We managed to make it through 2023 without a major epidemic or pandemic, and as we get into the holiday spirit and look forward to the new year, some of us took a look back and picked out one of our favorite JCM paper published in 2023, which I will tell you, was no easy task as there were many of good ones to choose from! And personally, after looking through all the issues over the last year, it never ceases to amaze me the variety of topics that we publish on in JCM – including unique things like the evaluation of a molecular assay for diagnosis of Buruli ulcers, to development of an EIA for detection of Taenia coproantigen, and then of course we have the more bread and butter things like evaluation of new assays for detection of TB resistance, to multiple studies this year on women’s health diagnostics, and evaluation of new molecular assays for congenital CMV detection, and then I’m also told that there were some awesome AST-focused papers too, which is all just great. The four of us JCM editors have selected the following favorite papers of ours from the past year:   Whole-Genome Subtyping Reveals Population Structure and Host Adaptation of Salmonella Typhimurium from Wild Birds | Journal of Clinical Microbiology (asm.org) Detailed β-(1→3)-D-glucan and mannan antigen kinetics in patients with candidemia | Journal of Clinical Microbiology (asm.org) Interlaboratory comparison of Pseudomonas aeruginosa phage susceptibility testing | Journal of Clinical Microbiology (asm.org) Emergence of Inducible Macrolide Resistance in Mycobacterium chelonae Due to Broad-Host-Range Plasmid and Chromosomal Variants of the Novel 23S rRNA Methylase Gene, erm(55) | Journal of Clinical Microbiology Commentary: Plasmid-mediated drug resistance in mycobacteria: the tip of the iceberg? | Journal of Clinical Microbiology Guests: Melissa Miller, Ph.D., D(ABMM), FAAM, University of North Carolina Medical Center Patricia Simner, Ph.D., D(ABMM), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Alex McAdam and Dr. Elli Theel. JCM is available at https://jcm.asm.org and on https://twitter.com/JClinMicro. Visit journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript.