Much lies in the space between danger and safe harbor, from treacherous mountains to deadly forests to merely a dozen feet of sand. Within these topographies the greatest of dramas unfold, featuring a captivating range of bravery, tragedy, and hope.

In the spring 2026 issue of Hidden Compass, five storytellers bring us stories of “Safe Harbor.” They introduce us to WWII refugees attempting to cross borders, Iranian nomads pursuing summer pastures for their livestock, and a diplomat working to protect Iraqi artifacts. But in this issue, it’s not only humans who seek safety. There are other animals searching, too — from towering matriarch elephants to brand-new hatchlings of an ancient marine species.

Facing the perilous cliff of a smugglers’ route on the French-Swiss border, two women, separated by more than eight decades of history, summon their bravery. Author Mike Bernhardt joins his wife, Yvonne, to retrace her family’s flight from Nazi occupation. But his Time Travel feature also includes the nailbiting journey of Yvonne’s mother, a teenager putting her life in the hands of strangers and “Trusting the Smugglers’ Route.”

Then, setting off across rugged mountains with a family of Bakhtiari nomads, Swiss photojournalist Claudio Sieber chronicles the annual Kooch — an increasingly rare migration to high-altitude summer pastures. The roots of Persia’s nomadic pastoralism stretch back millennia, but change is afoot. “Dreaming with Iran’s Bakhtiari” is a Portrait photo feature that brings us across the wilderness and examines the rose-tinted nature of yearning.

In Dhenkanal, a district in the East Indian state of Odisha, an escalating conflict has claimed thousands of lives. For his Chasing Demons feature, journalist Colin Daileda introduces us to the communities at war. But the origin of this escalation between endangered elephants and villagers lies elsewhere: in a transforming landscape that not only imperils safety but also demands people make hard decisions in the balance of “War and Peace.”

As a former BBC editor who once covered the U.S.-led coalition’s invasion of Iraq, Suzanne Ruggi seeks something deeper than headlines during her first visit to the country. Who better to follow than a witty British writer, diplomat, and archaeologist with a challenging legacy? Gertrude Bell died a century ago, but luckily, “The Desert Queen’s Guide to Baghdad” still brings the city to life. Beyond an unpublished manuscript, Bell’s Quest lives on in the artifacts she fought to protect.

Finally, journalist Yasaswini Sampathkumar brings us to the crowded beaches of Chennai for a Human & Nature feature from the Hidden Compass archives. In this story from our autumn 2019 issue, we meet the “Guardians of an Ancient Species,” a coalition of land dwellers protecting a creature that crosses vast oceans just as its ancestors did 100 million years ago — only to encounter a different world on land.

For our readers and journalists who champion stories of those seeking safe harbor,

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

In the last nine years, 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.

We chase exposure as a beacon of freedom and knowledge. We harness it to wield against our enemies. We hope it heals the wounds within and between us. In the blinding light, all can be revealed — but it’s the struggles of exposure that weave exceptional tales.

In the winter 2026 issue of Hidden Compass, five storytellers chronicle the power and vulnerability born from “Struggles of Exposure.” They take us from an 18th-century Calcutta prison cell to a Mongolian avalanche site, chronicle campaigns for freedom of the press and freedom of religion, and weigh impossible questions that leave old friends estranged and former nomads rootless.

For our Time Travel department, Kolkata-based journalist Sugato Mukherjee walks through modern-day scenes — from newspaper hawkers in a pre-dawn drizzle to historic, ornate mansions — that hint at powers that once battled here. On one side is Mukherjee’s journalistic predecessor, James Hicky, an Irishman who founded India’s first newspaper, the Bengal Gazette, and then risked his life to brandish it against corruption and abuse of power. On the other, the British East India Company, a covetous behemoth intent on silencing “The Dissension of the Prison Printer.”

Returning to our pages with a Portrait that originally ran in our summer 2023 issue, photojournalist Rachel Wisniewski pivots to freedom of religion in “A Devilish Pursuit.” Through a compelling blend of narrative and images, Wisniewski’s photo feature introduces us to members of the Satanic Temple, whose modern-day battle for separation of church and state harkens back to the Salem witch trials, and the fate of one member’s 17th-century ancestor.

