Last year, SSE celebrated its 75th anniversary. As part of this celebration, SSE hosted a symposium at the 2021 Virtual Evolution meeting to commemorate this anniversary with a series of talks representing SSE’s long-standing and continuing commitment to expanding evolutionary understanding. The papers collected in this special issue will present the work of the symposium speakers, including Amanda K. Gibson, John Beatty, Martha Munoz, Brandon Ogbunu, and Noah Whiteman. Keep an eye out for this special issue, to be released later this year with an introduction by María Rebolleda-Gómez and former SSE President Ruth Shaw.