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Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens

Chicago Tribune

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Heidi Stevens: We need empathy more than ever. This would be a terrible time to say goodbye to books

Heidi Stevens: We need empathy more than ever. This would be a terrible time to say goodbye to books

AI taking over reading homework feels like the result of a problem, not the cause...

19.03.2026 9

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: ‘Dopamine Kids’ is a fascinating read — even if you don’t want a yard full of chickens

Michaeleen Doucleff's book is about understanding the forces that shape our habits, our days and...

07.03.2026 40

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Dissenting Americans keep making lemonade out of Trump’s lemons — including his hockey call

Trump has made a big deal about championing women’s sports. But his call to the...

26.02.2026 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: I cheered when Elana Meyers Taylor won gold. I cheered louder when she thanked her nannies.

I love that Elana Meyers Taylor shouted out her nannies alongside her husband and parents...

25.02.2026 650

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: In the city of big shoulders, a crossing guard shows how we carry our love for all children

Joe Sass was caught on camera practicing his mantra: treating every child how he would...

30.01.2026 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: As federal agents target citizens, where are the folks who cried ‘tyranny’ over pandemic restrictions?

I’m wondering how federal immigration agents' actions sit with those who saw vaccine mandates as...

23.01.2026 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: The joy from the Chicago Bears’ run is about more than football. It’s remembering what we share.

Sports — along with art, books and nature — are not just distractions; they’re paths...

18.01.2026 30

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Stripping science from vaccine schedule chips away the dream of a better future for our children

I fear that skepticism and scorn have been elevated to the upper echelons of power,...

12.01.2026 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: At the end of an imperfect year, a list that reminds us what tomorrow is for

There’s still more growing, healing, loving and protecting to do, so here are the things...

26.12.2025 30

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: More stories of the people who shaped us — and a reminder that our kindness is never wasted

If you get a chance to ask someone in your life to talk about a...

19.12.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Wrapped in love — and cars — a Christmas tree honors a mom’s promise to her late son

For Samantha Wilcek, who lost her 21-year-old, a Christmas tree, so often a place to...

13.12.2025 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: In these fraught times, a growing holiday card campaign perhaps means a little bit more

The Pinta Pride Project raises awareness and support for the LGBTQ community despite the cruelty and...

05.12.2025 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Stories of appreciation about those who shaped us — from parents to uncles to recess supervisors

In this season of gratitude, readers tell us about the loved ones who helped form...

26.11.2025 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: After Trump’s ‘Quiet, piggy’ moment, we’re done asking why survivors don’t come forward, right?

If we’re going to become a nation that truly protects children and women, we have...

20.11.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: It’s morning in America, and we have no idea if the day will bring help and hope — or more cruelty

Our country and our city are at a precipice, and we may soon see what...

13.11.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: After losing their son to suicide, they created a fund to buoy their community — and their spirits

Hunter Coe's family has spent the last decade making sense and meaning of his life...

31.10.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: What we lose when our leaders choose to tear down what connects and nourishes us

And what will our country look like if we continue this path of wreckage —...

24.10.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Gutting special education services is a betrayal of conservative ideals and our collective values

When you chip away at any child's ability to access education, you chip away at...

17.10.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Chicago isn’t defined by Trump’s immigration blitz — or any single moment, beautiful or heartbreaking

We have it in us to cheer for people from everywhere and to make room...

10.10.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: ‘We’re going to throw our humanity out?’ Immigration crackdown taking us down a cruel path

It's hard to believe that this blitz has anything to do with public safety or...

02.10.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: 20 years into motherhood, I’m finding that we are the safety nets we all need in this fragile world

My column lets me go in search of people who care about each other, and...

26.09.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: When a shooting — any shooting — shakes a nation, we need to look at the guns

Charlie Kirk's cause of death is all too common. His shooting wasn’t even the only...

19.09.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: I’m sure a suburban, domed Bears stadium will be lovely, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it

I do understand the appeal of Arlington Heights. But we Chicagoans are not fancy people...

