Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens is a former Chicago Tribune columnist.

Heidi Stevens: I wish we modeled better care for the young people who are making sense of the world right now

October 9, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

I hope that when we’re all writing our stories, the ones that are still being shaped by what we choose and where we go and what and who we protect,...

Mike Bieritz and Jenn Bieritz Niles at the supportive living facility where he moved in 2017. Mike recently died at age 59 from aspiration pneumonia and his sisters had his corneas donated. (Jenn Bieritz Nilles/TNS)

Heidi Stevens: A joyful life, a too-early death and the gift of sight for two people who lost theirs

October 2, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Heidis Stevens has long said that before she fell in love with journalism, she fell in love with journalists.

Signs supporting journalists from the AP, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico hang in the press area of the White House, on Sept. 19, 2026, in Washington, DC. Reporters from MS NOW, CNN and Politico were barred from the White House a day after President Trump said he was banning the three outlets from the property. (Photo by Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)

Heidi Stevens: The president doesn’t want your pesky questions. But the founders had a different idea.

September 25, 2026 at 10:54 a.m.

The day after President Donald Trump announced he was banning CNN, Politico and MS Now from the White House, Heidi Stevens moderated a panel called “Truth, Trust and Today’s Media,”...

Gloria Steinem speaks onstage during Visionary Women celebrates Gloria Steinem in conversation with Cleo Wade at the Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel on Nov. 18, 2019, in Beverly Hills, California. (Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Visionary Women/TNS)

Heidi Stevens: ‘Please tell your own story.’ How Gloria Steinem’s final request reflects her legacy.

September 11, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Heidi Stevens doesn't know how you begin to sum up the impact of Gloria Steinem's life, except to say that almost every moment, in some small or enormous way, has...

Heidi Stevens: It’s never been easier to unearth family secrets. A new book explores what happens after the reveal.

September 4, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Kate Jackson is writing a memoir, but she also felt compelled to produce a collection of stories that reflected the ubiquity and complexity of family secrets and surprises.

A person reaches down to place flowers on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Star of late US singer-songwriter Dolly Parton in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles on Aug. 25, 2026. Dolly Parton, the American country music singer who rose from poverty in Tennessee to become a US cultural giant with hits like "Jolene" and "9 to 5," has died at 80, her family said on Aug. 25. (Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images/TNS)

Heidi Stevens: Dolly Parton narrated our lives and unlocked our humanity. We were lucky to live in her world.

August 28, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Dolly Parton dared us to imagine. She dared us to care. She led us by example. And she took us someplace extraordinary, writes Heidi Stevens.

Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever looks on against the New York Liberty during the first half at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Aug. 11, 2026, in Indianapolis. (Justin Casterline/Getty Images/TNS)

Heidi Stevens: Division and discord are the last things the WNBA needs

August 21, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

As long as we’re mostly talking about transgender people as some kind of sinister threat to women’s sports, rather than a community of humans deserving of dignity and rights and...

Paper goods and other household items fill the First United Presbyterian Church in Belleville, where the congregation launched a year-round "Needs Among Us" program to help identify and fill the needs of people within and outside their church community. (Rob Dyer/TNS)

Heidi Stevens: How one church turned the offering plate into an outpouring of community

August 14, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

I love the story, and I love the example. I especially love that the program was born in an offering plate, which isn’t where we’re usually invited to place our...

"Yesteryear," by Caro Claire Burke, and "Majestic Hills," by Dawn Turner, both explore what takes place just beyond the places we’re used to looking. (Heidi Stevens/TNS)

Heidi Stevens: Two summer reads that invite us to glimpse behind the facade of a carefully curated world

August 7, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Fiction invites you to walk in someone else’s shoes and inhabit someone else’s mind and experience someone else’s trials and triumphs, writes Heidi Stevens.

Runners start the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Columbus Drive on Oct. 13, 2019. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

Heidi Stevens: Another training run — and another life lesson

July 31, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

It’s all fun and games until you have to run 10 miles. Alone, writes Heidi Stevens.

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