staff Recommendations Editor: “It’s hard to believe that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine happened only this year, because, in so many ways, it feels like we’re now living in a different century. The war has shattered longstanding assumptions about the stability of the global order, upended supply chains worldwide, and left tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians dead, and millions more homeless. During the first few incomprehensible weeks of fighting, Pocket readers turned to this indispensable guide from Russian-born American novelist Keith Gessen to make sense of the largest European conflict since World War II.”

Kimi Goffe, Recommendations Editor: “It was another hot summer around the world. The sweltering, in some cases record-breaking, temperatures once again intensified the reality of climate change in our everyday lives. But as this Scientific American article notes, ‘temperatures that make big news today may seem ho-hum—even relatively cool—within a couple of decades,’ as average summer heat increases. Even if—and it’s a big if—we take swift, effective climate action, ‘we will still have to live in a hotter climate than we did in the past.’”

AD: “Nobody knew quite what to make of the economy this year, but if vibes were a leading indicator, they would be trending downward. Although job growth and consumer spending remained surprisingly strong, the pain of soaring inflation and rising interest rates left many Americans deeply apprehensive about what the future holds.”

Carolyn O’Hara, Head of Content Discovery: “This was the year when more than just election nerds cared about who was running for secretary of state in places like Arizona and Michigan. These typically low-profile officials and other bureaucrats manage the usually tedious process of election administration. But this being 2022, their roles put them on the front lines of protecting the machinery of American democracy from those who might undermine it. That’s why it was so heartening that voters in key swing states—including many who crossed party lines—refused to hand the levers of power over to conspiracy theorists who campaigned on lies that the 2020 election was stolen. For at least the midterms, democracy held firm—but it’s anyone’s guess how long it holds.”

CO: “On the scale of U.S. political earthquakes, the Dobbs decision in June was the Big One—the case that remaps the electoral and healthcare landscape for decades. This wide-ranging Politico package of essays from historians, healthcare experts, and activists from across the political spectrum offers a look at what’s been already irrevocably altered—and best guesses at the many aftershocks to come.”

CO: “The chill in Silicon Valley right now has nothing to do with the weather. The mass layoffs across much of the tech sector this fall suggest that investors are finally demanding companies focus on profits over growth, a shift that will likely change the internet as we know it. As Timothy B. Lee concludes, ‘Software will have to eat something else.’”

KG: “Five years after the #MeToo movement began, Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s defamation trial showed us what had changed in our culture’s response to a woman holding a powerful man to account. The answer was, as Claire Lampen explains, ‘a sobering reminder that a victim’s credibility is still a fragile thing.’”

AD: “The United Kingdom has undergone seismic changes over the past 70 years, but through it all, the one constant has been Queen Elizabeth II. She served as a living link to Britain’s past. Her first Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was born in 1874. Her last, the ill-fated Liz Truss, in 1975. There’s a lot to unpack there, but suffice it to say that the second Elizabethan age drew to a close at a moment of turmoil for her kingdom. Alas, the only true constant is change.”