Slate turns 20 this year. It was 1996 when Michael Kinsley moved to Seattle to see what would happen to journalism if you conducted it on the internet, and since then Slate has covered five presidential elections (six if you count the one that’s not finished yet), an impeachment, terror attacks, wars, the legalization of gay marriage, the rise of social networks, television for snobs, and Taylor Swift. We’ll be celebrating our anniversary in September with a batch of fascinating journalism and some attendant hoopla. But I wanted to take the occasion of June 24—the actual date, in 1996, when slate.com became a place on the internet where you could find smart ideas vividly put—to enlist your help as we prepare this effort.
Much of our anniversary celebration will be forward-looking and outward-looking, but we’re also hoping to explore key moments in our past. To that end, I’m hoping you, our most devoted readers, will answer the following questions.
- What is an early story you remember reading on Slate? It could be the first story you read on Slate, or the one that made you think, hey, this is my kind of magazine.
- What’s the greatest thing you’ve ever read on Slate?
- What’s the Slate story you are always forwarding to people?
- What Slate piece have you disagreed with most vehemently?
- What moment from a Slate podcast has always stuck with you?
- What departed Slate feature do you wish we would revive, and why?
Email your answer to us at 20@slate.com. Send a link to the story you’re talking about if you can find it, but if not, describe it as best you can and we’ll dig it up.
Thanks for your time, and, as always, for being members. Your support makes what we do possible. We think you’ll enjoy the great things we have cooking as we mark our big 2-0.
