Looks like we made it

April 30, 2021

Thanks for reading my World’s on Fire, a weekly newsletter about disasters from journalist Colleen Hagerty. If you found this dispatch interesting, I hope you’ll subscribe!

Somehow, it’s been a year this week since I first hit “send” on an edition of My World’s on Fire. I’d come up with the idea about two months prior, creating my account in February with the intention to launch later that month. Of course, you know what happened next.

About six months in, I did a roundup of some of the topics I’d covered at that point:

Since I launched this newsletter, countless people have been impacted by life-changing disasters in the U.S. alone. I’ve been incredibly grateful to have some of them trust me with sharing their experiences, from the derecho in Iowa to the hurricanes in Louisiana and the wildfires in the West. I’ve also attempted to break down some of science, statistics, and bureaucracy behind the headlines, with the help of experts and other journalists. Speaking of, some very smart people have helped open a dialogue in here about mentalhealth, preparedness on a personal and community level, and the importance of language when discussing disasters. And that’s just a sample of what’s been covered.

In the time since, I’ve continued covering a number of those topics, with more original reporting on FEMA (and its new Administrator) and the language of disasters. I’ve revisited some of the voices I introduced in earlier editions and introduced a number of new ones in a series of in-depthQ&As. I offered dives into politics, history, and behind-the-scenes of my reporting. But don’t just take it from me…

A lot has changed this my little newsletter world since I launched – I switched to weekly, introduced a ton of new formats, killed some ideas that didn’t work – and as I enter year two of this newsletter, I have big plans for this space. In the weeks to come, you’ll see this newsletter get a new look (and host). I’m planning multimedia editions to make this experience more immersive. I have soon-to-be-published features I’m so excited to share with you, and I’ll continue to use this newsletter to bring you deeper into my reporting.

I also loved getting to interact with some of you on comment threads, and I’m brainstorming ways to expand on that through digital meet-ups/chats/some other type of interactive space. Of course, I would love to hear your thoughts on anything else you’d like to see, too!

But before all that, I’m going to take some time off. This newsletter will be paused for the next two weeks as I focus on a few reporting projects, migrate My World’s on Fire to a new platform, and then take time off disconnect (read: go on lots of hikes with my dog). Patrons will still receive a post during this time, so if you needed any more incentive to join for the low, low cost of $3/month, I hope this is it!

Sales pitch over, I promise. Now, as 2020 Colleen wrote: “Let’s keep building this community around one of the key stories of our era.”

As always…

thank you for reading! You can reply to this newsletter to reach me or let me know if you liked it by hitting the little “heart.”

It also means the world to me when you share it on social media like Stephi Jiménez did (love the abbreviation, going to have to start using #MWOF):

Now, here’s a little something for reading to the end!