Deep in Mongolia’s northern taiga, an archaeological expedition braves grueling terrain in search of “The Reindeer Graveyard.” For our Quest department, archaeologist and photojournalist Andrew Califf kicks off the year as our 2026 storyteller in residence with a photo feature that focuses on a  cast of scientists and Dukha herders who meet at the site of disaster and, hopefully, discovery.

From the mountains of Mongolia we turn to the mountains of New York, where development threatens or promises to expose a town to the masses. Divided by the “Schism” are two lifelong friends, estranged by the future of the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail. In our Human & Nature feature, journalist Omar Drissi takes us to the village of Cold Spring — a place of contradiction, beauty, and a nagging question. Is the value of bringing people together worth the cost of tearing a town apart?

Alongside the imposing Pir Panjal mountains in Kashmir, something unnamed is happening in the pastoralist Guijjar and nomadic Bakarwal communities. In her evocative Chasing Demons feature with original illustration by Radha Ramachandran, journalist Mir Seeneen chronicles the pain of loss long ignored and the community of healing out loud — paying a poetic homage to those “Remembering a Nomadic Sky.”

For our readers and storytellers who are brave enough to face the light,

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

In the last nine years, 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.

Beneath the waves off a beach town in Honduras lies a mysterious and vibrant place — an ecosystem whose animals defy the odds stacked against their kind worldwide.

It’s a well-known story: The future of coral reefs is at the mercy of a litany of foes, from pollution to climate change, that threaten these critical ecosystems on which so many creatures, including billions of humans, depend. But a different story awaits us in Tela. It’s a story that’s intertwined with local divemaster and 2025 Pathfinder Prize expedition leader, “Aquaman” Christian Carias. And it’s a story that has inspired a team of scientists, filmmakers, and explorers to bring us beneath those waves — and give us reasons to believe.

Welcome to The Rebel Reef: The 2025 Pathfinder Issue of Hidden Compass — a multimedia issue dedicated entirely to stories from that expedition.

Team Rebel Reef celebrates the world-wide premiere of their short documentary, directed by Brynne Rardin, in December 2025. The film profiles Tela’s rebellious reef and divemaster Christian Carias. For those who want a sneak peek, the Human & Nature department of this Pathfinder issue boasts the highly anticipated “Trailer: The Rebel Reef.”

But the story, like the reef itself, is multilayered. Behind the big screen of “The Rebel Reef” is a monumental effort which plays out in this issue’s “Gallery: A Film in the Making.” This photo collection, hosted in our Portrait department, features behind-the-scenes images made by expedition photographer and videographer Vinh Pham, film stills from director of photography Patrick Krum, and a shy whale shark.

Three written features round out the issue. In “The Ocean’s Cure,” Rebel Reef’s executive producer and coral restoration practitioner, Tiffany Duong, takes on the Pathfinder expedition’s most salient question: Should we dare to hope? In Tela, a collection of narratives — of inspired scientists, determined Hondurans, and an 80-foot-long, 500-year-old coral named Casita — come together in this Human & Nature story that confronts crises both global and personal.

Then, we follow a group of schoolchildren as they crowd before the Tela Marine Aquarium exhibits to glimpse “Dreams Behind the Glass.” In this Time Travel feature, ocean scientist and author Juli Berwald chronicles the kids’ visit in 2025, and takes us back a decade and a half earlier, when Honduran Antal Borcsok decided to explore some interesting rocks that fishermen had found along the coast in 2010.

As for how Tela’s reef is able to thrive against the odds? In Juli Berwald’s second story and Quest feature for the 2025 Pathfinder issue, the ocean scientist and Tela Coral co-founder delves into a series of “Hypotheses on the Rebel Reef” — exploring the mix of sediment-filled rivers, fertilizer-fueled phytoplankton, strategic zooxanthellae switching, and mysterious black sands that may be behind the miraculous success of The Rebel Reef.

Thriving in the unlikeliest of locations, this reef isn’t just a rebel. It’s also a role model that might signal hope for corals around the globe and the humans who love and depend on them. Do we dare to believe?

Yours in rebellious hope,

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