Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens is a former Chicago Tribune columnist.

A view of the skyline of downtown Rochester. A viral video shows a white woman who called a 5-year-old boy the N-word at a Rochester park. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS)

Heidi Stevens: So much is stolen when a grown woman calls a child a racial slur — including the child’s innocence

May 8, 2025 at 9:32 a.m.

A viral video shows a white woman who called a 5-year-old boy the N-word at a Rochester park. Her online fundraiser has raised more than $600,000.

Thousands gather at Daley Plaza for The People's Protest: Joy as Resistance, resisting Donald Trump’s presidency, in downtown Chicago on April 19, 2025. (Audrey Richardson/Chicago Tribune)

Heidi Stevens: Trump has treated the country as his stage. But Americans are not extras in their own life stories

May 2, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

One thing that doesn’t fit neatly in the Trump narrative is thousands upon thousands of fed up Americans flooding the streets in protest.

Chicago Academy for the Arts head of school Jason Patera, left, and Randy Duncan, chair of the school's dance department, speak at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in 2020. (Courtesy of Jason Patera)

Heidi Stevens: Principal’s departure will tie a knot on the loving thread woven throughout Chicago school community

April 25, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Jason Patera is moving to South Carolina to be with his family, leaving a legacy of love and kindness at the Chicago Academy for the Arts.

Roger DuClos is seen with his wife, Linda, from left, and their daughters Jennifer DuClos Strombom and Wendy DuClos Davids on Roger's 79th birthday. (Wendy DuClos Davids)

Heidi Stevens: Memories of a dad who wasn’t mine, but shaped my world, as his family grieves his death

April 18, 2025 at 8:18 a.m.

Roger DuClos was my friend’s dad and my dad’s friend; loving, safe grown-ups shape a kid’s world in such profound, permanent ways, writes Heidi Stevens.

Sen. Cory Booker shattered a record for the longest speech in Senate history with a fiery protest against President Donald Trump's "unconstitutional" actions, beginning late on March 31, 2025, and going just over 25 hours. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty-AFP)

Heidi Stevens: For those of us hungry for hope, Sen. Cory Booker’s record-breaking speech offered a glimpse

April 3, 2025 at 9:53 a.m.

Segregationist Strom Thurmond's senate-speech record was broken by Booker, a man whose rights he fought to deny.

FBI Director Kash Patel, from left, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe appear at a Senate Committee on Intelligence Hearing on March 25, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The hearing to examine worldwide threats came a day after Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic said he was sent information about plans for a forthcoming attack on Yemen on the Signal messaging app. (Andrew Harnik/Getty)

Heidi Stevens: If your rally cry is that all lives matter, show us — with your actions and your policies

March 28, 2025 at 7:38 a.m.

The Trump administration's policies and actions do not demonstrate that the party values the lives of all Americans, writes Heidi Stevens.

Former Chicago Bulls player Dennis Rodman addresses the crowd on North Korea during the "Slam Dunk Diplomacy with Dennis Rodman" panel at the 2018 Politicon in Los Angeles, California on Oct. 20, 2018. (Mark Ralston/Getty-AFP)

Heidi Stevens: What a psychology professor’s grandmother — and Dennis Rodman — can teach us about regulating our emotions

March 26, 2025 at 2:40 p.m.

Psychology professor Ethan Kross has a powerful reframing of what so many of us may view as a weakness, writes Heidi Stevens.

Heidi Stevens

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