12.09.2025 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Forgetting — or erasing — our past is a sure path to repeating it. Now more than ever

The Smithsonian museums are in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump, who believes they’re too “woke.”

05.09.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Chicago is filled with people whose hearts and lives are devoted to solving its violence. Donald Trump has no such devotion

What often gets lost in the dialogue about Chicago is the tremendous work that takes...

30.08.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Trump’s latest voting threat was inevitable next step in his long history of undermining electorate system

Donald Trump has been diligently and incrementally chipping away at the American people’s constitutional right...

22.08.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: After a child leaves the nest, you get the privilege of parenting the new version of them

In a few days I’ll drop my daughter at college for the second time. I...

15.08.2025 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Susie Lee, co-founder of Early Birds dance parties, dies at 49. ‘The spirit and the soul of the whole thing’

Susie Lee, 49, died Sunday and is remembered as the founder of a dance club...

07.08.2025 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: When newsrooms shrink, so does our capacity to know and understand one another

Mistrust is being fed to us by corporate conglomerates, crooked politicians and others with a...

01.08.2025 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: As our land literally burns, we don’t owe the president quiet subservience

A country that doesn't allow citizens to criticize their leaders is not a democracy. It's...

25.07.2025 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Years after his death, Hinsdale boy’s legacy of kindness leads the way

Nora and Rob Tonn launched Brooks Strong, a nonprofit to fund pediatric cancer research and to...

18.07.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: On long list of things being cut, art may seem inconsequential. It’s not

If the first six months of this administration have taught us anything, it’s that we...

04.07.2025 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: On the hunt for small, kind things — and finding them in some unexpected places

A few seconds of kindness can remind us that we share this world with other...

27.06.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Shutting down hotline services for LGBTQ+ youth is malice by Trump administration

It’s unconscionable that the physical, mental and emotional health of young people is on the...

20.06.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: As demonstrations over immigration policy erupt, we can’t forget the human hearts at the center

It’s easy and convenient to focus on what divides us. But it’s more honest to...

13.06.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: When the frantic pace of parenting young kids gives way to something even more meaningful — and mutual

If we’re lucky, parenting is a lifelong relationship that we get to cultivate and calibrate...

06.06.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Texas’ Ten Commandments mandate doesn’t square with attempts to keep ‘individual beliefs’ out of classrooms

The movement to keep LGBT and CRT and DEI out of classrooms is about creating...

30.05.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Instead of a wedding registry, they asked for children’s books. And then gave them all away.

I love this little slice of kindness in a world that could use some right...

16.05.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

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

A viral video shows a white woman who called a 5-year-old boy the N-word at...

08.05.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

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

One thing that doesn’t fit neatly in the Trump narrative is thousands upon thousands of...

02.05.2025 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

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

Jason Patera is moving to South Carolina to be with his family, leaving a legacy...

25.04.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

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

Roger DuClos was my friend’s dad and my dad’s friend; loving, safe grown-ups shape a...

18.04.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

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

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

03.04.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

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

The Trump administration's policies and actions do not demonstrate that the party values the lives...

28.03.2025 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

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

Psychology professor Ethan Kross has a powerful reframing of what so many of us may...

21.03.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Criticizing the White House is not hating America. Quite the opposite, in fact

America has done so much good, and it has also done tremendous harm. Acknowledging both...

14.03.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Every year, in honor of her son, she nudges the world toward kindness. This year, she built a library

Scott Boorstein wanted to change the world. This year, in his honor, his loved ones...

07.03.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Access is not a trophy the White House can hand out to its favorite reporters

You don’t have to be a journalist to demand answers from people in charge. But...

28.02.2025 30

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: Banning DEI and race-based programs in schools chips away at the very mission of education

To be a sharper, deeper, more careful, more creative, more flexible thinker requires diversity —...

21.02.2025 10

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens

Heidi Stevens: ‘What a ride! I love you.’ They were married for 72 years and died a day apart, holding hands until the end

Marie and Kevin Mayer's five children found a drawer full of love letters — mostly...

14.02.2025 20

Chicago Tribune

Heidi Stevens