Keeping the Past Alive

In the inevitable march of time, it’s often wise to let go — to live in the now, to look ahead rather than back. But the past holds countless treasures. It holds the beginnings of our own stories, often shedding as much light on our current moment as the ones that came before.

In the summer 2026 issue of Hidden Compass, five storytellers explore tales of “Keeping the Past Alive.” From an ancient civilization in Vietnam that’s not as lost as it seems, to the timeless epiphanies of an animated sportscar on Route 66, our journalists delve into the living lessons of history. They introduce us to the effort to protect Ukrainian culture amidst a deadly war, the changing lives of old friends in rural Afghanistan, and a perspective that’s half a billion years old.

In northeastern Afghanistan, contrasting journeys by photojournalist Matty Feurtado interweave across the years. In their Time Travel photo feature, “A Promise Kept in the Wakhan Corridor,” Matty brings us with them as a 19-year-old, charmed by the mountain valleys of the Wakhan Corridor and by the Wakhan people who befriend them. But we find a different world upon their return years later — one where their friends’ lives have been shaped by the growing presence of the Taliban.

As a 12-year-old in the driver’s seat of a Lincoln Town Car on Route 66, Jordan Ranft didn’t know his dad was trying to teach him more than how to drive. But decades after his death, the lessons of Joe Ranft, co-director of Pixar’s iconic film Cars, remain in clues — from Hawaiian shirts and pickle spears to the nature of wonder and grief. In “Legacies and Lightning McQueen,” Jordan returns to the majesty and quirks of Route 66 on a Quest to make sense of it all.

When photojournalist Kang-Chun Cheng receives a call about a van full of priceless art coming from a frontline city in northeastern Ukraine, she follows a story that goes beyond the gory headlines of the war. “Ukraine’s Pièces de Résistance” are the subject of Kang-Chun’s Chasing Demons photo feature, which gives us glimpses of the artists, restorers, and curators in Ukraine’s museums and cities fighting their own high-stakes battles of cultural preservation.

Then, enchanted by the ruins of empire, Vietnam-based writer Joshua Zukas ventures to ancient worship sites of Vietnam’s Champa civilization for this issue’s Portrait feature. But his fantasy of an invisible, long-lost culture frays when he catches glimpses of a more complicated, living truth — one that reveals the power behind “The Moment of Possession.”

And writer Daniel Hudon’s poetic feature, “The Medusa of Time,” keeps Hidden Compass’s own past alive as it makes a reappearance from our archives. Originally published in our autumn 2020 issue, Daniel’s Human and Nature feature brings us to Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, where a primordial seascape lies captured in stone. Here, ancient creatures come to life — aided by artist Henry Sharpe’s illustrations — offering hundreds of millions of years of perspective.

For our readers and journalists who value the lessons and treasures of the past, 

Sabine K. Bergmann and Sivani Babu, Hidden Compass Co-founders 

In the last decade, as we’ve expanded into global expeditions and documentary films, we’ve welcomed hundreds of thousands of new readers to Hidden Compass. Many of our newest readers are unfamiliar with our earlier stories, so we’re bringing some of them back. Every issue of Hidden Compass will now feature an article from the archives — one that complements the brand-new stories in the issue.