Is it okay to be proud of reaching a career milestone knowing I’ve only done so because I happen to share a hometown with the resurrected President of the United States? When the world is descending ever deeper in to fascism, and we’re losing more of our human and civil rights by the day?

I don’t know. But I am proud of my first-ever TIME cover story, “Is This the End of the End?”, which takes a look at what’s happened so far — and what’s coming next — for a world rocked by the end of that great equalizer, death.