NerdPop Radio: May 30

Before our three-week publishing pause, Watershed Voice invites our readers to take a look back at the past year in local news. For Watershed Voice, it was a year marked by change, as we transitioned from one staff writer — Najifa Farhat for the first half of the year — to another, Maxwell Knauer, for the second half of the year.

No matter the author of our stories, we aimed to bring prompt, fact-based, independent reporting to Southwest Michigan. Here’s a look at some of our favorite, most impactful, and most-read stories of 2025.

Watershed Voice’s Doug Sears, Jr. writes about a recent experience at the movie theater that induced anger, reflection, and ultimately empathy.

“My rage was palpable, as movie theater misbehavior is high on my list of modern pet peeves. But I’m trying really hard to stay in the ‘live and let live’ mentality, and I don’t want to compound her distraction by calling it out. I’d hate to initiate a prolonged argument with a stubbornly rude individual and draw everyone in the theater, even those who don’t notice the Beacon of Gondor from their seat, into my distraction.”

As the year comes to an end, Watershed Voice takes a look back at a year of keeping readers across Southwest Michigan informed.

In 2025, Watershed Voice published 322 stories, averaging 27 articles per month. Over the course of the year, our reporting reached 137,762 total page views from 79,435 visitors.