Dear Reader,

I was there when Bob Dylan went electric in Newport, and when the Chambers Brothers played Club 47. I did scutwork for SDS in 1963, went to be-ins, and later lived and worked in political collectives. I learned to drive so I could make a weekly run between Boston and New Haven to transport the Black Panther Party newspaper. (The Santana tape with “Black Magic Woman” on it was stuck in the van’s eight-track and played on a continuous loop.) My life has a dated soundtrack, apparently—like a mediocre reunion movie—but so it goes.

You can fill in the ensuing 50 years. It’s a miracle that I am still even partly coherent and partially current, so it should not surprise you to find out I will be leaving my role as editor-in-chief at NPQ by next June (though NOT to retire—way too much to be done to help right the world).

My lovely co-president, Joel Toner, will be staying on to welcome and work alongside the new EIC.

This has been an incredibly interesting, exciting-if-you-take-the-necessary-risks, and challenging-on-so-many-levels position, made possible only by you. In fact, this December, NPQ will be exactly twenty years old, and it is thriving—with an incisive staff, a wise board, and thousands of you as colleagues, all holding it to mission. It’s a perfect time for new leadership to build what will become the next generation of the work. I only hope that they see what I do in the field: the bravery, dedication, and brilliance of those who work each day in the trenches at the intersection of love, faith, vision, and outrage.

For now, I want to let you know we are starting the transition process and will soon start the search itself. Within that process, we will be asking for your sage advice and counsel about what the NPQ board should look for in a new EIC.

Meanwhile, I think you know what I think about all of you I have had the privilege of working with and for all these years—but more on that next summer. For now, just an FYI.

Your friend,