2021
August
13
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

August 13, 2021
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Peter Grier
Washington editor

This was a big week for America’s political numbers nerds. That’s because on Thursday the Census Bureau released its detailed population data from the 2020 census. These figures will be the raw material for the once-every-10-years redrawing of hundreds of congressional districts and thousands of state legislative districts across the United States.

The census data is also a portrait of the nation – what our race or ethnicity is, how old we are, where we live, and other such details.

Among the notable findings was that the number of white people in the U.S. declined for the first time since 1790. The growth in the Latino population slightly exceeded forecasts.

The share of children in the population declined, due to falling birthrates. Overall population growth slowed substantially.

Notably, big cities grew faster the past 10 years than experts had predicted. At the same time rural America shrank, both in total numbers and relative to metropolitan populations.

In fact, crunching the numbers, this may mean that the starkest geographic and political divide in America is no longer between the North and its blue states and the South and its red states.

“The partisan difference between large-metro and rural residents has become much larger than the gap between northerners and southerners,” writes Boston College political scientist David A. Hopkins on his Honest Graft blog.

Professor Hopkins points out that inside the South’s red states are the big, very blue dots of cities – think Houston and Atlanta. Outside the North’s urban areas, rural hinterlands are becoming deeper red.

So maybe U.S. states aren’t really red or blue. Maybe we should look at them all as various shades of purple.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Nicolas Economou/Reuters
People board a ferry during evacuation as a wildfire burns in the village of Limni, on the island of Evia, Greece, Aug. 6, 2021. Volunteers have been central to the firefighting efforts on Evia.

A deeper look

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Erin Dietrich, a Minnesotan who decided to walk across the country after thinking about it for 15 years, with her husband, Chris Rea, on day 132 of their journey in Kiowa, Colorado.

Patterns

Tracing global connections

The Explainer

Difference-maker

Alfredo Sosa/Staff
Bill Meier, a Massachusetts swim coach, has earned national recognition for his dedication to safe swimming at all levels. He literally wrote the book on teaching adult swim lessons that is used nationwide.

The Monitor's View

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Migrant children who crossed from Belarus gather at a temporary detention center in Kazitiskis, Lithuania, Aug. 12.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Alfredo Sosa/Staff
When pools closed during the pandemic, the PaceMakers Masters swim team of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, found solace swimming outdoors. Floating beneath an open sky brought feelings of release and renewal. But for others, such as Miriam Karmel of Sandisfield, Massachusetts, swimming in open water doesn’t come naturally. “I felt disoriented,” she says. When she got an email that the PaceMakers were going to help lead an open water swim clinic at Lake Mansfield, she says, “It felt like a gift from the universe.” Ms. Karmel planned only to listen to the safety tips, but when the class waded into the water, the pull was irresistible. She used just one word to describe her journey to the center of the lake: “liberating.” – Kendra Nordin Beato, staff writer
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte/ and Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Have a great weekend! On Monday, we’ll be looking at the volunteers trying to create hedgehog highways for Britain’s endangered but endearing creatures.

More issues

2021
August
13
Friday
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