The Cover Stories That Put Mother Jones on the Map

It’s been 50 years of fearless reporting at Mother Jones.

So we thought we’d take a trip down memory lane and revisit some of our most memorable—and cringey—issues from the past half century.

Now, for our 50th anniversary issue, we did something that we try every once in a while: We produced two covers, one for subscribers and one for the newsstand.

The idea behind a split cover is to give different types of readers different experiences. In this case, subscribers got a rich, celebratory collage from artist Max-o-matic, stitching together some of the most iconic and aberrant figures of our half-century in print. For the newsstand, our art team took inspiration from Nirvana’s legendary second album to tease Casey Michel’s investigation of Jared Kushner’s (self-)dealings. With the help of ace illustrator Justin Metz, we had an insta-classic: Nevermind the Corruption.

Both covers blend stunning visuals and sharp design with the bold (and occasionally irreverent) writing inside the magazine—something we’ve been shooting for ever since our first issue way back in 1976.

But we have to know, do you have a cover from the past 50 years that is your favorite?