As the days left in 2021 dwindle, you may feel that annual tug to judge this calendar year as cruelly as possible. After all, it was yet another year lived in a pandemic, on a warming planet, with teetering democracies and aspirational autocrats (tune in next week for that debate). But is it actually true? Did the world really get worse in 2021?

For this Very NYT Opinion New Year’s Eve* episode of “The Argument,” Jane Coaston called upon podcast listeners and Opinion voices like the columnists Michelle Goldberg, Farhad Manjoo and Jamelle Bouie, the editorial board member Michelle Cottle and the musician and contributing writer Tom Morello to make the case for whether the world will enter 2022 a little bit better, or a little bit worse for wear.

*close enough

Mentioned in this episode:

• Michelle Goldberg’s column “democracy.html">The Problem of Political Despair”
• Michelle Cottle’s editorials on democracy-trump.html">Liz Cheney, manchin-democratic-party.html">Joe Manchin, democrats-bills.html">progressive frustrations with Democrats and the republicans-2022.html">future elections that could shake both parties
• Jamelle Bouie’s newsletter on “covid-freddy-krueger.html">Nightmare on Elm Street” — sign up for Jamelle’s newsletter here
• Farhad Manjoo’s columns on solar-power.html">the wind and solar energy boom, the drought-water-climate.html">California drought and the covid-climate-change.html">carbon footprint of travel
• Tom Morello’s newsletter on morello-mother.html">his 98-year-old mom’s radical compassion — sign up for Tom’s newsletter here
• “Devil Put the Coal in the Ground,” by Steve Earle
• “The Argument” episode on immunity-sue-police.html">qualified immunity and Tony Timpa’s case